An OpenROV Horror Story

Control Boards, Controllers, Tethers, Ect.
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SSN626B
Posts: 194
Joined: Nov 16th, 2013, 2:11 pm
Location: Ft. Lauderdale FL

An OpenROV Horror Story

Post by SSN626B »

Hi All,
I usually like to roll my own ROV using Blue Robotics Thrusters, WTCs, and cable penetrators and use either a BBBMINI or a Pixhawk as a navigation controller and QGroundControl as my GCS.
However I have been following the OpenROV product line and decided to consider the purchase of an OpenROV 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit (http://store.openrov.com/collections/ex ... -8-dev-kit) and a Webcam (http://store.openrov.com/collections/co ... 100-webcam) because I like the fact that the controller uses a twisted pair instead of a Cat5/6 cable for a tether, can transmit HD video up the tether, and it has its own GUI instead of using a GCS like QGroundControl or similar GCGs.
So on Wednesday, June 22nd, I charged $461.62USD to my charge card for the 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit and the Webcam plus USPS shipping. The USPS 2-Day Priority shipping was the only alternative to an insanely priced expedited shipping method which I declined to use.
Since I had not heard from OpenROV by Friday, June 24, I sent OpenROV Support an email asking for the shipping status of my order. I received a response from Nima who stated that my purchase had been shipped on Friday, June 24th, and provided me with a USPS Tracking Number.
On Saturday, June 25th, I entered the Tracking Number that Nima had given me into the USPS Tracking System and it stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Okay, no problem as this was just the day after the parcel had been sent to USPS.
So on Monday, June 27th, I entered the Tracking Number again into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Okay, sometimes the Tracking Number system does not provide tracking information until the parcel has arrived at its destination. I have had that happen before.
On Tuesday, June 28th, I entered the Tracking Number again into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping. Now I am getting a little worried so I emailed Mima at OpenROV. He responded with "Your order has indeed shipped out, not sure why they haven't registered it. If you don't receive the package by the end of the week let me know and I'll contact USPS to figure out where it is."
Since the parcel had been sent 2-Day Priority Mail by OpenROV I figured I should have it by Wednesday, June 29th. So I hopefully entered the Tracking Number into the USPS Tracking System and it again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping and there was no parcel in my mailbox that day either. Once again I emailed Nima voicing my concerns and he responded with "Sorry for the inconvenience. I will take note of this so that in the future orders that are to be expedited use a more reliable courier, USPS can be slow sometimes. If you don't get it by Friday let me know."
Well, here it is Friday, July 1st, and the USPS Tracking System again stated that "Pre-shipment info had been sent to USPS", but they had yet to receive the parcel for shipping and again there was no parcel delivered to my mailbox. So I have emailed Nima again concerning the USPS non-delivery of my OpenROV parcel, but I have yet to hear from him. Since it is a holiday weekend I am probably not going to hear from Nima until Tuesday, July 5th, which is making me very frustrated especially given the amount of money I paid for the OpenROV products. I was really hoping to get the 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit working over the holiday weekend.
The bottom line here is that the OpenROV support has been responsive, but not too effective at determining what has happened to my OpenROV shipment. I will say that the USPS will not investigate a missing parcel until a week has gone by with no delivery. However it has been a week since the parcel was shipped from OpenROV and I was hoping that Nima would submit a USPS Search Request today to get the ball rolling, but I guess not.
Regards,
SSN626B/TCIII
SSN626B
Posts: 194
Joined: Nov 16th, 2013, 2:11 pm
Location: Ft. Lauderdale FL

Re: An OpenROV Horror Story

Post by SSN626B »

Hi All,
Some good news finally concerning my OpenROV order :)
Since my last email to Nima at OpenROV on Friday, July 1, I have received an email from OpenROV at 4:25 am EST today with the same Tracking Number as before, but this time the USPS Tracking System showed the status of my parcel and not the usual message I had been receiving.
The OpenROV parcel is at my local post office and should go out for delivery today if not at least by Tuesday of this coming week. It seems very strange that a 2-Day Priority parcel would take over a week to transit from the West Coast to the East Coast unless it really wasn't shipped until Wednesday, June 29th, of this week which would fit the two day transit time for 2-Day Priority Mail. I probably will never know not that it matters now.
Bottom line here is that OpenROV got the job done though not without repeated emails to their OpenROV Support which I can say was very responsive and I guess that some things can be out of their control occasionally. :|
Regards,
SSN626B/TCIII
SSN626B
Posts: 194
Joined: Nov 16th, 2013, 2:11 pm
Location: Ft. Lauderdale FL

Re: An OpenROV Horror Story

Post by SSN626B »

Hi All,
Now that I will have the OpenROV 2.8 Developer's Controller Kit in my possession, I plan to document the integration of this controller into a three thruster ROV that will use Blue Robotics (BR) Thrusters, WTCs, and assorted support components.
I will have to be careful using the BR Thrusters as the OpenROV controller can only supply a peak current of 20 amps to the ESC controller power bus. Therefore I will have to limit the power to the BR Thrusters which can be done though the OpenROV GUI. Also I am considering replacing the 12 amp ESC on the controller board with 20 - 30 amp ESCs to give myself more headroom.
After reading the comprehensive OpenROV documentation for the assembly and testing of the 2.8 Controller I think that I will have no problem getting it up and running.
Regards,
SSN626B/TCIII
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