How to water-proof electronics ??
 

With my Silverado project almost completed,I'm thinking about building a new mud track.I want to go as deep as I can with the truck in mud,but I ran into a problem,the electronics will get wet very easily.I know there is a couple stuff that I can use like plastic wrap,but I dont wanna use that(because theres still a chance that water can leak through,because the motor and board might get hot and burn the plastic).If theres a grease or glue or something that,please tell me..

saran wrap or a ballon

balloon or condoms

make sure though you put vaseline on the end and zip tie so no water leaks

I've heard somewhere that you can use liquid electrical tape.
Here's one kind that you can use: http://www.starbrite.com/prodcatalog...e%20%28Home%29

I used Glad Press N' Seal on my Zip Zaps and Micro Desert Truck. You do not need to waterproof the motor just make sure you do a lot of layers on the ESC. Also note that your solder points might come off after being wet so be careful.

Has anyone ever cracked open a Nikko electric boat? Well, I have, and you'd be amazed at what you saw. There are no boxes, there are no pieces of saran wrap, there are not pieces of duct tape, there's practically nothing at all around the ESC/Receiver. But, what you will find, is a bunch of....hot glue and grease. These two substances are caked onto the ESC/receiver like you wouldn't believe, and to my surprise, it actually works.

Those boats go through a lot of stuff having little eight year olds drive them in water. If it can keep a ESC/receiver package safe with any sort of abuse from an eight year old, it'll certainly keep your ESC/receiver safe if you run it properly and don't try to drown it. :p

A while ago, I saw someone who used hot glue on their board cover like you said, Kyle. I would try that. :bigwink:

Condoms...lol!!!!

No seriously, Donzii, I've cracked open 2 nikko cars, so much hot glue and grease...
You should be able to do a full submerge with balloons and zipties.

Yeah dude sillicon from those industrial cocking guns, that stuff works like a charm, comes in packs like this for about 1$:

http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s...5/HPIM0019.jpg

Thanks for taking the time to edit the size, Meme! :)

im not kidding sometimes you run out of baloons and they repell water decently

a balloon will pop if you put vasaline on it, other smaller latex materials/products will also puncture (there are some kids on this site:))

This seems the most logical but do you not fear excess heat build up? My thoughts were for something to be waterproof it must also be airproof and all of the venting built in to the board cover would become useless. How do they keep the boats electronics cool or is it simply that the boats have less performance (per scale) than xmods. I think that mud running would put alot of strain on the electronics and create excess heat. Just food for thought i guess. You know the boats better than me.

Due to the size of the boat there was a lot of room to work with when it came to the electronics. Much like the Xmods, the ESC and receiver were integrated which made for quite a large board (about the size of an Xmod touring). But, because this was in a hull of a boat (about three feet long by half a foot wide by quarter of a foot tall) there was a lot of room to incorporate massive fins to disipate the heat that much further.

When you shrink this all down to Xmod size, you really don't have a lot of room to work with when it comes to disipating heat. Being that the board would have to be covered in grease/glue it would already take up a lot of room inside the chassis, let alone trying to add other things to keep it that much cooler.

If you were to actually cover your board in grease and hot glue, you'd have to be very careful when it came to driving. As long as you're geared correctly, driving correctly and not trying to push the envelope, you shouldn't have too much of a heat problem, or so I'd suspect.

yeah, i was going to suggest trying hot glue and wd40. I've never tried it though, but apparently its already being done.

Thanks all for your inputs..
I'm not going with ballons(I would be able to see the color way to much,and it looks bad).
I want to use some kinda grease or hot glue,or even maybe cocking aournd it..I can't afford a new EP or a new xmod,because I'm basicly broke..If anybody cam,tell me were I can buy the grease or the hot glue..

You can get the hot glue at a hobby store, lowes or home depot. I am sure you can get grease at lowes or home depot too. Hope it goes well.

The dollar store has glue guns with glue for like 4 bucks.

EDIT: If it were mine, and it's not so do what you want, I would take the board out and paint it with insulating enamel using light coats as to not eat away at the pcb. The enamel would be conductive while wet so it would have to be totally dry before use but once dry everything should be fairly well insulated and I would "think" you would have a much better chance at heat dissipation through the insulating enamel.

yes sir,grease would be my preferred method.
i've been telling people that for ages but no one listens....:roll:

the only problem is is that petrolium based lubricants conduct electricity so it has to be dielectric grease.
http://fsjeep.homestead.com/files/TF...ric_grease.jpg

as far as heat goes, the only thing that you need to worry about is the fets but you could leave the tops uncovered.
just make sure the leads are good and greased though.

you could take it a step further by cutting a balloon length wise and in half and lay one half on the board tray, set the board in and sandwich the other half of the balloon ontop of the board between the covers.
poke holes for your screws and it should be fully protected.

Yeah,bondo thats what I was looking for.I remember you telling us one time,but I forgot.I might go with that dielectric grease.But I have a question,where do I get that grease ???

Any auto parts store should have it, if not then lowes would.