Anyone interested in a low-cost optical wireless video link for BlueROV2?

General Discussion Research
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve been following the great tetherless BlueROV2 builds here (Droplet and others) and noticed that the data link is usually the hard part, acoustic is too slow for video, and going fully tetherless means losing your real-time camera feed.

I’m working on a low-cost underwater optical (blue-light, ~450 nm) wireless modem aimed at exactly this gap: real-time video (~1 Mbps) over short range (a few meters to tens of meters in clear-ish water), using simple OOK modulation on an FPGA. The goal is an affordable module that small ROVs like the BlueROV2 could integrate, not a $20k+ commercial unit.

Before I go too far down the engineering path, I’d love to hear from this community:

1. For those building tetherless / reduced-tether ROVs, how are you handling the video link today? What hurts the most?

2. Would a short-range optical video link actually be useful for your use case, or is range (clarity/turbidity) a dealbreaker?

3. What would “good enough” look like for you; resolution, latency, range, price?

I’m genuinely trying to learn whether this solves a real problem before building more. Honest “this wouldn’t work for me because…” answers are just as valuable as enthusiasm. Thanks!

Sukru

2

This is a really interesting idea, and it sounds like a fun build. Though, I think you’re wise to start with “Will this solve a problem for someone”. I’d imagen if the water is clear enough for this too work, then you might not need the ROV in the first place. I’d maybe start by talking to a bunch of Blue ROV users, and without asking them, see if they mention any problems or complaints that a wireless video feed could fix.

3

Yes, you’re right. My goal was to get users’ feedback anyway. If it’s not actually going to be put to use, it won’t be more than a hobby project. In my forum searches, I’ve seen people complaining about this in the past.