This is the first Rov I designed and built which I dubbed "The Stinger". It is built from common off the shelf parts found at most hardware and electronic stores. After the initial year of R&D on the thrusters the overall construction took about two weeks to complete. In 1999 I entered this design in the "The Great ROV Design Competition" which was sponsored by "Hydrovision Limited and Tritech International" and put on by Rov.net. I ended up one of the 3 winners.

The Stinger has been on the backburner for the last few years. I still need to work out some of the bugs in the design. The trusters worked pretty good but I would like to get more power out of them. I have larger motors to install and I need to install oil seals for the shafts. The brass rod and tube just didn't provide enough of a seal and the thrusters did leak a bit. It was more oil leaking out then water leaking in though. I also need to fix the tether, using rubber tubing to contain the wires seamed like a good idea at the time but its just not flexable enough. A better camera will find its way on this Rov sooner or later too. I have all the parts I need to fix everything just have to find the time someday. Other than that I was very happy with the way The Stinger came out and with the prize money from the Competiton it paid for itself and the build on the Seafox too.