Bluetooth and Blue Skies

A lot of progress was made this past week. After printing several parts for the solar panel framework and bolting them together, it became readily apparent that this method of construction would not result in something rigid enough to work well. So I visited Home Depot and found some 8 foot long bronze tile edge things that looked like they would be suitably stiff and lightweight when bolted to the solar panel. Here is the result with some more scrap wood from the garage added to connect it to the rest of the framework:

The solar panel is elevated above the boat significantly more than it will be in the final design; this is necessary for now so that there is lots of room to stick my big head inside the hull and make electronics modifications. The panel is held to the framework with 6 bolts and wingnuts, so isn't difficult to remove should the need ever arise. Also, I ordered some neat little waterproof connectors (~ $1 each from Amazon) and am using one of them for the solar panel wiring:

Perhaps in a future revision the solar panel could be much closer to the boat and have a sort of hinge / latch mechanism for making it easy to get inside the hull.

The client / server software that I began the week before is also coming along well. The server resides on the boat and waits for incoming network and / or Bluetooth connections. The client (for now) is just a quick and dirty PC program (called "BoatCaptain") that lets you connect over the network (WiFi at this point) or Bluetooth, and has 4 buttons for controlling propeller speed and direction:

Over time, this will expand to include GPS location, magnetic heading, temperature readings, battery voltage, route planning, sample collection, etc. Also, I would like to have a mobile version as well, since it can be tricky to kayak and work a laptop at the same time.

Our recent rainy weather has abated this morning and I just noticed that there is a relatively deep section of the stream bordering our neighbour's property that is free of ice, so I think it's time for a field test...

EDIT: And here is the video of the first field test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5xzWFsAKhc