I am a rather ancient electronics designer currently employed by the communications department of a major power utility and I have previously dabbled in radio control, airborne and on land, so when I was looking for a "lake toy" to operate off my cruiser, R/C submarines caught my fancy. I picked up a Thunder Tiger Neptune SB-1 last winter, equipped it with a video camera, and designed/built a radio buoy to transmit live video back to the mother ship.
A week ago was first open-water dive with the Neptune and it turned out to be pretty exciting!
After preping the sub and turning it loose in the marshes near my slip .....
...... it had a visitor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhrr89HSV8I
The visitor was a 4 foot Musky who came to check out the sub! He got up real close & personal with the sub (before the video was on!) and I wasn't sure if he was going to drive it off, try to eat it, or mate with it
Fortunately he did no damage to the sub and came back a few minutes later and I got him on video.The first voyage of the Neptune was a huge success and whetted my appetite for submersible ROVs. It also pointed out the shortcomings of the Neptune. Although the mission time of about 1 hour is sufficient, the turn-around time (recharging) isn't and the inability to change pitch (or camera angle) without moving is a problem. I also want to move to a HD video system. The Neptune also suffers from a somewhat limited range of buoyancy control, so either the Neptune will get some modifications for next year or I will build a completely new ROV ..... and research is what brings me to the forum.
D.