Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Now is the time to briefly show what I have built over the winter darkness. At first I was going to build a Seafox, but the choice of a large network camera amended plans. Everything is built in the kitchen for the wife's chagrin, so it's not so fine finish that you would like to wish. The hull consists of a 6" tube having a flange for attaching a 1/2" polycarbonate disc. The stern tube is reduced to 4 " with a union in order to fasten a disc with cable glands for three IP cables. Four bilge pumps, 1100 GPH, accounting for propulsion. The propellers are 40mm. Everything is controlled via relays of Steve's instructions and a control box with an arcade joystick.
A LiPo 5000 mAh onboard.
The weight is around 10 kg.

Cant wait to see test video. Is that a depth guage in the front of the rov

Yes, it's a depth guage and it's working good. But it has to be adjusted to be seen better by the camera. When it comes into the saltwater it looks to be one third closer compared to when it is in air. Thats why I made the console longer.

The tether is not neutral bouyant yet, but I will test to use floating rope.

I have also ordered one more LiPo-battery for longer dives. With only one battery I can do approx one hour.

I am a little backwards and have already made a couple of dives:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=700

I like it

....as for floating rope, if your talking about poly rope even though it floats it only has enough buoyancy to float itself you would still have to add some kind of fishing floats to the tether for buoyancy.

I'm curious ... What's the mirror for?

-Steve

When testing polyrope with diameter 8 mm (1/3") the tether was floating in the water surface. Maybe we have a different kind of rope in Sweden But I think the explanation is that this is in the ocean so the density of the (salt)water is higher. My ROV would sink like a stone in fresh water. I will test a smaller kind and report the result.

The mirror is hard to adjust, but it is for monitoring a LiPo voltage indicator and a homemade leakage indicator inside the ROV.

First.
Last week I tried to make an improvement, but ended up destroying the IP cam... A little anoying
So I'm trying to find a good solution. The "old" cam was really good, but the software was not quite as good. It saved the films in an odd file type and had to be converted a couple of times. I think about going to a HD webcam or a budget car cam like goPro. The question is if the car cam can give a live feed to the laptop?
http://viewitem.eim.ebay.se/130-Lens-Ne ... 10624/item

Second:
I try to give the ROV more light and have bought a couple of 12w LED spot lights. It is an open solution, so I have to pot them somehow. Is it possible to fill them with epoxy, considering they become really hot?