I finally finished the long delayed front lightbar section of my ROV. it mounts just forward of the main bottom plate using a 2" pressure hull. There are some electrical bits still in the works, but the mounting location and whatnot is finished now. I also stole the idea to mount the lights inside the front floats, though I used a 3d printed tube for that. If anyone needs that STL let me know, I’ll post it somewhere at some point.
The lightbar is an openrov 2.8 bar with the lasers. I’ve also mounted the 3rd auxiliary analog camera in the center hole, but at a deliberate angle to point at the robot arm for aid in picking things up. The entire assembly is on a tilt servo that is split off the upper camera servo, as that camera goes up and down, the light bar also pivots. In theory anyways.
Next up, marine epoxying the final sideplates. redoing the arm mount plate a bit to reinforce it and make it easier to service, soldering all the damned lights together, then final bolt up and testing!
Thanks! I hope to be posting some video of it in action soon. I have to modify one of the 3 robot claws I have to fit the third waterproof servo, and do a bit of prototyping on some cable routing and reinforcement pieces, but i’m hopeful it will work well. If it does, I plan on making a retrofit bolt on sideplate attachment so other people can add that arm to their machines if they like once I know the concept works and doesn’t add too much boyancy to overbalance the machine on that side. I probably also need to swap all the metal frame bits for plastic at some point since they are coated, but I don’t think they are stainless steel or aluminum.
@piercet Outstanding work! This is great that you’re really pushing the envelope and making your work available for the rest of us. I’m looking forward to seeing everything in action one day. That gripper arm is going to be very useful in the future.
