Underwater exploration buffs?
 

Since I live in New Jersey, I have heard many rumors as of what is off the coast, and that created interest to try to look at these, if they are there. I'm not dive certified, but I thought of another way. I'm in the stages of building an ROV. It will have a video camera, a manipulating arm (to grab items) and thrusters converted from bilge pumps with modified RC aircraft props. Any one else have an interest of what's at the bottom of local lakes and other bodies of water? I will post some pics later on, as I'm in the middle of the painting stage.

Sounds interesting...make sure your component cases and seals can hold up to the pressure at the operating depth (about 50 psi per 100').

New to the east....whats off the coast of Jersey?

could u post pics of the work in progress? im curious to see waht it looks like!

Garbage from NYC


*and its jorsey :D

LOTS and LOTS of SHIPWRECKS!!! Including many U-boats and arguably the most famous out off New Jersey would be the Andrea Dora: :D SS Andrea Doria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.goehdtv.com/_images/logos/doria_2.jpg

On the deep side for most people (about 175' to the side, 260' deep to the bottom) but, with the right training and experience, very dive-able.

I'm almost done with this project. Waiting on some 1"x12''x12'' clear acrylic to come in for my camera window. I finished building the light housing this weekend, and hope to get some paint done. I can post pics if anybody wants. Spent alot of nights and trips to the hardware stores trying to figure out how to build it. Cant wait to get it wet, hope in a few weeks.

hey man, how's this project coming along? i live in South Jersey i'd love to hear more about the machine!!!

I finished it about a month ago, took it for it's first dive, but had some problems. one of the thrusters (seen with a propeller) has a hard time making it dive, so I went out bought another 1000GPH (gallon per hour) bilge pump and make the mount so it's at water level. I had put RC pusher props on it, but it went backwards, so I replaced them with normal props and everything seems to be working. I'm still trying to get the video feed and capture corrected. I did get some underwater footage by placing an old digital camera in a zip lock bag, seal it with an iron, and zip tied it to the frame. The grabber arm worked, but the torque from the motor caused it to vibrate off. Here's a pic. I think I'm going to go back to my other design where everything is enclosed in a single tube except for the thrusters.
By the way, I built it because there are some P-47s that ditched off shore near Cape May that I'd like to go and find, provided they haven't all corroded away.
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...7/e97047cf.jpg

The checkerboard is painted on there to let the operator know which way the ROV is oriented when it surfaces and dives. It's amazing what one can do with some PVC pipe. It was tested successfully to 100'. I made all the motor mounts. I enjoyed this project and hope to build a second one. Not bad for my first attempt at designing and building one of these.