Hello all from N Carolina

[BChurch]

Hello all I would like to introduce myself. My name is Bill and I live in a small town about an hour north/east of Charlotte. I found this site while researching for ROV plans. I am a EMT-B and a rescue diver. Where we live we have Lake Norman and Lake Hickory close by. These two lakes have quite a bit of holiday/vacation traffic as well as fishing and all other water activities.
We have unfortunately been dispatched to drownings, boating accidents and search a rescue calls on both lakes. We have a side scan sonar that we use in conjunction with divers to locate targets which have included bodies, boats, vehicles, and various weapons. After looking at the sonar readout and marking waypoints on GPS we usually send divers in to locate a verify what is at certain waypoints. Now to the point of why I'm here.....I'm wanting to build an ROV to be able to investigate the targets before sending divers in the water. To lessen the time divers are in the water and also help eliminate false targets such as trees or stumps or large rocks.
Of course they build these everyday and sell these at rather high cost. And yes we are a gov supported agency, but funds of this type are just not available. Having a mech engineering degree, I figured I might try and see what I could do. We have the $100 camera and monitor from harbor frieght. And frankly it just is a kids toy.
Here's where you guys come in....I have a list of requirements that we have thought through and feel that we need in this ROV. Price permitting of course....
Control from iPad , laptop, or dedicated pilot station with live camera feed
Battery power..( car batteries ) to use on board dive boat or from shore
Fore, aft, ascend, descend, left, right and station keeping thrusters or bilge pumps (we are in a river so current will be an issue)
Some sort of pan tilt video camera
Lighting....(sometimes we are searching at night)
Compass showing heading
GPS tracking
An arm with effector to help retrieve objects
Ease of use by one or two operators ( we are volunteer so don't know who will show up or how many)
Ability to dive up to 200 ft

Cost.....as cheap as possible
After typing that in it sounds impossible
Hence the reason I'm here
Any and all help with links to suppliers or ideas of how to accomplish all this are greatly appreciated.
If you read this whole thing thanks for sticking around to the end.
Hope to hear from some of you soon
And if there is anyone near Charlotte on the forum I would like to meet you..I'm sorta alone in this endeavor and it would be nice for some moral support and to meet others interested in this area of water exploration
Thank you again
Bill

[ROVEnthusiast]

Hello, what you are trying to build will probably cost between $800 and $2000 depending on the complexity, features, and how much you have already (like the battery, camera, tether, etc...). I would suggest building something similar to Steve Thone's SeaFox retrofit (http://www.homebuiltrovs.com/seafoxretrofit.html). However, just the website is not enough to build the design, you would have to buy a book titled, "Build your own underwater robot and other wet projects" (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/096816 ... ttom_links) which contains the original plans needed to build the SeaFox. Steve Thone (the owner of this website) used this book to build his SeaFox, but he added to it and modified it to become his own (the retrofit). To build this design, you need the book and guidance from this website. This design achieves almost all of your requirements, but I do not know about the tether because you may need much thicker gauge wire. I might suggest the addition of a vellman board (http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/2 ... 7AodQmAAeg) that would thin your tether out allowing for thicker power lines. Lastly, in his bilge pump testing (http://www.homebuiltrovs.com/mayfair750test.html), Steve subjected a bilge pump to 200 feet for an extended period of time. It was fine at first, but it later started drawing almost twice the amps as normal and the shaft became boiling hot due to the o-ring creating friction. Therefore, you might have to design your own thruster for 200' depth. Look at everything on homebuiltrovs.com for inspiration and tutorials, and feel free to ask questions on the form!

P.S.: GPS does not work underwater

-Q

[BChurch]

Sounds good.
Thanks for the information.
I feel sure I will be asking a lot of stupid questions.
Thanks again
Bill

[ROVEnthusiast]

No problem