January 29, 2007: $300 Homemade spy sub

[Undertoad]

It's Neatorama collaboration Monday!



Dugg today is this homemade spy sub, which is documented on Popular Science.

Some fathers and sons play catch. Electrical engineer Jason Rollette and his 12-year-old son Trevor are a little more ambitious. Hoping to explore the lakes and rivers near their Milwaukee home, they’ve built their own underwater remote-operated vehicle, or ROV. Controlled and powered by a laptop, their ROV can swim more than a quarter of a mile, to depths of 250 feet, while a home-surveillance camera sealed inside sends a live feed to the pilots onshore.

It has little lights on the front, so it can illuminate what the camera is looking at. It's controlled with a joystick and computer interface. The down side: a quarter-mile-long Ethernet cable. I guess wi-fi doesn't work underwater?

Be sure to visit Neatorama for more neato items every day.

Wait... just wait, the fascists in our govt will put a stop to this lil' hobby.
"We will have no smart people HERE!!!... Keeel them."

[Elspode]

I am impressed beyond all rational thought capacity. Also jealous.

[Deuce]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

The down side: a quarter-mile-long Ethernet cable. I guess wi-fi doesn't work underwater?

Somebody needs to tell them about acoustic transponders.

The technical details for making such a call have been in place for years. The three-person crew aboard the Alvin--submerged 2.5 kilometers below the East Pacific--communicates to the surface ship Atlantis via acoustic transponders, a type of underwater telephone. The phone on Atlantis is in turn connected to a satellite phone, which can buzz anyone on shore. To complete the sea-to-space link, scientists merely needed to have Atlantis call the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, where a high-powered dish transmitter speaks directly with the space station.

[Spexxvet]

Let's put one in Sundae Girl's bathtub!

It will need a new attachment up front then...

[Lscan]

This guy has some serious time on his hands. If you go to his website check out the railgun he made

[tw]

Originally Posted by Deuce

Somebody needs to tell them about acoustic transponders.

Then where does the sub get its power?

[SPUCK]

Then where does the sub get its power?

P.O.E.

Power Over Ethernet.

[Happy Monkey]

That's how my glowy tape ball works...



Of course I'm not trying to send any info along with the power...

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by Spexxvet

Let's put one in Sundae Girl's bathtub!

Originally Posted by rkzenrage

It will need a new attachment up front then...

... for the jungle safari...

TMI?

Dayum!