Subsea & Marine

Compact, low-heat networking modules designed for ROVs, AUVs, and Oceanographic instrumentation. Fits effortlessly inside standard pressure housings.

The "Pressure Housing" Problem

Subsea electronics live in a constrained world: sealed cylindrical tubes with zero airflow. Standard industrial switches fail here for two reasons:

  1. Pressure Tolerance: Traditional switches are not pressure tolerant.

  2. Geometry: Bulky, square DIN-rail housings waste massive amounts of space in a round pressure tube (packing efficiency).

  3. Thermals: In a sealed vacuum or air-filled housing, there is no convection. High-power switches overheat and throttle.

The BotBlox Solution:

  • Designed for pressure: Many of our boards are pressure tolerant by design, and independently tested to work up to 9000 PSI (6500 meters underwater)

  • Fits the Tube: Our unhoused modules fit easily into standard 3-inch and 4-inch ID (Inner Diameter) enclosures, including Blue Robotics watertight enclosures.

  • Thermal Efficiency: With power consumption as low as 0.5W, BotBlox switches generate minimal heat, protecting your sensitive internal sensors from thermal drift.

Capabilities for the Deep

1. Tether Voltage Compatibility

Deep-water ROVs often run high-voltage tethers to mitigate voltage drop over long cable runs.

  • Wide Input: BotBlox industrial modules support up to 60V DC input.

  • Direct Connection: Connect directly to the main power bus or tether termination board without bulky step-down converters.

2. Sonar & Video Throughput

Modern subsea inspection relies on high-bandwidth sensors.

  • Gigabit Performance: Full line-rate throughput for Multibeam Echosounders, 4K IP Cameras, and Forward Looking Sonar (FLS).

  • Latency: Sub-100 µs typical per-hop latency for real-time teleoperation.

3. Minimizing "Penetrators"

Every cable entering your pressure housing is a potential leak point and a significant cost (bulkhead penetrators are expensive).

  • Aggregation: Use a BotBlox switch inside the housing to aggregate 5 sensors (Altimeter, Sonar, Camera, DVL, AHRS) into a single Ethernet uplink to the surface.

  • Result: Reduce 5 bulkhead penetrators down to 1.

Application Architectures

Work-Class & Inspection ROVs

The Data Backbone. BotBlox serves as the central hub inside the main electronics bottle, routing traffic between the surface tether, the flight controller (e.g., Pixhawk/Navigator), and HD camera arrays.

AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles)

SWaP for Long Endurance. In battery-powered AUVs, every watt counts. Our low-power design extends mission time for seabed mapping and pipeline inspection drones.

MetOcean Buoys & Sensor Nodes

Set and Forget. For surface buoys and seabed data loggers, reliability is paramount. BotBlox modules are tested for 24/7 operation in remote, unserviced environments.

Recommended Hardware

Application Recommended Product Why?
Blue Robotics / ROVs GigaBlox Nano Fits comfortably in 3" tubes. Gigabit speed for IP cameras.
Basic Telemetry SwitchBlox Industrial Low cost, 5-Port 10/100Mbps. Perfect for aggregating low-bandwidth serial-to-ethernet sensors.
Tether Management GigaBlox Rugged High voltage input range and extended temperature tolerance for surface control stations.

Integration Spotlight: Blue Robotics Ecosystem

BotBlox is the preferred networking upgrade for the BlueROV2 and custom builds utilizing the BlueOS software stack.

  • Hardware: Compatible with standard mounting trays.

  • Software: Fully transparent to BlueOS. No driver installation required on the Raspberry Pi or Navigator Flight Controller.

  • Connectivity: Compatible with Fathom-X and other tether interface boards.

Supply Chain & Manufacturing

Whether you are building a single research vehicle or a fleet of commercial AUVs, BotBlox provides the stability you need.

  • Long Availability: Components selected for long production lifecycles.

  • Technical Support: Direct engineering support for complex tether and noise troubleshooting.