My tether spool

Ok, plan b acquired. Turns out that a company called schilling makes these reels and they have two larger sizes, the gt380 or the gt410. More expensive, but it should still work about the same.

I grabbed a gt380, well see if that fits.

How long is your tether?

75m , which appears to be about 15m too long to fit on the first spool,

I went ahead and published the part files for this here: Waterproof ROV Tether control box and reel cable management additions for use with an ROV by piercet - Thingiverse

It is under a non commercial license, if anyone would like to produce these commercially, a commercial license is also available.

I recieved the larger Schill Gt380 spool yesterday. It is about 5 inches wider, 3 inches taller and 5 inches deeper than the jackreel 4, and looks like it will have plenty of space for the cable (or even a 100 meter cable). The box I designed is going to be too small to fit. so I will scale that up to match the new spacing. Its about 1 inch wider. Since I’m going to be redoing it anyways I’ll probably add 2 pair waterproof ports for the Acoustic locator and a future 2 wires for some sort of sonar signal. No idea what connector i’ll use for thhose. If anyone has a suggestion for one to propose as a standard let me know

I finished up the ROV end of the tether assembly this weekend. I also mounted the slip ring. It turns out that the GT380 has a !@#$%^ solid mild steel shaft instead of the hollow one that the jackreel 4 has, but i was able to drill through it with a set of carbide bits. I also got the new back box mounted. It’s about 40mm wider and 30 taller than the other one. I still need to make a new lid for it.

I did discover that ABS plastic sticks extremely well to most kinds of scotchcast casting material. Hence the need for the blue heat shrink wrap. I’m pretty happy with it so far though aside from that. I think with some sort of mold release the 3d printed mold would work just fine.

Made some major progress on the tether spool finally. it’s electrically complete. I just need to print the lid out, pot everything and it will be ready for a dive. I’ll post the finished pictures and links to the project files at that time. The tether on there is a 75m version. I think you could get 100m on there easily without too much issue.

I elected not to have a quick disconnect at the base of the spool at this time. In the future I may put another seacon connector there so I can theoretically add additional tether segments, but I don’t forsee swapping the base reel out enough to make the expense worthwhile.

The final lid design will be similar to the smaller box lid, with the addition of a 2 wire connector for the USBL thingy in hopes that It will someday drop to about 1/3rd the price.

I finally finished up the tether spool. It’s electrically and physically complete, tested and ready for the near future when I have the front lighting hull on my ROV done. The project files and instructions for making your own are available here: 3d printed cable roller and waterproof control box for a Schill GT380 reel to turn it into a ROV or robot tether by piercet - Thingiverse This version will hold approximately 100m worth of cable. I’m definitely happy with it so far. I may make an additional “clampy thing” to clamp the legs to a dock or a boat at some point, as well as a power wind up key (or possibly even a stepper motor controlled feed gear with a tether feed and retract button? I haven’t got that far yet though. At any rate this will probably be the last post with new design stuff in this particular thread for a while. I need to get the ROV done and tested next.

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@piercet Well, the time has come and I need a tether reel so I am not lugging around 100m of tether on my shoulder. This reel is excellent because it matches my side scan cable reel. I’m buying up parts right now and printing stuff out. I’ll let you know if I get stuck, but thanks for the files and the thorough instructions!

You’re welcome! let me know if you think of any additions you would want, or any changes that would improve it. I’m still really happy with how it came out so far.

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Nice work there @piercet

wondering if you have the printable STL models, seems like you have a 3D printer too.

I do indeed. I even put them online for free so others can print their own.
Here are the files for the larger one 3d printed cable roller and waterproof control box for a Schill GT380 reel to turn it into a ROV or robot tether by piercet - Thingiverse

And here is the smaller variant Waterproof ROV Tether control box and reel cable management additions for use with an ROV by piercet - Thingiverse

I also have intake guards, cable splice molds, and skeg fins, as well as a whole ROV in there if you like.

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Hey @piercet

Very interesting man thanks for sharing!

Anyone know the MINUMIM diameter we can achieve and maintain cable integrity?
I looked at garden hose reels and noticed the inner hub is about 6 inch diameter.
I have 200m of cable to transport.
any suggestions?
thanks everyone!

Hi Doyle, the minimum bend diameter is published at 8" but I think you’d be fine at 6" as well. See all the details here: Fathom Tether

Got my GT380 last week. I’ve been reading though your instructions and the only thing that causes me to pause is the spindle rod.

Wow, this thing is thick. Did you drill this out with an electric hand drill? I’m wondering if it could be replaced with a hollow stainless steel rod.

Yes, 1/4 inch carbide bit with a 24v hand drill. The steel is softer than it looks, so there is that anyways. I did have to drill from both sides. It was a bit of work but it only took 15 minutes or so.

A stainless thick wall tube might work, bit I’m not sure how the housing is constructed. There may be ridges inside. I felt it was safer to just drill it.

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This is the same drum with 100m tether. It will easy take 50-80m more. I consider to test with another 80m.

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Hola cómo estás me podrías fabricar uno y enviármelo a chile
Saludos y gracias por compartir

Hola. No hablo español, así que tuve que escribir esto en Google Translate, mis disculpas por cualquier error. La respuesta rápida es tal vez. Dependería de algunas cosas. Tendría mucha confianza en fabricar la caja y los componentes impresos en 3D, perforar el eje del carrete, montar la caja, etc. Pero estaría mucho menos seguro de vender mis servicios en cualquiera de las piezas eléctricas. Tengo la habilidad suficiente para comprar mis propios productos, pero no sé si estarás contento con mi trabajo. El otro problema es que habría un costo inicial importante. Tendría que comprar el carrete que es de alrededor de 350 con envío dependiendo del tamaño y otros componentes (y si usted quería que completara el extremo de la correa, el cable dependiendo de la longitud puede ser de 400- 600 en partes solamente (el Seacon) los conectores cuestan 70 por 2 piezas finales, por ejemplo). Si luego ensamblara todo y se lo enviara, estaríamos hablando de una cantidad considerable de tiempo y trabajo, necesitaría verificar todos los cables con el multímetro, etiquetar todo , compruebo si hay un buen sello hermético. Me tomó alrededor de 12 horas construir la mina, y otras 4 horas de tiempo de impresión. Podría construir una más rápido esta vez, pero me gustaría probar la tuya mucho más extensamente que la mía. generalmente cobro 35 por mi trabajo por hora, el tiempo de la impresora cobro 10, el envío me cobrará lo que sea la tasa real (que dado el peso del carrete completo sería caro) pero incluso con eso me preocuparía que posiblemente no ser feliz con el unidad completa, y esa es una inversión significativa en dinero. Así que, dicho todo esto, definitivamente puedo imprimir las piezas y enviárselas, pesa alrededor de 1,5 libras de plástico, por lo que unos 18 por el plástico, el otro hardware, piezas de conexión y rodamientos para la guía de salida es otros 50 (todos los precios son USD estimaciones) en hardware inoxidable. 1 hora de mano de obra y 4 horas de tiempo de impresión + cualquier envío sería. Si quisiera que se montara en el carrete, también necesitaría el costo del carrete por adelantado y otras 3 horas de mano de obra. Sería reacio a hacer la correa, pero podríamos discutir eso si está seguro de que quiere avanzar con eso. Para la mayoría de mis comisiones de impresora en 3D, suelo exigir el costo de las piezas por adelantado y luego el envío y la mano de obra se vencerán cuando envíe la información de seguimiento, pero para este probablemente también necesite algo de mano de obra por adelantado. Entonces, dados esos números, si eso es algo que quisieras seguir adelante, házmelo saber. También puede comunicarse conmigo a mi dirección de correo electrónico piercet@comcast.net si prefiere hablar de eso de manera privada. De cualquier manera, ¡gracias por su interés en el diseño!