[PSUBS-MAILIST] Islamorada Trip Report...

Sat Aug 26 16:57:59 EDT 2017

Alan, let me do some playing with the LED drivers I have installed.  As I
have my drivers installed in the body of the LED lights, and body is quite
small with a custom PCB, I would not have room for a larger driver.  Let me
see how this noise suppressor works first.

Best Regards

Cliff

On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 3:44 PM, Alan via Personal_Submersibles <
personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:

> Cliff,
> my original buck / boost LED drivers made audible noise at certain
> settings. I mentioned this to an electronics friend, who said that
> it was to do with the tuning of the unit.
> I had 10 new units made up for me in China, at a factory that seems
> to produce a lot of these buck / boost DC drivers. I made mention
> of the noise problem & was specific that I wanted a 36V fixed output,
> along with dimming & on off switch.
> These new units are a lot audibly quieter. I am guessing they can achieve
> this easier by not having to also cater for the wide output range.
> They can operate from about 12V through to 54V. I am now wondering
> whether having a narrower input power band would help even more.
> Whether the audible noise corresponds to electrical noise in the frequency
> that interferes with your coms, I do not know.
> I can send you one of these drivers for testing if you like, as this is a
> problem
> I will be encountering. Just send me your address.
> alanlindsayjames at yahoo.com
> The units are designed to output 75W, but this can be dialled down on
> the dimming pot, or buy a more suitable pot. Again, if the unit ( in your
> case)
> was designed to output at 50 W then possibly there would be less noise.
> It would be interesting to see if dimming them increased the noise.
> Alan
>
>
>
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On 27/08/2017, at 7:25 AM, Cliff Redus via Personal_Submersibles <
> personal_submersibles at psubs.org> wrote:
>
> 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/r
>>> fi-kits/home-alarm-system-rfi-kit#!/DC-Voltage-Common-Mode-N
>>> oise-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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>>>>> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
>>>>> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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>>
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