Last light in chain flickers at highest power level

Blue Robotics Products Lights
1

Hi BlueRobotics,

we just assembled our BlueROV2 and noticed that the last Lumen SubSea Light of the chain (4 lights) flickers at the highest power level. Is this an electronic defect?

Thank you very much for your support!

Best regards
Patrick

2

Please contact support@bluerobotics.com.

If you can:
Please send us a video demonstrating the issue. Can you also open the rear end of the Lumen, and inspect the solder joints for loose connections (email us a picture of that too).

-Jacob

3

Hi Jacob,

we just found out that the flickering is related to the level of the BROV2 battery. The battery we used first was nearly empty, with a fully charged battery the flickering is now gone. We will monitor the issue and come back to you if the flickering appears again.

Thank you for your quick reply!

Best regards
Patrick

4

I am also experiencing a lot of flickering running the lights at 12.6 volts using the provided arduino servo code. Are there any recommended capacitor best practices for smoothing this out? Is 12-13V ok or are they generally run at higher voltages?

Thanks

5

The Lumen technical details tab specifies that they can operate with a supply anywhere from 7-48V, with full brightness achievable for supplies between 10-48V. Note that the peak current is 15A / V, so your power supply needs to be able to output 15 / 12.6 \approx 1.2A per lumen, in addition to any power used by your thrusters and other electronics (e.g. a chain of 4 lumens can draw up to 4.8A).

If you’re confident that your power supply is fine then I’d recommend opening the rear of the lumen(s) and checking for water ingress or loose solder connections. If either of those (or some other issue) is present then please contact support@bluerobotics.com and link them to this thread, ideally along with a video of the flickering lights, and a photo of the internals. An order number or date is helpful too if possible :slight_smile: