What is the SWASC Project all about?
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.
Relevent SWASC Blog posts:
- Project photo gallery
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Servo+Current+test
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Installing+FreeBSD+5.4+onto+a+512+Compact+Flash+card
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Car+Wiper+motor+current+test
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Building+the+PC+housing
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/SWASC+Project+documentation
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/EPIA-PD+current+tests
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Drawing+the+Mark-I+Hull+Assembly
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/The+PICAXE-28X+CPU+chip+has+arrived
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/FreeBSD+Servo+program+created
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Epiphany+on+the+hull+structure
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/Playing+with+a+Netgear+WG311v3+wireless+card
- http://www.bdug.org.au/projects/swasc/Trip+to+Perth
- http://www.bdug.org.au/projects/swasc/Building+a+RS-232+interface+for+the+Digital+Compass
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/compass/design_building
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/gps/gis/bushwalk
- http://www.bdug.org.au/project/swasc/gps/gis/drive
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!