Power distribution

Blue Robotics Vehicles BlueROV2
1

Hello,

After an intensive search I couldn’t find the answer to the following questions :

  • Is there any up do date Blue ROV 2 connections diagram available somewhere? Best I could find on the forum is from 2018-03-06 ( Blue ROV2 Connections (bluerobotics.com) )

  • Is there any onboard versatile/programmable power distribution board / switchboard letting the user the ability to add various electronic consumers ?

Exemple (far-fetched) : Let’s say I want to add ten 7.4V servos, six 9V consumers, five 24V consumers with a single 4S battery (infinite capacity) already powering the Blue ROV2 Heavy. What is the best solution do do that ? How to integrate the whole thing with the power supply hardware (rails, wires) already onboard ?

Thanks !

2

Hi @Lyra,

I believe there should be a public schematic for the BlueROV2 electronics on the product page, but it doesn’t seem to be there, so I’ve asked about it internally to see if we can get that added.

That kind of hardware is not included with the BlueROV2. There are (passive) Barrier Blocks used for distributing the battery power and ground connections, and a 5V Regulator used for powering all the 5V electronics.

You would need to add your own 7.4V and 9V buck converters, and a 24V boost converter. Their inputs could be connected to the existing barrier blocks, but their outputs would need to be handled independently with your own wires/connectors.

3

Following up on this, apparently there’s a connection diagrams section as part of the BlueROV2 operation guide. I’ve now also added those document links to the BlueROV2 technical details, so they’re easier to find :slight_smile:

4

Thank you @EliotBR for your answer :+1:

Ok, I was thinking about hardware for smart power management to be able to get :

  • various voltage options for additionnal electronic consumers
  • an emergency powerbus (keeping alive / starting a power consumer during blackouts/power outage
  • an economy mode (switching off unecessary consumers and limiting power for others)
  • a safe poweroff for electronics during blackouts / power outage
  • a fault detection tool (engaged propeller, damaged motor winding, etc.)
5

Those all seem like potentially useful features, but there’s no pre-existing package I’m aware of that will do that for you, so if those features are important to you then you’ll need to design and source the relevant parts for implementing them.

6

Hello,

This is a rather old topic, but for one of our applications, we lately had to develop the following:

Power distribution board : 8 channels with customisable Voltage, current limit level, output on/off switch, voltage/current measurement.

General purpose sensor acquisition capacity: CAN bus, various I2C, Uart, RS-485, analog inputs

Custom cost efficient CTD probe, interfaced with that board.

ROS2 integration.

We are currently evaluating if it’s worth updating that design and integrate it with BlueOS, as power management seems to be a recurring topic on the BlueROV platform. In that context, I wanted to ask what would be the most of use:

  • Voltage level is currently adjustable between 3 and 12V. Would 24V possibility be of use?

  • How many channels typically?

  • Navigator flight controller already has lot of PWM outputs, but would it make sense to add some here?

  • On the sensing part, are RS-485, 4-20 mA analog inputs desirable?

- We could later also consider integration of Atlas probes