Exploring shipwrecks without getting wet

[Frank Jig]

So this little venture has taken me over a year or so to perfect.
Being an avid fisherman, I started to attach Hero/Hero2 on my fishing line and lowered the whole thing underwater to record many fish strikes.
Fairly quickly, I become aware of an issue with the clasp system of the Hero/Hero2. Somehow, the clasp would get undone while I was towing my rig underwater. Invariably, the GoPro housing would get flooded and despite the number of rice bowls I would bury the GoPro in, I was never able to salvage a GoPro once it was submerged... So that was a problem. The second was that the GoPro housing was limited to 196ft. No very deep relative to fishing.

So I set out to design a new underwater housings for GoPro. It had to achieve several things. Number one was no outside failure point (ie clasps, buttons, etc that tend to fail especially at greater depth. Number two was to go way past 200ft. The deeper the better. I tested several designs and the final design was sent out to a well known ROV / deep sea exploration manufacturer. The test came back and I feel comfortable with certifying the housing for 9000ft (2,750m). Ultimate crush depth is actually around 13,000ft. Since the housing is dropped overboard with a fishing rod, a stabilizing system had to be designed as well. After testing a slew of designs, I settled on one that would prevent the GoPro from spinning underwater and allow for a multitude of attachment points (for lights, other cameras, baits, weights, etc)
Anyway, this has been a fun venture so far and here are two quick movie trailers that I made.
Cheers,
Frank

http://youtu.be/5HbhWOrmOxw
http://youtu.be/uu74BCPybaQ

 

[flareside]

Exploring shipwrecks without getting wet

It appears the fundamental essence of diving escapes you.

 

[toozler]

Someone here posted another "though" housing that failed at not so great depths.

Have you explored the alternatives of transmitting in real time to the surface? Now that you have a design, changing it shouldn't be all that hard.

Could a wet plug connector and an underwater inductive modem transmit the signal up the line? The Hero3 now outputs a low resolution video which should be less demanding on the bandwidth.

If Baxley is the person you have talked with to help with the pressure testing, he can surely point you on the right direction

 

[Frank Jig]

It appears the fundamental essence of diving escapes you.

I still dive here and there but not as much as I did 25 years ago...
However, if you want to dive well past 200ft, let say 3000 or 5000ft, let me know because I would love to get the footage.

---------- Post added May 16th, 2013 at 06:30 PM ----------

Hey Toozler,
What ever happened with your project? Did you ever get it done?

As far as the other housing, I don't know about them so I can't speak for them.

The housing I designed was tested by a world renowned ROV/Underwater lights manufacturer. It wasn't just a single test, but rather a consistent chain of improvement over the course of 4 months. That design has been in the field with beta testers, mostly marine biologists, filmmakers and professional deep divers. The deepest it went so far is 4500ft deep but one scientist is taking it to 7500ft this summer.
In the vacuum tests, the housing does not deform until it reaches about 13,000ft or 6300psi. However, we are going to certify to 9000ft to give plenty of safety margin. We have one housing that actually will go 35,000ft but that is slightly customized and not readily available.

We have done some designs/tests for real time but it is rather limited in depth. And manufacturing costs start to go out of sight.
The truth of the matter is that if live streaming is that high on the priority list and it is the main purpose of the camera, there are plenty of better camera systems readily available on the market.
This housing is more for the person who already has a gopro and just want to explore at depth unreachable by divers or needs a very tough housing because they dive/work in extreme conditions.

I'm not sure who Baxley is or the outfit he works for. All our testing for this model is done. We stand behind this housing. Heck we even shot at it with a 22, and it just scratched it.
Cheers
Frank

 

[toozler]

Got it done cheaply with a piece of acrylic laser cut to fit the front of the housing.

I was not questioning your testing, just mentioning another similar housing that reportedly failed at shallow depths. Here is the link I'm referring to: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gopro-video/453698-hero-armor-housing-fail.html . I'm not sure what sort of testing they have done.

I though you were in touch with HBOI over there in Fort Pierce for the pressure chamber, that's why I mentioned the name.

 

[Frank Jig]

Got it done cheaply with a piece of acrylic laser cut to fit the front of the housing.

I was not questioning your testing, just mentioning another similar housing that reportedly failed at shallow depths. Here is the link I'm referring to: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/gopro-video/453698-hero-armor-housing-fail.html . I'm not sure what sort of testing they have done.

I though you were in touch with HBOI over there in Fort Pierce for the pressure chamber, that's why I mentioned the name.

I don't who they are.


I don't think Harbor would conduct testing for private companies. Don't know why but I've never asked them. I'll ask them next week.

 

[diversteve]

Not in the same league as yours but Sartek has one that'll go 750'. Sartek Industries Product Details

Just curious about what you're doing for lights at those depths. I don't think you're going to have any visible light at 5,000'. And GoPro's aren't the best in low-light conditions either.

How did you get that last shot in the first video down that opening inside the ship? Just a lucky drop or was that shallower and being fed in by someone externally?

What would be interesting would be to take one of your housings down somewhere they have a deep public sub - like Roatan. Set the camera to interval shooting and go get it a couple days later. Of course that might be a costly trip for nothing..

 

[Frank Jig]

Hey Steve,

That was one lucky drop right down the stack... couldn't do it again if my life depended on it.

We are working on several project including lights.
You're right about GoPro not being that great in low light. Actually I plan on doing a small test with Gopro hero3 vs Sony POV at 500-600ft deep. I wanted to see how these two compared with video lights at greater depth. I believe the Sony does much better...

 

[3D diver]

Pretty cool. I looked back through my subscriptions for a related thread...it was one of yours, d'oh!

Some big critters following your camera!

3D?

 

[Frank Jig]

Pretty cool. I looked back through my subscriptions for a related thread...it was one of yours, d'oh!

Some big critters following your camera!

3D?

Thanks for the sub!

I am trying to shoot in 3d... I've got the perfect spot, I just need the viz to be decent...