Working with the Dana Point Ocean Institute is inspiring some projects I thought youd all enjoy. I’m personally modding a Model C ROV kit for guests to explore an exhibit at the Ocean Institute. While in the OI’s ROV tank, kids and parents are gonna want to knock the model c around for hours on end.
So I wanted the kit to be something that required as little effort from the busy staff as possible, and this got me thinking about doing away with recharging the sub’s LiPo pack as a part of standard maintainance. Why not do away with the LiPo pack and just power the sub from a source on the surface?
After playing around with some designs in Fusion 360, as well as thinking about our dozens of previous ROV setups, we decided that it would be worth a shot at combining the WiFi station and a 12V 30Amp power source in one module:
The big metal box is the power source, and it converts AC power to 12v outputs for both the WiFi module (attached yellow box) and the ROV itself. Power to the ROV is supplied via a heavy gauge speaker cable (not shown) that’ll be bound to the usual Ethernet tether. We’ll of course be printing a housing for this hardware assembly, coming soon! Depending on how this setup fares at the Ocean Institute, we’re seriously considering adding this topside power station to our store, maybe as an upgrade or option for the standard kit. Let us know what you think, and I’ll make sure to keep you all updated on how this little guy does!
-Costas Soler
CEO
Could you incorporate some form of Power over Ethernet?
this is exactly what I am looking at doing, sending power down via a separate wire and control through cat 5, I want to be able to add various sensors, Depth, temp, etc top the rov , and am looking at communication Via I2c
Acho uma brilhante ídeia, desta forma podemos utilizar o rov por varias horas de exploração sem se preocupar em recarregar as baterias se estivermos uma fonte de energia externa, ou seja fora da agua. Aprovado a inciativa, depois nos passe o projeto por completo.