Hi, I have recently come across a low-cost acoustic modem called the Delphis from the company Succorfish, that has a 2km range with 64 byte data packet transmision. From what i’ve seen on this forum their priced around 600$ making it much cheaper than any other modem on the market, while having significantly more range. Does anyone have any experience with these modems, or possibly used them for subsea positioning? I would love to know more.
Regards,
Zahari
Hi @Kemist -
Welcome to the forums!
I’ve recently been talking with that vendor, and am sorry to say the price is a good deal more than that (although it was once that low!) Educational groups can get the modem for ~$1k, commercial customers pay >$2k. The data rate is low enough that it would require some custom development to communicate with a BlueOS vehicle, but in general it does seem like a great product! They have been working on some features to enable things like localization - definitely worth reaching out to the vendor to discuss if you’re interested!
What application do you have in mind? Is $1k or $2k+ too much $$?
Hi @tony-white thanks for your reply!
Yes, this is going to be for an academic/research project. I want to try possibly making a low-cost acoustic release mechanism by using one as a sort of transponder with a burn wire or motorized system although I am still workshopping the idea. I was also wondering about using them for subsea positioning in a future project as that would be very useful for an unmanned underwater vehicle especially considering the range. I do think the cost increase is disappointing but they could be worthwhile if I found a way to use them for a positioning system.
Regards,
Zahari
Maybe try Dessert Star Systems and see if they will resurrect (or still sell) the SAM-1. It doesn’t have the range, but it was a low-cost solution.
Interesting, I was also looking at some open source options that could work such as the ahoi open source modem: ahoi // Open-Source Acoustic Underwater Modem [beta] as it does seem like a decent option for subsea positioning even though the range may be abit less, I could also customize it such as using an alternative transducer instead of the one used in the paper.
Just to throw another tool in the box, there’s an open source firmware that works on our Ping Sonar, which could be adapted to operate as a modem. The device we sell might be too directional for your use case, but it may be worth testing as-is (given the low cost), and if that doesn’t perform as required you could consider alternative transducer designs with the same/similar control electronics (though understandably that’s a project in itself, rather than just being a device you can purchase and use immediately).
Blue Robotics also has plans to make some kind of open sonar development kit that’s easier to modify and test different things with, but we’re not there yet with that pursuit unfortunately.
That sounds interesting, I’ll check it out, thank you!