Underwater GPS setup question

Dear BlueROV team,

Today I tried to install our underwater GPS and all went fine until the moment to connect the locator to the tether. The end green cable of the locator are very thin and and up in a small connector. However, the free end of the tether is just “raw” normal sized cable.

In the instructions, you suggest:
a) installing a connector (I am not sure where to find a connector and how to do this actually)

b) hardwire the connection, I guess this is the most feasible but I am not sure if I understood properly and before messing things up, I would just like to confirm.
So do you mean, just cut the connector, strip of some portion of the locator cable and connect them directly to the “raw” end of the tether? If doing so, would it be enough to wrap each connection in some vinyl tape for electric wire at the end?

c) using a terminal block. With this solution, can use any block types or is there specific models for electronics?

Would you have any recommended solution? Ideally I would like to install and test it rapidly, but I am afraid to be too impatient…

Thank you for your help!

Frederic

Did you purchase an integration kit?

If so, you should have received these parts:

And the connection to the tether is like so:

Dear Jacob,

Thanks for the rapid answer. Yes I received all these parts and this is all well connected (hopefully). My concern is for the other end of the tether. I need to connect the locator to the tether inside of the ROV.

Update: I just connected the cables with a little “connection block”, I don’t know the term, but a small version of the bar provided in the integration kit. Ideally in the future I will change for something “slimmer”, but at the moment that’s all I could find in the local hardware store. In the office, everything seemed to work and we will see tomorrow at sea how things behave.

Cheers,

Frederic

P.S. Also for updating the WaterLinked software, the manual shows a little blue cable that is “making a loop”. I guess it is some kind of standard cable, but as it is not included, would you have a reference so I could try to get it on Amazon or somewhere else? Update on this too: I guess the cables is a Dupont 2 pin female-female connector right?

Frederic, this was an oversight, a connector for the ROV side should be included. We will update the item to include this in the future.

The ‘loop’ connector is a female-female jumper wire for 0.1" pitch pin headers, like these. The purpose is to make a short-circuit electrical connection between two pins on the board, you could do this with another wire, but if you do this, be very careful to only contact the intended pins. WaterLinked has started shipping these with the kits in December.

Hello @jwalser

I have some questions about the Underwater GPS as one of my clients is really interested to buy one.

Is it showing in real time the coordinates of the ROV (latitude, longitude)? like this photo on the UWGPS Manual


are the small numbers on the left bottom the latitude and longitude and is it on real time browsing?

Acoustics seems to work only for 100 meters but is the locator waterproof for 300 meters? in this case the ROV should continue diving to reach to the point.

Regards,
LG

Hi Luis, yes the system gives you the gps coordinates in real time, and the locators are depth rated to 300m. Make sure all of the components on the ROV have the proper depth rating to 300m; our buoyancy foam needs to be coated to be rated to this depth.

hey @jwalser,

at the time I buy the BR2 with aluminum tubes do you guys coat the foam before delivery??, I´m worried cuz i didnt notice this on my previous BR2 for 300 meters I´ve delivered to my client…

Regards,
LG

Hi @luisgamez,

We’ve actually recently done some more extensive Crushinator testing of our foam at pressure, and have found that it performs well at 300m. The BlueROV2 foam won’t have any problems at this depth un-coated.

However, it is an important distinction that although we do provide the BlueROV2 with full aluminum enclosures upon request, the BlueROV2 itself is NOT yet officially rated for 300m operation. We’ve only done limited testing at this depth, and have found that there are still a few more things that need tweaking, along with more testing, before we are comfortable giving an official 300m depth rating. With aluminum tubes, the BlueROV2 should do well to 200m as it is, but 300m is not yet officially recommended- more work needs to be done.

You can email us at support@bluerobotics.com if you need more details for you work Luis.

-Adam

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Hello @adam

That´s correct that is the same answer I have gotten from Rusty before purchasing BR2 with aluminum tubes and same risks were told to the client. Client agreed to take the risks however at the moment he is very happy with the results and so far the BR" has been tested until around 250 meters with no any problem.

Do you guys have any official date to offer BR2 upgraded for 300 meters?

Regards,
LG

@luisgamez,

Good to know that you and your client are aware of the current caveats, and its great to hear that its been doing well down to 150m!

No official date yet, but we hope to have it available this year.

-Adam

Hi Fredric,
I recently purchased a Waterlinked underwater GPS system used , I am having the same issue you mention here about connecting the locator to the tether inside the ROV. Any chance you could send me a picture or a more detailed description of what you did here?
I can’t seem to find the integration kit on the the blue ROV website anymore- I’m guessing it is discontinued since the old GPS system is also discontinued.
Any help would be great!
Thanks,
MC