So. anybody have a preferred method for waterproofing their receiver/electronic board? I went into Ace today looking for scotchkote, and found none, but online there appears to be good results using polyurethane/nail polish. Looks like @Beaver 's waterproofing servos video is down but I can follow the threads talking about it, and I think I can pull that off on my own. Are there any tutorial threads on potting/scotchkoting that I missed? Otherwise I'm going to barrel into coating next weekend and am thinking of getting a dielectric grease to take care of what coating will not.
board pot in epoxy. Pictures of general steps here. pot with epoxy up to the base of the connectors. Receiver, remove the outside case, coat with E6000 https://rcwarshipcombat.com/threads/hms-fiji-refit.445461/#post-518295
@Beaver you made a video too? well then. I'll have to check that out when my internet isn't throttled. I didn't catch that one in the threads I found @Kevin P. thanks for the link, any particular epoxy, or can I just use whatever? also, can I e6000 my board too? the epoxy seems to be a permanent "you cannot get in there and fix anything" option
No, I didn't make a video. I only made a tutorial which is in the Resources section. Mind you, that process has been touted to fail by the vets. The servos in my Suffren and King Edward have never been replaced with multiple sinks over many events so take the info there with a grain of salt.
yeah I was reading that in the thread. Oh well. since it's down, would you mind sending me the how-to on PM please?
Some things are good to be permanent, and the question I would reply with is what exactly do you think you could fix given an unknown potential failure in the future? (I'm sure the typists will respond to this one with a vengeance) I use West Systems for pretty much everything, but it is towards the high end of the price spectrum. There are probably less expensive options out there, but I don't have first hand, battle tested experience with those products to weigh in on a specific brand. In general if I had to choose non-west systems I would look for longer cure times. I view the extra 50 cents or so for a batch of west systems as worth it to protect the $55 board (or ESC, or receivers sometimes) You could probably do the board with E6000 if you had to, I think you might have trouble with the viscosity allowing it to flow between the connectors. I would approach it in the same way as potting, make a 'form,' get a complete layer down on the bottom of the form, stick the board on top of the base layer, then take the 'lawnmower' approach to covering the top of the board
Oh look, I missed the obvious. Surprise, surprise!! thanks dude. I see your point. I'm pretty decent with soldering and such, but the last time I worked on a board was 99, so... yeah. I'll just epoxy it then. I noticed on your fiji that you lay it in a mold with plastic lining. do you need to grease the lining prior to so you can pull the potted board out, or does it just come out fine?
I used wax paper for liner, disposable, might come off clean might rip, no grease or release agent necessary
I like saran wrap for potting things. Big plus over wax paper is if it gets stuck to the epoxy you can't see it anyways and looks better.
In other news, The pump is now running. bit of a glugger with only the water channel full, but I think it'll run well once it has a higher load. The rest of the day was spent assembling the rescue rope kit. It's pretty neat, and I think if I rig the attachment lines right inside the hull, I should be able to lift-recover the boat. but I have no intention to use this capability unless in dire circumstance. wading and swimming are generally fun. First, I built the box, and after checking everything for fit inside the hull, traced the outline onto the bottom of the center deck Once that was done, I hand-drilled holes for the Neodymium magnets with a drill bit into the corners of the box. then slapped magnets in the holes, put a dot of CA glue on the top of the magnets and set the box down in position. after ten minutes, I pulled the box off, and put a drop of CA on top of the magnet, then stuck the box back down. once that cured, I pulled the box and the deck apart, and had four perfectly placed magnets on each. After that I slapped the whole shebang back together and onto the boat, then fed as much line as I could into it. once that was done, I took out the deck and rope box, and dropped them off the second floor deck of my house while holding the end of the line to be sure of solid deployment with my coil technique. the deck & box landed in a pile of leaves, so no harm done. Here's some good shots of the whole thing: If you're wondering about the red stripes, those are reflectors that you stick on mailboxes. figure it'd help to see the floating superstructure if the light dies, and if I have to dive for the boat, that strip on the top deck will be easy to spot with a flashlight The next step is boring out the center of the box to allow the line to be connected to the hull. I intend to use a screw-in C-ring instead of a D ring due to its small size, and comparative strength. the lines from the hull to the box will be connected to the eyelets holding the battery straps. they're tapped into the hull, and I intend to set up a secondary harness by drilling some eyelets on the underside of the deck near B turret to fore, and C turret to aft if I am not satisfied with the results from the battery eyelets. all lines are Paracord, so they're stout. I've used paracord to string homemade 80 pound draw longbows, so I have no qualms with using it in this application. But I will be replacing it every year if I do a fair amount of sinking, which I expect. I have a 1,000 foot roll, so it's not like I will run out. Speaking of length, the rescue rope box can fit a 16 foot coil. I do not expect any battling in anything deeper here.
Cool! do you have any photos? I've a button on my receiver that's needed to sync the Tx/Rx, and am wondering how to do it. But I do have E6000 and some marine slow-cure epoxy for the board, so I am planning to do them tomorrow evening/whenever I am not dog-tired
You don't pot a board when waterproofing with E6000. You apply a coating to each side. You do one side at a time waiting for the first side to dry before doing the other. E6000 is self leveling so after applying a coat, set the board level. I do one side then let sit overnight. For buttons, apply the E6000 around the button (making sure you don't get any on top). After dry, cut a little circle of Saran wrap and place over the button. The Saran wrap will stick to the E6000 around the button. Coat the Saran wrap with a layer of E6000 making sure the coat extends to the previous layer of E6000. When spreading the E6000 on a board, I find it handy to have a magnifying glass on hand to make sure I get complete coverage. BC trigger board with E6000 waterproofing.
You definitely want to let it dry before turning it over for the second side. But overnight is not needed. I have done it pond side in under 45 minutes from package to boat. Was a rush job but it is still working a year later.
Potting of the receiver and the battle board are done. I ended up doing one side of the receiver before I left for a weekend with the ladyfriend in Saint Paul, so... yeah the wait time was a bit moot. but watching the E6000 dry on the other side today, it is going pretty fast. I poured the epoxy and let it do its thing for a few hours. turns out the bread bag worked perfectly as a buffer between the mold and the epoxy. easily peeled out of there. I'll run a functions test this evening once I have some time. After that, I'm going to get the electronics in their final positions (I removed that electronics box, way too cumbersome for little benefit), and then tomorrow get the sidemounts online. I burned out the drill bit trying to put safety pin holes in those steel barrels, so it looks like I will have to just grab another bit, and use some heat-carrying lubricant to reduce the temperature and prevent temper loss. The CO2 bottle, pneumatic stuff, and my new props arrived too. the props are comically small compared to the 1.75s I had on there, and should work for next week's battle. I hope. but I will likely try to get some 1.5" props later, or shave down my 1.75" props to give enough rudder clearance (the reason for this is buried way up in the thread, but basically, my rudder servo had far more travel on a Frsky receiver than the airtronics one I was using for clearance testing. and I am still trying to figure out this X7 and will not have the time to figure out how to reduce rudder servo travel between now and saturday--eventually, but not now--too much overtime needed at work, and I'm studying for cruiser certification, so hunting through a bunch of esoteric nonsense to find an answer in plain english and not some bizarre dialect of techie is beyond my patience).
Hey........ doing the functions check right now..... and is there something that I wasn't aware of regarding potting the board? I wired everything up, plugged the sucker into the battery, and so here's what works, and what does not: Power transmission: yes Power to the ESC/receiver: yes Pump: no Gun circuits: no lighting: LED showing power to the board comes on. when I hit the guns and pump, none of the corresponding lights are coming on. checked all plugs, switches, everything. all are clear. Is it possible that the circuit board has been shorted out by the epoxy? I used the best long cure epoxy I could find. no metal, no nothing in it. this should not have shorted. The receiver has been checked and is fully functional on all channels Somebody tell me I didn't just ruin this board.
if your ESC has a BEC, you should pull the jumper from the board that is right next to the 3 servo leads. The jumper is used to supply power to the receiver from the board if desired, but you only want one thing trying to power the receiver. If nothing smoked then you are probably OK, but should still pull the jumper (or remove the red wire from the ESC to the reciever) Did it work before, or is this the first try? It sounds like your transmitter settings (travel, or a weird mix) are not correct
