I have played with Raymarine chirp sonar with downvision fish images recently. One comment I got back was "the sonar image was just not clear as a real picture or video of an underwater camera. Show me the picture of an anchor at lake bottom or fishing rods, then I will be convinced sonar is of any good or value!"
That feedback after I posted my sonar images at numerous forums like iboats forum, crappie forum, the hull truth forum etc. helped me to my next DIY project - build an underwater camera to take pictures and videos of the underwater world around me. Potomac river and Roaches Run lake and Cheasapeake bay and many other local body of waters I go boating and fishing. So, time to turn my old toys into new toys.
1. Webcams - I have 2 old USB powered webcams lying around in the drawer doing nothing. Time to put them to good use.(1) Intel webcam pro bought in 2002 when computer Operating system was still windows 98. (2) Creative webcam bought in 2004.
The most time consuming and challenging and pain in the butt work was to find the drivers for windows 7 that will work for my 10" Acer Aspireone notebook.
2. 10" Acer Aspireone notebook with 160GB hard disk. I bought this in 2009, and upgraded to windows 7 from XP. Now, it is sitting around collecting dust. So, I will use this to live view and record the fish video I capture beneath the surface of the river and lake.
3. Acrylic box from Action+ wifi videocam I bought in 2015. This was too pretty to throw away. Now, I am going to place the webcam inside this acrylic box and waterproof it.
4. Inverter 100 watts - I bought this in 2000? for camping. This little inverter can convert DC to AC so I can use my AUTOCRAFT deep cycle marine battery to power my notebook. The battery of the notebook can last about 30 minutes without charging.
5. Ikelite LED waterproof flashlight - this can shine into the dark underwater world and attract fish to my webcam.
Certainly, I need silicone sealant to glue the webcam inside the box and any opening on the box including the opening for usb cable. Now problem, my 3/4" drill bit and my power drill does the job perfectly.
Click here to watch how I build this underwater camera video?
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