Homebuilt ROVs Forum

My rov has onboard battarys. With two 500' cat5 cables for a tether. With My almost all steel design im hoping to reach around the 500' depth.
i'm at the stage now of designing tether floats. And got to thinking about down the road. i can see my tether as being the weakest link. I can make it work for not but it far from idea. Every thing else on the rov is built to last a long time. So i got to thinking about if everything works like i hope it does maybe putting the money into a real tether cable down the road. And so i was wondering if anybody has any info on real tether cable? or north american suppliers?
anybody every buy any or get a estimate on price per foot?

thanks

VideoRay sells there tethers separate from their ROVs, in different lengths.

http://www.videoray.com/products/21-ext ... m-(500ft)
I think they sell them used too. You'd have to get a quote, though.

Videoray saves the used tethers to donate to schools for their ROV MATE programs. You can buy tether by the foot in small quantities from "Outland Technologies" in Louisiana. It's not cheap but it's less than what the manufacturers typically charge.

I just talked to Jeff at Outland Technology, 2300B tether is $2.70/ft. They will give you a discount of 10% if you buy a piece of leftover run off cable. They currently have 50' - 125' pieces on the shelf. The cable terminates into a couple different connectors that they will also sell for about $100 / or $300 to have them do it all. You still need to buy the receiver ports as well. It's a bit expensive, but it is nice. The folks at OT are really nice and willing to work with you. For me it's way out of my budget especially for the such a short tether.

125' = $303 + $300 for them to terminate it, + $85 for the receiver ports = $687


C-2300B Tether: NEW Multi conductor cable for all cameras.
Mechanical:
• Braided Kevlar strength member (1200 lbs.).
• Material: NEON Green Polyurethane jacket.
• Temp. rating -40 to +90C.
• Diameter .360"
• 38 lbs.(17.5Kg) per 500 ft.

Electrical:
• Conductors: 16 #22 awg and 1 mini RG-59 coax.
• 300 volt rated conductors.