I performed both buoancy and thruster tests on a test platform. Both tests went extremely well. I was surprised by the results of each. Based on my observations on the thruster performance, I can reduce my power requirement.

The reduction in the power requirement will also allow me to reduce the overall footprint of the system which was another point that was concerning me. I now believe that I can fit all of the electronics in one pressure hull.

The Gyropoint mice came in last week (thanks hudson for the post). I bought two units. I think they will do nicely.

The next steps are to mount the pressure hull(s) and get started on the electronics.

Finally put my web page up. I don't like it, but it's a start anyhow.

I received my waterproof cases last week from Cases4Less. I expect that I will use two cases for S.C.A.R. One case will house the main batteries and the other case will house the main electronics.

I need to get to work on the main processing board. I am planning on basing it around the 68302. I have a few in benchstock and I think they will fit the bill. The communications capability that the 68302 has should offload most of the handling of the serial data from the sensor processors. The 68302's full processing power can then be used to deal with the higher level functions.

I will not be using 68302s for the sensor processor boards. I have not decided on what MCU to base them. I am leaning towards an AVR because of my familiarity, but I also would like to play around with an H8. I do not plan on needing much horsepower for the sensor processors. However, if the main processing board becomes overwhelmed, I can always do more pre-processing of the sensor data.

Decisions...Decisions...