PowerVision Robot – the company that brought us the PowerEgg – has unveiled another drone creation – but this one explores the depths below. PowerRay, the only underwater drone featured at CES 2017, is a detachable Fishfinder capable of diving 30 meters (98 feet) for up to 4 hours.
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PowerVision hopes that its deep-diving robot revolutionizes the recreational salt, fresh and salt water fishing industries. With a high-definition display and gesture-based VR goggles, it may actually do exactly that – making the fishing a fully immersive experience.
PowerRay, an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV), was designed to locate, lure, and catch fish. With PowerRay’s Fishfinder sonar system, two powerful built-in LED lights, and its integrated front-mounted 4K UHD camera, fishing enthusiasts are able to capture all of the underwater action close up and in high-definition.
Giving buyers the choice between a 100-foot or 200-foot tether, PowerRay can search for bass during a deep sea fishing tour or northern pike while ice fishing. With the option to remove the Fishfinder and operate it as a stand-alone device, users can remote bait drop up to 40 meters (131 feet) below the PowerRay – adding a good 10 meters to your fishing depths.
Powered by three impellers – two in the rear, and one on the underside – PowerRay has a four-hour battery life and has a Wi-Fi transmission rated at 80 meters (262 feet). PowerRay’s intuitive companion app is iOS/Android compatible and lets you control the robot, operate the front-facing camera, and gives users positional information – making the fish finding adventure a rather seamless one.
If you want to step up your fishing expedition, PowerRay comes with virtual reality goggles designed to give you a panoramic view of the action below. By simply tilting your head in any direction, you’ll be able to experience the 1080p action of your catches and near misses. It’s like looking outside the window of a submarine but in real time. With the Fishfinder’s built-in blue LED light designed to attract fish, you’ll have a front row aquatic seat to creating lurking in the abyss beneath you. If VR is a bit too much for a fishing outing, there’s a Burst Mode on the PowerRay app allowing users to capture 12 Megapixel camera shots at 5fps – so you’ll never miss a thing.
With a pre-order date set for February 27th and an ESD estimated sometime April/early May, buyers are going to experience this year’s fishing season like never before.
I recently bought and received a Powerray. After only putting it in the water twice, I have already found several bugs.
There is plenty of documentation and videos on the web about features of the Powerray but VERY little instructional information on how to use the features. The Powervision software is void of any worthwhile instructional documentation as well. Figuring out how to use the software and vehicle are left up to trial and error. I realize the product is new but you would think they would do a better job in documentation.
Also, the device has some bugs that may be worked out with software upgrades. The most significant is knowing the orientation of the vehicle when it is underwater. There is no way to tell if it is going up, down, left, right or going in circles. The only way I could figure out how to get it back to the base station is either waiting for it to float to the surface (which is very slow) or pull the vehicle back using the tether line.
An additional design flaw I have noticed is with the bait drop. I have not tried it yet primarily out of fear of losing the small bait drop “plug”. The instructions say to tie the fish line to the plug and then drop it of the vehicle when a fish is sited. The only problem is that should the line get caught or break from a large fish, not only do you lose the fish but the plug as well so you only have one shot to use the plug. Replacement plugs are not yet available according to the support site.
The last item is to heed the warning about clear water. I live on a man-made lake which is not always very clear (although there are time that it is). At best, the camera was only picking up maybe 3 or 4 feet in front of the vehicle. I did notice that the closer I got to the shoreline the further I could see.
Wish I could report on the VR glasses but after several tries to use them, I just could not figure it out…especially how to steer the vehicle with head gestures…could not find any documentation on how to do this.
I hope the documentation improves quickly or all I’ll have is a $2,000 floating boat anchor!!!
I recently bought and received a Powerray. After only putting it in the water twice, I have already found several bugs.
There is plenty of documentation and videos on the web about features of the Powerray but VERY little instructional information