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Good afternoon all,<p>I am looking to build an underwater ROV. I'm looking to have a tether on it, spec it for about 30 to 50 feet of depth.<p>I want to have an air tank on board adjusting boyuancy. I need a couple of air solenoids, rated at 12V DC - wondering if someone has any ideas where I could get those...<p>Of course, as every other ones of my ideas - I have a budget of about - as little as possible.<p>Wondering if anyone else has done this before.<p>Thanks,
Martin

In the early 60's I worked on a tethered underwater vehicle for the Navy. It was never bought and there are better ones now.
This used two cylinders, one above the other with motors on outriggers between. A cable connected all this to the ship. I had fun dragging a garden hose in the Potomac(sp) river between two boats to determine drag and shape. (catenary)
The new rovers are much better, but this has all been done before.

Industrial supply $$<p>Farm supply $<p>fill valve from dishwasher 0$<p>Or vary the volume of the craft with a diaphram or piston.

Try a truck stop. Some air horns are solenoid controlled. I think J.C. Whitney sells them in their print catalog.

For quick reference, look for Junkyard Wars where they built the same in 10 hrs.<p>CeaSaR

I work in the special effects industry and we use 12v solenoids all the time controlling anything from air to nitrogen (high pressure) to propane. Most solenoid are rated with a pressure (300, 600) in lbs and have WOG stamped on them which stands for water, oil, gas. All three substances can be used here. The best places I know of to get them are from hydraulics suppliers. Most hydraulic places also deal with pneumatics as well. Speaking of pneumatics a great product to use for connecting air or liquid is Pisco. Checkout www.pisco.com. Gas fitting and supply places are also a good bet. Hope this helps.
Cheers, James

Most cars have smog devices that are nothing more than air soleniods. Try the wrecking yards, especially the older cars. Air bleeds for FI works well, as well as smog "pull up" solenoids.

The ultimate industrial supply
McMaster Carr
http://www.mcmaster.com/

Hi there,
You have been given some great suggestions on finding the parts you inquired about. I know just a little about this particular endeavour so if you don't mind I'd like to put in my 2 cents worth just for general information.
There are quite a few resources that you might make use of in this project.
There IS a book on this broad subject..'build your own underwater robot"
available from "Westcoastwords.com" It is invaluable for beginners and pretty good for those that are more experienced.
There is a Yahoo group that has a lot of information and some very knowledgable folk to ask questions of: search for RobotROV in "Yahoo Groups"
I hope the moderator doesn't mind URLS...

The King Kong of ROV sites is :Ron's ROV Links @
http://www.ronsrovlinks.nl/xoops/modules/wflinks/

-marinetech.org- Home of the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center. Take a look at "related links" and click on "ROV Competitions" over in the upper RH corner. You can look at the designs used in the International ROV Competition and maybe save yourself some time and effort.
Another place to look is -AUVSI.org...the Autonomous unmanned vehicle systems international---take a look at "Competitions-Student AUV competition--Archives...there is a paper written on each entrant in their competitions back through 2000--an opportunity to avail yourself of the research done by folks like MIT and Cornell. An ROV is an AUV with a tether, essentially.
Others:
AUSI.org
ROV.org the ROV commitee of the Marine Technology Society..good stuff
OK...if that doesn't keep you busy..email for more...

Hope this helps,