Week of 1/23/12

Throughout the week, the areas of focus were on getting the camera enclosures to pass the water tightness test and to finish the compressed air system. Many of the compressed air parts were not received until late Friday so completion and testing will have to be pushed til the following week. The camera enclosures had slight leaking issues last week so additional coats of silicon were required along the seems of the acrylic. It seemed that majority of the water was entering through the screw holes on the mounting surfaces of the enclosures. This  proves that the sealing washers are not performing as intended. An additional idea was proposed to add a rubber layer along the bottom of the camera enclosures. By doing this the rubber provided an additional layer to stop water entering and the screw holes were filled with epoxy. This extra addition worked for stopping water, but aesthetically the enclosures are not very appealing. Ryan can now use them for his computer vision testing. After a discussion today with Eric, concerns about the enclosures at 16ft depth and the overall durability of the boxes is now possibly leading to a different design for the enclosures. More on the design change to come in the next week or two. Friday afternoon was dedicated to measuring and hand drawing sketches of each part to be added/changed in the Pro/E model.By hand drawing and measuring before modeling in Pro/E allows for faster production of the parts in the CAD program. Accurate measurements and material assigning in Pro/E are vital for future and final density and weight values.

Water tight testing week of 1/16/12

This week we aimed to finish the camera enclosures and do a water tight test on them as well as the hull. We tested the vehicle at Morcom Aquatic Center and determined the hull had a small amount of water entering. The camera enclosures both had water entering through edge cracks as well as the screw locations where the sealing washers are supposed to seal off water entrance. A slight change will be required to complete the water tightness test.