Building a Lego-powered Submarine 4.0 - automatic depth control
This radio-controlled submarine can maintain a steady depth or a certain distance from the bottom. It is equipped with a pressure sensor and a laser distance sensor. Raspberry Pi and PID control are used for automation. Tested in a swimming pool and a small river (at the end of the video). Enjoy!
0:00 building
2:36 tests in water
3:48 long journey in a small river
6:47 full Python code
SPECS
Displacement: 2.4 kg (5.3 lb)
Test depth: 1.5 m (5 ft)
Hull: acrylic plastic cylinder (250x110x3mm), SAN plastic lid (2mm thick)
Lid seal: o-ring 2.5 mm (NBR 70 shore)
Ballast tank: 60 ml syringe (Eotia marinade injector), Lego EV3 Medium Servo motor (45503)
Forward propeller: drone propeller (Diatone Bull Nose 4x4.5), Lego PF L-motor (88003)
Turn propeller: Lego propeller 3 blade (6041), Lego PF M-motor (8883)
Magnetic couplings: K&J Magnetics D38-N52 neodymium magnet, TapeCase 423-5 UHMW Tape, silicon spray
Motor driver: 2x Pololu 2130 DRV8833 Dual H-bridge
Radio control: 27 MHz controller dissembled from a toy submarine (no-name chinese Mini U Boat)
Pressure sensor: Honeywell SSCMANV030PA2A3 2 bar
Laser distance sensor: SparkFun TFMini-S Micro
Computer: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Power supply: Lego Rechargeable Battery Box 9V (8878), Pololu 2123 S7V8F5 5V voltage regulator
On-board camera: RunCam 5 Orange
MORE DETAILS
brickexperimentchannel.wordpr...
LONG JOURNEY FULL VIDEO
• Long Journey in RC Sub...
CODE
mega.nz/folder/wqhhxJoI#cHnVI...
or
www.dropbox.com/sh/u8a45maz3b...
PREVIOUS SUBS
1.0 syringe ballast • Building and Testing a...
2.0 magnetic couplings • Building a Lego-powere...
3.0 balloon and compressor • Building a Lego-powere...
MUSIC
Tommy Baynen - Stone Paths
• Tommy Baynen - Stone P...
colorize.ffm.to/0364
/ tommybaynen
You can read more details of the building process here: brickexperimentchannel.wordpress.com/rc-submarine-4-0-blog-post-series/
@SF.shadow Cat difficult, cuz the weight can be offset too much to the front, so BEC would need a claw on the front and back. Even controlling the weight shift doesn't come easy.
@@Ghost_Riley_TF141 have a weight on rails that can move back and forth, connected to a sensor that can sense the angle of the submarine with another PID controller?
Damn the new challenger deep sub looks nice
@@smaug131 that can work, actually. As long as u have a big-enough container and a slider that is synced with the claw. Difficult, but easy in building. U won't need a second sensor, that will start complicating things, and if you have an open area, can be easily added in.
where you buying those lego parts
Extremely cool. The visual clarity through the flat plexi in the front was actually astounding. This is a great proof-of-concept for a low-cost underwater remote filming rig.
"Low-cost" if you do not include in the LEGO xD
@@DAS_k1ishEe lol yeah Lego is kinda expensive when it comes to the electric stuff
Low Cost if you don't include the kilogram of tungsten pellets he threw in there for whatever reason.
....
@@ben5515 to keep the sub from flipping since he has no roll controls
Another masterpiece!
Oh my god! You’re here!
Another piggyback comment!
Happy 10 year anniversary, and Congratulations on 1M subscribers!
Ohh yes
@Don't Read My Profile Photo ok
10/10 Much safer than the Titan submersible
LOOOL😂😂😂
UNDERRATED COMMENT 😂😂😂😂😂
Bro 💀
hahahah, wait..... broooo💀
Fr
this dude cares more for the safety of his lego minifigures than Stockton Rush did about actual humans
kzhead.info/sun/dbSjma55lpeBhq8/bejne.html
fr fr
Fax
@@Soviet_government_wut
It was sabotage. The communist.
Genuinely kind of ridiculous how far this project has come, I'm deeply impressed and proud
hehe, "deeply"...
deepyly impressed BADUMM TSSS
"Deeply". ;) I came for the submarine, I stayed for the humor.
It's incredible and inspiring to me that you've gone from "how fast can I make a lego wheel spin" to making things like this. Not that there's anything wrong with asking the "simple questions" but it's really a beautiful thing to get so SEE someone come up with creative solutions to make their work better. Very refreshing in our time. Love your content!
kzhead.info/tools/J_hxJWHl-mIjJBSF-UvkWQ.html
Your mechanically isolated and waterproof propulsion system is amazing and the whole project deserves top marks. Well done!
This going to the titanic?
I hope it doesn't implode
💀💀💀
I’m pretty sure this is a better sub that the other one.
@@theonewhowatches3More thought went into this one that’s for sure.
Whatever! Try not to use xbox controller.
TIP: Use acrylic cement rather than superglue. It will actually fuse the parts together forming a much strong er bond!
True, but it also means there is functionally no chance of recovering the parts should they decide to scrap the project or if they place a piece wrong and don't notice til it's dried.
Yep for sure Because I had a Kit that came with diffrent orings and the cement to glue them .
@@jamesheaton5421 could just cut the end off for minimum damage
While that probably would be useful in some scenarios, I dont think these experiments are encroaching on the limits of superglue
@@jamesheaton5421 no he can just cut it in half
This is incredible. I'd love to see you test it's max depth. You could install some LEDs so that it the camera can still see at increased depth and tether it so that the sub can be retrieved once you lose radio control. Taking it to a lake should give you the depth and the relatively still water you need in order to test it safely
It would be great if they send a camera down, and have a remote wifi antenna that floats but with a very thin wire so it doesn't impede submarine movement.
All in favor of having our guy build a fully-functional LEGO R.O.V.? :D
Luckily we have a _lot_ of lakes in Finland. And when i say a _lot_ i'm not kidding
@@mariasirona1622 Spoiler: Finland doesn't exist, it's just one big lake
@@GeomancerHT There must have been something like that to get the shot of the sub captain minifigure anyway.
Can't believe £200,000 was spent on a sinking sub with the same controller and this cost around £100 and did the job just fine
I get what your saying but making a submarine capable of reaching the insane depth of the titanic with people aboard is a lot more complicated than this. This ROV would implode before it even got half the depth.
@@wyatt-mv6pd half depth? 2000 meters? Lol 10 meters i would rather say
@@ADRIAN-zh4ti For a fun comparison, 2000M depth is approximately 190 atmospheres or roughly 3000 pounds of pressure per square inch. That would be the equivalent of balancing a Toyota corolla on a one inch wide section of the glass.
@@wyatt-mv6pd the problem was that these dudes were billionaires and they were told beforehand that the submarine wouldnt be safe for going down that far, and the guy that warned them about that got fired for it
That lake tho
oceangate reference video
0:30 My mans legitimately using a lego router jig this is amazing 10/10 engineering. Love it.
I chuckled at this section as well :)
5:38
I was already impressed with the syringe being operating using a Lego motor, then the magnetic drive and everything else means this is probably the most impressive thing I've seen this year. I wonder how much it could be scaled up...
Well it turns out you can scale this up to nuclear submarines.
@@MastaSquidge hahhah, that's a good one
@@MastaSquidge we are going to need a bigger syringe
@@MastaSquidge Well damn I had no idea those were made using Lego. Amazing.
im just wondering if its possible to put like a roller in the magnet that can recess... like those tunneling drills have them.... that way it will reduce the friction even more and be more efficient while also sticking to the plexi.... even a small trenched track could be inset so only the whell/roller descends into it while the magnet rubs against the tape on glass to hold it there. That would make it even better, all while no dealing with waterproofing. But that all depends on either successfully sandwiching the magnets and roller or CNCing a brittle magnet to hold a roller, not the easiest thing in the world.
Everything about this video was awesome from the way you designed the submarine, to the magnetic coupling. But the best part of all was the underwater view as the submarine traveled. It looked otherworldly
You have a knack for showing how Legos are more than just toys.
As a qualified Submariner I appreciate the effort and time you put into this build and video. Getting into legos with my kids and a project like this would be so awesome.
awww you should do some diy stuff like this with them, they would love it
@@letsb3nameless665 this may just be me but this is a bit above diy
@@bake4795 not really, the dude in the video did it himself. might be above the level of working with children, at least for the waterproofing, but i bet with some smaller electronics projects first, this can be worked up to.
@@letsb3nameless665 As a software engineer I agree with the other dude.. getting the python code working with the embedded processor will most likely stop you in your tracks till you learn that side of things.
@@TheAudaciousAdventurer yea i guess it would take some time to learn python. but when i was a kid i wished i could code something with my dad, so if i ever have kids ill try teaching them scratch, and then python
You never fail to impress me with these awesome builds
@Don't Read My Profile Photo ok
@Don't Read My Profile Photo why would i?
@Don't Read My Profile Photo thanks for telling me
@Don't Read My Profile Photo your channel is shit and I hope you get roasted in other comment sections.
@Don't Read My Profile Photo and also kudos to you for using reverse psychology to kids
Still better controls and safety than the Titan
Lmao
❤
But can it hold 5 billionaires?
It can hold over 5 billion atoms 😮😮😮
@@Neuro_nActivation 5 billions air (molecules of air)
Too soon lol
@@KeitelDOG um, actually, air is not composed of molecules, but of a homogeneous compost of separate atoms 🤓🤓🤓
@@Neuro_nActivation 😅 ok thanks for the precision.
Using powerful magnets instead of a hole for the shaft is actually a brilliant idea
It's a common thing for those subs
Similar principle is sometimes used in pumping liquids that are corrosive and would destroy a seal around a shaft.
Even though that water was shallow, in the footage it looked like it was a huge underwater cave. Honestly amazing
This part stuck out to me the most too, what a world under there
I'd rather be in this than the Titan
Naahh thats foul 💀💀
bro managed to design a better submarine than the titan sub with legos 💀🙏
I found the syringe to control depth to be particularly fascinating
i don't even understand how that works because from my noob point of view there is always same amount of air trapped inside this thing??? :D
@@miladinseratlic5984 It's not the same amount of air/water, buddy. You got it all wrong. The syringe is _strictly connected_ to the water outside, and is not merely "pushing air around". It is either pushing or pulling a specific amount of *_water_* from the *_tank_* to set the *_depth_* of the submarine *_as intended_* 😒
@@MikeSmith-vb8ul OMG... little blue hose, i didn't even saw it until now... thanks!
@@MikeSmith-vb8ul they didn’t understand it? Okay? Just explain it to them. No need to be snarky about it. Damn
@@aidendoesstuff185 and he did that?
30 years ago I tried making a Submarine from Legobricks and Pneumatic Psarts.I tried to create an Air Bubble in a separate Chamber. It did not work that well, as connections between Bricks were not waterproof or airtight. It was a Fun Bathtub experiment. You completed it right and i can now see my Childhood Plans working as intended. Thank you so much!
Actual footage of the titan sub being made
We need more of this 🤣 just go to random lakes/rivers, I could watch you exploring underwater for hours
Amazing! It looks like it's working great. Have you considered making it launch torpedoes?
Great Idea!
Imagine you’re in a sub and you encounter a random glass cylinder with legos carrying a fricking torpedo
That would be so cool!😂😂
Torpedoes are quite useless, but ICBM is another thing.
I was thinking that two of these with laser tag sensors built in would be AMAZING.
I like how everything in the video seems so large, the light shafts and vegetation makes it look mystical!
Fish Life!
oceangate taking notes
better than ocean gate
pretty satisfying, you really put this at the most of a submarine, and it's amazing how a river can look like another world from the submarine's view
I’m impressed by the speed it can go in the pool the Lego submersible almost resembles a fish at the rate of acceleration and stopping capabilities.
I'm extremely impressed by this build
this man went from beginner to a master in lego submarine creator this is really impresive how he made it from start to a new level with different functions that he uses
Ahhh, I’m sure everyone here who’s had a Lego sub remembers at least one time they got in a tub of a water or pool with their Lego sub and pretending it dive or propel around. The memories and here we are with a creator that actually made a Lego sub, granted the Shell was not Lego due to flotation and water-proofing reasons, but I’m glad the mechanics were Lego which goes to show how brilliant the ingenuity this creator has accomplished once again for this 4.0 model. Keep up the awesome work you’ve done.
That buoyancy system is brilliant!
This design is a huge leap forward compared to version 3.0! Amazing work!
I love how these just keep getting progressively more sophisticated.
No you don't
@@Diamondusa7 But you do
In part 5 he will make his submarine nuclear powered and capable of launching ICBM'S underwater
Lego mini missile sub with a 1kg worth of explosives.
Your lego submarine building skills have improved a lot! Thats an amazing submarine
i always love these submarine videos, hope to see a 5.0!
Stockton Rush more like Stockton Crushed
3:48 Dude the new Iron Lung update looks sick
Bro iron lung dlc the abandoned earth plot: the people in space learn to travel space time and find earth again in a different universe
Would definitely love to see the depth it could accomplish! Maybe add a bit of code, if it hasn't received any kind of input for 5 minutes, to push out the syringe. That way, if it gets too deep and loses contact with the surface, it'll bring itself back into range automatically. Maybe attach a rope to it, so if you take it out to a lake to really test its capabilities, it won't get swept away by a current.
Though I would like to see its crush depth, if the creator can afford to lose the parts.
@@Galactipodhe probably can with the amount of money made the 4 videos hes made about lego submarines
@@Galactipod I mean you don't actually need the internals for that. Just attach a string to the camera, and fill the body with enough ballast to just sink, no need for the electronics
I would add a Spring to the syringe as a fail safe.
@@bob-xy1bd exatamente
built and tested better than OceanGate
I like the part where he made it a cylinder of “composite” then glued the end cap on, definitely proving that is the best design not just the cheapest and easiest to produce.
This is the most amazing thing I've seen on the internet today 🤩 The Captain seems to be having the time of his life! Crusing through those waters with that music in the background almost seemed like it was hyperdrive-ing through space with starfields (the bubbles) passing by.
Yes me too
To go where no Minifigure has gone before.
Nice to see experiments and it progressively gets improved every iteration. Have you considered adding fins to stablize it when moving?
Just the sounds from the sub working bring the Spiderman: Into the Spideyverse soundtrack into mind. What a great project.
Beautiful work
i love how advanced those submarines have gotten over the years. hecc, I can't believe this version actually has a computer on board. (i know it's just a raspberry pi, but that's still a computer.)
kzhead.info/tools/J_hxJWHl-mIjJBSF-UvkWQ.html
The captain uses it to look at the depth
Very neat PID controller implementation to keep the depth constant automatically. The magnetic drives were excellent too. Good work!
Excellent work.
With each submarine model it gets significantly better. Superb Job
Interesting how you went from your first videos to this. Most entertaining to me is always see passionate people in doing what they're doing best. The journey within the river is a piece of art.
Really cool. You could try it at a scuba diving lake. They should have 30 metre deep areas and underwater structures to explore, and if the sub breaks you could get one of the divers to rescue it for you. They might even pay for the video.
He won’t be able to control it deep underwater with radio
Also, there really aren't that many in finland, so i doubt he would be willing to drive or travel in general to one
I can tell you that it would not withstand the pressure at. 30 metres. I took a lavatory cistern ball cock float down to that depth and It imploded.
Conversion of rotary motion to linear motion. Great work
Suddenly was reminded of this amazing vid
You make it look so easy. I bet just getting the weight of the pellets right and getting it to stay level in water was non trivial :D Such a nice job with the target depth tuning. Also getting around the drive shaft leakage problem with with magnets was super smart.
Yeah. And keep in mind that's v4 - figuring out every piece of machinery to put into this was a long build up of past iterations.
I swear it's only a matter of time before you build the first fully functional Iron Man suit out of plastic bricks
Lego man
@@corschipper1472THE Lego man
@@bob-xy1bd Holy LEGO Man of Steel
bro's homemade sub is better than the one that billionaires used💀
This is absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing this quality content ❤
The sounds this makes underwater are incredible. Reminds me of Soma, or maybe Soma should remind me of this.
Soma was awesome. It still gives me the hibbie jibbies when I think of it.
It's like SOMA x Iron Lung with a tiny bit of Nadia Secret of Blue Water
Try Subnautica
Barotrauma for me.
Only missing the sonar sound effect to become a U-571 movie 😄😄😄
太厲害了！這根本可以當作機械系的研究專題😂😂 6:47 python code！！！謝謝你！！！無私的分享是最大的美德，我很感激 By Taiwan students 🙌🏻🇹🇼
Xin hỏi ,mã code python dùng vào mục đích gì vậy ?
@@thuongbuivan8089 python是其中一種程式語言，將它透過電腦輸入到晶片裡，透過晶片讓機器、馬達運轉
Ý của bạn là dùng nó để lập trình cho nó bơi 200m tự động mà không dùng điều khiển đúng không
You are so much intelligent your hardwork really worth it
One of the best lego Projects I have see. So far. Great engineering.
4:06 iron lung
Iron lung I could agree XD
I think Hull Volume would be a good addition to the spec list in the description, in order to compare with the displacement. It's 2.376 litres by my calculation!
Would definitely love to see the depth it could accomplish! Maybe add a bit of code, if it hasn't received any kind of input for 5 minutes, to push out the syringe. That way, if it gets too deep and loses contact with
This is an inspiring, gorgeous project. Visually, and STEAM-wise. I especially loved the close up of the Captain! Thanks for making this awesome video.
Something I would absolutely love to see with this would be features for longer-range missions. Equipping it with an FPV system and long-range controls would be really fun to see!
My thoughts as well. So many small-form-factor LRS control setups available these days… coupled with HD FPV (they’ve done amazing things with reducing latency, and with a sub it wouldn’t be a huge deal anyway). I was thinking waypoint pathing, or LRS. This is so cool.
having watched the progress on your submarine projects for a while, this felt like an incredible breakthrough in capability! would love to see the addition of dive fins and rudder eventually for more highspeed maneuverability :)
Amazing process
Master piece ❤
That underwater footage was incredible! Would love to see in in full length and real time!!
This would be a very good school project for electronic and control engineering students. Good job. You inspire people with showing many things can be built with Lego and household objects, especially for engineering students. Edit: thx for codes by the way.
I think he started the channel while in highschool or maybe earlier. He is probably a couple years into his undergraduate education by now. I am assuming he chooses major projects that can be used for college credit, and then be turned into a video for the channel.
Your video made my day a little better.
Congratulations this was a fantastic build
@2:50 omg PID Can't believe that's something I only learned through video games.
Great work, you always make me happy with your creations! Edit: Thats a really fast submarine!
@Don't Read My Profile Photo shut up
@Don't Read My Profile Photo don’t shut ur mouth 🤫
@Don't Read My Profile Photo who would fucking cares to read your name?
@Don't Read My Profile Photo ok i won't
The video is speeded up
At least not 5 people imploded
Marvelous work
Amazing! The view from inside the mini-submarine looks beautiful. Maybe adding a fin will help the submarine to traverse underwater better, increase stability and improve control.
4:43 His name is James, James Cameron, the bravest pioneer; No budget too steep, no sea too deep; Who's that? It's him! James Cameron.
👍👏👏👏👏👌
South Park! 😂
Amazing work
4:02 Bro it looks like Iron lung, also you make very good content, keep up the good work.
This is one of the great things about the internet. We're able to see incredibly inspiring projects that influence future engineers and builders.
Making everything so detailed,,, u r really genius
Way excited for V5!
Ideas: 1. Make submarine bigger, more powerful, and more durable. Use it to explore big lakes, rivers, public pools, whatever: - more Lego motors for faster speed and carrying more mass, or motor bought on Amazon and connected to Legos (nobody will blame you) - bigger container to fit everything 2. That's another very very ambitious idea: antenna relays. This will probably help make your submarine truly long distance. Simplest way is to just take two different antennas, and make one relay signal of previous one. And have the sub accept signal of all of them, OR-ing it (if at least one antenna connects, it will work). Might seem like not an elegant solution, but I think it requires the least programming. You can place the relays along the river by hand, and it will greatly extend your range of control. The more ambitious idea is to make the relays placeable by submarine. Make few mini modules connected to the sub externally. It should have a way to connect and disconnect them. Need to find simple way like magnets or whatever. Modules need to be neutral buoyancy, and contain relay antennas and other stuff to relay the signal. Maybe ways to attach to the environment are needed, like anchors. Maybe it's unrealistic to expect this, but it would be cool. 3. Create Lego gripper. Simplest way is to create "jaws" in front of the submarine, opened and closed by engines with gear ratio exchanging speed for power. Maybe try catching fish with this?
3:24 I thought that was the FNAF 3 danger ambience noise at first lol
Master piece
good job more machinery need these
this thing gets more and more sleek looking in every iteration
This is exactly why it pays off to duly wait for your videos. Seemingly every time you deliver a master class in ingenuity and love for your hobby and it shows. The underwater visuals werde absolutely stunning. Thank you for using your gift to grant access to this unseen and probably easily overlooked world. Simply beatiful!! Thank you
Rides for $240k
I just hope it doesn’t implode
Its so cool seeing it out in nature
Looks good, you should make an instrument like an piano or something
@Don't Read My Profile Photo shut up man
@Don't Read My Profile Photo Por Favor?
@Don't Read My Profile Photo bro idc