Bridging the BlueROV Network and the Omnitrack Network

The information in this system is provided as a service to technically-competent users who wish to save money by eliminating the BaseStation Plus box. Cerulean Sonar is not staffed to support user IT needs and thus we do not provide technical support for this section. If this section seems daunting, please purchase a BaseStation Plus instead.

The BlueROV comes with a tether system to connect your computer to the ROV. At the topside of this system, there is a tether interface box. The tether interface box talks to your PC using a USB connection. The tether itself runs a version of Ethernet to form a local ROV network. Although not visible, inside the tether interface box there is a Ethernet to USB converter. The Omnitrack system needs to also talk on the tether so it can communicate directly with the ROV.

The connection from the tether interface to the PC is a one-to-one connection over USB. There is not a provision to let a third party such as the Omnitrack into the connection.

A physical way to let the Omnitrack in is to add an Ethernet switch to the tether box. This is efficient and has benefits beyond the Omnitrack function, and it doesn't require any other agents to help Omnitrack and the ROV talk to each other. It is somewhat invasive.

A virtual way to connect the Omnitrack network to the ROV network is to bridge them through your PC. This doesn't require any soldering expertise but does require your PC to be in the mix at all times.

We describe how to bridge the networks on a Windows machine. There are analogous capabilities on Linux machines that we will leave as an exercise for the reader.

Microsoft frequently changes the appearance of Windows forms, because they can. You may have to do some translating between the images shown here and the actual forms.

The PC will need two physical Ethernet interfaces to be connected. One of them will be the USB connection to the tether interface box. The other will be a USB-to-Ethernet dongle supporting the ROVLe, or, if you are using the BlueBoat RF network, it will be the USB connection to the BlueBoat BaseStation. The procedure is the same whichever is used.

Connect the interfaces and take note of any static IP addresses you are using for the interfaces. These can be found by going to Control Panel > Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings. You should see a screen similar to the one below. Note I have renamed the interfaces to "BlueROVTether" and "StarTech Dongle". It's easier to keep track of than the default "Ethernet", "Ethernet 1", "Ethernet 2".

Right click one of your interfaces and select "properties". You should see a window like this:

Highlight Internet Protocol Verision4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties. A window will pop up like the following:

The static IP address of this adapter is 192.168.2.7. If "Obtain an IP address automatically" is selected, you have other issues and it's likely you are not properly set up for ROV or BlueBoat operation. You need to address that first.

Having noted the IP addresses of your interfaces, go back to the "Network Connections" page, and highlight both of the interfaces (control-click) you want to bridge. Right-click either of the interfaces and select "Bridge connections".

At this point, the two networks can talk to each other but the PC can't talk to either one. You need to assign an IP address to the bridge.

RIght-click the Network Bridge adapter that has appeared, and follow the same path yo used to find the IP addresses of the dongles, i.e., highlight "Internet Protocol Verision4 (TCP/IPv4)" and click Properties. Assign the bridge the static IP address that the BlueROV was using (by default this is 192.168.2.2).

That's it! Your Omnitrack and ROV networks should be talking to each other and the PC should be able to talk to both.