I live in South Africa and I have built my Blue ROV 2.
Because of the flight restrictions on Li-ion and Lipo batteries, I have been unable to source a battery from Blue Robotics, or Turnigy.
The Batteries are over 100Wh and therefore they cannot be transported by air.
I now have an ROV without batteries, so my next step is to build my own batteries.
Can anyone please supply help me with a schematic for the Battery that Blue Robotics supply.
I have ordered the individual cells and the spot welding machine to build my own batteries.
Any help will be appreciated.
I have the code on transport of Lithium products, if anyone is interested.
Hi Marius,
I made a post earlier explaining how to do this.
I also made a battery holder: 4s6p battery holder
And of course, the better alternative is to ditch batteries all together:
My subsea power module
What batteries did you get? They are not all equal and you need to be careful about discharge rate.
Cheers,
E.
Hi Etienne
Thank you for the information
I bought the Panasonic NCR18650B batteries.
I do not think this will work for you. Finding the right battery is difficult.
This guy is the number one battery tester. Check out his review:
You need to try and find a battery that can give 20A continuous discharge else you are wasting your time and money.
Because its a 4s6p battery pack, this will give you 120A of discharge.
The battery you opted for will fail if you use more than 25-35A continuous discharge. This means you won’t be able to use your ROV much past 50% gain and even then it still might fail.
I have tested many batteries, lots of fake batteries out there. At present I use MXJO which aren’t too bad. Took a lot of abuse compared to LG choco and other brands out here.
You will need to find the right local battery and check Mooch’s review to help you out.
Good luck.
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Hi Etienne
Thanks for your help.
I will have to make do with these for now, because that is all I can source in South Africa.
I will try to find the right ones.
Regards
Marius
Look in vape shops. That is where I get mine.
Check your voltage when you operate.
I have wasted a lot of money using wrong batteries. Had a lot of failures. it only takes one cell to fail for the whole battery pack to got tits.
You should try and buy from aliexpress. I think they can airship.
cheers.
Thank Etienne
I would like one of technical managers that handle the battery section to mail me, because I have a suggestion for shipping batteries, after reading the law.
Technically there is nothing unlawful about shipping lithium batteries (of any capacity). You can ship up to 35kg of lithium by cargo plane. However certain suppliers won’t do it because it is labour intensive to do all the paperwork/certification, AND some countries do not allow the importation of certain batteries/cells. OR, some countries require onerous amounts of paperwork (eg original certificates of origin signed by a federal chamber of commerce!!!), effectively stopping the import. If your country does not specifically ban the importation, you just need to find a supplier that will send them (and will supply all the documents, proper labelling/packing etc).
Hi Marius
Try to buy this battery…from Hobbyking, I have bougth several Lipo batteries from them to Norway.
I use a 4S 10000mAh battery in addition to the standard 20mAh battery, not so long dive time but.
But this battery from Hobbyking is close to standard battery for the blueROV2.
But you have to use Home / Store / Enclosures, Buoyancy, and Ballast / 4" Series / Watertight Enclosure for ROV/AUV (4″ Series)
Or these smaller one…
But you have an issue to fit in enclosure…
Best Regards
Erland Hansen
Larvik, Norway
The Turnigy 10000mAh version fits into the 3in standard tube.
I’ve used https://eu.nkon.nl/ (they have a separate page for non-EU customers) for single cells. They have the same Samsung as used in the BR cylindrical version if you can weld them yourself or use Etienne’s sort of solution.
Hi
The turnigy multistar 4s 10000mah will fit into the 3in standard tube…I use this !
But it’s a discontinued product, and the replacement is 3mm thicker (38mm), and maybe it’s not fit in the 3in tube.
Best Regards
Erland
I have some of these discontinued 4s 10ah Multistars new in box if anyone is interested.
I have tried to order from Hobbyking, but they will not ship to South Africa.
Hi Marius
Sorry to hear that Hobbyking not ship to South Africa, strange…
Have you tried ebay ?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Optipower-MultiRotor-Lipo-Cell-10000mAh-4S-14-8V/152738591971?hash=item238fedf4e3:g:9MMAAOSw7ylZ3Ylg
Or have you tried some of Blue Robotics international distributors…
Best Regards
Erland