Greetings From Sugar Land!

Posted by: @brianmcm

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Hello! My name is Brian a retired engineer living in Sugar Land Texas. I'm fascinated with all things robotics and  considering that I retired from a company that operated a fleet of subsea remote operating vehicles I got to make a living enjoying my passion. I've been creating robot projects using the Raspberry Pi and recently started using the ESP32. I look forward to the guidance this forum provides and hopefully I can provide information to help others as well:)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

One of the projects I want to do is a small submarine just to look around the many lakes and take some pictures. Perhaps you can give me some clues how to go about that. Of course it will use an ESP32-CAM plus maybe a few other boards.

Greetings.

Dang! This place is lousy with retired engineers! It seems like every other day another one joins. It's getting to the point where we need to form a society., e.g., the Dronebot Engineering Society I'm an EE. @brianmcm, what are you?

@tfmccarthy I'm an ME. Interestingly, our VP of Engineering, my boss for over 20 years, was an EE. He retired one year ahead of me.

@zander I assume you are designing towards a tethered remote operated vehicle? That would be the "simplest" path forward. There are several websites that show DIY ROVs. I recommend putting power and as much "control" electronics on the surface connected to the vehicle via a multi-conductor cable. If you look at the smaller ROV's such as the VideoRay or Mini Rover ROV, it will give you an idea for configurations. The neat thing is that materials to build a small ROV are readily available.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Hello Brian!  Welcome to the forum, Don in Michigan

@brianmcm 

Well, there ya go!

I'll be interested in an ME's perspective and see what tricks ya have in yer toolkit. ME's always have the cool tools. "Look! It's a hammer, screwdriver, flashlight, and in this little compartment is a ..."

Have fun, Brian!

@brianmcm The two you mentioned are ginormus and big. I was thinking something built around either 4"D or 6"D sewer pipe but maybe up to 3ft long. I am thinking about using POE cable to deliver power and at least 2 pairs of data for full-duplex if needed. I have not yet figured out if I need the full gigabit mode where all 4 pairs of STP data and phantom power are available. With max cable length of 100M (328ft) the little ROV can dive deeper than the most advanced scuba diver at 50M(160ft). I have yet to figure out the formula that will tell me if the plastic tube will survive the pressure. I could wrap the tube in carbon fiber but I can also just limit the depth to about 30ft where the pressure is about double.

My biggest challenge is designing some sort of dive ballast system. Carrying compressed air works, but no practical way to replenish. I have heard of using electric motors to operate a syringe to pump water in and out of ballast tanks but I think an emergency blow ballast via compressed air in an emergency is wise in case battery power is consumed or lost.

I wonder if it's legal to use a speargun with one of these?

@zander Ginormous, ha, ha. The VideoRay I was referring to is 20"L x 13"w x 10"h 😊. To me ginormous was our ROV that was larger enough to park the average sedan under it and have enough room for someone to stand on the roof and barely touch the bottom of the frame. If you are interested check out this website, https://www.helixesg.com/our-assets/robotics/ and you'll see some of the toys I had the pleasure of working with.

Using sewer pipe describes a basic pressure vessel for the vehicle. Google "Pressure Vessels Thin & Thick-Wall Calculations". The website SunCam has a good document to review. Since your goal is around 160ft working depth, round it to 200ft which equates to ~100psi working pressure on the external shell. Also, the website Matweb.com is a great source for strength of a variety of materials. 

A variable buoyancy system is a challenge. But, that is what experimenting is all about. 

Regarding the speargun, if a diver can carry why not a ROV?

When you get it built, definitely posts some pictures.

@tfmccarthy We may have the cool tools, but I consider EE's to provide the "magic"!! 😊

@brianmcm, @tfmcarthy

Nah... it's us IT/CS guys that provide the magic!!

@lee-g, @brianmcm,

Bear in mind, Brian's from Texas.

You know, "Don't mess with ..."

@tfmccarthy 

Well... Guess there'll be a showdown at Sundance Square then...

I'm from Texas too!!

@lee-g, @brianmcm

Posted by: @lee-g

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I'm from Texas too!!

Dang!

It's like in the movie,

"I'm Spartacus!"

"I'm Spartacus!"

I need to go look at what's on the other side of that exit door.