ROV Mercury

Under construction! (page and ROV)

The ROV Mercury is a simple observation class ROV constructed primarily from PVC pipe and fittings and driven by off-the-shelf bilge pumps. It's powered by a 12V battery and controlled with a simple handheld box of switches and buttons, which operate relays onboard the ROV. Mercury features a single colour camera, which is always on, and a single LED lamp which can be toggled on or off from the control box. The planned tether length is 30m (about 100 feet), representing the suspected maximum survivable depth of the bilge pumps.

The Mercury project is currently on hold, as I'm living in the US for work for a year or two and I left the ROV behind in Australia. Before leaving, I developed the ROV to the point of it surviving a bathtub test with the thrusters and camera (but not lamp) wired up. It worked, albeit not super well. When I get back to Australia I'll eventually start trying to salvage it.

Mercury summary

Length: 54 cm
Width: 34 cm
Height:
Mass:
Color: Orange
Thrusters: 4

Mercury related blog posts

Photos

See this flickr set

Parts list

Body
- 100 mm PVC pipe (for buoyancy pods)
- 4 x 100 mm PVC pipe end caps
- 15 mm PVC pipe (for frame)
- 8 x 15 mm PVC pipe T join
- 8 x 15 mm PVC pipe 90 degree elbow
- plastic mounting grid (eggcrate or the bottom of a milk or bread crate)
- Many cable ties (aka "zip ties")
Propulsion
- 4 x TMC 450 GPH bilge pump (12V DC 1.5A)
- Bolts, nuts and washers as needed to fit pumps to mounting grid
- 15mm polypipe hose (~1m)
Video and lighting
- 1 x LED lamp (made of 3 super bright LEDs)
- 1 x Car reversing camera
- 2 x Composite video to UTP balun
Control
- 1 x "Jiffy box" electronics enclosure
- 5 x SPST relays (1 per bilge pump and 1 for lamp)
- 2 x SPST switches (1 for main power, 1 for lamp)
- 4 x SPST buttons (1 per bilge pump)
Tether
- 30m x 8 core UTP (e.g. Cat 5/5e/6)
- 30m x low resistance power cable rated at or above 5 Amps.