Homebuilt ROVs Forum

i just came up with a very simple and effective control system that makes long bulky tether completely unneeded. instead all you need is about 30 ft of cat5 wire (number of feet may vary depending on how deep you want to be able to go) . The electronics I'm using are one brushed motor (for forward and backwards), one ESC, two standard hobby servos (rudder and horizontal stabilizer), ten feet of cat5 wire, a 6ch receiver(airplane receiver), a spectrum dx6i, and a lot of sauder, and a standard RC airplane battery. The way this system works is you directly sauder the cat5 wire to the motor and servos and on the other end of the wire you build a float that will hold the battery, ESC, and receiver. this is a very simple but long range and effective system. I hope you enjoy and perhaps put this system to use in your very own ROV.

I wouldn't think that the cat5 wire would be heavy enough to carry the load for any significantly sized motor.
Especially considering voltage over length of cable. This control system might be passable for a pool rover, but probably not for anything that goes any deeper.
Or perhaps I'm not understanding correctly.
Maybe a picture of the setup would be useful...

The brushless motors used in our applications can draw fairly significant current and cat 5 wont cut it at any lenght. I have seen people use a remote antenna on a floating bouy (then the singal antenna coax is the only tether) This way to just ransmit control signals remotly via RF to operate the ROV. All your batteries, ESC and RX are in the ROV)