Assuming the DVL A50 is mounted on the bottom of the BlueROV2, what is the maximum pitch or roll before the DVL will no longer track? I’m wondering if the DVL will still work properly if keep the bow down 10-15 degrees to maximize the use my of imaging sonar.
Our experience with the DVL is that it functions rather well even at much steeper angles than what you require. The capability is there, but the ROV often behaves a bit erratically after a while (drifting and oscillating while in position hold). Thus far we have only had the chance to test in a small pool susceptible to reflections, such that in a real environment it may be more stable. Regardless, I understand that WaterLinked and BlueRobotics are currently working on integrating the A50 in a more robust manor, so the issues mentioned may be short lived!
Hi Robin,
How did your DVL connect to ROV2 before?Serial or Ethernet?
Hi @Kingzeon,
The integrations is being done via ethernet, as that also allows access to Waterlinked’s web ui for management and updates.
Looking at the WaterLinked documentation it doesn’t appear there’s much difference in the data provided over the network connection and the data provided over the serial connection. It looks like you would lose out on the per-transducer report, but the time and velocity values are in both.
I’d prefer to not add an ethernet switch to the ROV since I’m already pressed for space inside the 4-inch tube. Aside from the web UI, would I lose anything by modifying the DVL service to use the serial connection and skipping ethernet altogether?
I should receive my DVL this week and my integration plan is to just use serial. Any initial config/update I can do over ethernet while the ROV is out of the water.
Hi Matt,
You are right, you will loose the pr transducer report but other than that the reports are similar. So from that point it does not matter which one you use.
Software update and diagnostic is available only though ethernet, but that is normally not needed during a dive.
With respect to the integration in Companion it currently support ethernet and not serial. If you decide to use serial it will not be plug and play at the moment (technically you should be able to connect the DVL serial port directly to the Raspberry PI, decode it and send the data in the same way as the in the DVL service)
By the way, here is the description for how to currently set up the DVL: