DropCamera/ROV hybrid

[oceanrov31]

Been working on a drop camera that may be upgraded to an rov in the future by adding (4) BlueRobotics thrusters. It uses a 4.5" O.D. acrylic tube and dome housing. The tube is oriented vertically with the dome facing downward. The p/t cam looks out the dome with lighting mounted external to the tube while another pan camera looks out the side of the tube ( possibly a hacked GoPro 3 which can supply live video as well as take high res clips and stills), the pan/tilt camera uses a mini slipring so it can pan continuously. The subsea end runs off a battery pack and has basic sensors (depth, compass, temp, etc ) as well as a sensitive hydrophone to hear marine life, mainly whales. Everything subsea is run by an arduino Mega 2560 and custom shield. Control and telemetry is over RS-485. A modified Cat5 cable is the tether with one twisted pair each for video, hydrophone and rs-485 plus ground. Topside is another arduino mega and uno for control via a game controller and all data on a video overlay screen. This is for a local non-profit Marine Science Center to use in their program with youth and adults offshore on a boat, so far they can only see and hear whats happening on the surface with the drop camera they can get a peek underwater , at least up to 250 ft deep.

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[KR2_Diving]

Very Cool Design! Can't wait to see how this turns out! I like the use of Arduinos!

Just out of curiosity, why the Mega AND the UNO on the surface?

[oceanrov31]

Topside there are two arduinos. The Uno does the video overlay using Video experimenter overlay shield http://nootropicdesign.com/ve/
unfortunately this shield does not work with the mega 2560 so i could only use the UNO, then most all the resources of the UNO are tied up doing
the video overlay so I have to have another arduino, i chose the mega because it has lots of resources and is fairly inexpensive so i can expanded later if needed. The Topside mega also interfaces with the RS-485, I2C controlled audio amp (for hydrophone), RTC module, and USB PS3 game controller adapter. The data is passed from the mega to the uno via serial link pins. I have to say the arduinos are nice because there is so much in the way of prewritten code for peripheral devices which makes it very quick to get something up and running.

[sthone]

Very cool, it looks like it's coming together nicely.. gotta love those 3d printers

I'm curious... what model is that board cam?

-Steve

[oceanrov31]

the board cam is http://www.ebay.com/itm/271926858211?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

the picture is pretty good and can be adjusted with a handheld interface which can be detached and the various settings will be saved on the cam
board, so then all that is needed is power and you get a signal output.

the TVL specs are a little confusing to me, but i thought i would give it a try. it appears higher res than the cam board i got
from sparkfun https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11745.

[oceanrov31]

I had a question if anyone might have a idea what happens to a 3d printed part that uses say 40% infill to 70 % infill when put under high pressure water
say 150 psi or submerged to 300 ft depth. Will the part remain intact and usefull just full of water or will it be damaged?

thanks

[oceanrov31]

little update on the system. have added fin for anti spin and water current alignment, rotor type water velocity meter and buoyancy foam so it hovers above the bottom with an weight attached by line (did the buoyancy calculations and the system was a bit negative before adding buoyancy) this way it should be able to rest on the bottom even if surface is uneven. also have pan cameras and led lights linked so light tracks camera movement but is separated to minimize backscatter glare. intruments such as salinity etc can be added to additional tube housings mounted to bracket mid-tube and connected to serial data and power bus for expandability.

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