ROV - Connecting the core electronics

After last week’s successful test of the main body and cable connector, I started to assemble all the electronics. I made a big cable winder with about 80meters of CAT5+metal cable. In the middle of the winder will be the wireless access point (battery powered), this will allow me to wind down and up the ROV while also having connectivity with it.

I Split the CAT5 cable into 2 network connections. A standard 100mb ethernet connection only uses 2 pair of cables, as my CAT5 has 4 pairs, you can run 2 connections over it. By just using pins 1,2,3 and 6 you will have a 100mb network connection and make sure you use 2 pairs, do not just mix any wire.

I successfully tested this setup, using one part of the cable connected to the arduino and the other part cable connected to my high definition IP Camera.

rov_setup1.jpg

rov_setup2.jpg

Next step is to make some Lights on the ROV, so we can test the camera underwater and actually see something 

Just a thought

You mentioned have a battery powered AP in your cable holder. You could instead use a standard AP and then either slip rings or just a simple pair of ring contacts to send power to the AP.