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waterproofing?

raddad1975

Pebble Pounder
Joined
Mar 18, 2016
Messages
181
Location
Mountains
Ok so I wanted to waterproof my scx10 deadbolt. I did my research and found a post backed by axial on how to waterproof and did what they said which was to use ballons for the electronics. So I did what they said. first run it did good ran it through a deep water hole and all. next day I ran it on my backyard crawl track and after about 20min of crawling it stopped. wouldnt go no where, I could still turn front wheels but no forward or rverse. removed body and esc and motor where hot to the touch. unpluged and let cool off and it ran fine but took esc out of ballon. motor is still getting warm but it hasnt stopped since. im new to the hobby so what is going on with my rig?
 
I can see you didn't heed my advice to have your electronics waterproofed the right way..

Its like $10 . Enjoy buying new electronics instead :) !!
 
I can see you didn't heed my advice to have your electronics waterproofed the right way..

Its like $10 . Enjoy buying new electronics instead :) !!

your not alot of help you know. I dont have a Hobby shop down the street from me. its like almost an hour away. not easy to make a quick run so I need to learn to do it my self. so if you cant give some input on how to fix it or what has happened then please dont respond. thank you
 
I'm almost an hour from my favorite hobby shop too. So when I go I make the trip count.. Instead of trying to cut corners, then expecting others to tell me how to fix it when I had a working solution given to me beforehand.
 
All you can do at this point is dry out the ESC thoroughly by taking it apart and maybe leaving it in some rice to really pull all the moisture out.

As for the motor getting hot, that's tough to diagnose without seeing it but you may have damaged the internals by a the previous overheat. If it's a rebuildable brushed motor it probably needs a rebuild or if it's brushless you might need a new motor. Or it could be getting hot because the ESC is damaged too.

I'd dry the ESC out thoroughly first and go from there..

And I'd recommend redoing the waterproofing, just look it up on YouTube for how to waterproof an ESC. I've never been a fan of the balloon method, I prefer liquid electrical tape directly to the electronics. I just did my brand new set up that way, ran the ESC and motor in a bowl of water to test and it works perfectly.
 
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Either after drying it off and or replacing it watch this video on water proofing.....it's on a honcho but pretty much the same principle.
https://youtu.be/SzmK_tvbejE

I'm thinking with the balloon method, there was no way to dissipate the heat and may have over heated your stuff.

Sent From My Galaxy S6 Edge+
 
Your ESC may have hit its thermal shutdown, being wrapped in a balloon it can't dissipate heat quite as fast. If something got wet, you may have damaged the ESC and/or motor.
 
Sounds like thermal shutdown to me. I really wouldn't recommend putting your speed controller inside of a balloon because of the reduced heat dissipation. Better to take the circuit board out of the casing and seal it with some liquid electrical tape except for the heatsink.
 
Sounds like thermal shutdown to me. I really wouldn't recommend putting your speed controller inside of a balloon because of the reduced heat dissipation. Better to take the circuit board out of the casing and seal it with some liquid electrical tape except for the heatsink.

liquid electrical tape is great for a outer layer ( first layer of protection ). But will allow water to wick down the wires and onto the PCB. Also can and will start to peel after time goes on..
 
ok so upon further inspection i found my esc is waterproof. it is a AE-5. from what yall are saying it is sounding like it went into thermal shutdown. is that bad for it? do I need to get a new esc? I know that it got to hot so it shut off that i get just wanna know if I hurt it
 
The thermal shut-down is designed to protect the ESC, most of the time it works, sometimes it doesn't. You'll just have to drive it around some to see. Just monitor motor and ESC temps closely for a while. If they seem to be getting hotter quicker than normal you may need to replace one or both.
 
Here's my assessment:

You're an hr from your LHS. Just buy waterproof stuff

OR save money and go non-waterproof and stay out of the wet stuff

My LHS is 5mins away, so if something breaks I can just run over there. Because you're so far away from yours, you need to be smart. I'd rather buy the right stuff, if I want to play in water, and not cut corners
 
Here's my assessment:

You're an hr from your LHS. Just buy waterproof stuff

OR save money and go non-waterproof and stay out of the wet stuff

My LHS is 5mins away, so if something breaks I can just run over there. Because you're so far away from yours, you need to be smart. I'd rather buy the right stuff, if I want to play in water, and not cut corners

I am going to buy all waterproof electronics for my rig. gonna run my rig with a full battery and see what happens. but am planning on buying new esc and motor next this week.
 
Three words for you, (Silicon Conformal Coating).
 

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There is no smart thermal shutdown on that ESC. It gets so hot that it doesn't work, that is the "thermal shutdown" that happens.


mg chem silicone conformal is a good one.
 
your not alot of help you know. I dont have a Hobby shop down the street from me. its like almost an hour away. not easy to make a quick run so I need to learn to do it my self. so if you cant give some input on how to fix it or what has happened then please dont respond. thank you

Take your ESC out, remove the cover to expose the heat sink and boards. Use 2 part epoxy and run it all along the bottom board and make sure to seal the space between the heat sink and the top of the board. Let cure overnight and put cover back on.

Work friggin great man and still dissipates the heat. Cures to a solid, 100% waterproof seal as long as you cover everything. Skip the balloons.
 
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