Hello,
I need to provide power to an oceanographic instrument on the seabed (50m depth) for a long period of time (2 months powering and possibly 4 more months waiting for a weather window to retrieve it).
I am looking at building a rechargeable battery similar to the BlueROV (2500Wh instead of 266Wh) and put it inside an 8" enclosure.
Do you think it is reasonable to use the BR enclosures for so long in sea water? My main worry is corrosion of the aluminum end caps and penetrators.
Hi @Eloi,
We have tried one 3.5 month long term deployment to 50 m ourselves with a 3" enclosure:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQWbW1GFMHT/
Besides some minor discoloration of the penetrators and end caps, everything was undamaged and perfectly functional. There was no significant corrosion at all, and I’m sure it would have been fine for many more months.
In general though, I think adding a sacrificial anode (zinc) would be prudent for most long term deployments. Replacing the stainless steel screws for aluminum may also be a good idea. We have made this switch on the Lumen lights, but have not found it necessary for the enclosures in the vast majority of use cases and not worth the trade-off in durability as they are usually opened and closed relatively often.
-Adam
Hi @adam
Any recommendations / handson experiences on how to choose and mount sacrificial anodes on your components? I’m particularly interested in using them on the 4 inch variant of your enclosures. I ordered an aluminium tube but so far I have only been using the acrylic ones ( due to a bit too brute force flange mouting / unmounting procedure with the alu tube ).
I’m using a blank endcap on one side and a 5 hole on the other side. Was wondering If I would require anodes on both of them, and if I really need to “drill into” the anodized aluminium ( like seen on other commercial aluminium enclosure products ) or if placing zink anodes very close to the aluminium flanges / endcaps would be enough to minimize corrosion. Eg. in a 3d printed “anode holder”?
Best regards