Ultimate Projects(plural) Help Plz!!:)

[topflowerrubberforever]

hey guys,

im a new member here and well i love diving. i am also into making stuff. so i put two and two together and i decided to make a camera case. i also decided to make an underwater propulsion vehicle(dpv i think). i am faced with a few problems actually and i hope, if posted, this info can help all of us.

1) for the camera case i have some plans i got from a website: http://wakeworld.com/articles/2003/housing.asp

Are these a good set of plans to follow? does anyone have a better set? how do i get the buttons to work? how much did those ikelite sets cost? what about o-rings.. how thick should they be?

2) the DPV. this project i am making from my own "design team" (friend and me... not a team but hey!). we r making the vehicle from fibreglass which thankfully my friend's dad will give us some(the glory of contacts). the only real problem we have is sealing the motors and batteries(dc motors). i went to a marine shop and they had a small scooter and i acted interested in buying it and i saw that it was sealed with a gasket. the motor.. on the other hand i dont know how to seal. this is where we are. the project cannot go through unless we have waterproofed motors. i hope someone can help us out. i just finished school and i have a ton of free time!!!


thanks guys.. i hope this thread will get lotsa feedback

 

[junior diver]

problem with the camer is that its for top of water use, i don't think its for depths over ten meters, by all meanstry it, but i wouldn't

 

[MarkH]

I made a video housing that is very similar to that using 8" diameter pvc pipe (or ABS?). I used 3/8 plexi for the window instead of glass and glued it on with aquaseal instead of silicone. I eventually cut a big hole in the front window and glued on an acrylic dome from an old marine compass on it for a dome port. Now I can use a fisheye lens.The back is tightened down with wingnuts instead of those clamps (I thought they would be too much trouble to line up). I don't know if I would trust those controls on that website. Controls are finicky things. I didn't put any on my housing at all. I just turn on my camera, adjust the settings, press record, seal it up and leave it on for the whole dive (I edit it later). I've used my housing down to about 100 feet, but I don't think it would have any problems going deeper. I've been using it regularly for about a year with no leaks yet. I made a similar, smaller housing to house a video light. I got one of those toggle switches from radio shack with the rubber cover on it and aquasealed it to the housing to use to turn the light on and off (creative wiring job required). I say go for it. As for the DPV, now that is a major project. Can't help you there.

 

[topflowerrubberforever]

I made a video housing that is very similar to that using 8" diameter pvc pipe (or ABS?). I used 3/8 plexi for the window instead of glass and glued it on with aquaseal instead of silicone. I eventually cut a big hole in the front window and glued on an acrylic dome from an old marine compass on it for a dome port. Now I can use a fisheye lens.The back is tightened down with wingnuts instead of those clamps (I thought they would be too much trouble to line up). I don't know if I would trust those controls on that website. Controls are finicky things. I didn't put any on my housing at all. I just turn on my camera, adjust the settings, press record, seal it up and leave it on for the whole dive (I edit it later). I've used my housing down to about 100 feet, but I don't think it would have any problems going deeper. I've been using it regularly for about a year with no leaks yet. I made a similar, smaller housing to house a video light. I got one of those toggle switches from radio shack with the rubber cover on it and aquasealed it to the housing to use to turn the light on and off (creative wiring job required). I say go for it. As for the DPV, now that is a major project. Can't help you there.

hey swankenstein,

Thanks for your input. can you pass over any pictures of your project? i think you are right? i'll just hit record and then keep it on for the whole dive. so if there is anything you can send me please do: jalalselo@hotmail.com

you are in bc eh? i used to live there and i got my open water license over there? i dove at whytecliff park in horseshoe bay. where did you dive?? I am based in Dubai, United arab emirates and the water here is very nice.

Jay

 

[MarkH]

hey swankenstein,

Thanks for your input. can you pass over any pictures of your project? i think you are right? i'll just hit record and then keep it on for the whole dive. so if there is anything you can send me please do: jalalselo@hotmail.com

you are in bc eh? i used to live there and i got my open water license over there? i dove at whytecliff park in horseshoe bay. where did you dive?? I am based in Dubai, United arab emirates and the water here is very nice.

Jay

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of my setup yet. I don't have a digital camera so I can't just snap some quick pics. What I might do is video it and grab some frames on my computer and e-mail you those. I'm warning you though, it's ugly. I didn't pay much attention to cosmetics and it's funny to see people's looks when I use it. I'm living and diving in Victoria now, although I used to live/dive in Vancouver. Whytecliff was actually my favorite dive there. I liked to go around the wall on the right or just hang around in the shallows with the friendly seals. I've also been to Dubai. I've never been diving off Dubai itself, but I did quite a few dives off the east coast near Fujairah. My website below has lots of pictures from Victoria and there is a section with my pictures from UAE diving.

 

[topflowerrubberforever]

I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of my setup yet. I don't have a digital camera so I can't just snap some quick pics. What I might do is video it and grab some frames on my computer and e-mail you those. I'm warning you though, it's ugly. I didn't pay much attention to cosmetics and it's funny to see people's looks when I use it. I'm living and diving in Victoria now, although I used to live/dive in Vancouver. Whytecliff was actually my favorite dive there. I liked to go around the wall on the right or just hang around in the shallows with the friendly seals. I've also been to Dubai. I've never been diving off Dubai itself, but I did quite a few dives off the east coast near Fujairah. My website below has lots of pictures from Victoria and there is a section with my pictures from UAE diving.

hey swankenstein..
fujairah is a great place to dive.. that is one of the many reasons i wanna do this camera case. any pointers onwhere to concentrate my work on? expected time to finish it?

 

[MarkH]

I finally got some video of my housing and grabbed some frames to post. I warned you, it's ugly, but it works just fine.

 

[MarkH]

And some more.

 

[MarkH]

Last few. It took me maybe 2 days to make the housing and another day later on to make the video light. The video light is made from a 4" PVC/ABS pipe with a threaded cap on the end. The cap cost about 6 dollars and even came with an o-ring. The lexan windows were all 3/8" or 1/2" thick and I got them from a plastics store as scrap for about 10 dollars. The "sun shade" is cut from a plastic funnel and held on with wire. For the back I cut an aluminum "bracket" to put over the window before tightening it down (It's hard to explain, but maybe you can get an idea from the pictures). I don't know if they make a threaded screw-in cap for 8" pipe. If so, this would be alot easier than the wing nut idea.

 

[Groundhog246]

I recently built one based on Padipro's designs. I've only tested the completed unit in a pool to 16 feet so far, but have tested the controls to 60 psi, so I'm pretty confident it'll work to 120 feet.