Leak Testing

[bikerbones1968]

Undoubtedly everyone here has experienced some sort of leak with their builds. I.e. hulls with all your goodies tucked inside. My question is what method, if any, has been used to test pressure or leak issues prior to sending your hard work to the water and possibly destroying components?

1. Can you pull a vacuum on your hull and monitor pressure increase over time?

2. Can you pressurize your hull and monitor pressure drop over time?


Everything about ROV builds is new to me and I am researching everything and anything I can get my hands on. I just hate the thoughts of spending lots of time building something to have it fail if a simple test would discover a possible issue before it becomes one.

[derelicte]

one approach:

http://homebuiltrovs.com/pressurechamber.html

[bikerbones1968]

This is exactly what I was think of doing. I noted the warning in bold red and smiled.. I scratch build high power rockets and static test my motor designs before flight. I have witnessed first hand motors CATO and besides the shrapenel there is combustible propellent fragments flying about to add to the destruction. I think it will be safter testing with water than propellent. My hull will handle way more pressure than I will ever expeience. sch80 at 250 PSI

[thegadgetguy]

Another way to test that doesn't involve building anything is to simply find the deepest place you will be diving, and drop the pressure housing down to depth for a while to see if you get any moisture inside. Simple and effective.

[bikerbones1968]

Thank's thegadgetguy. Now that has to be the simplest solution yet and with my hull free of hardware no risk to components!

[thegadgetguy]

It's definitely not the most controlled method, but it works! I'm planning on doing some deeper dives(30'-40', so not very deep at all, but deeper than I've gone before) this weekend, so I'll see how it goes! My ROV only has about 50' of tether on it. For some reason, that seemed like plenty at the time, but now it's a real limiter! I'm thinking about upgrading it to digital/proportional control, which would give me an opportunity to extend the tether.

Good luck on your ROV!