Archive
April 2022
19 articles
New Welding Technique = 50% Faster
We use big steel tubes to build the structures of the center spars and the outriggers on the floating base. The thing about steel is that it comes in flat sheets, not tubes, so we have to make the tubes by rolling the sheets of steel into a tube shape.We have a machine that gradually…
EcoPod Walls Installed
Grant is bringing us another factory update on the progress of the EcoPod. We have made a few EcoPod wall sections and we now have five of these sections installed on the first EcoPod prototype. These wall sections will go completely around the circumference of the circular EcoPod at a height of 800mm which is…
Preparing the PodPusher
We acquired two salvaged workboats a few months ago that we have been taking the time to restore and get sea-worthy again. The goal for these boats is to be used to transport SeaPods and EcoPods from the marina here in Linton Bay, Panama out to where they will be placed. Since the Pods don’t…
The First SeaPods in Minecraft – Best gift ever
We recently celebrated Grant’s 50th Birthday and for his birthday, he received a pretty cool gift from his nephew(once-removed), Jaydin. Jaydin spent quite a bit of time building the first SeaPod in Minecraft and surprised Grant with it for his birthday! If you don’t know, Minecraft is a virtual 3D sandbox game where players can…
Marine Grade Electronics
One of the biggest challenges in building a home near or in the ocean is that the environment is very harsh for metals and electronics. When you add that with the fact that we are building a smart home that has considerably more electronics than a standard home, you can see that preventing corrosion is…
Grant’s 50th Birthday Celebration
April 8th was a special day for everyone here at Ocean Builders as we celebrated our CEO Grant hitting the Big 5-0. We had a small celebration here in Panama for his birthday. The celebration included a traditional Panamanian show with local performers giving us a performance that included traditional music and dances. We had…
SeaPod Side Molds
Grant is here today to give us an update from the factory. We can see the mold for the bottom of the SeaPod, which will be assembled with the roof, and of particular importance in this video is the mold for the sides of the SeaPod. These side pieces are essential in that they connect…
Making Custom PC board
Most of the custom PCB boards that we are using all throughout the Ocean Builders Pod homes are designed and made by us. Since these boards have very specific jobs, we found that the best option was to design and create our own boards.Omer is here with a quick video to show an example of…
Custom Circuit Boards
In the process of developing the Ocean Builders homes, we are doing things that have never been done before and building technology that has never been used before. When you are doing something totally new, you often have to create what you need since there are typically no options sitting on the shelf at the…
EcoPod Exterior Walls
Now that the bottom section and the roof for the EcoPod are coming along nicely, it’s time for us to get to work on the interior and exterior walls of the home. Since the home is built to be a circle, the walls have a constant curvature that allows us to build identical sections and…
R&D – Can we build a Bulletproof SeaPod?
We had the idea to see if it was possible to make a bulletproof Pod with exterior walls that are capable of stopping a bullet or other projectiles. Our plan was to substitute the sheets of fiberglass fabric that we typically use in our Pods for sheets of kevlar fabric. The construction process is basically…
Bottom of SeaPod Half Finished
We have been hard at work and making steady progress on the bottom half of the SeaPod shell here at the Ocean Builders Factory in Panama. Craig is back to give us a quick explanation of the work that we have been doing. You can see in the video below that things are coming along…
Unboxing Electric HydroFoil
Similar to our new electric surfboard, here we have Grant walking us through the details of our new electric hydrofoil which is somewhat similar to the surfboard, but has some notable differences.The surfboard simply moves across the surface of the water just like any normal watercraft. The hydrofoil is different because it has a fin…
Curved EcoPod Windows
Here we have a quick update from the production facility that is building the windows for the EcoPod. One of the coolest things about the EcoPod is that it has windows going around nearly the entire home. Complemented by the large flat window on the opposite side, the home is built in a circle and…
EcoPod Window Production Updates
We have an exciting update to bring you about the production of the windows for the EcoPod. The first set of flat windows that will separate the kitchen and living room area from the patio is finished and should be heading our way very soon.When closed, these windows will provide a beautiful view from the…
Torching Steel
The main structure of the floating TriPod base that will keep the SeaPod and EcoPod afloat is made of large steel tubes that are cut and welded together to create one solid structure. These tubes start their lives as a flat sheet of steel before being rolled into the tubes that you can see us…
ReefScan ROV Pool Testing Session #1
Here we have our new ROV in action. We’ve been really excited about this collaboration with QC, and after unboxing, we couldn’t wait to get to grips with the controls and give our little ROV a test-dive. Our team is testing the ROV in the pool in order to get familiar with the controls and…
ReefScan ROV unboxing
It’s a beautiful day here, and we’re very excited to be unboxing our new ROV, or underwater drone. We feel especially thankful to QC, who have agreed to partner with us and have provided this ROV. Our plan is to build upon this and scale up to a fleet of ROVs that can be used…
Flash News – Crypto Bill 697 Passes In Panama
Grant Romundt Other
We come to you today with some very important news that affects our mission as well as the people of Panama – Panama has passed Crypto Bill 697 which is a major cryptocurrency bill that opens the door to allow cryptocurrency to be used for public and private transactions and investments in the country.The bill…