Homebuilt ROVs Forum

Next door to my office is a makerspace where I have rented a cubicle. The guys who founded the makerspace seem to know embedded systems and controls... maybe I can get help from them. They seem to like my idea, and it certainly is eyecatching and interesting. Since the makerspace is in a dying downtown retail space anything that grabs attention is probably a good thing.

I'll use this as my overall build log, I reckon. I hope I can pull this off, or I'm going to look very silly.

Man, I sure am busy. If I have time to spend four hours messing with building an ROV, I've got time to get some work done and help people.

Still, sometimes my brain is fried and I'm no good at work anyway, so I may as well do something ELSE instead. That's when I can get some work done.

I'm working my way up to live cameras and such, and then someday thrusters. For now, I'm just dipping a go-pro in the water with a magnet on the end to act as a weight and to see if there's anything interesting down there..

That frame looks like it will work well. I have had good luck with PVC cube frames and floats on top. I had to add weight and rebar to the bottom of mine to keep it upright.

Then I used foam pipe insulation to adjust buoyancy for different water densities. I threw mine into Puget Sound, and had to take some of the foam off, it was too buoyant.

Good luck on your build.