Term 2 Project - Underwater Raspicam enclosure and the dropping mechanism

The drop motor is so far working fine, it is now reversible if it isn't in contact with water as I used an H-bridge in the design. I am not still quite happy with it as it does require resetting the arduino to get it to rectract. It may not be at all a bad thing, resetting the Arduino before putting it in the water as it does ensure that the system is reset, it will wait to detect moisture, it will detect the moisture and then within a few seconds drop the camera ensuring that the whole process occurs and that it stays that way until retrieved. The code will be posted here once the mechanism is completed.

On the imaging side of things, I am thinking of creating an automatic script to launch the native camera app of the Raspicam, as I can only control the Pi via mobile phone if it's connected to a local private network, which is not of much use for my purposes as I do not have a pond myself. I will have to test the boat in a park or somewhere where there's a body of water.

I have started to put the "ship" together and today, despite setbacks (have been sent wrong parts and had to source them myself in person), I have started to put together the underwater enclosure for the Raspicam, which I made with a few spare bits, one being an old plastic egg that came from a large Kinder egg years ago, a spare 30.5mm Skylight filter and some silicone sealant. It might need some more sealant on the inside but so far it passed the insulation test. I also drilled some holes for the LEDs which will illuminate when the light drops, again they will need sealing.

Next I built the drop mechanism, albeit sans motor as of yet, which I had to go through some iterations as I realised I did not have enough parts for my original design, but I made something close enough.

Nevertheless, as work for the day is not finished yet here are some photos logging todays progress.

Until next time,

Luis