First ROV

[Demon340]

I went through a few initial designs but I found this gem, it started life as a towed video system but I figured I would repurpose it as an ROV. Supposedly that thing is good to 500 ft. I'm only looking for around 100 ft or so. I have my control box in the works using switches and relays with a 120v to 12v converter for power and bilge pumps with props. I would like to use an arduindo board and relays instead of the switch deal. It has a few very small holes that will be easily sealed using JB weld or expoxy of some sort. One semi big hole where the orginal cables came out but that back half was flooded anyway so I was going to run my connection wires out and seal that all up. I have a sea conn connecter for umbilical connections. Moneys not too much of an issue at the moment but any ideas how I should proceed or any comments please do so.

[bikerbones1968]

WOW that is a fantastic start to a ROV project. What material is the hull made of? PVC, Fiberglass, aluminium?

[Demon340]

Its some sort of high density plastic I think, although I'm really not that sure. I was building the same thing out of PVC piping but since I found this makes life a bit easier. O-Ring seals the front dome. I'm hoping to attach 4 thrusters, two in the middle for vertical ascent/decent and two rear motors for forward/reverse.

[bikerbones1968]

It really looks like a decent machine and will sure save a ton of time building from scratch. If you could find out exactly what the materials were you could better find a product suited to fill any unwanted holes. Any identification marking on it anywhere?

[martinw]

It looks very much like the skeleton of a SeaLion ROV from JW Fishers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM2SBom273g

You may be able to find out more about it from them.

Martin

[bikerbones1968]

I did a little digging around and you are correct, it is a JW Fishers product.
http://www.jwfishers.com/tov1.htm

[Demon340]

Bingo, that would be it. It looked like that before I took off the wings. The lights are 120 and are very bright but im probably going to use 12v lights. Its pretty much complete minus camera and thrusters so hopefully this will come together fairly easily. Ill use the existing holes where the fins were run wires thru for thr motors. No sense in drilling needlessly.

[bikerbones1968]

That sounds like a good plan to me. If you haven't yet checked out the potting and sealing section of Steves website I suggest you do. He details the best way to seal your cables and it works better than any compression fittings or oring style systems bar none.

http://www.homebuiltrovs.com/howtosealingwireexits.html

[Demon340]

This is the wiring idea I have for the main box housing the LCD and switches and AC-DC converter. This is a top down view looking at the bottom of the box. All the switches and plugs will be on the plate which is hinged for access to the wiring on the bottom. I will be utilizing DPDT switches for forward and reverse on the motors. There will be fuses on each set of wire runs to minimize a blazing inferno inside my box. There will be an indicator light for each voltage so I can visually see there is power on the 12v and 120v side. Lights and camera each will have a single SPST switch, ON or OFF. I will be running everything off of shipboard power or a generator so I'm not worried about batteries as of yet. Everything, power and ground will run through the cannon plug wire so the tether can be detached. Main power will come from a computer cord so I can unplug that without unnecessary wires running out of the box. The camera will get its own separate power with only two small cables along with the main tether just for power and video feed. I would like to move to an Arduindo board so I can keep my tether nice and thin.

[bikerbones1968]

Nice setup indeed. Great schematics to boot. Running AC top side will avoid voltage drop issues with your inverter on board. Have you considered PWM controlers and potentiometers for speed controls rather than DPDT switches?