On April 14, 2004, MicroSeeker did its second autonomous pool test. It has been a while since the sub has been in the water, but I have been busy rebuilding the sub, basically from scratch, with an entirely new configuration.
We have some video, including some underwater footage in black and white, which I will be posting soon.
The test was a mixed success, although much better than last year's test. The new end caps with the dive planes and rudders worked perfect, and the only real problem was with the motor and h-bridge. I have found and will be buying very shortly a gear-head motor, and replacing the twin 7.2 volt battery packs (made from NiMh AA cells) with a single 12 volt lead-acid battery. This will necessitate re-designing and building a new set of circuit boards, since the power requirements are different, and I will be using a different h-bridge to drive the motor.
This is the first of many tests this summer. I plan on running a whole series of tests in pools and a nearby quarry "lake".
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Here's a picture of the sub
sitting on the "bench". We did the test at a public pool which we rented for
a couple hours.
You can see the new configuration, which includes a single rear thruster, a pair of dive planes in the front, and a pair of rudders in the rear. I've added some sliding brass weights on a rod in front, which allow for slight trim adjustments. The tape measure was for calibrating the depth sensor. |
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Here it is in hand, ready to go in the water. You get a good feel for how small the sub is in my hand. |
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This is a picture of the sub floating on the surface. |
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Here it is, just about to surface. This picture (and the others here) are captures from a video we took, so even though the propeller looks like it isn't moving, it is actually spinning, although not very fast. |
As usual, if you have any questions or comments, please email me.
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