Tether buoyancy idea.

Waterproof Housing, Frames, and Buoyancy Methods.
manhattan
Posts: 49
Joined: Jun 5th, 2011, 3:52 am

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by manhattan »

Don’t know. This was just something I stumbled across by accident. My current set-up is one power cord+1 cat5e going down and 100m of that is heavy. Think that if I succeed with the depth and videofeed then I will look on improvements.
AHarris
Posts: 152
Joined: Mar 14th, 2011, 1:45 pm

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by AHarris »

Yes, that's the stuff and as Soulreaper has said my idea was to use it as a safety line (so I don't need to pull on the weaker soldering joints) and as floatation.
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PaulC
Posts: 102
Joined: Nov 13th, 2010, 9:19 am

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by PaulC »

In regards to the polypropylene rope just feed all the wires through the center of it, but you may still need to add floats. http://www.hobbyrov.com/index.php?optio ... &Itemid=29
shaneb24
Posts: 61
Joined: Nov 22nd, 2010, 12:55 pm

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by shaneb24 »

sthone wrote:
floats1.jpg
So I received my order of floats from Memphis Net & Twine Company, I ordered a few of each, the top row is a variety of the Hard Plastic Floats, first one in the second row is a 2" Dia Standard PVC Sponge Float, and then we have a few Hard Foam Floats.

I haven't actually pressure tested any of these but I'm guessing from there make up they will all be good for the depths most of use are looking to achieve.

The Hard Plastic Floats are pretty solid, they are made in two halves and joined together so they have a center cross section. They are hollow but have a wall thickness of about 1/8" (I cut one in half and will post a picture of it later) the down side is .... the hole through them is only 5/16" (for some reason I was picturing a 5/8" hole when I ordered them.) so you wouldn't be able to fit much more than a ethernet cable through them.

Both the PVC Sponge Float and Hard Foam Floats are pretty solid too, they are not what I expected at all, I figured they would be somewhat squeezable, they aren't. Which is a good thing, I think they should withstand some good depths, but I still have to test them. I still want to hack a few up to see in they can be cut down smaller (to be less bulky) and maybe see if the hole can be drilled bigger, because they too only have a 5/16" center hole.

I'll post more as I continue with my tests.

-Steve



Steve did any thing ever come from your results ?
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sthone
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Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by sthone »

Sorry, I still haven't had a chance to test the floats yet.... It's been a busy year for me and I haven't had time to work on many of my Rov projects :(

I will update the forum as soon as I get around to it though.

-Steve 8-)
Chas 100
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Joined: Oct 14th, 2011, 7:52 am

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by Chas 100 »

I am going to use them on my rov tether, since my tether is .320. I have used the floats for years as I have fished up here in northen Mi. I have had nets over 300' for chubs. The key is to figure the weight of your cable, so as to get the right amount of floats to thread on before all connections are made or have some kind of quick release at rov or control box. but I am sure the fittings would be larger then 5/16.
Ian MacKenzie
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Joined: Jan 3rd, 2014, 10:04 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by Ian MacKenzie »

SoakedinVancouver wrote:
PaulC wrote:Has anyone thought of using either regular or synthetic cork for tether floats? It doesn't compress very much, and can be drilled.
I have acquired a carton of wine cork for that purpose, but my "sea trial" is not for a few months... My intent is to shape them, to minimize the entanglements spoken about by previous posters, and drill them through. Only one "line" of my umbilical will run through the cork, as my umbilical is of the "twisted" type (poly rope loosely twisted around one coax, 5 #18AWG's, and a small three conductor #24AWG flat cable).

As a plan B, I want to try strips of bubble wrap material, I tried to compress the small bubbles by hand on top of a scale, and they averaged a burst pressure (very uneven, as opposed to depth pressure) of 14 lbs. Per bubble. Very flexible, cheap as dirt. But fragile. Like I said, plan B.
Ian MacKenzie
Posts: 160
Joined: Jan 3rd, 2014, 10:04 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by Ian MacKenzie »

How did the cork work? I'd like to use it on my tether.
Ian MacKenzie
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Joined: Jan 3rd, 2014, 10:04 pm
Location: Vancouver B.C. Canada

Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by Ian MacKenzie »

sthone wrote:Sorry, I still haven't had a chance to test the floats yet.... It's been a busy year for me and I haven't had time to work on many of my Rov projects :(

I will update the forum as soon as I get around to it though.

-Steve 8-)
Did you ever get a chance to test the floats? It's tether time for me and I haven't found a good float yet.
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sthone
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Re: Tether buoyancy idea.

Post by sthone »

Floats.jpg
Floats.jpg (223.39 KiB) Viewed 3621 times
I still haven't tested them. :|

But to answer your email the hard plastic ones have a hole a bit bigger than 5/16 where I cut it in half (see pic.) it mics out at about .385, the wall thickness is only about .09 so I'm not sure how much you could drill out. The hard foam ones might be easier to drill out. I was planning on just trying to make a hole saw type bit out of a piece of brass tube and cut teeth in the end. I think the foam ones (I really wouldn't call them foam as they are rock hard) should hold up to some good depths and are what I'm eventually going to try and use.

-Steve :sting:
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