Unboxing Dory - Lake Test
After getting the Chasing Dory out of its box, I took it to a nearby lake for a freshwater dive test.
Things didn't go exactly as planned. The controls didn't seem very responsive and the interface kept telling me "Unlock Failed" - it seemed to be putting itself in some kind of slow mode or safe mode. I'll need to try again without my Assistant accompanying me, because I think this will require some dedicated concentration to figure out.
Or I could research it. That might also help.
The ROV was able to get down to what seemed like a six or seven foot depth (the purple segment of the video), whereupon it hit the lakebed so hard that it kicked up a cloud of sediment.
Toward the end of the test, the screen glitched out and the top half of the video feed was solid grey - I was worried that maybe water had leaked into the electronics, but a subsequent test at home shows that things are working fine.
It's too bad that the ROV wash station was out of order, otherwise I'd have been able to wash things off right there at the lake. Instead, I took it home and hosed it down and used the included metal pick tool to pluck some fibrous debris out of one of the props.
All in all, it was actually a successful test. Sure, I have to figure out the controls and how to get it to use full power, and I have to explore using the Tilt Up/Down functionality to film the sea floor instead of crashing into it, but the ROV definitely works.
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