Homebuilt ROVs Forum

While researching for my towed side-scan sonar project I found a cheap source for stranded, individually shielded CAT6 cable at Black Box Network Services . $238 seems pretty good, most other places I checked wanted at least $800 and up for 1000'. I plan to thread this through 3/8" hollow braid...

Using acrylic resin to "pot" a camera is relatively common practice, as is using oil to fill electronics housings. The problem with your idea lies with the foam; regular eps foam compresses at depth, so the deeper you go the less flotation you'll have (it will also absorb water over time)....

JW Fishers runs 120 volts AC to their towed cameras for lighting through a GFCI box and it seems to work fine as I haven't been electrocuted yet. As long as the cable is properly sealed and you ground your system properly I foresee no problems.

System was originally planned around a laptop/joystick via USB extender to ROV setup, but cost and complexity has me rethinking to go with a microcontroller, probably an arduino.

I was wondering whether anyone has had issues with electrolytic caps in your ROV's that are exposed to water pressure? I'm going to be using some large Capacitors in a power converter that I had planned to oil-fill to help with heat dissipation and to reduce the need for an additional heavy pressure...

Nice find, that unit is very similar to the one I'd considered (http://www.icron.com/products/usb_new/usb20-ranger-2224-fiber-extender.php), even the price. The cost savings would be in the cable as the 1000' multimode fiber optic would cost around $600 versus around $150 for stranded CAT5. Somethin...

I had planned to use a Pololu Mini Maestro 24 USB servo controller at the ROV end to control the ESC's and Manipulator servos, it also can be used as a data interface for compass, pressure etc. All processing would be handled topside, the ROV's internal electronics would be very basic. The Optic lin...

I've been working on a low-cost Search and Recovery ROV and have been working towards a PC based control via USB (optic) or RS-485. Reading through the forum it seems that this isn't a popular option which makes me think I may be making the system more complicated than it needs to be. I need a tethe...

I've just recently found this board, have been working on a design for a Search/Recovery ROV for some time now. Lakes around here are up to 800' deep but most searches are at 200-400 feet. The electronics housings and flotation are solved, as is power and propulsion so tether length and control is t...