DST800, lidar, 900mhz, radiolink and external GPS on Orange Cube with 2.1 carrier board on the boat

I am starting to build a bathymetric vessel to monitor the water depths around our piers at the shipyard. There is always vessels moored at different locations and I don’t want to have to reprogram the waypoints each time the boat runs. Is it possible to have all these telemetries going at the same time? I do plan on just getting the basic boat built, then add the DST800, and lidar afterwards.

Hi @txsrooster,

I don’t think I understand the question, “Is it possible to have all these telemetries going at the same time?” but if the issue is that you’d like the boat to avoid the boats when they’re moored then I’m afraid that’s not supported yet. The basic control algorithms for object avoidance including “Simple” avoidance and “Bendy Ruler” are there but we don’t yet have an AI camera capable of recognising boats although that should be possible in the future using an OAK-D camera.

I want to have a preset map of waypoints to map the dockage area. Sometimes boats are moored in different areas. I want to use Lidar to identify objects and go around them. The 2.1 carrier board has two telementry ports. If I use the 900mhz telementry for the computer and MP, then the telementry for the radiolink, how do I add, the GPS, DST800, and the lidar?

@txsrooster,

I’m not very familiar with the “2.1 carrier board” but I’m surprised it only has two serial ports. Most autopilots have 4.

I think it would be good to get the boat working first and then move onto the object avoidance portion. object avoidance on boats has never been done successfully with AP as far as I know. I don’t think a lidar will work well because it will hit the water too often and cause false readings. I think we will need the OAK-D AI camera to do this well.

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