Has anyone ever added additional thrusters to increase thrust.Im running a blue rov2 heavy config and im looking at adding 4 more horizontal thrusters and possibly adding them at 20 deg so i get more fwd thrust. My question is. Would i get more thrust by running the original 4 at 100% gain or run 8 horizontal thrusters at less gain ?
Thank you
You can wire up multiple thrusters, see the BL300 by blue link.
As far as thrust, efficiency and performance, you should refer to our t200 specification: https://bluerobotics.com/store/thrusters/t100-t200-thrusters/t200-thruster/
just curious, why do you need so much forward thrust, working in a lot of current?
Hi, Thanks for the reply.ill have another look at the thruster graphs.The reason more thrust ,is working in marginal currents. Was originally looking at more thrust in only the fwd direction as I would be clamped around a cable so lateral forces are not really an issue.
Hi Paul,
This seemed like a good chat to join into as we are exploring the same thing.
We’ve bought a bluerov2 and an extra 6 thrusters (really some of this is just for fun). At the moment I’d like to work off batteries in currents between 0.5 and 0.7kts and anecdotally this is apparently quite hard using the current levels of thrust. I’m looking at taking four additional lateral thrusters and parallel’ing these to the existing thrusters.
In terms of signals, I’ve got four y-pieces to just connect up to the Pixhawk and then hook up to each pair of ESCs respectively.
The trouble I see is that I’d like to be able to use a second battery, I guess in parallel without overloading the current ratings of the batteries, wires and potentially one of the busses.
I believe it may be feasible to run a second buss-bar inside the pod to drive the additional thrusters, but here’s the important question - are there additional modifications I need to consider such as mis-balancing of the two separated battery packs. Do I need to couple the two bussbars (i.e positive to positive and return to return).
What are the dangers?
Hi Savante,
Here’s some of my experience of what i have found. 0.5, 0.7 Kts is quite manageable depending on how much tether you have out. Iv been in currents of up to 1knt with about 50 m tether out and the system handled ok but it was pushing it . Be careful of trying to operate at full gain for too long. The battery is not designed for this and there’s a risk of damaging it if you have all the thrusters spinning hard. If you are running two batteries i would definitely uses a battery manager to stop the battery packs been un balanced. I use a one from seaview systems. Be aware thought, its rated to 72 A so you cannot run the system at full power or you will damage it and the battery.
If you didnt want to run a battery manager then two completely separate bus bars would be the way to go.