Homemade Spy Sub.

For our weekly collaboration with Cellar Image of the Day:

Some fathers and sons play catch, but not electrical engineer Jason Rollette and his 12-year-old son Trevor. They built their own spy sub (for only $300)!

Electrical engineer Jason Rollette and his 12-year-old son Trevor are a little more ambitious. Hoping to explore the lakes and rivers near their Milwaukee home, they’ve built their own underwater remote-operated vehicle, or ROV. Controlled and powered by a laptop, their ROV can swim more than a quarter of a mile, to depths of 250 feet, while a home-surveillance camera sealed inside sends a live feed to the pilots onshore.

The camera, electronics and lights fit inside two- to four-inch-diameter PVC piping. The pipes had watertight O-rings at their joints, so Rollette created windows from Plexiglas and screwed them onto the ends. Bilge pumps—which typically pump water out of a boat—act as thrusters, each spitting out up to 1,250 gallons an hour in different directions through plastic tubes. He plans to attach a motorized claw for grabbing treasure.

Link: Popular Science article – be sure to check out Cellar IoTD for more fun pictures!