has anyone checked out this servo yet? http://servocity.com/html/hs-5646wp_servo.html apparently hitec is starting to sell waterproof servos. I wonder if they are as good as the traxxas ones?
the website lists it as IP67 rated. A quick wiki search reveals this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code For those of you too lazy to look, the 6 means that it is "Dust tight: No ingress of dust; complete protection against contact," and the 7 means that "Ingress of water in harmful quantity shall not be possible when the enclosure is immersed in water under defined conditions of pressure and time (up to 1 m of submersion). Test duration: 30 minutes, Immersion at depth of 1m." edit: I wonder how this ccompares to other "waterproof" servos?
I saw this the other day and thought COOOL.. then the price.. awwwww I don't think it will do any better than the traxxas but for a much higher cost. I am still on my first two servos bought in 2009 and both are going strong. They are rated for 3ft but so far no problems. At this point I would staty with traxxas.. and I have 2 new in the bag.. so I am set for a while.
I still think the traxxas are better for general use. on the other hand, the hitec servos are metal gear, so they can be used to control the sails on a square rigger. Maybe I'll give them a try.
The specs say they're good up to one meter of immersion. Most of us battle in water considerably deeper, which means that at greater depths, all bets are off. My biggest concern is that at two meters or more, the pressure could force water into the case, but because of its tight sealing, would trap it there. These servos are engineered for "wet conditions" - not prolonged immersion under pressure. I think the best method for dealing with water for our purposes is to go in the opposite direction: inexpensive servos with Skotchkoted circuit boards, and open to allow water to be drained/blown out after a sink. Rob
Rob, I would agree, however the local elecrtical supply manager informed me that Scotchkote is now illegal to sell in or ship to Ohio. The LHS sells the Traxxas micros for $17. I spent a good part on 2011 trying to get my hands on scotchkote to no avail. For the me, the Traxxas is a better option for effort versus time.
I view servos as a consumable, though one that I would like to try to maximize the life of. I buy the Traxxas servos from guys who part out Traxxas vehicles. Usually 10-15$ each. In 2 years of use, I have had 2 Traxxas servos fail on me, both after 5+ ft depth sinks. In one water penetrated sufficiently to cause the little motor to seize up after a weekend on the shelf. In the other the pot failed immediately due to moisture intrusion. In both cases the controller board was later tested and found to be quite functional. It seems that water is pretty much going to get in regardless of what actions we take, and short of actually pressurizing my servos with a low-psi (about 20psi to combat pressure at 7ft depths) feed from my co2 system, I don't see any way to stop that from happening with any reasonable level of modification or price. I bring spares to the pond and build with the need to be able to replace them pond-side in mind.
Skotchkote is only one option. If you Google "conformal coatings circuit boards," you will find numerous options. But you can get away with not using any substances at all, and sticking with standard servos. Just make sure that the cases have plenty of drainage holes. When we're talking about standard-sized servos, it's not getting wet that causes them to fail - it's corrosion that results from staying wet for any length of time. If you install standard-sized, cheap servos, sink the ship, pull it out, remove the servos at the pond, take the bottoms off the cases, blow them out with compressed air and let them dry out in the sun, they will be good as new. The problem with this approach is that all of this takes time that might prevent your participating in the next fight. So, some measures need to be employed that will reduce "rehabilitation" time, and using a conformal coating on the circuit board is one such measure. Drilling holes in the servo cases to allow water to flow freely through them is another. By the way, I stress "standard-sized" when talking about all of this because I have had bad luck with mini and micro-sized servos. I have observed that their circuit boards are less robust in resisting shorting out from merely getting wet. However, your mileage may very. Rob
If it ever really is necessary (microservos may not be viable due to limited torque) it would be straightforward to proeprly design a sealed enclosure for them using http://servocity.com/html/servo_shaft_attachment___250__.html or something similar for the output.
Use whatever servo you want. (I personally like the Tower Hobbies TS-59, I don't think I've had to throw one out since I started using them circa 2007. They are marketed as watertight....haha sure.) Coat the circuit board with something to keep it from getting wet. (Skotchkote, epoxy, superglue, nail polish, whatever) Use Dielectric Grease to keep water out of the Pot. The motor can handle being wet, at least till the evening when you have time to take it out and let it dry. Always have spares that you can swap out quickly.
