The Thursday Nighters took Jemima the ROV for her first outing last night...

The ROV-Captain:

🔗Oakeley-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-97729[linkphoto]Oakeley-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-97729[/linkphoto][/link]

First up, big congratulations to Blober for winning this awesome piece of kit. Open ROV held a competition for groups to say how they'd use an ROV, Blober entered, and was one of 5 winners. Well done sir :thumbsup:

He's been busy building and testing her over the past few weeks, she's had a lake test and last night was the first use in a mine.

A quick trip into Cwmorthin and down the Oakeley Ch34 incline to the now-flooded H floor.

Just before the first dive:

🔗Oakeley-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-97730[linkphoto]Oakeley-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-97730[/linkphoto][/link]

We picked the Ch 34 incline because - even though H was explored a few years back when it was dewatered - it's a relatively wide flooded incline with not a lot to snag the tether on.

The dive site:

🔗Oakeley-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-97731[linkphoto]Oakeley-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-97731[/linkphoto][/link]

Telemetry reported Jemima got down to about 7 (I think) metres and the live video feed was showing the continuation of the incline down to I floor.

A few tweaks are needed, a bit of a software update to the laptop, Sinker has got a joystick style controller on order (which will make control a lot easier) and Pingu is sorting out a more tangle-free tether and she'll be good for the next mission :thumbsup:

Why Jemima? Puddle Duck of course :lol:

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Brilliant guys- and well done Blobber!!! :thumbsup: Look forward to seeing plenty of pics in the future, and I'm sure we'll be coming up with long lists of places for you to investigate that are too much of a trek for the divers to get to! :o;D

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Was just investigating cable and tether systems, found one at $127,000 dollars. Do you think its too expensive?:blink::blink::blink::blink::lol::lol::o

So what'll be the next pond we'll chuck her in? I was thinking at some time or other we'd try the almost-flooded adit of Simdde Dylluan. We don't know what's there so we'd learn something new; it might be rather snag-free; and it does have a bit of airspace so in case of a snag or other problem a rescue mission should be possible. So possibly a rather early one on the list, but maybe not quite THIS early! What say ye?

Was just investigating cable and tether systems, found one at $127,000 dollars. Do you think its too expensive?:blink::blink::blink::blink::lol::lol::o

I'll have a look under the mattress... or we could raid Sinker's wallet?

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I'll have a look under the mattress... or we could raid Sinker's wallet?

Small change. If I look in the ashtray of the car and check down the back of the sofa I probably wouldn't need to open the "Wallet Of Fatness".

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Oh man, that's ace, I'm jealous.

If cable length wasn't a factor, what sort of range and depth would that be capable of? Or is that a "how long is a piece of string / electrical cable" question?

Brilliant. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

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Can go down to a depth of 100 meters, and you can have a tether that is 300 meters before you begin to encounter signal loss.

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Can go down to a depth of 100 meters, and you can have a tether that is 300 meters before you begin to encounter signal loss.

Fantastic, what a cool bit of kit.

Ah ha... Cwm G Floor down the E-G incline so we can really find out what's down there!

Brilliant, well done sir...

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...........

Wipes

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Jaw

..........

Off

..........

FLOOR

............

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Can go down to a depth of 100 meters, and you can have a tether that is 300 meters before you begin to encounter signal loss.

1000ft/305M Reel of CAT5E?

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Looks ace this!! cant wait to see it myself soon

Would be interested to see down the main shaft at Deep Ecton with something like that - what a marvellous toy! Can't wait to see the results.

I can imagine habituees of the Coniston copper mines spitting feathers.....:lol:

1000ft/305M Reel of CAT5E?

I was thinking that too but that's quite a weight for a little ROV to have to drag behind it. Does the cable need to be neutrally buoyant? I guess adding rings of something buoyant along the cable might help.

EDIT: Seems I was thinking along the right lines:
http://www.underwater-cables.com/neutrally-buoyant-tether-cables.htm 

EDIT2: There's a whole discussion about a tether for an ROV in a mine here:
http://www.rovworld.com/ftopict-4457.html 

1000ft/305M Reel of CAT5E?

I was thinking that too but that's quite a weight for a little ROV to have to drag behind it. Does the cable need to be neutrally buoyant? I guess adding rings of something buoyant along the cable might help.

It is very much an on-going project, but the next trial is going to be with some decent cable with some floats added at intervals to keep the first few metres of cable on the surface, to the point where the ROV dives. this will require the cable to pass through the floats so that the floats do not get pulled down with the tether. Tricky.
I suspect that ultimately we will end up going for a neutrally buoyant cable. The ROV has a fair turn of speed (imagine a small child's radio controlled boat on a model yacht pond) and a fair bit of lifting power, but the agility and lifting power comes from the fact that it is neutrally buoyant....anything that upsets that will ultimately bu99er up the trim, make it difficult to control and, due to the fact that it has an automatic "hold depth" program that constantly "blips" the motors, will result in it constantly fighting itself and draining the batteries...... some thought/trial & error needed.... :blink:

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It was an interesting evening. There are a few tweeks that need doing. One thing i was thinking if if we got a higher quality cable tether would the distance increase of her explore so to say!

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Ah ha... Cwm G Floor down the E-G incline so we can really find out what's down there!

Brilliant, well done sir...

:thumbsup:

Always been curious to know what's really down EG !

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