12-07-2012, 03:26 PM | #341 |
Newbie Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: olympia
Posts: 10
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
A brushed motor in the mud gets dirt in it and looses current correct? I've attempted to encase mine in a pill bottle with fuel line for intake and exhaust.. but water creeps in through the outdrive gear I believe. And for fear of overheating I'm going to convert to a shield. Now will a brushless motor run through any elements with any contaminants? if so it would be simplest to just box the esc and plumb fresh air to the esc via fuel line&snorkel..right? Cause I'm trying to create a monster here. SCX10 Tekin 35t FX-R CC BEC 10 ample 3s Tamiya fj40 body bobbed to a 45 caged rear |
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12-09-2012, 12:17 PM | #342 | |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
I bought 2 holmes hobbies sensorless brushless motors as an experiment. I ran them through mud and water for a couple hours. They still work fine. If you want to use sensored brushless, you'll have to waterproof the sensor board. I'd suggest using potting epoxy. I don't have any experience with building waterproof enclosures. Maybe someone else will help out with that. | |
12-13-2012, 06:49 AM | #343 |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
I potted my MMP and a CC BEC. Here is the epoxy I used: MG Chemicals 832C Translucent Epoxy Encapsulating and Potting Compound. It's ~$30 for 12 oz. MG Chemicals 832C Translucent Epoxy Encapsulating and Potting Compound, 12 oz Kit: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific To get the MMP encased without covering the sensor port, I used aluminum tape (from Lowes). I slid the edge of the tape between the board and the port. Then I folded it up and over so as to cover the open face of the port and let it wrap around the edges. It worked great and kept the port open but still sealed all around it. I also cut a notch out in the mold and covered it with tape too so that it blocked epoxy from covering the port as much as possible. It didn't end up having any over top of it. Here you can see the mold all filled up with epoxy. It was a good bit thinner than I thought it would be. I was worried about bubbles but there were very few. I filled up the mold about 1/8" deep. I then set the ESC down into the epoxy. It was a bit too much though because it crept up onto the heat sink and made it look messy. Another small issue was that I lined the mold with wax paper. Maybe I took it out too early because the epoxy was still a little soft, but it stuck to the wax paper and left paper all over the epoxy. It makes it look sloppy. Here is the PCB of a Hitec 645MG. I just took some of the extra epoxy I had left over that had thickened up and used a small flat screwdriver to brush some on. It was thick enough to hold to the bottom of the board as well. Here is the sensor board for the Novak 18.5. I did the same thing for this PCB, I just brushed some thickened epoxy on to get a thin layer. Here is the magnets/windings getting the corrosion X treatment. A good dunk for a few mins and then I let it drip dry overnight. I hooked it up and it works fine. So far I have only bench tested the ESC and BEC in a glass of water. Real world testing will give a much better idea of how this will hold up to abuse. My biggest concern now is how the MMP will handle heat and how the BL motor will take water/mud. I will update in the future. Last edited by hibbs; 12-13-2012 at 06:53 AM. |
12-17-2012, 10:15 AM | #344 |
Newbie Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: canada sk
Posts: 1
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
Man ok im new to rc world i just got a maxstone 8 but its not water proof i looked up waterproof combos but dont know what one will work with my unit. There called venom waterproof motor combos someone who is abit smarter with this stuff should plzz help me i though it was waterproof but its not an i got boggers on the way help plzz
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01-07-2013, 09:52 AM | #345 |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
To follow up, I had my truck with all electronics equipped out for 3 good hours of trail running. It was about 40 degrees outside so it didn't test the overheating aspect of the ESC being encapsulated. Once I can get some time on the truck in the summer, I will report what I find as far as how the ESC handles heat. I can say I was very pleased with the setup. I was very hard on the brushless motor. As it was snowy on the trail I had to use a heavy throttle finger to keep forward motion a great deal of the time. Occasionally keeping the throttle pinned for a couple minutes. I found some water to play in and had the truck fully submerged several times. The brushless motor never hesitated or gave me any trouble. Now the main focus will be taking the best care of the bearings in the brushless motors. |
01-19-2013, 07:34 PM | #346 |
Newbie Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Salem, WV
Posts: 49
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
Hi I currently purchased a castle BEC for my rig, I was curious if should use the same method for waterproofing as I did with my esc. I took the esc out of the case and put plasti dip on it? (Squirrels YouTube vid ) So far my esc has worked flawlessly since doing this Thanks Scott |
01-19-2013, 07:53 PM | #347 | |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Bowling Green KY
Posts: 448
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
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01-27-2013, 08:54 AM | #348 |
Newbie Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: newfoundland canada
Posts: 48
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
I see alot about Corrosion X waterproofing . Another option is something we use at work called Fluid Film . Their claim is it has no solvents in the mix ( except propellant in the rattle can version) . It is woolwax based and safe on electronics , plastics , rubber and metals . Has any one used it ? I allready have my savage flux pasti dip and my ax10 ballooned . but i wil try it next time I have to waterproof - maybe the next servo .
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01-28-2013, 12:34 PM | #349 |
Newbie Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Mount Olive
Posts: 6
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
@hibbs How is your rig holding up with the epoxy? This looks like the sure way to go. |
01-28-2013, 12:40 PM | #350 |
Rock Crawler Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: roanoke
Posts: 865
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
I did the plastic dip on all my rigs and it works very good!
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01-28-2013, 01:08 PM | #351 | |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
Liquid tape/plasti-dip are not 100% like it or not. Failure is only so far away with these methods imo. Even a waterproof box can't keep water from wicking down the wires onto the circuit board. I have since done a 2nd MMP and an FX-R. Plus I've epoxied 3 CC BECs. All working well so far. Order MG Chemicals Translucent Epoxy from amazon, it's $30. It'll do more electronics than a reasonable person could afford to buy. My only yet unanswered question is how will it hold up to heat. I'm running 3s lipo, 18.5T brushless motor, 87/17 gearing and the truck is about 7-8 lbs. It used to get just barely warm to the touch with liquid tape and in a balloon. I was running it wide open in the snow for minutes at a time spinning along after epoxy. ESC/Motor were cold to the touch but it was 40* outside. We will see once summer rolls around how it handles 90-100 degree days and a heavy throttle finger. PM me if you have any other questions. | |
02-02-2013, 04:16 AM | #352 | |
Newbie Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Ohio
Posts: 3
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
Last edited by Broche; 02-03-2013 at 12:07 AM. | |
02-19-2013, 07:06 PM | #353 |
Newbie Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Posts: 33
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
we use a thing called conformal coating to cover all of our electronic board it really helps keeping electronic components safe against humidity. I have not had the need to use it in any ESC yet but I guess I'll give it a try on my next build
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02-21-2013, 06:46 AM | #354 |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
In my reading on potting epoxy and conformal coating, I understood conformal coating to be more applicable for moisture. It was not as well suited for submersion. If you will occasionally splash your ESC conformal coating would probably be fine. It's much safer than plastidip. It also allows for the most heat exchange compared to other methods given that it is so thin. Another issue is it requires extreme cleanliness to adhere properly and it can be difficult to know for certain if it is applied correctly over the entire board.
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02-21-2013, 08:52 PM | #355 |
Newbie Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Posts: 33
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We use uv lights to see if the board is well covered. The CC shows up nicely under a standard black light. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2 |
02-21-2013, 09:42 PM | #356 | |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
I know conformal coating is a legit waterproofing approach, I just read that epoxy was preferred. It also sounded a bit more involved to apply. Thanks for the info. | |
02-22-2013, 05:44 AM | #357 |
Newbie Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Posts: 33
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
Up to now I haven't used CC on any RC related product. I've been much more of a track racer than a backyard basher. I've just gotten into the scale/mud/crawl thing and never needed to waterproof my equipment. I saw this thread and thought i'd jump in. While we do not ''submerge'' our products that we build at work, we do place our electronic components into a controlled environment which contains about 95 % humidity during a period of 10 days with repeated operation. This test would chew through uncoated boards and coated boards keep on going like new during and after the tests. I haven't gotten my kit yet, but will maybe try coating a cheap brushed ESC I have here and will post results. |
02-22-2013, 08:09 AM | #358 | |
Moderator Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: chicago
Posts: 2,814
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
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02-27-2013, 06:04 PM | #359 | |
Quarry Creeper Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: US
Posts: 401
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics Quote:
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03-04-2013, 02:08 PM | #360 |
Newbie Join Date: Feb 2013 Location: columbia
Posts: 3
| Re: Water Proofing Electronics
traxxis xl5 works good and its cheap but no drag brake. the esc in the wraith seems to be waterproof. I ve had it submergered and its still workin.
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