Introduction

NOTE: If you haven’t read Part 1 of the Underwater ROV Project series, check it out!

FAIR WARNING: This post has a decent amount of pictures.

What a journey! Welcome to part 2 of my ROV project. This was supposed to be a 2-part series, but destiny has determined that more is to come — mainly due to a variety of delays:

• Found out the Ethernet cable I ordered required special (Smaller) RJ45 connectors. Had trouble sourcing them. Had to get them shipped. Shipping was slow.
• Motor controllers (ESCs shipped from China – via Ali Express) were ordered in mid-October 2019 and did not arrive until February 2020 – same with the M2 mounting screws and spacers required to fix the RJ45 chip to the sub’s electronics plate. Both orders had to be cancelled and then re-ordered (with plenty of communication between myself and the suppliers).
• COVID-19 hit the world. Pretty self-explanatory.
• The ribbon that I received with my RaspberryPi camera did not fit the RasperryPi Zero. This meant that I needed to order the ‘adapter’ ribbon to be able to connect the Zero properly. Shipping took months. When the new ribbon arrived it was bent to the point that the data stream was corrupted. Will have to order a new one/talk to the suppliers.
• The electronics plate required a modification to accommodate the motor controllers (a few precision cuts through the 3mm aluminum plate). I did not have the equipment to do this but the person who did was quarantined. Can’t blame them really.
• Decided to take the Penetration with Kali course and get my OSCP while stuck inside due to COVID. This course is great, but it takes WAY more time than you ever expect. The moment this course started, all ROV work stopped. I am about 100 days into the 150 days I bought. I’ll write about my experience in a future post.

Suffice it to say a large portion of this ‘leg’ of the project was spent waiting for shipping and modifications. I spent the time writing the control software for the sub, waiting for parts to be shipped, and starting another project that, I’m sure, will eventually make its way onto this site.

Let’s take a look at the progress so far…

Continue reading →