Ilan Moyer's Online Portfolio

The Challenge: To build a submarine that would dive, move forward, move backward, and surface.

Technical Approach: : I built a radio-controlled submarine which dived and surfaced by pumping water out of a ballast tank, was driven forward and backward by a DC motor, and could steer with a custom-machined aluminum rudder.

Selected Design Features: The submarine was built in a compartmental fashion, which was important in preventing the entire machine from flooding as the result of a single leak. Five separate compartments were used:

a control compartment which contained all radio control equipment and batteries
a pump box which contained two pumps and an associated controller
a motor bay which housed a 12v DC motor and the associated speed controls
a rudder assembly containing a steering servo and waterproofing cylinders
a ballast tank to which the pumps were connected by plastic tubing

All compartments were interconnected by wiring studs and fluid valves, meaning that any compartment could be removed and replaced without needing to cut any wiring or tubing, thus circumventing a potential source of leaks.


The control box.	The pump box.

A pencil-box turned ballast-tank.	Up close and personal with the rudder.

The Yellow Submarine