Build Day 5

Danny E and I spent a few hours last night building on the 'bot, including soldering the DB-25 connector that will connect everything within the main electronics tube, and finishing potting the endcaps and the IMU (depth sensor) that we'll be using.  This was delicate work so Danny brought a box of special ROV parts to assist:

ROV Building Fuel

The soldering joints were super small on the IMU, so we soldered those down and set it in a bed of epoxy.  This was one of the most delicate things we did, because the epoxy has to completely seal the pcb and wiring, but leave the tiny white sensor free.

IMU sitting in epoxy

Gotta keep an eye on the epoxy to make sure it doesn't cover the sensor

We also had to cut the wiring from the main wiring harness before the actual soldering to the DB-25 connector could take place.  According to the build guide we only have about 1cm worth of leeway on this, so we measured twice before cutting.  I wanted a third measurement because I was scared, but Danny was feeling it, and made some perfect cuts.

Measuring out the wires before cutting.  

With the connector soldered and the epoxy curing, we are just about ready to load the electronics into the main enclosure, complete the final steps of the build, and power this thing up.

The "measure the wires" dance?  No, just a gif that Google automatically made.

We've come an awful long way from this:

To this:

Stay tuned!