Author Topic: ROV - Project underway  (Read 75398 times)

Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #45 on: September 18, 2013, 08:10:47 AM
whatever it is, i cant see being submersed in water fixing it.

how do commercial ROVS fix this? surely they all have cables running back to the mother ship?

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #46 on: September 18, 2013, 09:36:29 AM
Commercial ROV's use wired cameras. Also I think because of how much bigger they are, they tend to have a lot of electronics on board so that the cable would be more for signals/controls than anything, so probably doesn't have to be a chunky cable (though I guess if it's a long distance it is)

Fact of the matter is that it was cheaper for me to get a GoPro 3 and do it this way, than it was for me to get a wired camera set up which would be waterproof to 30 metres, plus I wanted to use the camera for things other than the ROV.

Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #47 on: September 18, 2013, 10:12:07 AM
i thought as much. sorry, i don't have any answers for you, just want to see it working. so work it out sharpish and get it submersed!!!

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #48 on: September 18, 2013, 10:47:31 AM
I know I've had a delivery, so I've either got the parts to attach the props, or the voltage converter.

One thing I need to factor in is the ballast. I'll need to take some weights with me, just in case the thing is too buoyant. If it's too heavy I'll let it sit at the end of the tether and just see if I can turn and go forwards/backwards etc.

Shame about the weather, hopefully will be ready to go by the end of the week, but the wind and rain we've had will likely have kicked up the sediment quite a bit for several days.

Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #49 on: September 18, 2013, 15:11:26 PM
weigh it on your bathroom scales and measure the volume of your floats ?

water = 1kg/litre

so for every 1litre of air in your floats you have 1kg of lift

if you can get it pretty close, you can fine tune it when it's in the water :-)

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #50 on: September 18, 2013, 16:12:56 PM
In theory because of the salinity of seawater, it'd be closer to 1.020-1.030kg per litre, with it varying based upon the halocline of the water, which would be effected by recent/current weather and temperature of the water... ;)

The weight of the ROV would depend on how much cable has been "lowered" above it too.

Roughly the thing will weighs 600g without camera and waterproofing. I imagine it'll then weigh about 800 with it all set up.

Volume of the floats is about 2.1L

So It should float nicely. I don't know how buoyant (if at all) the plastic is though. I'll just find some lead weights somewhere and prep to cable tie them to the frame if necessary.
Last Edit: September 18, 2013, 16:18:59 PM by zpyder #187;

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #51 on: September 19, 2013, 11:08:26 AM
Here's a new conundrum. I have the 12-5V converter. The wireless repeater came with both a USB power cable and a wall plug one. Just to be safe I'm using the USB power cable. Cutting the USB lead off, the wire is wrapped around a central core that has a layer of insulation around it. I'm assuming one set of wire is live and the other neutral. My guess is live would be the most central core?

Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #52 on: September 19, 2013, 12:31:41 PM
get the diagram for a usb plug off google and pin it out?

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #53 on: September 19, 2013, 14:15:32 PM
I caved and stripped the wall plug cable instead. Works a charm. Currently the underwater electronic connections are sitting in various containers with resin setting around them.

So close to getting this thing in the water!

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #54 on: September 20, 2013, 12:37:21 PM
Waterproofing done.

Tested the power and the wifi repeater lights up so it's all good. Will see if I can video the setup later.

Received notification of the prop adapter parts being shipped today, so fingers crossed I'll be able to get this in the water next week, weather (and marina) permitting!

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #55 on: September 21, 2013, 13:30:09 PM
Well I've given it a proper test in the garden now with the app.

Seems that the resin has interfered a bit with signal, as it's a bit more temperamental getting a live preview going and stable.

Not 100% sure if this is down to the resin or me messing about with the camera though, as it seems to have most issue when I've got the camera already recording before connecting wirelessly to it. If I turn the camera off and on so it's in standby, it seems to connect a lot more easily.

I'm also going to try and cut the excess resin away, leaving enough for waterproofing/protection, but taking enough away to save space and hopefully improve signal a bit.

Tested the camera and repeater in the kitchen sink. Seems for a live feed I can get away just about 5-8cm from the camera. So basically when I take the ROV out I'll need to try and fix the repeater onto the back of the camera or as close as possible.


Almost there by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


power by Chris_Moody, on Flickr


Props by Chris_Moody, on Flickr

The last things to do now are:

Tidy the cables up (I had to cut some cable ties to make it easier to waterproof bits.
Trim Resin

I might need to tweak one of the prop shafts, as it seems to be a tad wonky, resulting in a bit of vibration.

I'll be giving the battery a good charge tomorrow and then phoning the Marina on Monday if the weather is any good to see if I can pop down.

Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #56 on: September 25, 2013, 13:12:30 PM
Any news?

Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk 2


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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #57 on: September 25, 2013, 18:10:36 PM
Just rendering a video from the very first test run. Probably was only about 2m depth, but this was good as you could just about see the orientation/location on the surface, which made the first test run much easier. Will take some fiddling to get used to piloting it!

It worked way better than I thought it would, I'd been going through a list in my head of everything that could go wrong. I figured it'd take a bit of fiddling to get the buoyancy right, but after I'd put about 600g of fishing weights on it yesterday, that seemed to do the job. The ROV's "down" thrust is quite powerful. The left and right motors also give quite an amazing amount of control. There were a few points where I thought the battery had died, or a prop had spun off as it seemed to struggle to move, but would then pick up again.

Only real issue with the test launch today was it was a bit murky so visibility was bad. But hey ho.

Going to a marina on Friday, so will have more depth (possibly worse visibility if I hit the silty bottom).

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Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #58 on: September 25, 2013, 23:18:03 PM
Here we go, a video from the first first run in the water :D


Re: ROV - Project underway
Reply #59 on: September 26, 2013, 11:01:56 AM
thats amazing. well done.

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