Homebrew Underwater ROV

Blue-Footed Boobie writes "A very geeky member of TechReport has built himself a homebrew Underwater ROV to use while on vacation. For what they said was 'Version 1', I would have to say the results were great. Full build log, with videos, can be found here. Good job guys! 'Being the geeks that we are, we always come up with some sort of project to bring up to the lake and play with. This year, two weeks before vacation, we decided to build an Underwater ROV. For those not familiar, an ROV is a Remotely Operated Vehicle. Generally "real" ROVs cost anywhere from $8,000 up to Millions of dollars. We had two weeks and a $100 budget. Usually they have high-resolution camera systems and high powered thrusters to maneuver. We had two weeks and a $100 budget.'"

Comments

How many weeks?

[Anonymous Coward]

And how much was the budget?

The writeup doesn't make it clear.

I read the writeup. But the writeup doesn't make it clear.

Re:How many weeks?

[Linus Torvaalds]

They had two weeks and a $100 budget.

ROV, Without the R or O or the V

[obidonn]

Hmm, it seems like it's actually a frame with a camera inside it, that they sink and lift up. Which means it's not really Remotely Operated or a Vehicle. But really nice footage! Bluegill and perch have very cool coloring. And from growing up in Indiana I can tell you their heads even after being severed will continue gasping for air up to half an hour.

Re:perhaps that was sarcasm?

[milktoastman]

I think this AC was just joking about the repetitive mentioning of the time and budget constraints in the article summary. Or call it a troll, if you will. Usually that's what anonymous cowards are doing. Probably, he/she WAS just joking about the repetititive mentioning of the time and budget constraints in the article summary. Again, just joking about the repetititive mentioning of the time and budget constrainst in the article summary.

What ir Remotely operated here

[threaded]

This looks like a camera that has been waterproofed and fitted in a frame. Where're the thrusters, the variable balance tanks, grippers, torpedoes.

Re:Remote control submarines...

[modecx]

Not sure if you could equip a toy with an emergency blow apparatus.

Sure you could... Heck, McGuyver could do it with a CO2 cartrige, a few pieces of ABC bubblegum, a nail and some weathered rubber bands.

Re:Remote control submarines...

[jd]

Seems easy enough. Three ways you could do this:

1. Motor running to a pin, holding some ballast. You trigger the motor, the motor slides the pin back, the ballast is dropped.
   
2. The slightly geekier way would be to hold the ballast in place with electromagnets. The power to the electromagnets goes through a relay, which is held shut by a keepalive signal. Kill the signal (or the signal is lost for some other reason), the relay opens and the ballast is dropped.
   
3. The slighty more geeky way would be to have the line running to the submersible corrigated in some way. The line runs through some toothed wheels attached to a motor. If the keepalive is lost (killed or lost signal), the ROV disconnects the control line from the computer and switches on the motor, "climbing" the control line back to the operator.
   

Re:Remote control submarines...

[MeanE]

Well I have a friend who does this sort of thing (currently 200k off of Newfoundland I believe), and all the commercial ROV's he has worked with have positive buoyancy, lose power and it floats up.

It is quite interesting stuff, he works with ones that are just simple cameras, all the way up to larger ones with multiple arms and tool attachments.

Stand and deliver, robot style

[Anonymous Coward]

That's pretty cool, but this story about four underpriviledged high school kids from Arizona and their ROV is worth a read. With little funding and experience, they take on college students and, well, you'll see...

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/robot.htm l

Re:To read about real ROVs...

[anagama]

I picked up a copy of "Build Your Own Underwater Robot" some years ago at the Monteray Bay Aquarium. It contains many designs for ROVs built with stuff you can get at Home Depot.

isbn: 0-9681610-0-6

Google Search for the lazy.

Re: Prohibitively Expensive and Complicated ROVs

[some guy I know]

As a former submariner I would love to have one to play with, but they seem prohibitively expensive and complicated [...]

My understanding, based on what I read somewhere, is that it's possible to build one yourself if you have two weeks and a $100 budget.

We're building one

[dj245]

Maine Maritime Academy is building a small rover too. Someone on the team had the brilliant idea to use sump pumps for propulsion- they're submersible, they're 12v, and they take the saltwater ok. We're working with our Marine Science and Marine Bio majors and lend them the rover whenever they want it. Currently its running off a tether but hopefully we can get some sort of remote control soon. Waterproofing the batteries seems to be the hardest problem, although various Junkyard Wars shows would have me believe otherwise. This is all mostly for a Society of navel and marine engineers contest every year.