Homebuilt ROVs Forum

This is an Armatron arm I'm going to use. I'll put the geared motors in a small box, maybe oil filled, and make an adapter to mesh with the gears on the arm.

This is the rest of my stuff. The monitor's a 9" 12V. Bought it on Ebay.
The camera's a cheap security one. I'm using the dome that came with it. The housing's PVC with a threaded cap on the end.
The joy sticks are from arcade video games. I drilled out the shaft to run wires to a smaller thumb joy stick I'm mounting on top.
Still working on the tether. I can't find a good float for it.

Joystick mod complete.

This is my present to myself. It should help in getting the manipulator finished.

Congratulations! Good choice for ROV work. I read up the specs on this lathe and apparently it can turn up to 4" or so diameter. Thinking O-ringed pressure housings here . Do not know how much turning experience you have, but one of the good things with lathes is that you can use the lathe to make accessories for itself. Turning diameters bigger and lengths longer than what the standard chuck will accommodate then easily becomes a possibility. Lots of affordable accessories available off the shelf too I see.

This is my controller mock-up. I'm thinking an aluminum plate in place of the cardboard, pair of hinges on the joysticks and some Velcro to hold them in their storage position.

Pretty cool mock-up!
Instead of aluminum I think I'd go with Lexan or possibly Starboard (tm). I'm always a little leary about having something electronic or electrical mounted to a metal plate. Especially with moving parts like those flip-up joysticks. That's just me though.

I like it though! (How's that lathe working out?)

Nice setup! I look forward to seeing how you do the arm and the flip up joysticks. I hope to setup mine with one also if I ever ditch the PS2 controller.

Very cool.... I like the pump mounts you came up with and the flip out joysticks are an awesome idea too, can't wait to see how those turn out.

-Steve

Here's a mock up of my manipulator. Three geared motors will go in the grey box. Rods to connect the motors to the Armatron.