Put the tether together earlier. Will get a photo tomorrow. Also hooked up a switch to one of the motors via the tether to see if the switch works, and whether there would be much power loss, don't worry, made sure my hands were well clear when I plugged it in

I'll put in a circuit breaker.

All works, motor spins fast, so it's looking good. Need to replace the wireless printer switch with one of the spare routers as it seems that there's no easy way to access the wireless settings.

Anyone know of a UK (IE, not HK) supplier that stocks 12-5v converters? I just keep getting results for HK and shipping that could take 2+ weeks. Would rather have the part next week so I can get this thing in the water by next weekend hopefully!

do you have any flux ?

get yourself a little pot of plumbers flux, put a bit of that on the wire first, tin it (heat it and cover it in solder), do the same for the back of the switch and then solder them together - it's a million times easier with extra flux :-)

for 12v to 5v... why not use a usb car charger ?  they're 12v to 5v....

Heat sink would be a bit of an issue maybe given it'll be encased in resin? (though it'll be underwater so cool). I guess anything going from 12 to 5v will get warm though.

I have gold and silver flux, not sure if it'll do the same kind of job. To be honest I think it'll look neater and tidier if I use quick connect sleeve things if I can. Probably safer too.

soldering is better than crimping if there's a chance it can get wet, or that the wire will be pulled

slide a bit of heat shrink over to make it neat etc...


for flux use
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fernox-Powerflow-Flux-100gram-Small-Tub-/190829276787?pt=UK_DIY_Materials_Plumbing_MJ&hash=item2c6e4fae73

or try some of the stuff you have (as long as it's not too expensive?)

Controller by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

Controller wired!

Left and right thruster switches return to neutral when not pressed, but the vertical thruster switch is continuous up, down, or off.

All that's left to do is sort out a 12v to 5v converter for the wireless repeater, waterproof the underwater connections, and fit the propellers and we're good to go!

Stuff like that is for "ROV Mk II" I think

This one is just a "will it work" system. For all I know the ROV's manoeuvrability in the water might be abysmal, even with full power. The plan for this one is to use it around some of the local marinas to film the fouling organisms on the pontoons etc. These places tend to be pretty sheltered and not have much, if any current. Once I've got it working well and am happy with it, I might try it in more exposed areas. Something that is in the realms of possibility for this build though, is to make a decent panoramic photo of a pylon with the fouling organisms on it. I tried to do this lowering a camera on a platform, but not having a live feed and just "up and down" control made it a pain.

Being able to move around a bit, and see where it's moving, it's possible I could film a pylon from several angles, and using "Structure from motion" try and build some kind of 3D model from it. That'd be pretty funky if it worked, and the kind of thing that really I should be doing as paid research, rather than "independent fun time"!

If at that point I still am into the ROV, I might look at improving the controls etc. Even though I've made this "on a budget" It's still cost a fair bit more than I'd anticipated. I've learnt a lot though. I'm justifying the cost by the fact that the kinds of technical jobs I do, being able to say I've built my own ROV would be a big selling point (I almost got a job at the National Oceanographic Centre last year, pretty sure having this on my CV would help - Even though the NOC makes and uses ROVS that survey the trenches several miles deep etc.)

One thing I am trying to figure out is something to do with the wifi set-up.

I'll get a video of it tomorrow, but basically:

Using the GoPro app, it detects the camera and I get a feed, for about 1 second, and then a popup says connection was lost. HOWEVER, you can still see the video is live in the background. Clicking the popup box though takes the video preview away.

I got around this by using a 3rd party GoPro app. It doesn't lose connection or anything, but the video feed freezes/stutters every second or so. It's bearable for now, the ROV won't be moving that fast so the video feed is more to guide the thing, as the recorded video is fine.

I'm guessing this behaviour is down to the router/repeater set-up, as connecting directly to the camera is fine. My thoughts is it's something to do with the transmission rate or sensitivity or something? The stutter being a buffer of some kind being used up/refreshed?