Hey Simon, I love your videos! I work for a scuba dive computer manufacturer, and a lot of the issues you are facing are awfully familiar. Our earlier dive computers have a faceplate with 8 screws onto an o-ring sealed surface much like the one on your drone. We've found that ironically this kind of design leaks far more commonly near the surface than when at depth because the water can seep by the seal when the pressure is lower, but as the pressure increases, the faceplate is forced back upon the o-ring. The sealing surface for the o-ring is critical. Too much surface roughness (as you may find with a painted 3d print) and the water can pass right by the o-ring at lower depths. As well, properly sizing of the o-ring is also very important. Too thin and it can't make good contact, but too thick and it can fold onto itself and cause channels for water to pass by. All that being said, I am a firmware developer, not a mechanical engineer. YMMV.

You have to remember to oil those motors after EVERY use. Get some CorrosionX HD and soak the motors in it. It should help prevent the bearings from seizing like they did

I find your dedication to making an underwater drone amazing, despite all the failed attempts you never give up ! Keep up the good work :)

You're an RC Legend! I have been watching you for years. Never disappointed with your new projects. Always posting the good, the bad, the ugly, and in the end rewarding projects. Keep it up, Simon.

Ok, this is cool, and the fact that you show all the journey to arrive to a working thing is just awesome !

The hull is so thin walled that you could definitely get away with magnetic feedthroughs for the propellers rather than external motors. Also hatches should be round, or at minimum round off the corners. Rectangular seals are a huge pain in the rear every time. Also you can just buy o-rings in practically whatever size or material you want, which will probably work way better than that printed thing. Edit: Credit Brick Experiment Channel which built a lego-inside-tupperware submarine using such a feedthrough. It worked great.

Only halfway through, and someone has probably suggested this already, but.. To save yourself some trial and error with the ballast, you could just temporarily seal the hull, submerge it in a container, take note of how much water it displaces, and calculate the updrift on the drone. Then just add enough ballast to make the drone weigh the same or a bit more than the updrift, and you should be golden~

I recommend putting propellor guards on those props of yours. They will make easy use of the umbillacal and leave your ROV (remote operated vehicle) loose and dead in the water. Also important on both your home made ROV and the iFish is to keep a count on how many turns you make in each direction, as a lot of turns and a sharp pull can sever the connection inside the umbillical. It is easier to seal a round hatch waterproof than a square and it is very, very important to cross tighten the screws. I.e. tighten the opposite screws, much like the bolts on a car wheel.

You probably won't read this but here are some things that could be improved: - Replace original ball bearings with sleeve bearings - Print the housing using ABS and do acetone smoothing - Make the lid smaller and out of aluminium (you need the weight anyway) - There might have been something wrong with how you used the gasket, make sure you use continuous one, ideally rubber one not the weird foam one - Instead of gluing all the connector use proper IP rated connectors with orings - If you want to avoid the balance connector, attach active balancer circuit (1A balance current and it's not dumping the excess into resistors but to the cell with lower voltage) because you do really need balancing for li-po, you can skip it for perfectly matched li-ion (a lot of power tools and all laptops do that)

Suggestions for you… 1. instead of multiple cables running to surface which are bulky, heavy, and don’t allow the drone to move as freely as it could… just lengthen the receiver antenna so it reaches the surface. 2. All openings should be round. You could design one that threads (like a jar lid) on and has o-ring at base. Should seal reliably, easily, and be quickly removable.

Damn this was fun! I'm glad that you don't just show the end result but also the way of getting there, including all the failures! Awesome video, man!

Mate your projects are bloody brilliant. This one is one of my faves.

They are called ROV. Better to have the electronics in an cylinder with o-ring endcaps and bulkhead-connectors. Then also do a vacuum test

I am finally getting back to doing cool creative stuff like this. Super cool to see your work even if it was a failsess - frustrating but enjoyable at times and very informative to go through the process.

Pretty slick!! I love that you painted it green. Cheers

Okey this looks much more cleaner, the design is really coolll, ALSO WHEN ARE YOU GONNA USE THE HUGE BLDC MOTOR YOU GOT

Awesome stuff, mate. Great to see your sister getting involved too.

The best tip I can give you is to seal the electronic components before sealing the actual body, and some wd40 can make a stuck motor spin almost instantly but I would recommend using some kind of water sealant or oil since wd40 isn't meant for being submerged in water. Grease can also work like a charm too, but overall you did an excellent job making this rc underwater drone.

We want a family blog from you because we don’t know about your family and love to see more from you and love the comedian style you put into your videos

A+ for effort, I also made little water motors out of old CDROM disk drives, even after packing and filling the inside of the 3d printed housing with waterproof gear grease. water still managed to find its way in and seized the motors. Water environment is just as challenging as space I think.

That's pretty amazing, I would like to give a suggestion for the floatation device though, instead of blowing air into it you could seal it with a water cooling system inside, a water cooling heatsink with a circulating fan and a pump using the water from whatever it's floating in. This is a more complicated solution but it would avoid trouble from rain, rough waters, etc. Also even on hot days the waters will be significantly colder than ambient air temp so it should cool the components very well

Couple quick notes, motors, as others have said they won't fail immediately but oil will help a lot, and at least rinse with clean water afterwards. Also, with the balance lead, usually with a well-balanced battery with well-matched cells, it will probably be fine, but charging with only the main lead can definitely lead to some cell imbalance and damage. In the future, you can get a passive balancer board that will balance while charging, but take very little (or no) power otherwise. For something short like that, I would just undercharge it a bit, like to 4.1/cell or so just to avoid overcharging a cell.

For 2 years I worked on ROVs for a competition. My experience is that: 1.WIRES LET WATER THROUGH. Oh yeah. If you have a wire running from the outside to the inside and you do not put a waterproof connector there - like on your motors - water will get inside through the wire itself. 2. We never managed to seal a faceplate onto a faceplate like your hatch - no O ring could fully seal it, even when we used marine grease. Instead we had to put the O ring radially against a perfectly flat surface (like an acrylic tube) and use at least 2 of them. 3. ESCs heat up and increase the air pressure inside. This sounds kinda good if you have a good sealing, because it pushes air and water out. However it also puts a stress on your sealings from the other direction, which can damage them and make them leak, if you did not take it into consideration.

Best thing I have seen in weeks Simon. Thank you for your sense of humour.

12:06 - not only two crabs fighting but also a starfish riding a leaf :D

The Titan sub needed a man like you

Great trial and error engineering Simon. Your destined for greatness that's for sure

Using the other drone to pick garbage up was cool, that's a very cool application

I like your style with the brushless motors and wireless float on the surface. Made my own underwater drone this way, which is constant work in progress, but works quite well most of the time. I found epoxy sealing where the wires go into the motor helps since wires are not coated where they join from motor windings to cable. Also I use pvc pipe as a pressure hull. Pipe union style fittings for the pvc pipe have an o-ring style seal, and you can swap the flat side of the union for a piece of plexiglass/acrylic and you have an easily openable but very robust hatch of sorts. Only challenge there is you then need a long narrow chassis to easily get electronics in and out of the pipe enclosure. Keep up the cool projects!

Love this project! Can't wait to see V3.

You getting so close and I see lots of helpful comments below. Hope you continue this project cause its badass.

Use CorrosionX on the motors, and all the electronics inside, that stuff is pure magic! Trust me I fly over salt water :) Also, you NEED those balance leads to safely charge… Cells will slowly have different voltages and the list of stuff that can go wrong grows. But hey, its your house… Amazing project!!

Awesome build great work mate

Masterclass! Please do more Videos 👍👍

This channel is pure chaos. I LOVE IT!

for v3 you could try a submerged audio transmitter for control

How can somebody as clumsy as you be so bloody brilliant. You're a genius mate this is looking fantastic

Incredible work

Great experimental video👍🏻 Love your work🤩

Simon... another SUCCESS-ISH video. Loved it !!!!!

So nice. I had the same idea in my head since a log time but you realized it!

love this video and appreciate your build creativity.

That’s badass! I was wondering when someone was going to try to build something like this!

Awesome 👏 build!! Great job thumbs up 👍

The YT algorithm is kicking for me with this recommendation. I love drones and model subs and have been looking at diy for a bit. Thinking about a pvc frame with outriggers for control arms much like a fpv drone.

I like all your videos, but would like more always want more.

Great progress, keep at it!

This video is so freakin cool! I'm so excited I haven't even finished the first half of the video and I'm already in the comments! I totally need to build this so I can find my other quads that I've sunk in various bodies of water lol!

I love the magnet on the screwdriver. I do the same thing on a set I have that was cheap but works well but isn't magnetized.

Great DIY idea 💡

Great work man... your getting even better IMHO.....

bro thats awesome! did you see the starfish drifting by during the crab fight? its going down under the sea! nice job picking up the trash :)

Simon - you should minimize the openings on top. Make your big opening sealable on the bottom - like a diving bell.

glad your back missed you and your videos

Always enjoy watching your videos.

Good job, congratulations!

Du lyckas alltid lägga ut intressanta saker och detta är nog lika bra som allt annat på din kanal.

amazing content Simon, love your videos

1:45 That cable makes it great as bait for fishing too 😄

For waterproofing a removable lid take a look at how PC water distribution blocks are made. You have screws on both sides of the gasket staggered and it works really well I've made my own distribution block out of acrylic and it worked the first time with no leaks no blues or ceilings other than the rubber gasket

You never cease to amaze!!!

Well made !

That claw is so good!! Hope your drone works out too.. Well done so far.. 👍

An old trick we used to use for custom gaskets for hatches on race RC boats was to use silicone on the body and petroleum jelly on the lid. Fasten together, not torquing down completely, and you have a flexible, custom gasket.

Yes! This is sick.

loved it, thank you

Great video, Simon.

the way you cool watertight devices is by having a heatsink (or a full pump and heat-exchanger and blower (radiator)) with or without fan to the hull, it blows cold air from there. water will go inside the floating relay thru the fan opening and you'll lose it. also if you shape the floating relay like a buoy it would be better, like 2 tall cones stuck by their circular parts, with some lead ballast on one end around the cable exit (and a cooling heatsink) and the antenna up top, that way it causes less drag to the sub and stands the antenna easier over the waves, waves cut out, and reflect the signal upwards. you could open it and close it twisting the two cones together with some o-rings in between

**reads title** “This kid is going places.”

You may consider using removable gel to protect your electronic from accidental water ingress, we use that on outdoor electrical junction box, you mix 2 liquid that solidify into a gel that is close in texture to the gel candle. If you want to remove, you can juste break the gel

Oh awesome just the video I've been looking for. I have old drone electronics I've been wanting to try this idea with

The editing is epic

Goodjob man, Keep it up

Awesome underwater drone.

Man I love all of your videos. Even the outtakes and bloopers. You should do a blooper roll sometime. It makes me want to try to make this

Maybe including some of those silica beads that ship with 3D printer filiament could help with the moisture? Great video :)

1:11 that was a smooth transition 👍

Glad I just found ur channel, so freaking good

fire video, thanks bro

Drill the cover holes so the thread falls through the cover this will help avoid warping of the plastic and a better seal also might be worth doing it the same as a car, where you tighten small amounts at a time to avoid any warps and similar torqued screws.

One suggestion, if the connection to the internals of the drone is a physical plug, the metal contacts could be bridging in the water. Even if it's fresh water, there are still minerals which can facilitate electrical transmission, and all the worse when the contacts are closer together too. It'd be better to fully seal it and use induction charging to supply power, maybe with a physical twist lock to attach it to the drone. Also as others have already said, use a solvent smoothing technique or just take some sandpaper to it so that the seal with the o-ring will work better. If you take a piece of aluminum and make it part of the hull, you can cool the electronics by placing them directly on that. The heat will dissipate into the water much better that way.

it.s realy amazing cool atractiv mechatronic project

I love this series

om jag hade mer tid skulle jag fortsatta med projektet. bra jobbat, du kommer lyckas!

Loved this episode so funny still so technical 🤣 😂

Garrett Evans Wow thank you Garrett, you've made my day!

tack för dina väldigt inspirerande projekt och just rover får en att drömma om att endag ha råd att bygga en egen (utan att sälja en njure) kör hårt!

Since you printer the drone in PLA you should have vapor smoothed the inside and the outside to prevent leaks. You can use dichloromethane for PLA or print the drone in ABS and use acetone.

a proper rubber seal around your screws should fix any water leak issues to a certain depth. Also, for the heat sink in the transmission box you could cut a hole in the bottom and seal a heatsink in the hole this way the lake water would cool the heatsink. Cool Project.

Looove it. You are Great!

Success-ish for the win👍

Nice video as always Simon :)

"And it's even waterproof" that was fun!

just discovered your channel. awesome content. you do all the things ive wanted to do.

awesome 🔥

That was awesome

Loved every second of it. Like Edison, every failure is a step forward. Don’t stop. 💚💚💚✌️😎

Have you tried putting the access cover under the unit instead of on top? The air pressure inside might be enough to prevent water from coming entering the sub.

just another amazing video that made me watch at 3 am...

hilarious!!!! I love going on these techie adventures with simon!! we need to put a claw on simons drone so they can have an underwater drone claw fight!!!!