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The Acid Lake Sounder

Building a long-range RC boat to survey the largest acid lake in the world: The Kawah Ijen, Java Island, Indonesia

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This project is at it's bases, I have the idea, like "roughly"... Need input guys !

General Idea:

Build an RC boat, capable of remotely/automatically progress on the 1km-wide lake. The boat would embark a string of temperature sensors (DS18B20 for example), to ~3D image the upper part (10m?) of the lake waters. The boat should embark a pinger/echo sounder, as low cost as possible, in order to image the bubbling inside the water column. Ideally, this pinger/sounder should be able to map the depth/bathymetry of the lake.

The pH is ~= 0.0, composed of H2S04 and HCl, nicely corrosive but OK for short expositions (and good cleaning...) :-)

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Andrew wrote 06/27/2015 at 07:13 point

I have a similar project in mind for crater lake, Mt Ruapehu, NZ. The boat that I plan to use is a modification of a water quality sensor air boat that I already built. A air boat will eliminate the need to protect underwater propulsion parts. The hull is GRP with vinyl ester resin (high temp and chemical resistance). Sensors and sounder I am still not sure about and wither some form of cooling/air conditioning is needed for ESC, Batteries, eletronics.

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Gerome wrote 09/12/2014 at 05:42 point
I believe you'd need a homogeneous covering to avoid crack hence corrosion of the boat hull.
Better idea would be to buy a block of PTFE and machine it to the shape you want. As well as producing propellers or other sheaths for the thermocouples other probes.
I need more information about the pinger, but I bet we can find some resistant compound which is also transparent to ultrasounds/pinger.
As for the pH meter... they are quite expensive... a better solution would be to buy the electrode and readout the current to get a measurement of the H+ concentration....

FYI teflon exists in spray (DW40 makes some) and tape as well as paste...

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Gerome wrote 09/11/2014 at 00:38 point
Use PTFE to coat the parts of the boat in contact with the lake... the temperature sensors can also be coated with teflon, they would still work nicely (I've done it with K-type thermocouple as well as with the sensor you're proposing to use).
How does the pinger work? Do you need a open window / direct contact with the water?
I would also add a portable pH meter, to see if it is homogeneous through the lake...

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Thomas Lecocq wrote 09/11/2014 at 06:49 point
GĂ©rome: I've found this tubing company, 20km away from my place, they make PTFE thermo shrinkable tubes too: http://www.kenovel.biz/tube-ptfe.htm

About the pH meter, do you know low-cost + digital versions?

For the pinger: well, usually some plastic box/head must be inside the water, yes. Well, I think :-)

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Thomas Lecocq wrote 09/11/2014 at 08:05 point
Does PTFE exist in "spray" ?

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Brainy.Baboon wrote 03/18/2022 at 17:58 point

yes it does but it is used as a lubricant. I dont know any easy way of making it stick. You can make prototypes with PTFE tapes which are inexpensive and have good adhesion and thermal resistance


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