[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

Sat Aug 26 15:25:12 EDT 2017

That is an interesting point about the even with your OTS SSB-2010 unit
running off AA batteries, you hear noise when the DC-DC converter is on.  I
was hoping this noise filter I ordered would do the trick but it sounds
like maybe , maybe not.  I have a friend that works for ATT and he also
thinks it noise coming in on the power to the OTS unit.  What I am hoping
it is not is acoustic coupling.  My transducer is mounted to the FRP shell
behind the pilot.  I am hoping it is not picking up this noise through
vibrations through the FRP shell.

I well let you know what I learn from the test.

Cliff

On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 11:40 AM, Alec Smyth via Personal_Submersibles <
personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

> Hi Cliff,
>
> I'll be following that with interest! In Shackleton I have a DC-DC
> converter to step down the 36 volts to 12 for hotel loads. The 12V
> converter output is connected in parallel to a small 12V battery and to
> hotel loads, the idea being that I charge the 12V battery pre-dive and
> switch off the converter while diving to avoid interference. The OTS unit I
> use in native mode, on separate AA batteries to avoid electrical noise, but
> despite this if the DC-DC converter is running it interferes with the comms
> to the point of rendering them useless. If the noise filter is successful
> it would let me charge the hotel battery from the big banks while diving,
> or use the converter as backup, without losing comms.
>
> Best,
>
> Alec
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 11:11 AM, Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
>> As a lot of you use the OTS underwater comes on your boats so I thought I
>> would share with you an issue that came up on the Islamorada trip.  When
>> I tried to use the OTS comms with my new  LED lights on, I noticed a loud
>> hum in the OTS headset.  When we got the boat back on the dock, we did some
>> testing plugging and unplugging the Subcon disconnects to each of the four
>> lights.  What we found was a cumulative affect, each light adding to the
>> noise.  These lights use a switching LED driver.  There seemed to be the
>> same noise level when the lights were on submerged as on the surface so
>> think the noise is electrically coupled not acoustically.  On my boat to
>> keep from changing out AA batteries in the OTS SSB-2010 unit, I removed the
>> battery pack and replace it with an circular electrical disconnect that
>> brings in 12VDC from boat bus.  I use a DC-DC converter to power this bus.
>> I am thinking this is a non isolated converter.   I spoke with the OTS
>> engineers and they said it was a common problem when folks that make this
>> change  and the solution was to use a DC noise filter on the power supplied
>> to the unit that isolates both the positive and negative power feeds going
>> into the unit.  They also suggested using an isolated DC power supply.  To
>> test this I ordered a Palomar Engineers RFI-DC-30 which is a common mode
>> noise filter http://palomar-engineers.com/rfi-kits/home-alarm-system-rfi-
>> kit#!/DC-Voltage-Common-Mode-Noise-Filter/p/74356250.
>> Also I hear the thrusters as well as the emergency pinger in the OTS gear.
>>
>> In the next couple of weeks I plan on doing a shop test to see if this
>> works.  I will report on what I find.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Cliff
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 6:26 PM, Cliff Redus <cliffordredus at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Big thanks Doug for posting dive report and for you and your mom and dad
>>> for hosting us last week. You guys  did a magnificent job. This was the
>>> best sub trip of my life!
>>>
>>> I spend the day organizing the video and pictures from the trip
>>> and mailed them to Alec who has graciously agree to edit into a video of
>>> the 2017 Psub Regatta.
>>>
>>> I still need to review the data I logged from the trips but the key
>>> points were the first ocean side dive was to the coral heads which is 3.9
>>> miles from Doug's house so 7.8 miles total tow with average cabin temp of
>>> 93F and RH of 80%.  Average speed was about 4.5 MPH.  As long as we
>>> ran partially submerged to was hot but fine.  This was a test dive to
>>> see if we could get out deeper.  Water was not clear at this location. The
>>> deeper dive on Aug 3rd was out to the edge of the deep water.  The 7.8
>>> miles from Doug's house (bay side) to the dive site was smooth and we ran
>>> submerged so even thought the cabin temp and RH were high, it was not bad
>>> at all as it was a smooth tow and there were thinks to see on way out. At
>>> the second dive site the water was 100 ft deep and very clear with 4-6 ft
>>> swells.  Could see the sub on the bottom from the Boston Whaler.  The tow
>>> back was rough.  With 4-6 ft following seas, it was like being on a roller
>>> coaster both in the boat and in the sub. Second dive had a total of 15.6
>>> miles of towing at 4.5 MPH, 94F and 84% RH and hatch closed time of around
>>> 5 hours.  I did not loose my cookies but it was close.
>>>
>>> As Doug noted, the consensus of all was that we need a tender vessel
>>> with launch capability to get the subs out to the dive sites without
>>> towing.  Towing subs sucks.  All survived but I used up all my on board
>>> water and upon making it back to the beach, consumed several gallon of
>>> water.  We were all pretty whipped.  All  in all, it was quite an adventure.
>>>
>>> More latter.
>>>
>>> Cliff
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 4:53 PM, Douglas Suhr via Personal_Submersibles <
>>> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Greetings PSUBS group, Douglas Suhr here to share my take on the 4-day
>>>> sub operation we just completed in Islamorada, FL (July 31st, August
>>>> 1-3).
>>>>
>>>> Wow, what a whirlwind! So July 31st was really an arrival / setup day
>>>> with August 1-3 being true operational days. Though it was unfortunate
>>>> that Alec wasn't able to make it with Shackleton, we had our hands
>>>> full with Cliff's R-300. Without Shackleton, we also had enough time
>>>> to get Snoopy set up and lowered into the canal for some basic diving.
>>>>
>>>> List of Crew: Dan Lance, Steve McQueen, Cliff Redus, Rick Maxwell,
>>>> River Dolfi, Mike Patterson, Doug, Sarah, Douglas Suhr.
>>>>
>>>> This was my first time meeting Dan Lance, a (retired) saturation diver
>>>> and commercial welder. What a pleasure to have him join us on this
>>>> operation. Dan is modest, but most willing to share his knowledge and
>>>> extensive experience with a newbie like me. So pleased to have chatted
>>>> with him in the Keys. During the towing of the R-300, Dan manned the
>>>> tow line and helped with comms.
>>>>
>>>> Steve McQueen and River Dolfi did awesome jobs as our frog men.
>>>> Filming, attaching / detaching davit and tow lines, etc. they were
>>>> both in and out of the water quite a bit (especially Steve). I think
>>>> River took a little jelly sting for the team. What troopers!
>>>>
>>>> Cliff and his assistant Rick are such a joy be around. Rick is one of
>>>> the friendliest people you'll ever meet (and even brought a gift for
>>>> the group: a watermelon, straight from Texas!). Cliff is always
>>>> willing to share his expertise (and sub, too) with anyone who'd like
>>>> to learn more. I know that between Dan Lance and Cliff, I learned more
>>>> than I can remember last week.
>>>>
>>>> Mike Patterson, mom, dad and myself were all just providing whatever
>>>> kind of "troop support" we could to Cliff and the R-300.
>>>>
>>>> River, Steve and Myself got in some dive time on Snoopy in the canal
>>>> (which was great), but I think the biggest accomplishment was getting
>>>> the R-300 out a ways into the ocean.
>>>>
>>>> Our Boston Whaler (a 25' boat with a single 250hp Yamaha) was able to
>>>> tow the R-300 out about 5 miles into the ocean (at about 4mph). We
>>>> were in radio communication with Cliff most of the time, though we did
>>>> suffer a few intermittent losses in comms. When we got to a spot about
>>>> 100 feet deep, we started to slow down a bit and at that point the tow
>>>> line hook (an admittedly cheap thing) let loose(!) so we decided that
>>>> we had reached our dive location. We switched from marine radio to OTS
>>>> and Cliff started down. Visibility was supurb! As Cliff neared the
>>>> bottom at 100 − 110 feet, he was still quite visible from the Whaler!
>>>> His 18 foot long R-300 looked to be about 3 inches long, but wow did
>>>> it ever stand out from the rest of the sandy bottom. Cliff spent about
>>>> an hour "flying" his sub, surfacing, diving and maneuvering about,
>>>> testing systems and observing the ocean around him. By the time Cliff
>>>> surfaced and we towed back to port Antigua, elapsed time stood at 4.5
>>>> / 5 hours (estimate). Cliff said that he stayed cool by the water
>>>> flowing over the sub's dome hatch while in tow. Upon returning I think
>>>> we were all ready to take a break, but everyone felt great
>>>> accomplishment with the mission.
>>>>
>>>> A couple of lessons I took away from the tow out: We need better tow
>>>> equipment (better line, hardware and maybe a quick release). Our boat
>>>> REALLY needs a GPS (still don't have one). Towing into waves isn't so
>>>> much a problem, but when towing with the waves, our tow line needs to
>>>> be measured so as to sustain the proper distance between tow vessel
>>>> and sub (otherwise the sub and boat are constantly slacking and then
>>>> jerking, stressing the tow line and making it difficult for boat and
>>>> sub to track straight).
>>>>
>>>> The devotion of our crew was amazing, even in the heat and the waves
>>>> everyone did their jobs. Managing even a small sub operation like this
>>>> is more work / effort than meets the eye, that's for sure. At dinner,
>>>> one of the main discussions revolved around a support vessel that can
>>>> carry a sub or two on board, eliminating the slow, time consuming tow
>>>> out to an ocean dive site. Dan Lance shared details on his support
>>>> vessel project, which is no doubt going to be a dream in terms of
>>>> logistics. Hopefully when said vessel is ready to sail, Dan will lend
>>>> its services to host a diving event! ~ Douglas S.
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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