Underwater Drone: Anchor Set Check, Safe Passages

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by Striker37

It would be cheaper to mount a uw camera to your anchor chain and run a cable to a large monitor.

I think you're on the right track.

Some distance above your anchor (5' ?) you could attach the tether of an anchor buoy. To this tether you attach a digital camera with fisheye lens, looking down. Camera data are transmitted, line-of-sight, from the antenna in the anchor buoy which is wired to the submerged camera.

[jongleur]

Putting said: Much of what the OP described for hull duty can be accomplished with a poll mounted POV camera for less than $100.

This is what I have in mind. Can you tell us where you get
one of these? Have you used it? How's it do?

Maybe like this:

Amazon.com : Color Sharp CCD Fishing Underwater Video Camera w/ 90ft (30m) Cable 24 Bright White Leds : Underwater Camcorders : Camera & Photo

[Kenomac]

Underwater drone? I guess that would be me.

[goat]

Originally Posted by jongleur

Putting said: Much of what the OP described for hull duty can be accomplished with a poll mounted POV camera for less than $100.

This is what I have in mind. Can you tell us where you get
one of these? Have you used it? How's it do?

Maybe like this:

Amazon.com : Color Sharp CCD Fishing Underwater Video Camera w/ 90ft (30m) Cable 24 Bright White Leds : Underwater Camcorders : Camera & Photo

I think he's talking about a go pro on a selfie stick.

goat

[John_Trusty]

Originally Posted by ontherocks83

I like it! Unfortunately wouldn't be the first thing on my list but I can definitely see the usefullness in having one around if you have a grand to blow.

I like it too. Now if only I could get a rich friend or dockmate to buy one ...
Seriously, the only thing better than having a boat, or any toy, is having rich friends.

[CruisingKitty]

If you have a good scoop-type anchor that buries itself completely, there will be little to see but disappearing chain and maybe a few fish.

[IdoraKeeper]

I see potential for nefarious activities! It is a drone after all. You could use it to determine why your neighbor is catching all the fish. Customs will confiscate it. The list goes on and on.

[boatman61]

ROFLMAO.... Sorry..

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by CruisingKitty

If you have a good scoop-type anchor that buries itself completely, there will be little to see but disappearing chain and maybe a few fish.

You will still be very surprised with what you see down there, even with a scoop type anchor.

[jheldatksuedu]

I plan to buy one of these, a borescope, it is a camera that connects to your USB computer.
2 5 7 10 15M 6LED USB Waterproof Endoscope Borescope Snake Inspection Camera 7mm | eBay
I'm not sure what kind of picture it will give from underwater, but it should be great for looking in rather in-accessible places like down the mast.
I tried an outdoor home USB camera in a sealed glass peanut butter bottle, but the infrared dark lighting screwed up everything underwater. I was trying to look at the hull underwater, but inland water in south Florida has enough tannin to make it absolutely dark 3 feet underwater.

[Paul Elliott]

Originally Posted by jheldatksuedu

I plan to buy one of these, a borescope, it is a camera that connects to your USB computer.
2 5 7 10 15M 6LED USB Waterproof Endoscope Borescope Snake Inspection Camera 7mm | eBay
I'm not sure what kind of picture it will give from underwater, but it should be great for looking in rather in-accessible places like down the mast.
I tried an outdoor home USB camera in a sealed glass peanut butter bottle, but the infrared dark lighting screwed up everything underwater. I was trying to look at the hull underwater, but inland water in south Florida has enough tannin to make it absolutely dark 3 feet underwater.

This camera looks interesting, but I see that the waterproof rating is IPx7. This is only good for immersion to one meter depth. Wikipedia has specs for all the various ratings.

[barnakiel]

I like it. It can be done wirelessly too.

b.

[Jenta]

Looking deeper into the information available, the top speed appears to be around 4.4 MPH and the run time up to 3 hours using batteries.
It comes with a 25 Meter tether and a 100 Meter tether is available and yes, it's rated for over 300 feet of depth.

But the tether is attached to a wireless buoy that it pulls along, not back to the operator. The operator communicates wirelessly (long range) with the buoy for control and live video, and the buoy talks to the ROV through the tether with a 100 MB connection, so essentially fast Ethernet I would guess. With a 25 Meter tether you can go 'chart ahead' several hundred meters (whatever the wireless range is) in an anchorage or a channel up to 25 Meters deep and come up with an accurate and current layout of an area.

As a diver, I could see using it in an unfamiliar or uncharted area to pick out points of interest for where to dive or more likely just for exploring under water for the fun of it. If anyone has ever done RC flying it would be easy to understand the entertainment value of something like this. It wouldn't replace my diving, but it would certainly compliment it.

But if you have any doubt to it's usefulness, look at the stuff people are doing with the open source software for it where they create detailed 3D images of a wreck or a bottom and overlay it with surface images.
Could you see a future where crowd sourced 3D images of the ocean that are accurate and moderated are layered on top of sources like Bing Maps or Google Earth?

Granted, I'm a tech nut - but this looks cool and useful. I've bookmarked the site though and will be checking back next year for sure. If you've not looked at their site, before you cry vaporware - they do have a 1st gen product shipping and successful. This is a second gen (or whatever) product that they are many prototypes deep into already and plan on a November 2016 full release.

[PuttingDoctor]

The oceans cover such an emence area of this planet and w know so little of them. This is a great start and should be used as an educational tool as well. Just watch out for kelp beds and sudden drop offs...

[SailBender]

Originally Posted by Jenta

As a diver, I could see using it in an unfamiliar or uncharted area to pick out points of interest for where to dive or more likely just for exploring under water for the fun of it. If anyone has ever done RC flying it would be easy to understand the entertainment value of something like this. It wouldn't replace my diving, but it would certainly compliment it.

Yeah, this looks fun to me as a person that owns a couple of rc quad and tricopters. It makes me want to sell all of that stuff that is prone to crashing and expensive to fix to get one of these submersibles that should hopefully need very little maintenance and have almost no chance of flying off on its own to never be seen again.