What I am suggesting is having 4 ESCs and one battery inside one battery enclosure, and the other battery and another 4 ESCs in the other battery enclosure. Both battery enclosures would be the same size as the main electronics enclosure, so the vehicle will be very large. It will be necessary to then run electrical connections for the ESC control signals (servo or PWM) and also power cables from each of the battery enclosures to the main electronics enclosure.
I expect many people will be developing their own batter packs for the new T500 thruster vehicles, but it is very hard to get enough energy in a battery pack. One alternative, is to simply run the T500 thrusters from the standard Blue ESCs and battery pack. They will be more efficient/powerful, but of course you cannot reach the maximum potential power of the thruster.
Our newest vehicle has been in the works for a while and we developed a large power supply (1kW) that is mounted in a small housing along with the ESC and an opto-isolator because it was impractical to put all the ESCs and the required power in a single housing. By running higher voltages to each of these thruster “pods” we are able to keep the massive bus bars and cables required out of the electronics housing, but it is not a trivial design. We will be releasing more information soon.
Option 2 seems the best of the 3. You could run the lights from the main housing though if you wanted. Also, going to 6S (6 series LiPo cells) for the batteries on the T500 would be idea. However, please be careful of other voltages, as you may want to run either a regulator, or smaller battery (4S such as the standard Blue Robotics battery) for the grabber.
I revised option 2.1 as per your suggestion. I am thinking about using bigger light that require 24 V, so i will put 2 lights with motor battery (6S) and i will run small 4S battery into the electronic enclosure
I believe we’re planning to release new end caps for the 4" and 6" enclosures quite soon that will include holes for M14 penetrators. You can also get a blank end cap if you want to make your own holes - whether the electronics fit depends on what you’re including in the enclosure you choose.
We’re developing a 6S battery that will fit in a 4" enclosure, which should hopefully be releasing towards the end of this year.
You can install as many lights as you want, assuming you’re able to supply sufficient power to them. Note that if you’re wanting to power them from a single set of wires, there are limits to how many can go in one daisy chain.
It’s not something I’ve looked into. There may be some other options that have been discussed if you search the forum for something like “larger lights” or similar.
thank you Eliot for your information. We are not confident to completely select component by ourselves and make design from ground up. That is why we are asking for some guideline and example of what to purchase and then we will be confident enough to assemble them with some minor part fabrication. Well, i guess i have to wait a bit longer for more information about ROV with T500.
Fair enough - not everyone has the knowledge and/or resources to do so, and that includes us at this point.
I can’t provide guidelines or examples without information or testing data to base them off, so until we have finished our upcoming designs and are selling those larger products, and/or until we have searched for and found others’ products that we’re willing to recommend, there isn’t more advice that we can provide beyond helping with things like relevant search terms.
Do you have a rough idea of what you need to do with the ROV?
-How much thrust it will require (how much more than a Blue ROV2 heavy)?
-Maximum depth rating?
-What is the maximum payload size/weight in water/weight in air/electrical power?
-Dive duration?
-Average power required during the dive (to calculate required battery or power supply)?
-Maximum length of tether?
-Power source available for battery charging or power supply?
If what you need is an ROV with just a bit more thrust than a Blue ROV2 heavy, then probably running 8x T500s on a slightly large frame with 2x 4S or 6S batteries is probably fine and it’s more easily done.
On the other hand, if you require an ROV that can drag a 300m tether and large payload in 3 knot currents, you probably want 12 or more T500s, a 8kW power supply with 800V tether and power converter (and required safety gear), and it will require a 3-phase 15kW generator to power it. That would be a $100k+ ROV that must be run from a larger vessel with the onboard power available.
Do you have a rough idea of what you need to do with the ROV? --------> yes, many application that i want to see if i can use it at work.
-How much thrust it will require (how much more than a Blue ROV2 heavy)? ------> currently i am using bluerov2 heavy in open sea and the motor power only allow me to maneuver in water during stable sea condition, but when there is higher wave or not stable sea condition, i hardly can maneuver the ROV. So i am thinking about using higher thruster such as T500 thruster instead of T200.
-Maximum depth rating? -----> max depth in my area is 80 meter to seabed.
-What is the maximum payload size/weight in water/weight in air/electrical power? --------> payload meaning additional component? in most of my intention mission will be only take vdo clip, therefore no additional payload to the ROV except the ROV weight which i do not know yet.
-Dive duration? ------------> right now, the bluerov2 heavy with 6 LED lights will only allow me to dive for 10-15 mintues, it will be nice and useful if i can do 20-30 minutes dive.
-Average power required during the dive (to calculate required battery or power supply)? ----> do not know yet
-Maximum length of tether? ----------> 150 meters
-Power source available for battery charging or power supply? 220 volt AC
If what you need is an ROV with just a bit more thrust than a Blue ROV2 heavy, then probably running 8x T500s on a slightly large frame with 2x 4S or 6S batteries is probably fine and it’s more easily done. ------> i am thinking to build another ROV with what you suggested.
On the other hand, if you require an ROV that can drag a 300m tether and large payload in 3 knot currents, you probably want 12 or more T500s, a 8kW power supply with 800V tether and power converter (and required safety gear), and it will require a 3-phase 15kW generator to power it. That would be a $100k+ ROV that must be run from a larger vessel with the onboard power available.
[/quote] ------------> i only need this small size ROV for offshore platform installation observation and travel to seabed to do some sample collecting, so i think 8*T500 with 24 volt battery and little larger frame then my bluerov2 will be my limitation.
I’ve previously done a breakdown of the OTPS with T200s. It should be reasonably straightforward to re-run those calculations with the number of T500 thrusters you’re interested in using, based on the technical details in the T500 product page. My calculations just showed thrust relative to the thruster’s capabilities at the specified voltage, but if you’re using some (or entirely) T500 thrusters it’s likely worth comparing the thrust values as well to see the difference between the thruster types.
While the power usage of T500s is quite similar to T200s at 15V, given 6 T200s can easily over-draw the OTPS a heavy configuration equivalent (with 8 thrusters) in it would definitely need some limiting in place, to avoid excess power draw causing the control electronics to restart.
Hi @EliotBR ,
I’m just considering going for the Outland system and was wondering how well it can perform under load, I know that the spec says max current 66.8A but I wonder what’s it like out in the field. When using my BlueROV I seldom go more than 50% but sometimes I need this extra push especially when going for a deep dive and there’s some current in the water column, so I’m wondering how well will the Outland system can perform in this cases and if there’s anyway of boosting it by any chance?
This thread is interesting for me since I also want to build a T500 based ROV preferably with a power supply but I’m having hard time sourcing out the right power components and diagrams for such a system. I’ll be happy if anyone can share plans or advise for a power system for a T500 ROV.
I don’t have direct experience with the OTPS, but regardless I can’t recommend using a device outside its specification. If it’s rated to max 66.8A then its usage should be kept within that. If you want to push that boundary you’ll need to contact Outland to discuss, but I expect if it was capable of reliably being used outside the rating then it would just have a higher rating.
“Boosting” would require some form of hybrid power, where there’s some amount of power stored on the ROV to supplement the tether power.
You could potentially add a bank of capacitors to act as a short term battery during brief load spikes, but an “extra push” while diving would be an extended load (not a momentary spike), and would likely need a power supply mixer that uses the tether supply for the base load, and allows an onboard battery to handle the extra load during extended peaks.
We’ve worked on something similar previously, but haven’t yet finished development/validation of it, and it’s not being actively worked on at the moment.
Thanks for the info Eliot.
In my experience with the BlueROV2, 66.8A should be enough for most of the operations we do with the ROV but I think it’ll be good to discuss with Outland and maybe get some answers regarding optional power upgrades for their system.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that as the OTPS reaches or exceeds its max current capability, the output voltage will gradually drop, which naturally reduces the current draw from the thrusters. This allows for a “graceful degradation” of performance when you reach the max. It won’t cut off sharply or impact the piloting experience noticeably.
There’s no option to boost the power, unfortunately! You’d have to add a battery into the system somehow to have a burst capability.
