- Building the PC Power Monitor
- Designing the PC Power Monitor - Part II
- Designing the PC Power Monitor - Part I
- Taking the GPS for a walk in the bush
- Talking the GPS for a drive
- Power Distribution board
- Re-Mapping my GPS data
- Hey, the site has been upgraded to Drupal 4.7!
- Steering the Mark-I boat
- Pool testing a model of the Mark-I
What is the SWASC Project all about?
Submitted by parkviewadmin on Mon, 2005-10-10 10:45.
I woke one morning with a thought about having a solar powered autonomous boat putting about on the Ocean. Hey, program in the way points, and have it go around the world. With a Satellite data phone on there, it could 'phone home' once a day, with record of where it has been, air-sea temperatures, photos, water depth, microsope photos of filtered sea water (I have an Intel QX3 USB microscope ).
This turned out to be a bit ambitious price wise, so starting small, I am working on Mark I: (for lack of a better project name). This will be a battery powered 'calm water' ASC. This will putt around for a few hours at a time on a large estuary that is close at hand.
Mark II: I hope will be similar to the Mark I, but will include a 120W Solar Panel. Might be able to travel in carm water for long distances.
Mark III: This should be a true ocean going ASC. It will include dual 120W Solar Panels, Sonar, Satellite data feed, and a 3D compass. I am thinking it will have to be a Trimaran.
See photo's of all the parts used in this project.
Read my Blog of the project.
If anyone is interested in this sort of thing and would like more info, or would like to join in, you will find my email address below. There is a low volume mailing list and a subversion repository of aprox. 500+MB of documents available.I would also love to hear from like minded people!
