Hi All
After a year or so of different designs, I finally liked one enough to go ahead and get the body machined from solid alloy billets. As you can see, it is modular and the thruster cowlings can be replaced with larger ones for T500s. I really wanted something I could open up and access the electronics and batteries easily. Designing the hatches was hardest because the necessity of getting the o ring groove depth and length right was not easily done when the hatch is an irregular shape, curved and then tapered at the same time.
It is extensively ribbed through out and has 12 mm thick support pillars. With 3 batteries I still have a payload of 1.5kg for tools and additional components. 3 camera ports and a DVL port on the underside, this unit is aimed at ship hull inspections and I am working with partners making a “black box” AI unit for anomaly detection.
I appreciate the effort that’s been put into making penetrators available from a variety of locations, and the niceties of things like finger grips in the handles.
Have you had a chance to use or test it yet? I’d be curious how the top camera views work out, and what kind of depths and run-times you can achieve
Thanks for the comment. I wanted handles with finger grips on the side like that as it makes it easy to handle and carry, particularly with wet hands.
I have just uploaded another photo showing a third camera on the belly and the blank DVL port. I am keen so see what the two extra cameras can do and may end up putting something like a GoPro 11s in there and retrieving high res video/images later for detailed analysis. Only just finished installing the electronics yesterday so plenty of testing to do before I get a real feel for its potential.
I can actually carry 4 batteries so potentially it has a run time of around 8 hours or so. My estimation of depth capability of 300 meters is based on experience rather than any firm proof at this stage. I have reinforced everywhere I think is a potentially weak point but only getting it down there to 300 meters will really prove that has been achieved.
