New here, and I have a few questions about BlueROV2

Would be nice with a +100 m version…

1 Like

Yes, that would definitely be a product worth purchasing. I’ve added a waterproofing link above, although I’m not sure I’d trust that…

Having tried FPV at sea, I don’t recommend it for anyone without the strongest of stomachs.

Neat application! While a servo to trigger your niskin is easy, I wonder if you could combine a high current FET and a heated bit of nichrome wire to serve as your trigger release. Maybe a future implementation, when you’ve gotten tired of swapping out servos!

Having piloted several BlueROV2s configured as “heavies” - I’d recommend the purchase of an additional two thrusters and escs to upgrade your unit. If carrying a 4L payload, this will greatly enhance your dive and ascent speed - not to mention general drivability for new pilots in offshore, deep conditions. It’s easy to mount them in the holes provided, and simple in QGC to select the 8 thruster configuration.

I think the chromebooks will runn the QGC app image quite nicely - once they have been configured to be a bit more than a stock chromebook. After all - chrome OS is just google’s linux!

Having tried FPV at sea, I don’t recommend it for anyone without the strongest of stomachs

That makes perfect sense. So far, that hasn’t been a problem for us, but we’ve been in very calm flat conditions; i.e. working from shore or from a pontoon boat in the middle of a lake. Remember, so far we’re just using OpenROV 2.8s, and their three little thrusters don’t to so well in currents, so we’ve been working in really calm conditions. I can certainly see what you’re describing being a problem if the seas get “a little lumpy” (…as someone with better sea legs than I described conditions when I was getting a bit green around the gills.)

Maybe a future implementation, when you’ve gotten tired of swapping out servos!

I’m all about getting useful work done. If that will give us higher reliability, it is worth consideration

Having piloted several BlueROV2s configured as “heavies” - I’d recommend the purchase of an additional two thrusters and escs to upgrade your unit. If carrying a 4L payload, this will greatly enhance your dive and ascent speed - not to mention general drivability for new pilots in offshore, deep conditions. It’s easy to mount them in the holes provided, and simple in QGC to select the 8 thruster configuration.

Wow, I am really glad that I have not already ordered a BlueROV2 before reading your message; I didn’t even know there was an eight thruster, heavy lift configuration. That does sound like a better option than what I was considering. Does this use up any of the three AUX connections, or do you still have all that functionality to run payloads?

I think the chromebooks will runn the QGC app image quite nicely - once they have been configured to be a bit more than a stock chromebook. After all - chrome OS is just google’s linux!

Thanks for the link. I will look it over to see if it seems worth the effort. How are the accessibility options for Ubuntu and whatever x-windows environment they use now days? It is VERY important for us to be able to run a giant mouse pointer on the screen , just so we can find it when daylight makes screen viewing difficult.

I don’t believe the heavy will use up your AUX connections, but best to verify with Jacob. The chromebooks I’ve used that also had linux on them were using KDE, but from what I understand options like you’re talking about for the mouse pointer should be set-up-able via traditional linux methods.

You can add 8 thrusters, and you will be left with 6 aux outputs. There are a total of 14 outputs, and most of the functions can be remapped to any pin.

I have never seen a BlueROV2 “heavy” with 8 thrusters, anyone have pics to share??

Yes, I’d also love to see one. Anthony, do you have any pictures? Does anybody else have pictures of one?

Jacob, how much more difficult would it be to build a “heavy” version of the BlueROV2 than the six thruster version?

Anthony, I should have asked this before: How much more can a “heavy” configuration lift? Do you - or anyone else - have the payload limits (with and without payload skid) for the “heavy” and normal versions of the BlueROV2?

You always want to trim an ROV to be only slightly positive, or slightly negative, depending on the mission (clump weights from BR on bottom or additional foam wedged into fairings.) In terms of descent/ascent speed and achievable accelerations the heavy has about double the capacity in vertical axis (from doubling the number of vertical thrusters.) You also get a more difficult to quantify benefit in horizontal speed / control authority, as the rov is better able to maintain its orientation and “put the power down” in the directions commanded.

1 Like

Do you have photos of the heavy lift configuration? What weight of payload were you lifting?

The BR Twitter account has posted a picture of it before, I’ll see what I
can find. I had no special payload, just operating with lots of tether in
open ocean and wanted the authority.

1 Like

I’m guessing this is it…

A few neat mods by Tony at Ocean Lab to hits #BlueROV2 using #Make100 thrusters! Check it out! pic.twitter.com/oX4C12kwvi

— BlueRobotics (@BlueRobotics) March 27, 2017
1 Like

Correct. I’ve also seen versions with a protective bumper along the outside, that both protects the vertical thrusters from impacts and things catching on them.

1 Like

it shouldn’t be too hard to waterproof a servo, in theory. I would start with disassembly and epoxy encapsulating the controller board. Stare at the potentiometer and try to figure out a good waterproofing scheme. Fill the rest of the case with marine grease. Tape or silicone the case up.

If you start with a waterproof servo with a metal case, your already halfway there.

Flight Test has some tutorials on doing this. But, these are intended for surface pressures. Still it points you in the right direction.

Thanks. I that’s fairly similar to what I linked to earlier. So far we have not needed to do so, since the servos have mostly been surviving the abuse we dish out.

Haha. The potentiometer is definitely one of the biggest challenges to a flooded servo.

1 Like

Thankfully, ours have survived so far despite being pushed beyond their ratings. We carry spares, though.

I’d love to see BlueRobotics offer a waterproof servo like OpenROV used to. We’d buy several of those right away
https://store.openrov.com/products/prototype-underwater-servo

Those servos had leaking problems. Users had about 25 uses before they flooded and became unuseable. Oil filed is probably not the best solution.

1 Like

I had heard that the leaking might have been due to an imperfection in the casting of the mold. No idea if that is true or not. Whatever the reason, they pulled them from the market just before we started using the 3-D printable niskin bottles