New from Panama City, Fl

[87TurboIroc]

Hey everyone.. I'm thrilled to have found this forum and see so many like-minded people. My ROV interest goes back 20 years, around the time small CCD board cameras (b&w) became affordable. Around 1993 I made a housing using a 4" PVC cleanout on one end and a 4" to 2" reducer on the other. A plexiglass window was siliconed in. It worked but I never really put it to use other than some shallow depth testing in the bay behind my parent's house. An ROV build has always been in the back of my mind, but other priorities of course kept it there. Fast forward almost 20 years and suddenly I have a boat again. I also did around 04-05 and ROV thoughts were on my mind then, but ended up selling it to fund a move.

I did find my old camera a while back. I noticed the lens somehow unscrewed and fell off the board camera. Oh well! Here it is though...



In the background you'll notice a Lowrance Structure Scan side scan sonar. That's really been the catalyst to my interest being rekindled. As soon as I ordered it last weekend, I told my wife it's going to drive me completely nuts when I run across some interesting object 40 feet down. I'll have to put my eyes on it and I'm not about to jump into the middle of the bay and dive down to check out some spooky looking object! Hence the ROV idea was back at the forefront of my thoughts. I got only to see what people were doing and found this forum.

At this point I'm compiling information and ideas. I'm trying to go single tether (would love to use multi-mode fiber) but version 1 might end up multi tether in the interest of simplicity and cost savings. I'd put my chances of starting this project at about 70%. I'm very busy with work and other projects but would like to make room for this. I'm probably going to start with a camera only project. I just happen to have a 7 inch LCD that would work nicely too, so time to break out some silicone and plexi!

For those of you that haven't seen the Structure Scan, here is a screen capture someone posted!

[turtle]

hi
ive been looking into side scan sonars but the cost over here in the uk has put me off
adam

[87TurboIroc]

hi
ive been looking into side scan sonars but the cost over here in the uk has put me off
adam

That was a difficult part for me to get past as well. Right now is going to be a good time to find a deal though because everyone wants the gen 2 HDS units. There will be a ton of the gen 1 units for sale very soon I'm sure. Of course the actual side scan module is the same so not any savings to be had there.

It remains to be seen if it will be of any use, but seems natural to locate with side scan and investigate with a camera. I'll be posting plenty of vids of things as they progress and will keep a post updated as well.

[Mareike]

...I smoked dad's fishfinder off . I wait for delivery from www.conradelectronics.com for a spare one)
they have one cast out sonar fishfinder.. I hope to do something better with that and it not just melting like ice cream.

[ERIEWRECKDIVER]

You go wreck diver. Any idea which Liberty Ship you are after?

[87TurboIroc]

You mean the on in the pic I posted? That wasn't my scan, but I will definitely be getting on top of some wrecks in the gulf if I can get this bigger boat I'm looking at. The closest liberty ship to me is the Benjamin H. Grierson, which is seven miles out.

[87TurboIroc]

I've been AWOL from the forum because I have been working on a new 'support vessel' for the ROV project :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

My original boat was 18 feet and there just wasn't room to do anything. The replacement is 29 feet and has a nice swim platform on back to launch the future ROV from. Just working the bugs out of her and hopefully will be moving forward on the first phase of the ROV project. My number one priority is to get a working camera on the bottom. From there I will work on a shallow depth very basic ROV (for up to about 40 feet) and if things go well I'll start working on the final one some time this year. I don't need it to go deeper than 100'.

One thing I'm learning right now is how difficult it is to do this from a boat, since it is pretty hard to sit over a target without anchoring. Also the interesting targets seem to be in higher traffic channels! Also my side scan (Lowrance LSS-1) is not installed in this boat yet so I'm crippled for the time being.

I did drop a camera down in 11 feet last week and was amazed to find a bunch of hermit crabs working the bottom. The entire bottom was covered in their tracks and I saw at least eight of them in the short time the camera was down.

A shot from the new "office" haha...

[james sowell]

hey whats up im in pensacola right down the road just geting started

[87TurboIroc]

Hi James.. not too far down the coast from me. Any progress on your project since you posted? As for me, I'm dead in the water right now. More like dead out of the water. After an early June vacation, I returned to about a month straight of rain. Then when it cleared up, I found out I was getting a divorce! After clearing the hurdles financially, we were finally blessed with nice weather on Labor Day weekend. I finally took the boat out and fuel it up for the first time this summer. The trip from the fuel docks back to the slip lasted last than five minutes and ended in disaster. I ran across some sort of ropes (about 15-20) firmly attached to the bottom. I guess a shrimp net that got hung up and they just cut the ropes and left it. I was traveling 21 knots in 12,000 lbs of boat and it came to a crashing stop in less than the length of the boat. I was hung up for four hours before divers cut me loose.

On the bright side, now I *really* have a mission for an ROV. I must know what it down there. If they fix the boat, it will be my first mission. As for an ROV, divorce has ruined my budget for anything fancy. I did pick up an underwater camera though and installed a tv in the boat.


A real bundle of a mess!


Strut broke completely off. Only the rope going to the other prop kept the shaft from being yanked out and sinking the boat.


The strut took a good bending before finally breaking


Once the strut let go, the prop had a go at the hull. Almost through but not quite. Secondary sinking method foiled by luck!

[DavidF]

Dang I rock, thats some bad luck!!