Hi friends, happy Tuesday! We are (finally) ready to release a product that many of you have been patiently awaiting… introducing the Ping Sonar Altimeter and Echosounder (plus other fun things)!

Check out the new product video below!

Ping Sonar Altimeter and Echosounder

The Ping sonar is a multipurpose single-beam echosounder. It can be used as an altimeter for ROVs and AUVs, for bathymetry work aboard a USV, as an obstacle avoidance sonar, and more. The Ping combines a compact form factor and 300 meter depth rating with an open source user interface and development libraries to create a powerful new tool for marine robotics!

The Ping has anodized aluminum case with the sonar transducer on one side. The other side has tapped mounting holes and the Ping comes with a mounting bracket that makes it easy to install on the BlueROV2 and in other applications. It comes with a one meter cable with a pre-installed cable penetrator and is rated to an operating depth of 300m.

The Ping has a bottom-finding algorithm that locks onto the strongest response and returns the distance and measurement confidence. The Ping works great as an altimeter on the BlueROV2 but can be used in all sorts of applications from tidal monitoring to obstacle avoidance to autonomous terrain following.

Happy 2019, everyone! New year, lotssss of new products – we can’t weight to share what’s in store 😉 We’re starting off the year with a couple of updated ROV components: Stainless Steel Ballast Weight and Moisture Indicating Silica Gel Desiccant Bags.

Stainless Steel Ballast Weight

The new Stainless Steel Ballast Weight is a drop in replacement for original lead weight. Stainless steel is less toxic to the environment and to humans!

Moisture Indicating Silica Gel Desiccant Bags

We’ve repackaged the silica gel so they come in prepackaged in 6 individual bags. Any humidity inside your Watertight Enclosure will cause condensation to collect when placed in the water, and this desiccant will eliminate humidity inside the enclosure so that you can clearly see out of it.

All new ROV orders will come with both of these upgrades.

That’s all for today!

Hello friends! Today we’ve got some new products to release – an 18-hole 4″ Series End Cap and BlueROV2 Machined Buoyancy Foam!

18-hole 4″ Series End Cap

Unlike most of our other end caps, which have 10 mm through-holes for each penetrator, this one has a mixture of threaded and through-holes to allow more penetrations to be packed in. The outer eleven holes are threaded with standard M10 threads. The inner seven holes are through-holes just like our other end caps. All of the holes are compatible with all of our M10 penetrators.

This end cap is compatible with the 4″ Series Watertight Enclosure and can be used on the BlueROV2 for more expandability!

BlueROV2 Machined Buoyancy Foam

Because more end cap holes means more room for all the things, and thus more weight, we have the new BlueROV2 Machined Buoyancy Foam today as well! This foam is machined specifically to add an additional 500 grams of total buoyancy on the BlueROV2. The shape fits perfectly into the BlueROV2 fairing and adds more stability and payload capacity! This is an add-on only and the BlueROV2 still comes with the standard rectangular blocks of foam.

That’s all for today!

Hello friends! Today we’d like to fixate your attention on a group of new products – introducing the Cable Repair Kit, WetLink Thixotropic 80A Potting Compound, and their related components!

The Cable Repair Kit

The Cable Repair Kit has all of the materials necessary to temporarily repair damaged cable, tether, and other connections. It contains two specialized materials: Coax Seal and Silicone Tape. The Coax Seal is a hand moldable, non-toxic, non-conductive plastic that adheres to most surfaces and the silicone tape is a UV resistant and flexible tape that fuses only to itself. When used in a repair the coax seal forms a watertight barrier and the silicone tape is used to protect it.

The kit also contains acetone wipes to help clean and prepare the cable surface for the best possible adhesion. With these tools in hand a day of diving doesn’t have to be called off because of a damaged cable, just perform a field repair and keep on keepin’ on 😉 All of these components are also sold separately, so you can refill your kit as needed!

WetLink Thixotropic 80A Potting Compound (USA ONLY)

Good day friends! We’re REEL excited for this release – introducing the Fathom Spool, Fathom-X Tether Interface, and an update to the Fathom Tether! Check out the new product video:

Fathom-X Tether Interface

The Fathom-X Topside Interface (FXTI) is an enclosure for the topside Fathom-X board that also contains a USB to Ethernet converter so that the user has a simple USB-to-tether interface. It also has expandability to connect other devices to tether pairs. The box has a Binder 770 Series Bulkhead to allow connection to the new tether.

Fathom Spool

The Fathom Tether Spool is a slip-ring spool for the standard tether and the slim tether. It comes in two sizes to support 150m and 300m tether lengths. The spool has Binder 770 Series connectors to connect to the tether and to connect to the FXTI. It is sold as kit with some simple assembly required.

Hi friends! Today we are dazzled to announce an update of the Lumen Subsea Light. The improvements are pretty lit if we say so ourselves! Read more below!

Side note: If you’re interested in having some input on our future products and developments, please make sure to take our 3rd Annual Product Interest Survey.

Check out the new Lumen!

Body and Lens

The most obvious update to the Lumen is the body and lens. The new design features aluminum screws to prevent galvanic corrosion, a thicker cable jacket less susceptible to nicks or holes, and a built in mount for convenient and secure attachment. The body is a little bit larger in diameter as well.

Wider Brightness Range and Better Low-Light Output

The first revision of the Lumen was configured to emit light ranging from about half brightness to full brightness. We’ve learned a lot since the release of the original Lumen, especially the fact that more light does not necessarily imply better lighting. The new lights have an exponential brightness curve and are capable of reaching a much lower brightness level to provide a wider dynamic range.

The image below shows a comparison between the old and new brightness ranges in illuminating a mooring at 60m water depth on a cloudy day.

More Robust Sealing and 950m Depth Rating

In the past we’ve asked all of our customers and followers to complete a “product interest survey” to help guide our future plans. We’re doing it again this year to learn about your current interests, desires, and feedback. If you have a moment, please take our 3rd Annual Product Interest Survey and let us know what you want. It really matters to us and it actually affects what we work on next.

We’ve always tried to keep these surveys short, but this year’s is a little longer because we have so much to ask about! Because we want to motivate you to give the best possible feedback, we’ll be giving away four $250 Blue Robotics Store Credits to a few lucky respondents!

Take the 3rd Annual Product Interest Survey!

Just like last time and in our continued spirit of being an open and transparent company, we want to share some of the results from the last survey in 2016 and show you how we used that info! Continue reading if you’re interested!

Vehicle Type

The first question asked about vehicle type, and we again got an overwhelming response for ROVs. However, there was a big jump in interest in AUVs and USVs.

Applications

The results for applications look very similar for 2016 compared with 2015. We saw a bit of a shift with more people using our products for professional applications like inspections and a smaller percentage of the responses going to “robotics competitions”. Lots of people were interested in photography and exploration as well, similar to the first survey.

Depth Rating

This one is particularly interesting and shows that people’s interests and expectations for the products are increasing. In the first survey, most people were interested in 25-100m and the spread was very even on either side of that depth. However, in this survey, the results shifted noticeably deeper with a significant number of people interested in 100-1000 meter depths.

Today’s new product should grab your attention – it’s the Newton Subsea Gripper for the BlueROV2 and other subsea vehicles! Check out the new product video:

The Newton Subsea Gripper is a single function manipulator that’s simple, robust, and highly capable. It’s controlled by a standard servo-style PWM signal, just like our thrusters and lights, runs on 9-18v, and is rated to 300 meter depth.

It comes with a quick-adjust mount that makes it easy to mount to the BlueROV2 and allows it to be retracted and rotated in the field. The mount attaches with two included M5 screws but you will have to drill the appropriate holes on the BlueROV2 bottom panel. We have clear instructions on how to do that.

That’s it for today! If you are in Japan, please visit our stand at Oceans ’18 in Kobe next week! We’ll have the BlueROV2 and the Newton Subsea Gripper on display.

Hello, friends! Today we have a few new and updated products to announce: black propellers for the T100 and T200, an update to the 4″ dome end-cap design, and the new Bar02 ultra-high resolution pressure sensor.

Black Propellers

Walking around at Oceanology International in London last month, we were thrilled to see a number of vehicles on display at different stands using the T100 and T200 thrusters! We also noticed that our blue propellers aren’t the perfect match for everyone’s color scheme.

A few vehicles at OI2018 with T100 and T200 Thrusters.

We decided to start offering the propellers in black as well for situations where you want the thrusters to blend in or have a slightly different look. The black propellers come in clockwise/counterclockwise sets with mounting screws.

Today’s new product is something we can’t weight to share! It’s one of the biggest capabilities we’ve added to the BlueROV2 yet!

The new BlueROV2 Heavy Configuration upgrades the BlueROV2 to have four vertical thrusters, providing some powerful new performance capabilities including six degree-of-freedom control, active stability control, and additional payload capacity! We’ve been planning this upgrade since before the BlueROV2 was originally launched, and because of that, every BlueROV2 that we’ve ever shipped has the mounting holes ready to upgrade to the BlueROV2 Heavy Configuration.

The four vertical thrusters are mounted on the outside of the frame and have a protective guard to prevent snagging on the tether or anything else. The void left by the original vertical thrusters is filled with an additional buoyancy foam block and fairing for additional stability while maintain a sleek design.

There’s a lot of cool things about this new configuration. It’s probably best explained by watching it in action. Check out the official new product video to see it in action!

The BlueROV2 Heavy Retrofit Kit includes everything you need to upgrade your existing or new BlueROV2 to the heavy configuration and we’ve got a clear set of instructions on how to do that.

The main components of the retrofit kit, the guards, foam, and fairings, are also available separately for anyone who’d like to upgrade piece by piece or wants to use them in another application. The BlueROV2 spare thrusters are also available separately. You can check out the parts below.

You can check out the BlueROV2 Heavy in person at our stand at Oceanology International in London from March 13th-15th! We’d love to see you there so please stop by!