Public Lab Research note


"Underwater LEDz" -- first test

by donblair | June 18, 2014 12:39 18 Jun 12:39 | #10584 | #10584

What I want to do

Test out these claims that mineral oil is a terrible conductor by doing a little home experiment.

My attempt and results

Questions and next steps

  • Would filling a water bottle with mineral oil be a nice way of making sure that the flimsy plastic retains its shape deep underwater?

  • Only one way to find out ...

Why I'm interested

  • It'd be neat to use recycled water bottles as enclosures for underwater datalogging electronics; but they might warp with the pressure at depth. Filling the container with mineral oil is a (potentially terrible impractical) way of retaining the enclosure's shape, so that the waterproof seal doesn't break. Not sure how environmentalists will feel about sending an oil refinery by-product underwater to monitor the effects of oil spills ... but anyway, this experiment was fun!

2 Comments

Update: Brett Longworth at WHOI just pointed me to article about using oil in ROVs! http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/subs/hercules/hercules.html

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Check out my recent research note- http://publiclab.org/notes/code4maine/07-25-2014/grassroots-underwater-photography I've been using floating camera platforms with the camera facing downward with decent results. I'm interested in testing it with various LED/sensor combinations but I don't want to do anything without significant input from others who know more than I do regarding light and water... Which would include just about everybody in that case...

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