Month: June 2022

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Ravens Well Part 3

Its has taken some time (a bit longer then planned) but i’m pleased to say that the entirety of Ravens Well has been surveyed and photographed resulting in a complete and accurate (to the disto data) model. The same techniques and equipment that were previously mentioned have been used, some sections proved tricky for the software to understand so I have introduced the coded Metashape markers to provide visual and spatial reference, this seems to have solved the issues in certain sections of passages where the alignment was struggling.

Coded Metshape Target

There are some ferrous areas inside as the disto data shows some larger than expected loop closures in certain areas despite careful practice. Metal girders are visible in the far downstream area which is the bit which shows the greatest variation when overlaying my data with the previous survey performed by Axbridge Caving Group.

Plan view of the Distox2 data in Survex

I’m working on a video walk through of the whole site like the previous version so I will upload this when its complete, here is a quick video overview for now, below is low resolution model uploaded to Sketchfab which you can explore with your mouse/ phone.

Video Overview of Model
Low resolution Sketchfab upload (Due to free account limits)
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Broken Aquazepp :(

After a successful two hour dive following Marcus around Vobster whilst he photographed the walls around the 22 m area the afternoons dive didn’t go so smoothly. Feeling a bit scootered out after the mornings dive we jumped back in anyway and whizzed around this time unencumbered by camera equipment . Nearing the end of the dive my scooter started to make strange noises, the normal Aquazepp racket had taken a turn for the worse and didn’t sound healthy at all so I swam it the short distance back to the entrance point, pondering what might be causing it. I initially suspected that the motor might have come loose on its mounts and the gears might not have been meshing optimally.

Once back at home I had a look in the tail cone but found the motor still firmly bolted into place, instead I could see that the large drive gears teeth had partially stripped. No prop jams or other issues had been encountered on the dives so why this happened is a bit of a mystery, old age perhaps ? The drive gear attached to the motor shaft was fine, this is only a few years old.

Lower portion of teeth stripped

This happened in February 2022 and writing this is June I still haven’t bought a replacement part, I have been busy with other things and the scooter doesn’t get much use over the summer when the caves are a better proposition for diving than Vobster. I think I might take this as an excuse to rid the scooter of the noisy drive train and go with a direct drive motor, at the moment replacement motors for the CUDA are on sale and are suitable for direct driving a scooter.

https://dive-xtras.com/products/cuda-motor

It seems recently that someone has taken over ownership of what was left of the Aquazepp brand, more information can be found in this video below: