Jon's new ROV

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Noj504
Posts: 4
Joined: Mar 11th, 2014, 9:46 pm

Jon's new ROV

Post by Noj504 »

Hey all,
My name is Jon and I'm planning on building my first ROV. My back ground is in aircraft maintenance, I feel like I can handle a basic design but I will have questions about wiring and waterproofing. I'm finishing up the final designs but have established a lot of basics.
The frame:
PVC used to make essentially a box(house most components) with transverse outriggers running the length of the sub(used to house forward drive motors).
Camera:
PVC housing containing a color security camera w/ night vision.
Wiring:
Otter box containing wiring and relays waterproofed with a wax plug.
Motors:
This is my big question I've read that bilge pumps can be easier to work with harder to control and less efficient. However, I've heard motors can be more efficient and multi-directional'
Tether:
About 100ft of cable containing camera cable and I was thinking of wiring everything to a multi-pin connector.
Landside:
Car battery connected to a simple series of switches that will control relays and a monitor.
Accessories:
I was planning on putting a small compass in the camera's field of view. 2 lights made from repurposed led flashlights mounted in the same manner as the camera. also mounted in the light housing 2 laser pointers calibrated to meet at a known distance(so I know distance from a given object) A trash picker mounted under the body on a servo to control the claw.
Any comments or ideas would be helpful as this in my first ROV. thank you in advance.
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Rover
Posts: 108
Joined: Jul 18th, 2011, 10:23 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: Jon's new ROV

Post by Rover »

Welcome to the site.

Looks like you have been doing a lot of research and planning. Yes you are correct, pressure bulkheads, sealing wires, and your thrusters are going to be your biggest challenges.

Stock bilge pumps, used as a bilge pump to move your ROV can be in-efficient. A good work around is to remove the pump impeller housing and stock impeller and replace it with a prop or a modified RC airplane propeller (Look on the main site for more info on this topic).

Some also use brushless RC motors in a waterproof housing, or run them wet.

You didn't mention where you are using your ROV (fresh water or Salt water) but the clarity of the water will dictate the amount of camera light needed, If your diving in fresh water lakes, they tend to be more silty with less visibility, needed more light. I was using flashlights but I am stepping it up for more light.

Your tether is an important part of your ROV. How many amps are your motors going to use? Have you done any voltage drop calculations? A 100 foot tether is a long tether with just 12 volts, you could see a large voltage loss depending on your power consumption.

Good luck. Let us know how your build goes.

Rover
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