Cool Electronics Topics

 Underwater Down Camera

Underwater Down Camera

Third Wave sports a very interesting and unusual electronics option which is a downward-pointing, lighted, POE IP camera built into the bottom of the hull.  The purpose of this camera is to be able to observe both ocean life and divers as well as proximity to the bottom and type of bottom of the ocean in real time.  

The camera used for this had to be quite extraordinary to be worthy of us putting a big hole in the bottom of our boat to accommodate it.  Fortunately we found the the Barlus UW-S8ZP-C underwater camera.  This is a commercial if not military grade underwater camera.  The housing is made of HEAVY 316 stainless.  I would be surprised if the tube wall is less than 3/32".  It is quite heavy.  The camera has built in visible light and infrared illumination LED and operates off of Power Over Ethernet (POE).  The communications interface is Ethernet.  The unit is meant to be installed in a pond, or under the ocean or in a saltwater aquarium.  The cable can be as long as you like, but cost goes up with cable length.

This incredible camera contains the following features:

• 316L stainless steel housing, 5.5" long and diameter of 2.8"
  
• 3.6-11mm remote control electric zoom (3x optical magnification)
• Special glass flat lens, not plastic
  
• 4k/25 Hz high resolution video
• Uses the Sony 274 CMOS Starlight sensor for excellent low light performance 
• Auto focus at distances as close as 5cm
  
• Built in illumination LEDs which are photo-sensitively controlled
  
• Withstands submersion up to 50 meters indefinitely
• ONVIF compatible IP camera controller "just works" with common, low cost viewing applications
  

In order to make a leak-proof module that could be installed as a through hull device, we went big on the bronze through hull fitting.  As you can see, we found a monster, old school bronze through hull with an inside diameter big enough for the camera to slip in leaving perhaps 1/8" all around.  This through hull probably weighs 15 lbs all by itself but once the camera was installed it was over 20 lbs.  We filled the space between the outside of the camera housing and the inside of the bronze through hull fitting with 3M "5200" thus ensuring a forever leak-proof installation.

We then found as flat an area under the hull as possible and built up a fairing block platform for the bronze port/camera unit so that the unit would be as horizontal as possible when at rest in the water.

 

Here is a shot pointing up showing the solid fiberglass fairing block that we made in more detail as well as showing the camera LEDs in operation.

Here's another angle so you can get the full perspective on this.  The camera body is inset up into the through hull fitting by perhaps 1/4" in order to be sure that it would not be hit by anything that might happen to go under the boat.

The very first time we turned this camera on was after we had roughed the saloon touch screen computer into place.  The saloon PC uses the original 21.5" touch screen that did not work out very well for outdoor use but was fine for indoor use.  

In the embedded video below there is a small fan-less Intel I7 based embedded PC (NetFu brand from EBay - I've bought 3 of them so far...) inside of the monitor housing which is just inside Third Wave's sliding glass door.  The software being used to see the camera images is BlueIris v5.  The nice thing about BlueIris is that you can display several windowed real time camera video feeds and then double tap the image from any of the feeds using the touch screen.  That video then goes full screen. Double tap it again and you go back to windowed video.  It's a great user experience.

As you can imagine I was kind of freaked out to see the camera picking up images of catfish swimming against the fast moving current while we were sitting at a dock in NE Florida during the trip down from VA to Freeport.  I am very excited to see what this camera can pick up in the pristine clear waters of the Bahamas.  I know it will be stunning on any bright sunny day because at the top of the water you can see down to the bottom 70 or 80 feet easily with great clarity using a diving mask or a glass bottom bucket.

I will definitely be posting more video from this unique camera setup as I am able to increasingly use the boat in the Bahamas in 2022.