OpenROV Tether Float

youmagine

A 3D printable tether float is a must-have for your OpenROV. Heavy tethers can drag down your robot, severely limiting its maneuverability and causing it to snag on the bottom of the body of water you're exploring. To keep your tether out of the way, use a set of tether floats that are designed specifically for this purpose. I highly recommend printing the smaller version 2 floats, as they have a lower profile and print consistently well even on very affordable 3D printers. When it comes to printing settings, I suggest using 20% infill, a bottom layer thickness of 0.3mm, four rectilinear fill layers at the bottom, and five rectilinear fill layers at the top. In contrast, the larger floats had problems printing consistently watertight on consumer-grade 3D printers, which is why I went back to the drawing board and redesigned them with a lower profile and a more streamlined design. To print the large floats successfully, it's best to do so one-by-one or in batches of 16. According to my calculations, for every five and a half meters of tether in freshwater (or five point seven meters in standard seawater), you'll need one float to make your tether neutrally buoyant. By contributing to my Patreon account at www.patreon.com/Andrew_Thaler, you'll be supporting more projects like this.