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Model C STL files?

Hey bluedot peeps

Just found out about the project from youtube, good to see another open source ROV project.

I use a lot of FPV drones and really want to try using off the shelf FPV drone components inside the case of a Bluedot model C but can't find the maindeck files, are they hosted anywhere?

cheers!

2 answers2 replies

4 Comments

Davy Stevenson

Apr 22, 2020

Hey Costa thanks for the reply,

Would love to buy a frame but the $249.99 shipping to the UK (not including the import tax which is another 20% and handling fee's which is normally around the $25 to $30) is maybe a bit rich for me 😂. Maybe some day when there's an EU distributor, the IP issues are resolved or even an STL file I can purchase to download (like on cults3d) I can get my hands on a frame, in the mean time I will watch this project 😀

Using a Go-pro Underwater dome for the pressure vessel is a stroke of genius though, as the electronics housing is normally one of the most expensive parts of a ROV build!

The FPV underwater wasn't going to be a terribly big or clever one, when you crash a FPV drone you normally have 3 motors and 3 esc's left behind so it was mainly to use the remains in something a bit more interesting;

3 motors with 3d printed parts to make them more marinised

3 esc's with BLHeli loaded on them so you can switch them from their usual operation to the 3d flight (bidirectional) for moving both directions. An off the shelf fpv camera on a servo similar to the Model C, (all going well switch it out for a Tarsier or Runcam split for HD footage?)

Load a Wing profile onto its flight controller board, the vertical thruster into its main propeller channel so your depth is controlled by what would have been the throttle, and the other 2 forward and backward thrusters into the pitch and roll channels. The video and SBUS signals up a length of Cat5 cable to a floating buoy similar to the Model C where the receiver and video transmitter is housed,

My FPV underwater idea isn't a clever one, but I just want to build a small and portable ROV to be used with my drone gear, I own a BlueROV2 but it comes in at about 10Kg and while it is great its just too damn heavy and cumbersome to be lugged about easily, the Model C has an advantage of being much smaller and lighter and would have made a great addition to use on days where flying isn't such a viable option,

costassoler

Apr 25, 2020

Replying to

Totally understand mate, we’re working on making international shipping cheaper. It looks like we found a very nice deal on shippo, so stay tuned for that! Anyway, this is a really interesting idea. Putting a flight controller on an ROV sounds like a great recipe for a responsive and speedy vehicle. And speaking of the BlHeli escs, I’ve had a question about them for a while now: If you program them from your flight controller to operate in reverse (I’ve seen this called 3D mode), will they continue to run in reverse if they’re supplied pwm from another device (like a raspberry pi)? Ive had my eye on using some of these to go brushless with the Model C ROVs, but I haven’t been able to reprogram the escs to spin motors in reverse. And if you’d like to learn a bit more about making an electronics compartment, we just published this YouTube tutorial on sealing our ROVs Ethernet entry point. Hopefully it’ll give you some inspiration! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=solehl58eUg&fbclid=IwAR2DyZQF2yXDS4bSgQpqg4TfQK1lG87Gwa7zvfez8xlbwd0b-8DkF3lBvWA Thanks for sharing -Costas

Davy Stevenson

Apr 26, 2020

Replying to

@costassoler

The one thing with using something like a SP-racing or any other drone flight controller is they use a serial data protocol to communicate with their receivers (I'm using Frsky's SBUS) which isn't too dissimilar to how a normal ROV works (Seaeye's Falcon ROV uses a serial protocol over RS485)

But yeah, to change the ESC's (make sure its a BLHeli one and not a SimonK!) you either do it through the flight controller but you can also do it via Arduino nano / uno (there's youtube videos on how to do it,) once you change them into 3d mode they will save their settings onboard the ESC's so when it gets a PWM signal of 1000, it goes full one direction, 1500 is stopped and 2000 is full direction in the other way, you can also set up deadzones on the ESC etc for saftey and whatnot its quite flexible

The video on the E-pod is amazing, waterproof housings have been a massive sticking point for lots of rov projects and you've cracked a tough nut with using the go-pro dome. that video guide you did is fantastic, keep up the good work!

costassoler

Apr 22, 2020

Hey Davy! Thanks so much for joining and for the post. This is a really important question that I get all the time on our pages. And while I'd love to fill the forum up with STLs and schematics of the Model C, I've been advised against it for intellectual property reasons. We’re still establishing ourselves, so Blue Dot ROV is especially vulnerable to IP issues. Still, I have been able to safely make the 3D printed parts set available in our store, as well as a few 3D printable replacement parts and upgrades. As far as this particular idea goes, I’d love to hear more about it. Taking drone FPV gear underwater was actually how I got started with the Model C design (the 6 inch sphere is just large enough to house a standard 2-axis gimbal)!!! I hope we can make your idea a reality here in any way we’re able. Thanks very much for your interest my good sir, it means a lot. -Costas