Waterproofing Quad

[Edlang]

I've been traveling through my country, trying to get awesome shots from landscapes. With it being a tropical country and all, I am bound to get some rain. At first, I thought it would not be a big deal, because I could wait it out or just fly if it was only mist. But yesterday I almost lost my quad, when it shut down in the air at the height of the bridge.

If you all are like my friends, you will probably want to see the crash, so here it is.

After this crash, I felt the need of waterproofing the quad. My setup is:

Multistar Elite 2204 2300kv motors
5040 HQ Props
Rotorgeeks 12A ESC
Naze32 Full (with barometer and magnetometer, but I plan to downgrade to an ACRO version)
1500mah 3s battery
FrSky V8FR-II receiver
FPV260 upswept frame (from Hobbyking)

After the crash (and the water) I waited for everything to dry and plugged the naze to my computer. At first, everything seemed to work fine, but after careful judgement, I saw that the Naze did not receive the Aileron input from the receiver. It also did not save any new settings (I tried flashing it and erasing all previous settings).

I've seen the flitetest video on waterproofing electronics, but they did not mention flight controllers. I think that is what failed in my quad, so I will definitely waterproof that.

Any suggestions on how I may do that?

I would also like to waterproof everything else, like the receiver, motors and ESCs, but would prefer to keep the purchases minimal (I would have to order things from amazon, and its expensive).

Thanks in advance!

Ed

 

[Snarls]

You could try using the waterproofing techniques that FT shows in their video and apply it to the flight controller. Note that doing so is only temporary and you will have to reapply the corrosion x every now and then. One more permanent solution is to seal your FC and ESCs if possible under a waterproof container. Another permanent option is to apply epoxy over all of your ESCs, FC and other exposed electronics. One thing to note is that everything must be fully set up before you do this, because you will be unable to solder to your boards after you do that. Also the ESCs might have trouble cooling off under the epoxy. For the motor you do not have to do anything because they are already waterproof.

 

[Spastickitten]

Do you have a low battery alarm? I noticed they get flaky when they are wet

 

[Revere]

A while ago i was talking to an old man who was tooling around with an rc boat at the local reservoir, I was there with my quad and we got talking about rc hobbies, showing off our gear etc. He had done something to the electronics in his boat that might be useful for you.
You know those altoids tin or tobacco tins?
Like this:

He had his electronics all stored iside one of those (except for the battery).
He had drilled various small holes for the wiring to pass though and for zip-ties to hold the boards, all sealed with epoxy to make the tin watertight - the lid was unsealed but it creates a watertight seal when pressed on anyway, but all the holes were sealed around the wires and zip-ties.
Now the best part: I asked him about overheating and he showed me the trick part, he had placed the speed controller heatsink first against the inside of the tin and had applied thermal compound (like what is used between the heatsink and processor in a computer) between the heatsink and the tin. He had turned the whole tin into a big heatsink to keep his electronics cool as well as waterproof.
Wish I had taken photos, my description doesn't do it justice, but something similar might work for you, it's small and light but also waterproof and will keep your electronics safe from damage even during very hard crashes.

 

[Edlang]

Yeah, I hooked up a KK2 buzzer to the Naze. Alarm is set at 3.5 volts per cell

 

[Edlang]

You could try using the waterproofing techniques that FT shows in their video and apply it to the flight controller. Note that doing so is only temporary and you will have to reapply the corrosion x every now and then. One more permanent solution is to seal your FC and ESCs if possible under a waterproof container. Another permanent option is to apply epoxy over all of your ESCs, FC and other exposed electronics. One thing to note is that everything must be fully set up before you do this, because you will be unable to solder to your boards after you do that. Also the ESCs might have trouble cooling off under the epoxy. For the motor you do not have to do anything because they are already waterproof.

What types of waterproof containers could I use? And by applying Epoxy do you mean to just cover the board in that thing?

Ed

 

[Snarls]

Any type of watertight container you can find, such as the altoids tin listed earlier, or any plastic container. It's really up to you and your creativity.

For the epoxy you will cover the entire board yes. Check out this video by RCTestFlight as an example. If you only care about rain you might be able to get away with just putting hot glue into the ends of the heat shrink like FT does in the video.

 

[ZoomNBoom]

Plastidip!
Baro might be a problem though

 

[Ocean]

Liquid Electrical Tape is another option. It is easier to remove than epoxy but still waterproof.

I would personally Epoxy the ESCs (as flite test did on their video), Liquid Electrical Tape the Naze and use corrosion X on the receiver.

 

[RAM]

I used this guys method but I do like what FliteTest did with the CorrosionX (I have both sprays now).

No matter what you use it's always a risk. I was careful not to let the electrical varnish puddle up too much (not sure what too much solvent might do).

 

[midnightdaylight]

I have been messing around with the spray platic-dip and had mostly good luck, but I recommend the original dipping platic-dip bc it's ez to miss small openings with the spray... FCs are so cheap now I just sacrifice the barometer...
Here is what I got so far with this stuff.

Freestyle

First Heavy Rain Test