Some questions before ordering

General Discussion
1

Hello dear sir(s),

I am building a plexiglass ROV with IP camera to go 50-100 meters deep in the Aegean sea.

The T-100 is a promising product for me, because it solves for me the important problem of thrust.

But first I have some questions about the T-100, just to be sure:

  1. I will drive the T-100 ESC through a microcontroller. Does the ESC work like “normal” RC airplane ESC’s ?

(for example can it be driven with analogWrite() of the Arduino controller ?) Does it require some “arming sequence” before operating it ?

  1. Does it have reverse ?

  2. Are there spare parts, especially propellers ? Is it easy to replace the propeller ? (I plan to order a few spare propellers in advance, so that in case of breaking I dont have to wait to receive them)

 

That’s it for now, thanks a lot iin advance and congratulations for this product, I hope it does well worldwide,

2

Hi Dimitris,

Sounds like a cool project. Here’s some answers to your questions:

  1. Yes, the ESC works like a normal RC ESC (but more like an RC car than and RC airplane since it goes in reverse). If you’re using Arduino, I would strongly recommend using the Servo library and the “writeMicroseconds” function. There’s more details and an example on the documentation for the ESC here: Basic ESC Documentation (Old)

  2. Yes. A “centered” RC servo signal (1500 microseconds) is stopped and it goes in forward and reverse from there.

  3. The thruster comes with a extra counter-rotating propeller that is very easy to replace. We’ll have some more spare parts in our store soon. We’ve never broken a propeller, even in our stress testing, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

I hope that helps.

Best,

Rusty

3

Thanks for the quick response, appreciate it.

In the meantime, I saw some useful “mounts” for the T-100 in the homebuiltrovs.com forum (from the guy that ran the thrust tests), but can not find them in the store. Are they (or will be) available ?

 

4

Dimitris,

The mounts come with the thrusters. We might separate them eventually since I’m sure a lot of people don’t use them. If we do that, they will be available in our store.

Best,

Rusty

5

I ordered four of them. Wife angry. Me happy :smiley:

Best wishes,

Dimitris

 

PS: Do plan to stock spare propellers. No matter how strong they are, sooner or later someone will accidentally step on one, or his dog will eat it, etc etc. Accidents happen.

6

Dimitris,

Haha - thanks for the order. Spare props should be in the store in a week or so.

Best,

Rusty

7

Do you provide both CW and CCW propellers with each thruster. Because I want to buy 2 Thrusters with CW and CCW propellers

.

8

Ranjan,

Yes, every thruster ships with both propellers. It is easy to change from one to the other.

-Rusty

9

I got them! Nice packaging, nice quality.

Thank you Rusty and good luck with your endeavor in the future, it is a good product.

Will post photos as soon as something works, but it will be months until then.

10

In the specification for T100,you have mentioned that T100 can use with any ESC. How can I obtain the reverse thrust on a normal ESC. Does it go in forward and reverse from centered RC servo signal (1500 usecs).

11

Ranjan,

The T100 will work with any ESC, however most ESCs do not support both forward and reverse rotation. If your application only requires one direction then this might work for you. If you need both directions, then I’d recommend using one of our ESCs or finding an alternative ESC that supports forward/reverse.

The direction is completely controlled by the ESC and has nothing to do with the motor itself. Any brushless motor can spin either direction but requires an ESC that supports it.

-Rusty