Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Hi all.
was hoping to build a ROV to check out some local reefs in Australia, basically put some remote control into a gopro or similar.
I have some r/c building skills and would like to help develop a Fibre tethering based unit.
cheers

Came up with a basic built with a central pod that has "pods" that slide on and can be independently replaced.
front would be dome with the whole lot being on a slide in tray.
Understand PVC is not great for deep work. More about learning.
Will probable end up using PPM on and old computer radio. Mix rudder for turn and so on. Dual rates would be good for filming.
Found a beilge pump with horizontal in/out so might make a good side to side thruster for front.
Couple of stand alone ebay dive torches on front


Thrust?
I wanted ducted fan with high torque low rpm motor for more precise control. Not a small prop cavitating


IP68 8 pin to plug it in

Choice of pipe size: When you go to network components the 100mm (4") will be a good compromise. Check the quality of the screw caps though. The keel and buoyancy locations look like they will work well for at least 2 reasons that I can think of.
A mistake I made with my first ROV attempt was to oversimplify, and have only 3 thrusters. One for vertical was fine, but skid-steer just didn't work for me, so good to see you are considering a bow-thruster.

Did you try those ducted fans ?
I may have to add a bow thruster to my design as I like the idea of using a gyro to be able to do heading lock etc.

No, have not used bow thruster yet. I have mounted them in model boats before and they worked great from small progresive turns. I drove a friends ROV a few months ago and it was very hard to pan properly or fine tune bottom resting position. I want to capture quality video footage.

The more I think about design the more I am leaning towards a smaller unit able to work a small area 10-30mtrs down and be able to caputure lengthy video grabs.
I purchased a used video camera dive enclosure which has enough room for the basics. I think a fibre tender is the best option.

Have been working away from home for months so no progress however good time to research with many making good progress with theirs.

I planned on using ducted fans but the manufacturer said they are only good for load in one direction and thus if I tried to reverse it in water it would probably come apart. I of course don't know if this would happen or not so would be keen to hear from anyone that used one.
The further out you put your floats to more stable it will be I guess.

Ducted fans are much more efficient in one direction. Under water they will not reach a high rpm unless you are drawing big current. I would not use a fan unit with more than 5 blades to avoid cavatation.
I have bought a small dive container made for underwater video work. Main purpose will be to get down to a small area for long duration rather than drive around a larger area.