This paper presents the development made around the SeaBot, a new low-cost profiling float design for shallow water. We introduce a simplified dynamical model of the float and propose a state feedback depth controller coupled with an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to estimate model parameters. We show experimental results of the depth control that validate the model and the controller. We finally propose a loop design method to build low-cost floats by highlighting key design choices along with design rules.