During the test several dives were completed starting at a couple of meters and then gradually increasing the depths as the test went on. During the tests everything worked as intended and all of the sensors were showing good and realistic data. The camera feed was stable, however as expected the FPS was a bit low to get a seamless user experience.
The testing ended during a gradual pressure increase during a dive at 70+ meters, where some of the components lost power. Many critical components lost power, including the communication board, which instantly made it possible to get any data or control the ROV further. We instantly turned off power, to prevent as much damage as possible if there was a leak. After hoisting the ROV up to the boat again, we began troubleshooting the ROV. We could not regain control of the ROV at this point and decided to end test 3.
Further troubleshooting took place back at the lab at NTNU. During the troubleshooting all the components inside the enclosure were checked and none of them were broken. The problem was traced to the external box and specifically to the 16.5V converter. But, since all the components inside were encased in epoxy it was not feasible to find and fix the exact problem, and recast the external box with epoxy. The problem seems to be with either the converter itself or the cables going from the converter to the ROV. It seems that the pressure at the 70+ meters may have caused this, but without digging the components out of the epoxy its hard to conclude exactly.
-Bachelors degree page 77.
A new circuit card has since been made. The next steps are to order professionally made circuit cards for the power converter box.
The new power converter box will be mounted in a blue robotics pressure tank similar to the main chamber.