DVL Recommendations

Hello, everyone.
I’ve decided to install a DVL on my BlueROV2 based on everyone’s opinions.
So, I don’t know which DVL to install, and I would like to know which DVL you recommend.
I often see the “DVL A50” by Water Linked AS. What other products do you have besides this one?
Please let me know.
Thank you very much for your time.

Hi @cymal6,

This comment is likely useful:

Water Linked have two DVLs (DVL A50 and DVL A125), and their DVL page (linked above) provides a comparison to a few others in a similar class. I’m aware that Cerulean also has one, which isn’t in the Water linked table.

Comparisons

For easier comparison, I’ve made a similar table to the lowest depth-rating one on the Water Linked DVL page, but including more information, as well as the major Cerulean options and direct links to each product. Note that each company offers more DVL options than the ones in this table*. Ceruleans options are primarily different configurations of the same device, but the other companies all offer additional DVLs with different specs (generally higher performance and higher cost, and often physically larger).

NOTE: The table that was originally here has been moved to this public GitHub repository, so that others can contribute to and help maintain it, and so it’s easier to find :slight_smile:

Hi, @EliotBR .
Thanks for letting me know.
I was confused by all the different types of DVL.
I will take your opinion into account.
Also, thanks for editing the topic.
I was surprised to see how easy it became to use while I was not using it.
Thanks.

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@cymal6 I’m Pete Craigmile with Teledyne Marine. We have worked with Blue Robotics systems and have developed an installation guide for our Wayfinder DVL. Follow the link below and you can see the document:

You can contact me at Pete.craigmile@teledyne.com if you have any questions.

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Hi Pete:

Thanks for posting this. It’s a great looking product and should bring some good competition into the small DVL space.

I noted on the product flyer that the minimum voltage is 11.4V. The BlueROV has an unregulated battery bus, and while it will normally be above this level, when the battery is getting low and the thrusters are operating it can definitely drop below this. Do you know what happens to the DVL operations when the input voltage drops below 11.4V?

Hi @petecrai, welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

I’ve moved your post here as a comment, because it seemed to be a response to the original topic.

As I understand the main specs of your Wayfinder DVL are covered in the Water Linked DVL comparison table, but I had unfortunately forgotten about your integration/installation guide when I was writing my initial response - sorry about that! I’ve edited my original response so it’s mentioned near the top of the thread :slight_smile:

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Do you have any feedback on Cerulean DVL performance. Cost cheapest by far so wondering what vaule could be had for paying 3 to 4 times more for other DVLs.

Hi @dtrail,

Unfortunately I haven’t yet had the chance to try out any DVLs, so don’t have direct experience I can use for evaluation/comparison of them. You may be able to find some people on the forum who have used the different options that can speak to the performance of using them, both in isolation and together with a surface GPS or underwater GPS system for automatic error correction.

That said, I understand the information provided so far makes for somewhat difficult comparisons, so I’ve updated my initial comment with a comparisons section, including the extra performance information I was able to find on the relevant product/spec pages - hopefully that helps! :slight_smile:

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Walt, sorry for my slow response, I didn’t see your question until just now. If we drop below that voltage (or if the power supply is not able to supply enough current), the Wayfinder DVL can shutdown in between pings and it may take a little while (~30 seconds) for it to recover again. Also if the power supply remains that way (i.e. is not supplying enough voltage and/or current), then the Wayfinder will shutdown again and this cycle continues. Therefore: It is strongly recommended that the power supply consistently supplies the needed voltage and current for the Wayfinder to operate normally.

This is a great post and probably deserves to be more visible.

I was wondering if it is possible to update this thread based on newer products from existing and newer companies as well? Do you have a “knowledge” page for DVLs? The use of DVLs seems to increase, and the information provided here is quite useful!

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Hi Bent! :smile:

There is definitely a ton of great info here and while we do not currently have a knowledge page for DVLs, it’s a great idea and we have a broader primer in the works. Are there any particular units you’d like to see added to the comparison table?

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It would be interesting to see, e.g., the Nortek Nucleus 1000 DVL and the WaterLinked A125 DVL, but I’m sure there are other DVLs out there that also deserve to be recognized :slight_smile:

Hi @benth,

I’ve had an update for the table here in the works for a couple of weeks now, that I’ve just completed. You’ll be happy to note that Nortek’s Nucleus 1000 has been added :slight_smile:

The bigger and more expensive DVLs are intentionally just in the more detailed public spreadsheet (the WaterLinked A125 was already there). The table in the forum comment is more targeted to the general forum audience, who are more likely to use the lower cost and less highly specced options.

Given you seem to have missed the link to that spreadsheet, I’ve reworded the comment a bit to hopefully make it a bit more obvious to interested passer-bys :slight_smile:

Thanks, Eliot!

Indeed, looks like I missed the A125 DVL, sorry about that! Great to see that the Nucleus 1000 has been added! Thank you for the information! :slight_smile:

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A couple of minor updates:

The table that was originally in this comment has been moved to this public GitHub repository for device comparisons, so that others can contribute to and help maintain it, and so it’s easier to find :slight_smile:

The “broader primer” @emiller mentioned was released a little while ago:

and it includes a section on DVLs :slight_smile:

Hi @EliotBR,

We have a Waterlinked A50, and are currently deciding between USBL systems.

As we will be sending DVL and USBL to the Navigator, and the Navigator does Kalman filter calculations, do you know if it’s possible to use the USBL, DVL and IMU data in the navigator to output a Kalman filtered position estimate to the ROV overlay and enable better autopiloting?

Or is that something that happens automatically?

Regards,
Kieron