I have spent a fair bit of time working on new designs for my ROVs and thought i might share a couple of pics with you all.
One is a version with a speargun for obviously getting fish and possibly shark tagging, one a version with a custom gripper claw for sea urchin and sea cucumber harvesting and the bigger blue one is a heavy lift version. The wtc for the big blue one was made from a single billet of aluminium with penetrator holes milled into the housing. the reduction in drag by having such short cables has made this a very responive beast.
we will be posting videos in the near future. currently we are having problems with water getting into the newton gripper that acts as an actuator to push the trigger.
Great jobs!
I like a lot the large blue one!
I have one question though. How did you make the penetrator in the large aluminium tube? Is it welded? I see a nice chamfer between the penetrator and the tube, how did you do it?
Also, i guessed that making the penetrator directly on the tube rather than on the end cap (as it is made most of the time), would complicate the access to the electronic tray. But I guess that the (apparently) large diameter of the tube alleviate this problem?
Thanks!
BM
thanks for your interest in the design. the unit was machined from one solid block of alloy so the penetrators screw directly into the mounts machined on the side of the hull. I made the decision to do it that way so I didn’t have cables running down the outside of the hull the the rear. cuts dow a lot of drag and far tidier but yes, you do have to be careful when putting the electronics tray in and out. I am very happy with the way it perform so I am now getting a more refined version machined so this unit is now obsolete. you can have it cheap including endcaps and motor mount frame you really like it!
cheers
John
Ok I understand. It’s a really nice design, I would like to have access to the tools to be able to do the same!
When you tell that I can have it cheap, how much do you have in mind?
BM
It is an interesting price, when I see that your ROV has 8 thrusters! but for the moment I cannot afford this budget .
Besides, I wonder what would be the shipping cost to Spain!
Cheers
I have just completed assembly of my new 8 thruster BR based ROV and have attached a few pics… it is 560 mm long with a 136 mm diameter main hull milled for 3 separate alloy blocks. the main hull has an 8mm thickness internal bulkhead midway. lumens are inside the bow cone to minimise drag and cable abrasion. cam dome and lumens are recessed to avoid contact in a front on collision. instead of threaded penetrators, I designed penetrators with a 2 radial oring seal. This week I will be fitting the ‘roll cage’. I will be selling the bodies and electronics trays ready for anyone to install their own Pixhawk, Raspi and Fathom X. Motor stubs designed for the T200 thruster are also provided.
The last pic is a prototype wirelessly controlled tether reel controlled by a 3d printed switch mounted on my gamepad. the idea is for hands free tether management.
Glad you like it. It needs more work to be a refined product as it retrieved the tether at a fixed high speed rate and I need to have some sort of variable speed control. it does the job if you are in open water and there is no possibility of getting snagged.
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