News
We have recently joined up with Ocean Presence Technologies, taking their existing camera technology to the next level.
Pressure testing occurred Friday, 12 September at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in San Antonio, Texas. We successfully tested to 5,000 feet in depth with an Ocean Presence OPT-02 aquarium model, which is only certified to 60 feet.
Friday morning, we were warmly welcomed and directed to the proper building on the expansive research campus. There we met Lee Reis, the Principle Engineering Technologist for SwRI’s Test and Evaluation Section. By 1:00 pm the camera was ready for the test chamber and testing began.
Our first test ran us to 300 feet. The OPT-02 is rated to 30 feet. This was a huge success, as we had taken the unit 10 times deeper than it was designed to survive. We surfaced the unit and evacuated all the air that had escaped under pressure from within the camera and supporting electronics. 600 feet was our next target but at approximately 500 feet we lost connection with the camera and brought the unit up disappointedly. There was a considerable air bubble in the camera, but as the unit was removed form the chamber, it began to function again! We flushed the air from the camera and prepared to repeat the test to 600 feet.
We reached 600 feet with no repeats of the last test failure. We had now taken this low end unit and matched the capabilities of Ocean Presence's most expensive and over-engineered unit. After holding at 600 feet for a few minutes we continued this test to 900 feet. We surfaced the unit then repeated the tests proceeding to 1,000 feet, 2,000 feet then 2,500 feet!
Time was running short to reach simulated ocean bottom, so we quickly cycled the unit to the surface and checked for any problems before shooting for double our last test. With continued signs of life in the camera’s motion system, we decided to proceed to our target depth. The OPT unit made it to the colossal depth of 5,000 feet!
Testing was officially over for the day, and at over 150 times greater than the test unit's rated depth, we were delirious at our success!
With some minor engineering modifications we will be able to reach the bottom of the ocean on our next test run.
This OPT-02 Unit from Ocean Presence is rated to 30 feet. With Proteus Blue's new technology, it survived all |
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