DIY Acrylic Water Drone Submarine

I wanted to use this opportunity to thank everyone on this forum for the unconditional support I received with building my small project - highly appreciated.

My goal was to be able to make an affordable water drone for kids to enjoy during summer break from school and the whole intent is to build it during the fall and winter season. This is not a one week project but one that requires a lot of patience and patience .

Most people have the money to buy the off the shelf (store product) but there is nothing satisfying about building something of your own - which in turn gives you lots of knowledge on the way things work .

I will also take this opportunity to recommend on donating to forums like this because without them I will not be able to achieve my goal of building this water drone .

I took this project on to utilize and polish my CAD drawing skills and I have learnt a lot on this epic journey . I will try to outline all the challenges and solution

Design

  • Make it as modular as possible to minimize the print time in your 3Dprinter

  • Customizable as possible being modular

  • Easy to assemble and replace parts

Functionality

  • Have enough movement to be able to achieve easy task in the water

  • Go to reasonable depths to have fun with it (70 Feet).

I will try to keep you guys posted on my progress .

Note the STL files are not complete and its a work in progress . Enjoy

https://www.printables.com/model/522918-acrylic-water-drone-submarine

2 Likes

Can anyone let me know how to download my pics and video - I cannot seem to find a way to do it plus I keep getting Mav_CMD(526) Command not supported when I try to reformat the SD card .
Thanks

any input on how to get access to my videos and pictures - I am using a 64gb SD card .Thanks

Hi Guys - I am using samsung 18650 (6) but was wondering if there is any batteries out there with a better form factor to save some space in my 250 mm arcylic tube . Any heads up will be highly appreciate

can I use this just for testing purposes - will lipo work in subs without catching fire ?

Hi @Spinorose -
You can absolutely use 18650s in your sub, they are what we use in our standard battery packs. You’ll want to make sure you don’t over-charge or discharge them to unsafe voltage levels!

For your earlier question about accessing videos and pictures - what device are you trying to access them on? If recording pictures and videos with QGround Control they are stored on your machine, not the vehicle, under Documents / QGroundControl / Video…

can I use these without catching fire

Basically what you are saying the mircoSD card that I put in the raspbery Pi does not hold any of the videos or pictures . I though putting in a bigger mircoSD was going to hold all that data.

correct me if I am worrg but what you are saying is all that microSD does is run the BlueOS image .

Hi @Spinorose !
That’s correct, the microSD card in the Raspberry Pi only runs BlueOS. Any extensions you install, or in some cases sonar data you collect, is stored on the SD card. However the video stream is not stored locally!

Thanks for the clarification on that because I went looking super hard on the microSD and was getting fustrated .

Hi Guys ,

I am back at this project again and was wondering if I can any suggesting on my end cap and wire loom . I want to try use and Acrylic end can with 3D printed (with standalone work epoxy to avoid water seeping) plus also to avoid using Epoxy fill in the end caps - Can someone please sugguest any parts from the blue Robotics store ? This is just a hobbyist Drone so not planing on doing extreme depths at this piont - Mostly this route give me more room to play with adjusting wires rather than expoxing the wires permenently . Any suggestion will be highly appreciated

Hi @Spinorose -
The WetLink Cable Penetrator is a great solution for your end-cap. When assembled properly, with the correct size for your cable, it works to 1000m and yet is quite cheap!
I struggled with 3D printed, epoxy filled enclosure end-cap flanges many years ago, and found only limited success at depths less than 2 meters…
The Blue Robotics locking enclosure configurator will set you up with all the parts you need!