Post date: Oct 02, 2015 2:58:45 AM
Lot of thing went wrong the last few weeks on ROV project.
1 st problem: one of the horizontal motor M1 refuse to work. I did some cable test direct 12 V connection... Doesn't want to work. I don't have any similar motor available so i have to do some heavy redesign to go from a 4 motor set up to a 3 motor setup. Thanks to our modular PVC pipe frame design it was at the end not that difficult to modify.
2nd problem: I almost burnt down my workshop with a faulty Lipo battery during charging. I know that everybody scream "NEVER LEAVE LIPO CHARGER UNATTENDED WHILE CHARGING" but i thought that this problem of course happen always to the other. Fortunately we quickly saw the smoke before it became very bad but the battery charger and the battery pack was burnt to ashes and my 2nd Lipo charger apparently doesn't charge anymore my batteries.
3rd problem: I have try to charge to lipo battery just to make a quick shallow dive to check buoyancy and how the craft is globally behaving in the water. I'm pretty sure that the batteries are not fully charged because of my faulty charger but probably enough juice to give a 5 minutes bottom time dive.
To balance the CG of the craft i have attached with rubber ropes lead bars under the hull (2x 1kg + 1 x 500g). I can move backward or forward the bars to adjust CG.
Everything was working fine for the first 3 minutes, the craft was moving Up/Down/Left/Right/Forward/Backward but while fine tuning the CG i put my wet hands on my open PCB remote Controller and made a shortcut inside one of the pot of the joystick (my mistake). At that point the craft became crazy and uncontrollable and as forecast the battery pack gave up after 5 minutes.
The slated water just had ruins the pot of the remote controller. I'm just good to make a new one
Despite all this problems, i have learn a lot about the craft behavior underwater.
The CG tuning is crucial for buoyancy control, i should think about rail system to quickly move Forward or Backward the lead bars fixed under the hull.
3 motors are enough to move the craft Up/Down Right /Left Forward/Backward.
The craft is nose up when going down and nose down when going up. Of course i have to change Motor orientation again and put the Backward/Forward at the Back and UP/Down in the middle.
I'm going to put the ROV project on hold for a moment, the time to make a new remote controller and modify again my motors orientation.
I'm starting a new project at the same time Building a F450 Flame Wheel Quadcopter