Hey everyone, Rusty here at Blue Robotics with a big new product, the T500 Thruster.
This is the T500 Thruster and it represents a huge achievement for us. If there's anything
we've learned in the past seven years, it's that making thrusters is hard. This one was
no exception. We've been working on it for years and we're stoked to finally share it with you.
I'll start with the highlights, the T500 generates about 16 kilograms or 35 pounds of thrust.
It's about three times as much thrust as the T200 Thruster. It generates that much thrust
at its nominal operating voltage of 24 volts and around 44 amps, which is just over 1000 watts.
It also runs great at 16 volts so that it can run on our existing BlueROV2 battery and power system
and it generates about 8.5 kilograms or 19 pounds of thrust at that voltage
using up to 430 watts of power. That's actually about the same amount of power consumption as the
T200 Thruster at 16 volts but with 70 percent more thrust and efficiency. On the outside,
the T500 looks similar to the T200 and it does share a lot of the same design
elements but there are also some key improvements. Let's take a look inside.
This is the thruster core which consists of the stator base, over-molded stator
and electrical windings, the bearings, and the cable. The stator and windings are much larger
than those used on the T200 Thruster so that they can generate more torque and thrust output. The
windings are encapsulated and isolated from the water. On either end of the core are bearings that
are made from high-performance plastic and are water-lubricated, just like on the T200. A durable
polyurethane cable comes out the other side and has three 12-gauge conductors allowing for
constant full-throttle usage. On this end of the cable comes a pre-installed 9.5 millimeter Wetlink
Penetrator so that the thruster is ready for high pressure. You should note that this penetrator has
an M14 thread size so it does require more space and larger holes in the enclosure end
caps. We will have some compatible end caps available for our enclosures in the future.
Each thruster core is laser-marked with batch number and quality traceability information.
Data is logged and checked throughout the production process to make sure that each
thruster is produced consistently and to high-quality standards.
The magnetic rotor is installed onto the thruster core. We've made a lot
of changes here that are important for the durability and ruggedness of the thruster.
First, you'll notice that you can't see the individual magnets in here because the inside
of the rotor is lined with a thin metal abrasion shield to protect the magnets from getting damaged
due to any debris or sand that gets into the thruster. Behind that and sealed from the water
are 14 high-grade neodymium magnets, and on the top of the rotor are cooling holes for water flow.
The propeller is a three-bladed design much like that on the T200 Thruster but there are some key
improvements here. We've added overlapping elements on the propeller, the core, and the
nozzle to make it more difficult for a particulate sand and seaweed to enter and jam the thruster.
And last, this is the nozzle of the thruster and you can see that it looks a bit different
than that on the T200. We designed this nozzle to be a bit more optimized in the forward direction
since many of our users use our thrusters on surface vessels and other applications where
forward optimized thrust is preferred. In ROV applications, the thrusters are
usually mounted such that this doesn't make a big difference in performance. On top four
m4 threaded inserts are spaced 25 millimeters apart and provide a solid mounting interface.
All of the plastic parts on this thruster are made from glass-filled polycarbonate, which
is more durable and impact resistant than the regular polycarbonate used on the T200 Thruster.
We also have a new speed controller for this thruster called the Basic ESC 500.
It's very similar to our original Basic ESC and uses the same type of pwm signals.
It's larger and designed to handle the power of the T500 even when it's
used in an area with poor airflow like in an ROV or a surface vessel hull. But, that said, you
can actually use the original Basic ESC with the T500 when you're operating in the 16 volt range.
We've had the T500 Thrusters out in the field in limited beta testing for the last year with
exceptional results. It's shown itself to be a great choice for larger vehicles and for rugged,
difficult operating conditions. We're really excited to see how you and others will use it.
You can check out the product page for more details including the tech specs, the drawings,
CAD models, and availability. That's all for today. Thanks for watching and see you next time.