Hi!
I'm currently enganged in the building process of a small ROV, and I thought about using bow thrusters do drive the thing. I thought of using four bow thrusters in a configuration shown below to move the ROV in the horizontal plane, and one vertical to adjust rise and fall in the water. However, I hope some of you might help me by telling me how waterproof these thrusters are.
Another possible configuration is to use four bow thrusters placed 45 degrees on each corner (and of course still the fifth for rise/fall):
However, that is not my main concern:
The ROV has to be very small, so I've found that Raboesch has some very small bow thrusters, at 30 grammes they measure 93x45 mm, which should be about right for me. However: can I trust them to be watertight? After all, they will be submerged for long periods (the ROV should be able to stay in water for long periods of time).
Does anyone have any information or experience regarding the waterproofness of these bow thrusters? The one I'm talking about is 'Raboesch Mini Bow Thruster 10/12mm x92mm', found here:
http://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/bow_thrusters.html