RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] depth indicator

Doug,

I have a 500 gallon propane tank, but have preserved it for a future project (perhaps a dry ambient)
What I need at this point is a basic quick submarine and with the lowering of my overtime hours, that means an ambient. I have two boys 8 and 14 and I told my wife that I will hold off trying something crazy until they are older (8-10 years?) This gives me the time to build something really cool.
Ambient appeals to me for other reasons other than just cost. The sail area on a ""k" boats does not seem the most hydrodynamic thing I have seen in the way of submarines. Give me the look of a "guppy" boat from the past!
I see a very small sub using small portable compressor tanks as MBT forward and aft. A compartment (small) will be partially filled with water and will serve as my crew cabin (dives will be short but fun)
A modified 12vdc trolling motor (with three blades) will serve as the mode of transpor all controls will use the open bottom to work the planes surfaces.
I already have: the trolling motor, vent valves (these babies are really cool from e-bay), compass with added lighting, passive sonar, several chart recorders, lighting, nerves of steel...
The thing I feel best appeals to me about ambient boats is that they can be made much more streamlined as apposed to 1ATM.
Camera and lighting units were displayed at this past convention and I plan on making use of these too.

The lessons learned will allow me to build a much heavier "dry" ambient capable of much longer deployments.

Tennessee has no really deep water but next to some dams perhaps.

This is going to be a fun and educational venture....then , I'm going to take over the world! Did I mention "fun"? oh yea, I d id.

David Bartsch

To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] depth indicator
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2008 01:07:53 -0400
From: djackson99@aol.com

Hmmmm... Not the weight of the sub. It should indicate the depth of the vent where the air is released into the surrounding water and likely a little deeper since the constant flow of air may add a few psi to the ambient cabin. Air at the top of the cabin is at the same pressure as the air at the bottom of the cabin where it is vented to the surrounding water. So it does not matter where the gauge is inside the cabin.

That also makes the air at the top of the cabin at a pressure higher than the water surrounding the top of the cabin. So a hatch in the top of an ambient sub seals naturally if it opens inward. Completely opposite to a 1ATM sub.

In my c ase the dive computer is going to ride along outside the forward view port. There is no room for it inside and with it outside it will automatically start logging the dive when it submerges.

So what are you thinking of building?

Doug J
www.submarineboat.com

-----Original Message-----
From: David Bartsch <dbartsch2236@hotmail.com>
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:11 pm
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] depth indicator

In an ambient submarine, if one uses a dive watch type depth indicators to give an indication of how deep He is, does this display the actual depth or will it be off a little having the additional weight of the sub working on it? One of those HMMMM thoughts...

; David Bartsch

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