Other PowerRay Underwater Drone for finding sunk skis?

[OCD Solutions]

I have been drooling over this item for almost 3 months now but cannot justify the expense. I stumbled across it while looking for an underwater camera system to explore the pond in our backyard and keep tabs on the fish and turtles but it's use would be far more reaching that just that.

They dress out to around $2K with all the gadgets but hopefully I can come up with a solid business plan at some point so I can pull the trigger.

https://store.us.powervision.me/products/powerray

They pitch it as a fishing aid but having a fish finder on a submersible with a 4K camera, 230ft of tether that can relay live footage to a VR Mask could be a pretty powerful tool for fishing for a sunken ski don't you think?

 

[Citizen]

Honestly pretty cool and would be valuable in search and rescue. More efficient and safer than using divers (PADI rescue diver for a number of years now.) Once you find whatever you are after you can dive for it at that point.

My concerns would be:
How long will it run between charges?
Says its only waterproof to ~100' which really isn't all that deep.
How bright are its headlights and how does that impact battery life (100' is pitch black in my lakes up north, cant see your hand in front of your face.)
Can it handle river currents? Or is it useless in rivers where many of us ride?

Only watched part of first video so maybe these questions were answered

 

[Christian_83]

Well i used to work as an ROV pilot/technician for 3 years, not free flying, but trenching ROV. However i did some trial work with a small free flying "eye ball" ROV.
That thing, will properly be fine i a pool with good light and NO current what so ever.
You will be surprised how bad visibility you get some meters down, with small current.
I you really want to use it to retrieve sunken skis, i would suggest a real eye ball ROV - or build one yourself. a good friend of mine build one, thats pretty neat. (i think he spent 4K on that) a similar commercial would be 10-15K usd (here in Europe at least)

 

[Big Kahuna]

I would see current reaking havoc on underwater.

 

[Lumberjack]

Cool looking input as long as there is no current and perfectly clear water. I ride some murky rivers with decent currents and lakes with alot of algae and wind so you cant even see further down than 5 feet from a boat.

Wonder how this "civilian" unit would compare to a professional grade search/reacue/salvage unit.

I'd be worried about hooking some submerged trees in the rivers I ride and losing it but would also work perfect st some of the calm/clear lakes I visit to find a ski.

Ask for a demo model

 

[OCD Solutions]

I would see current wreaking havoc on underwater.

Do regular drones only fly on the calmest of days or do they compensate for wind?

Yeah, the tether bothers me too. But it does have a sonar fish finder so not all exploration needs to be at depth.

I'm guessing it's pretty limited too but I can think of at least 3 different times where it would have perfect. Besides, it doesn't need to work in every scenario as long as it works at least enough to pay for itself.

 

[Lumberjack]

Watch "Best Underwater Drone for Treasure Hunting / ROV Metal Detecting - PowerRay PowerVision" on YouTube

Good video showing use in an almost perfectly calm body of water and realistic visibility. Would be cool to try

 

[bird]

Just attach your go pro to this thingy using the Wi-fi mode.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Wifi doesn't work underwater....already tried it.

I was doing visibility tests last weekend using my GoPro 5 and it wasn't great. Even a foot down, I lost the signal.

This is at one foot of depth with the camera 11" from the white board in the bottom of the pic. The board is exactly 6" for reference.

And the fish is a Bluegill Sunfish apparently; and not one of the breeds we stocked our pond with.

 

[Req]

Maybe the trick is to pair this tech with another bit of tech. A decent fish finder may zero you in on the surface and you can confirm with the ROV. At that point once you confirm its the ski and not random debris call the dive service or your scuba buddy.

here is a pic of a car on a fish finder.

 

[OCD Solutions]

The unit has a built in fish finder already.

What it needs is a GPS locator.

 

[Req]

The unit has a built in fish finder already.

What it needs is a GPS locator.

I would assume that the fish finder is probably entry level with lower resolution since its packaged with it. It would still be great once you are in the search area to use but given currents the search area could shift a ways from where the ski actually went down, leaving you to use up battery searching for the ski. With a boat fish finder you can confirm the location and then launch the ROV to make sure its really the ski. It would be neat if you could bring a line down to the ski and hook it somehow with the ROV, then hoist the ski up to the boat like this video.

 

[OCD Solutions]

I wonder if you could use the bait drop feature for that?

It would take some fancy driving and something like a grappling hook with high test line attached.

I have 3 payments left on my truck so once it’s paid off, my toy budget should get a nice little bump.

 

[Req]

I would guess this filament is too big but this would be ideal for the line. https://www.amazon.com/250lb-Quality-Monofilament-Speargun-diameter/dp/B00VDE7MDA

 

[Citizen]

Man that BlueRov2 is pretty damn slick.

 

[Req]

Man that BlueRov2 is pretty damn slick.

It reminds me of ROVs from the Abyss.

 

[Citizen]

It reminds me of ROVs from the Abyss.

Yea it does. If there was enough search and recovery work up in north idaho to pay for that thing I would take the plunge. I really enjoy the recovery aspect of scuba diving, but the search part isn't much fun due to limited dive time at depth and cold ass water up here. RoV would give you the best of both worlds.

 

[OCD Solutions]

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before side scan sonar and underwater GPS mapping reach the consumer level.

 

[Christian_83]

This is the ROV my buddy made from scratch.
There is open source software available. and parts can be bought from china.
But for recovery operation i do think a sonar is nessecary, raising the price tag significantly

Also a battery powered ROV IMO is only good for no current waters or very short time of work in waters with current.

 

[OCD Solutions]

Amazon has been running deals on these kits for $999 the past couple months so I have been putting money aside for it.
I went to pull the trigger on it last weekend but cooler heads prevailed and I decided it just wasn't going to do what I wanted it to.

The deal breakers for me were the lack of water clarity in my pond and the little fact that I learned the unit was not neutral buoyant. Now, I do like the idea that the unit will float to the surface eventually and be more recoverable but my whole intention was to use the ROV to place a camera somewhere and then monitor the area over some time. If the unit won't hold position then it's effectively useless. It will "hover" using it's stabilizers but users report that the image moves around so much that it's not really usable footage.

Now, if it happens to drop to $499, I'll be all over it again!