Scratch Built 3d Printed BlueROV

Build DIY ROVs
1

Hello All.

Us Scot’s are renowned for knowing the true value of money and after purchasing 3 x BlueROV’s for my work in the North Sea oil & gas sector, I decided that it was about time that I built a ROV of my own.
I’m luck enough to own 2 x 3d printers so, thanks to the freely available CAD and STL files I have taken the plunge and I am well on the way to building a scratch built BlueROV.

The first items that I printed were the electronics tray and mount for the servo/camera. I purchased all of the components individually that are required for the electronics housing and I have a fully working setup for the grand total of £211 GBP. Instead of using a set of Fathom -X boards to handle the ethernet comms, I cut up a pair of ethernet over mains electricity adapters and thanks to a guide showing a suitable setup for the OpenROV, I was able to establish surface - subsea comms over a 100m long ethernet cable effortlessly.

I will continue to use this post to document my progress and I will be happy to assist anyone else that may be thinking of going it alone and building a system from scratch.
For anyone that is concerned about using 3d printed parts at depth - don’t be! We have been using 3d printed parts subsea regularly at depths of up to -150m for years with no failures to date. All parts are printed in PLA+ with 100% infill.

Electronics Tray
Electronics-Tray
Rear Frame Part
Rear-Frame-Part2
Rear-Frame-Part1

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Hi! Just out of curiosity - what wall thickness you use? Have you tried different materials? I’m considering switching from PLA to CarbonX / CarbonP (PETG with carbon fibers) for durability and water resistance, do you have any opinion on it?

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Welcome to the forum. We have been using PLA for about 3 years now. 40% fill but with an epoxy coating. Works fine!

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Interesting. Thank you Terry!

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Some further progress.

20210210_111011
20210210_1110113238×2268 1.8 MB

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Looking good :grin:

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Very Nice! Do you have some links to the stl files?

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Sorry if my English is incorrect.
I make 3D printed ROVs. We are experimenting with carbon polycarbonate 100% infill to a depth of 207 m.
The result is good.

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Hi. All of the stl files are available on the Blue Robotics site. You need to go to the technical details section for each item that you need to print.

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Thanks, now I feel really stupid :grinning: still can’t find the files. Only the one om grabcad. Dit you use that one?

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Do you notice any sort of compression in the plastic after a dive? If so at what depth?

I an very interested in the printing for subsea idea.

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Have the stl files been removed from the website? I cannot seem to find them. When I look under the Technical Details, all I see is the revision history.

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I’m specifically referring to the fairing. There isn’t any information under the technical details.

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Got them. It’s a little work around, but the cad files are available on grabcad. Then just pick the part you want in freecad and convert to stl.