We’ve stalled a bit on the ferry boat due to the electronics. The BLDC controllers we’ve been tinkering with seem to work, but still have some kinks to work out. And on the list of all the projects I’ve been working on, this has been down quite a ways and isn’t getting as much attention as I’d like.

So as an experiment, we just ordered two ROV thrusters from Blue Robotics. I was pretty surprised when they arrived only a day or two later. Here are pictures:

We bought the T200 model for about $170 which is relatively inexpensive. (The 800W motors alone were almost $100.) Nonetheless, they are relatively small and put out only about 5kg thrust each. (4kg in the reverse direction.) Basically, they are simple BLDC RC boat motors that someone else has done all the engineering required to seal the motor chamber, build a duct around it, and optimize the propeller. Oh, and it has a simple mounting bracket.