Underwater ROV project

[Jimfoxyboy]

Just wanted to post up something I've been working on this weekend. It was a project that started early last year, with building a waterproof camera pod. The project got stuck on hold since, due to some.. 'personal life issues'.

Here is a picture of the frame that I've made so far, (Roughly a foot long length wise):

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i34/Jimfoxyboy/underwaterrov-wip.jpg

Currently, it isn't glued together. I'm still trying to decide on the final plan. I still need to locate some waterproof motors and lead weights for buoyancy.

[Phyr]

Sounds cool looking forward to seeing you finnish it.

[Jimfoxyboy]

Did a little more work on the frame tonight. The camera pod is just mocked up for now:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i34/Jimfoxyboy/underwaterrov-2.jpg

Even started work on the control panel as well:

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i34/Jimfoxyboy/underwaterrov-3.jpg

[Sasha]

*tiger drools* analogue metres and gauges. Have you made any progress since then?

[Jimfoxyboy]

I want to find a different amperage meter. The one I found is a two way. Not really critical though. Its just so I know how much I have flowing through the supply lines in the tether.

As for progress, mostly just on the motors so far. Was trying to rig up a prop to the motor that I got. Mostly to see how well it would work. Looks good so far. I'm about to go get another set to go with it for the drive system. I'll probably have pictures up on them later.

*tiger drools* analogue metres and gauges. Have you made any progress since then?

[Sasha]

If it is controlled by the joystick, is it an analogue DSUB one? (yum :-3) or digital, and is it going to an onboard microcontroller of specific type, or have you thought of that yet?

Are you going to feed video back through composite or HDMI or something to the portable player? I suppose you cannot do reasonable wireless with any depth.

Got me in a hacky mood, gonna try to rig a joystick to an ATMEGA when I get back from going out. Meow, can't wait to see updates.

[Jimfoxyboy]

The stick is an old school analog with a gameport plug. Top hat switch, depending on which way you push it, and which switch is closed, by varying the resistance, which can be read by the controller. I can either leave it as is, retain the original plug on the end of the sire. Or rewire the four switches so they work independently. I want the top hat switch to control the slewing, when I get to that phase of the build.

My main focus right now is to rig the vehicle up with the motors and camera. Find a way to get the wires through the hull and maintain a water tight seal. I'm finding that the motors and props alone are costing me quite a bit.

I'd like to go with two linked controller chips so it'll cut down on the amount of wires between the vehicle and controller station. I'll still need to have a separate line for power, simply due to how much amps the motors will be pulling.

Video is composite. I'd like to also feed it to some kind of digital recorder, if I can find something. I've read up on using radio waves through water. You would need to work with extremely low frequencies and very powerful transmitters to get anything useful, depth wise. Those requirements alone make it rather impractical at small scales.

If it is controlled by the joystick, is it an analogue DSUB one? (yum :-3) or digital, and is it going to an onboard microcontroller of specific type, or have you thought of that yet?

Are you going to feed video back through composite or HDMI or something to the portable player? I suppose you cannot do reasonable wireless with any depth.

Got me in a hacky mood, gonna try to rig a joystick to an ATMEGA when I get back from going out. Meow, can't wait to see updates.

[Sasha]

I've always found a voltage divider and A/DC more intuitive than serial, I love all that is analogue. I've fair understanding of radio waves, SLF requires not too much power, but an antenna a fraction of 1000km (250km or so) or whatever the wavelength of <300Hz to transmit anything useful, worth it for submarine communication I guess, when covert operation more important than cost.

I can imagine voltage drop of sending many amps down a long line would be an issue, but I guess a DC/DC converter to get it higher during it is impractical , maybe. I've no clue what fits in that specific situation.

I shall look on with anticipation, this tiger anyway would love to hear any technical details as discover them.

[Jimfoxyboy]

Picked up a second motor from the store last week. (Yay, now I have a place where they are willing to supply me with the motors I need, for a reasonable price.) I made the modifications to motor and fitted my prop on. Turns out it was more in balance than my first motor. The shaft on the first motor wasn't centered very well, and was causing quite a bit vibration. So now I gotta go and redo a new shaft. Or find a better way of attaching the props to the motors.

Other than that, my other big challenge right now, is figuring out how to fit the cables and wires through the pressure hulls without letting the water leaking in. I have a few ideas, but I won't know if they'll work till I've done some testing first. That won't happen till after I'm done my moving, and settling in at the new place. I"m thinking that I'll just rig up my camera pod to the point that it is working on its own. Put some ballast in it and add the tether. Then, I can just lower it down into the water down at the pier in White Rock or some other place to do the first of my tests.

Edit: Oops, forgot to add the picture of the motor/prop that I'm using. They are rated at 12v/4amps. I won't be using the full 12v I don't think since they can draw up to at least 7 amps while in the water. Its OK though, since they have quite a bit of push/pull with the props anyways at around 6 volts even.

http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i34/Jimfoxyboy/motor-prop.jpg

[Carl Foxmarten]

Look cool! =^.^=

Just how deep are you planning on having it go?

[Jimfoxyboy]

Probably not very deep. I'm hoping for at least 15-20 feet. I'm going to take things in small steps.

Look cool! =^.^=

Just how deep are you planning on having it go?