from Hacker News

Building a radio-controlled submarine with automatic depth control

by mik3y on 7/17/22, 11:32 AM with 34 comments

• by BugsJustFindMe on 7/17/22, 2:48 PM

  It doesn't matter much if you only ever want to poke around in a swimming pool or very shallow stream like shown here, but if you get into this hobby and ever want to run in deeper water without a tether (whether autonomously or acoustically) you'll either want it to be positively buoyant or have an independently powered emergency surfacing mechanism (eg. drop a weight).

  Otherwise if you lose power or control you will lose your sub.

• by rektide on 7/17/22, 4:36 PM

  Magnetically coupling the proph-drive through the hull was such a neat trick! Really nice build period.

• by megraf on 7/17/22, 7:08 PM

  I've watched the BrickExperiments YouTube channel, but I always assumed that the channel was drivel, and that much like social media of today, the details of the build would be omitted, and lost forever- but this changes the game for me.

  A 10 part post is beyond what I'd consider most 'good' creators to put together. The author is obviously technical, and is wise to the nature of the videos. I'm impressed.

• by rpaddock on 7/18/22, 12:51 PM

  Some might find the system by James H. Rogers, developed in the era of World-War-One of interest. The late T.E.Bearden claimed that Rogers system was rediscovered and 'lost' at least seven times from then until our times.

  "James H. ROGERS Underground & Underwater Radio

  ( Static-free Reception & Transmission Underwater & Underground )"

  http://www.rexresearch.com/rogers/1rogers.htm

• by robotguy on 7/18/22, 4:25 PM

  As an EE for an ROV manufacturer for 20 years, this was really interesting to see how he attacked some of the design issues that plagued my entire career. Great stuff!