11. August 2009 by Sean.

Course #1 (Elk Lake, Victoria, BC) was successfully completed tonight.  It took a while (exactly 10 min) but all points were hit and the motors shut down when it reached the last point.

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6. August 2009 by gmoney.

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6. August 2009 by gmoney.

Last week’s geek-nite - installing motor shafts and braces in proto boat2.  Still not sure if we’re going with the low power draw brushed motors or custom built brushless motors.   Brushless motors may require too much juice to operate at a reasonably efficient level.

Drilling holes in shafts for lube:

Shafts installed:

Preparing the motor brace:

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3. August 2009 by Sean.

Ok, after some work, we’ve managed to hack into a SPOT device to control when we send GPS tracking signals out.  These devices are great to send out coordinates from almost anywhere on the globe, but unfortunately, we can’t send messages (e.g. we’re taking on water and we’re hosed).  So, we’ve come up with a basic messaging scheme.  Depending on what error messages we may have, we send a GPS coordinate based on pre-decided times of day.  E.g. “we’re taking on water” might cause a tracking signal to be sent out at 6:00pm or “motor 1 is broken” might cause a tracking signal to be sent out at 5:00pm.  At least then, we’d know why we’re (on the slight chance) dead in the water.  If all is well, we’ll just get a signal at noon each day.

 To do that we built a controller board that has a real time clock chip and a light sensor that can be triggered by an LED on the mainboard (so we don’t have wires connecting the hacked SPOT device to the main board.

We wanted the hacked SPOT tracker to be the thing that has the best chance of still functioning despite being run over, thrashed against rocks, sea-water soaked electronics, etc.  So, we made it completely self-contained and watertight.  It’s also got its own solar power supply. 

Here’s the evolution…

Rip open the SPOT…

Design a circuit board for the controller (using Kicad, then making sure it works by using a prototype).  If anyone would like the schematic, board design and microcontroller code, just let me know (…awkward silence… … crickets… …yawning..)

Connect the controller board to the SPOT

Stuff it all in a Pelican case with a battery supply, solar cells.  What you can’t see here is the light sensor that is exposed at the bottom of the Pelican case.

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