Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Thanks Steve.
I'll probably hit the salt as soon as i finish my tether. I still have to thread the cables through the floats and then space and secure the floats. There's still have some camera issues with the Vmate DVR, but that can wait.
Almost there

Making the tether. Much easier to do at work than in a 1 bedroom condo. With luck the first complete test will happen this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Still not in the water, but soon.
I finally got around to making a battery box

Oh! I like that! That little top compartment works GREAT for protecting the socket when not connected! Very clever!

Still need to add some ballast and figure out why the DVR recording is crappy, but other than that it's ready to go!

Looks GREAT!
I had an issue with my DVR as well... are you using an SD card style DVR... double check your card quality. Class 10 or better... That helped on my end. I also had some noise issues... but i think that comes down to my decision to use the cheapest cables I could find!

I'm using a SanDisk Extreme Plus 32GB. I'm pretty sure it's a class 10. Better be, it cost $80!
One of the guys I work with had a couple of ideas I'm gonna try tonight. I really want to record my first dive. It's been 2 years in the making and I'm ready to have some fun.

I couldn't figure out the DVR/camera recording issue, so I bought a GoPro Hero to do my recording. The original camera will still be my live feed.

Added an adjustable 12V regulator just to be safe.

Went for my second dive on the weekend. It went better than the first. I got down 20 to 30 feet and saw some fish and starfish. I was about 6 inches away from grabbing a pair of sun glasses when I lost thruster power. That happened twice. Something's overheating. I'm thinking it's the step down voltage regulator. It's rated 20A. I'm going to try and find 30A that's the same size, so it'll fit in my very full electronics box. And the GoPro wouldn't power up, so no video this time. Still, it was a nice way to spend a sunday morning.