I didn't waterproof my drone. Now I'm paying the price.
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 พ.ค. 2024
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00:00:00 - I have never crashed in my pool... before today
00:00:50 - My preferred waterproofing method: silicon conformal coating
00:03:20 - DO NOT PUT CONFORMAL on these things
00:07:20 - How to tell if you left any gaps
00:07:57 - You can just solder through the coating. You don't need to remove it.
00:08:45 - Alternatives to conformal coating, and why I don't use them
00:10:36 - I dunk my quad in water. On purpose.
00:11:03 - Un-plug the battery BEFORE removing from the water
00:11:36 - Rinse with distilled water or alcohol to remove deposits
00:13:07 - Dry with a fan or similar (not bagged rice)
00:14:54 - Why was I so anxious about damaging my Mobeetle
"when your done completing the joint, just dab a little bit more" J. Bardwell @8:17
I just go straight to the dab 😂
I'd like to see a video where you test out "Lipo fire safe bags". I have a tough time believing any are good enough to be worth spending money on them.
They're not, there's a lot of videos online of them just melting and letting the flames out. Get an ammo box or batsafe or smth.
@@ironic2468 when I watched that video I was thinking that an ammo can with Fireproof sheetrock inside would be the best option of keeping the flames contained but maybe the ammo can itself would do a good enough job. Either one seems better than one of those battery bags lol
I second this motion!
@@WarriorLife_fpv Closing the ammo can turns it into a bomb. an open can still has flames coming out up to 6 feet in the air. Ammo cans also transfer the heat of the fire into what ever they are sitting on, so your counter or table still ends up ruined.
Safest charging locations indoors is inside your oven, or in a fireplace. non-glass top stove with a good vent hood would be third place.
buy a small toolbox, works way better. helps if you place it on bricks instead of hardwood floor.
I've been using this stuff for years. All of my builds electronics get coated. I've flown in downpours, crashed into wet grass, puddles, snow and once in a pool. Never had any failures due to water damage. I take a heat gun to it to loosen the cap when it gets stuck to the bottle.
Try flying while it's actively snowing. Video gets worse but it's so fun.
I love that your fan has an xt60 connector
Distilled water flush is great advice. Years ago, I flew a marine life observation drone that landed and floated on the ocean. It required a distilled water flush after each flight followed by a WD-40 spray rinse of the motors. Flushing with (distilled) water is counterintuitive but apparently worked for this specific project.
Not really counterintuitive. Distilled water actual does not conduct electricity. It's the minerals in the water such as salt that makes it conductive. But distilled water is not really something most people have at home :-) fresh water from the tap followed by something else works great. As long as the battery is disconnected it doesn't matter what you rinse with. All that matters is that no residue is left on the components when you do plug in the battery next time. (Unless it was fried before you picked it up... But then nothing's really matters ;-)
On hobby drones I would avoid spraying the motors with WD-40. The bearings are usually shielded, not sealed, so WD-40 will get right in there and break down the lubricant. Though it may be a good idea to lubricate the bearings after they take a swim anyway.
MAF sensor cleaner works great for spraying out motors.
I've done this on float planes I've flipped in the lake. Didn't revive them all but most were okay. Works magic on ESCs. Now my float planes smell like a mechanic's shop.
Is there any chance to save a drone that get into a water without any comformacouting done?
yeasterday I dumped my TP3 into a water bucket. I pluged out the battery before removing it from the water. It survived 100%
Thank you Joshua for your tips 11:06
Got to admire a guy that admits he's faults... great video
Electronics technician in a previous carrier.
Never heard of the unplug it before removing it from the water theory. But I suppose I can maybe kinda see some validity to it.
Definitely recommend removing the battery ASAP!
Also isopropyl alcohol is one of the best tools for removing water from electronics. And air! A little heat doesn’t hurt either.
I’ve had personal experiences and come to this conclusion years before this video. My theory behind it was different though. I had the idea that the much quicker rate that water cools than air aids in keeping individual chips, caps and resistors from frying. I’ve pulled several drones out of water after unplugging the battery submerged and have had good results
I’ve also had the experience of components frying right in front of my eyes pulling them out of the water while plugged in. That’s what first gave me the idea
I was told to unplug it under water because the motors can spin up when you pull it out of the water, which can be really dangerous on bigger quads. I've seen it happen myself to a friend's quad he crashed into water, went to pull it out and a motor went full throttle. What happens is water can get into the plug between the FC and Esc and short the motor signal wires to vcc, causing the esc to spin the motors.
And you should say..." I learned something today"
Was waiting for a video on this topic! Thanks Joshua.
Thanks for this video - I know what I will be doing for the West Coast winters.!
I just want to say that this channel is truly so fantastic.
thank you for this. I was expecting it as an out take of the mobeetle review. but you went a step further and made a great video about water resistance prep. I have recently started to coat all my quads. carefully
I personally use nail polish top coat. After two crash in to sea quad still working well
We had spray bottles at work but instead of spraying we put a cotton swab (with hollow plastic shaft) in the nozzle and they you could use it to spread it more accurately.
Instead of conformal coating, I always cover my eletronics with Corrosion X. I live and fly near to the beach. And work great, I have radios, drones and planes working for years. Just apply, a coating once by year. Or if dump into water clean with electrical cleaner and re coat
Thank you for the complete guide for conformal coating. When you mention products like FPV Worry Free, it looks like people can dump their quads into the water and the quad can fly away without any issue, maybe a part 2 with this kind of product would be useful for us :)
Good to learn that conformal coating will work when you dump it in water! I conformal coat most of my whoops and quads only landed in wet grass so far and they all still work.
conformal coating is essential where i live, i like to use the 422C conformal coating as u can ensure its covered using a uv light.
your the best. it was fun contest, and i learned somethings
Josh is the coolest nerd I know, Have helped me in my FPV journey beyond saying.
I learned something !
Somehow managed to leave my taranis out pver night and it rained, had pretty much killed it, opened it up and sat it on a dehumidifier for a couple days and its fine now!
Also, used to dry out something else the same way, to speed up the process! Would definitely recommend a dehumidifier if you need to dry stuff out!
The best way to waterproofing the drone is B7000 glue! glue can pour contacts and then remove without residue with tweezers. B7000 can be completely removed without solvent by winding on tweezers. Where I live long winter and rainy spring and autumn so i know what i'm talking about.
I filled the boot button and exposed connectors with B7000 glue, and then easily removed them when I needed them in a new build. b7000 can clog the UFL antenna connection without fear of losing connection.
I don't like MG Chemicals because it leaves a lot of dirt and is very difficult to remove with a solvent. And also it is very fluid and floods the places that I try to avoid.
In this old video, a guy shows how easy it is to apply and remove B7000 glue with tweezers from a flight controller: th-cam.com/video/qx-ZT6Vo6xg/w-d-xo.html
And this glue is very cheap and sold everywhere, as it is very popular for gluing smartphone screens
thanks for the tip!
I had a 16 x 16 iflight pinned stack in a small 2.5 inch that I recently retrieved from a tall tree after being stuck for over 2 years. Surprisingly everything still works fine. Except for the one motor bell that showed my bb gun aim was dead on the money at least once! It had been 90 degrees and better with no rain for a few days prior to the rescue. I have just put the stack in a Darwin fpv tiny ape frame and flown for a few weeks now with no issues at all.
Watching this while my drone is leaned up against a dehumidifier
I conformal coat good the ones that go in the snow. Other ill lightly hit motor pads & battery pad from outside sometimes after actual testing that it's working good
Contact cleaner will clean conformal coating off of anything you need it off of(save camera sensors, and possibly barometers), and will ensure that the component gets working again. It may take a couple applications and some scrubbing with a toothbrush, but it will get it working again.
I wouldn't recommend coating with things plugged in - I did an ESC plug like that and I could never get it out again, I broke the wings off the plug trying to get it out. I use Kapton tape to mask off anything I don't want coated and then I spray that sucker. Also (I don't know if this only affects the spray-on type) the solvent seems to soften any silicone items such as wire insulation and gummies. I'd probably remove the gummies and try not to get too much on the wires.
I use B-7000 glue to waterproof my quads. Have flown in fullpower rain totally fine.
Heard conformal coating gets micro-cracks after some cooling/heating cycles + high vibration so it needs maintenance once in a while.
B-7000 remains elastic like silicone and much easier to apply and control so that it don’t get in usb ports.
In fact i apply it on usb ports with a help of gravity so it hardens like a plug. If I need to use it - just tear it off and reapply it back after to seal and preserve these parts as well.
So easy to tear it off as well. You just take one part on tweezers and wind on itself.
The only downside is - It has little worse thermal conductivity, but if you fly and not wait on a bench for 5 minutes its totally fine.
Is there someone who uses B-7000 as well, or any other substance which you found better in your application? Are there someone using conformal without reapply more than 6 month with no issues in heavy rain?
I personally have had a Phantom 4 Pro that went swimming in the deep blue ocean on a Natgeo Sharkweek shoot (luckily we had an underwater cameraman, suited up, that immediately free dived down 12m and saved it - what a legend!!)
We were still out at sea on the zodiac for a good few hours. As soon as we returned to basecamp, I took my Phantom apart, unscrewed everything and dunked and rinsed my drone in a tub of freshwater for a good 10 minutes, in an effort to get all the salt off the electronics. Afterwards I let all these components in the sun for 2 days, even put it in a box full of rice for another day. After that I sprayed all the electronics with electronic contact cleaner, a product called “mr mckenic”. My drone survived, except the 4k camera, and I fly my drone to this day! (After replacing the camera)! Needless to say, I had no silicon conformal coating on the electronics, prior to the incident. The only other part that had to be replaced was the GPS unit, as expected, as this unit is located in the top part of the shell of the Phantom, and this is the only place I did not open. Of course, the camera and gimbal is the expensive part of the drone, but it was inevitable to lose this part of the drone, sensor got damaged. But still saved me quite a bit of money. Good practice is to spray electronic contact cleaner on your drone parts, if you don’t plan on covering it with conformal coating 🤙
I wish I was you!
Wet grass took out 1 of my esc's on my 4 in 1 about a week and a half ago. New speedybee setup is performing nicely though!
That penguin ankle tattoo though...
Hahahaha JB, that intro. You crack me up!!!!
I wonder if there could be some sort of "wetness-fuse" that will immediately cut battery current if it gets wet...
Thats basically just a smoke stopper
@@user-im5hm2ty6d That sounds a bit bulky and wasteful of electricity compared to something could be just a little thingy thing switches to infinite resistivity when wet but otherwise just acts like a a wire under normal circunstances; a smoke stopper is not something you would be flying with, specially with smaller drones...
Hey Joshua, what about the goggle feed after the dunk? I’ve had issues with the sensor in some quads after a good swim in the pool. If you’re careful, applying conformal coating around the seals can help a good bit. You earned your like 👍
So funny, this video was released just a few hours after I landed my acrobee65 in the garden pond. No conformal coating, did not unplug the battery under water but rinsed the pcb with Flux remover fluid and dried it in the sun. Got lucky, it still flies like a charm
Sometimes you get lucky!
Definitely costing my drones... Thx for another great clip 🇿🇦
Try using your underr desk light to see conformal coating. It might be blue/purple enough to see the coating
The shark shot was pure awesome. 🦈
Comic cinematic quality, Bardwell! ^^
That's the stuff I have but I hated using it because it looks like the board is covered in slime eventually. Once it has enough grass mixed in with it. It does work well though. Now that I have been doing a good enough job at building and not crashing so much, I haven't had to repair a quad in almost a year now. So I keep thinking I need to take them apart, clean them with alcohol and conformal coat everything.
I bought conformal but have not used it! Thanks for biting the bullet for me buddy. I guess now I'll use it! Glad your quad is ok.... Let us know how it is in a week!
Fished one out of the sink a week ago and luckily I got there before it shorted itself to death. Still flying! Luck.
There are different kinds of conformal coatings and not all of them can be soldered through or dissolved in alcohol. so make sure you check
Clear nail polish. works well, comes off easily with alcohol and saves you from anything short of full submersion. For the amount of work most people do to a quad on an ongoing basis, a coating that is 'difficult' is really not so good.
Having said that, if you're over water then maybe go all-in with the good stuff.
Just rescued a 5” from a pond after 2 weeks under water, no waterproof coating applied. Result 1 seized motor, ESC fried. Flight controller, 3 motors, caddy unit and ELRS, were working. Battery was screwed. The rule here is the ESC Diodes cut power first to the rest of the drone.
a hairdryer works well too i was my quads with the hose spray with electrical contact cleaner or isopropyl then dry with a hairdryer been doing it for a few years now never had a quad die
I use Urethan based conformal coating, it is more pliable and has better heat resistance.
Corrosion X HD is the only waterproofing safe enough for main battery connection and any other small connectors and usb as well but silicone conformal coating is best for everything else, so combined you'll basically have a fully waterproofed quad.
This vid couldn't have came at a better time lmao I fly around my back yard and did so with COMPLETE CONFIDENCE....until the pool went up....lol I am scared to death to fly around water lol oddly enough my quad fail safed in the exact spot where the pool is located before it went up and that added to the anxiety of flying in the yard lol have some of the worry free so I'm going to try it since I have it already 😁 and apply it to my new mobula7 1s elrs whenever I can get another one😒 this was an awesome review JB and I take my hat off to you for doing it since it is extremely hard to find a mobeetle right about now lol 👍🏽✌🏽oh and I almost forgot PLEASE TRY THE MOBULA7 1S ELRS IT IS AWESOME but make sure your running the new betaflight lol I bricked my gyro however I do think I just had a bad FC because I never flashed anything to it....👍🏽
My mobula6 HD also took a plunge, I put it on a infrared heating panel with a fan for 24 hours. And boom, it still worked!
I like it 👌
For the USB plug u can use corosiinx 😊
Try running a thin coat of petroleum jelly around the threads of your conformal coating jar before you put it up, I have used this method on various things over the years that are prone to this
lol, 13:32, seems like even regular electronics in Joshua's house are powered by xt60 plugs))
Submerging your quad or just getting it really wet is not usually an issue. Even not conformal coated, you just gotta heat everything up with a hair dryer nice and hot, and all the water bakes off. Done it many times, worked every time!
thats not true, the problem mainly is the mosfets. Although the voltage on our quads is low and therfore it's not the probem itself, but the GATE is very sensitive it only need very little bit od drive current to switch it open. So by water it could create a little leak current and drive the mosfets unintended uncontrolled. This than lead to a short circuit, and so high current or burning the mosfet or pcb traces etc. So ESC's or any switching step down power regulators containing mosfets ,which can be found in many circuitry are notorious for burning. If no mosfet electronics on your pcb indeed you have much higher chances of survival/ less risk of permanent damaging electronics, if it is uncoated.
Still works....like 👍
Question: what is a good combination of analog goggle reciever and antenna for these whoops? I mean, digital is still too heavy for whoops for now imho. Nice experiment and details about conformal coating, mine survived a bucket of rainwater too, no coating. But i did unplug under water, and dry out for 48 hours, then alcohol bath and soft brushing soaking for 25 min, then dry for 3 days, before trying to fly it again.
Conformal coating bought, but never used yet. This video reminded me about it, so thank you Joshua.
Jeeeez Joshua, that fill light from the pool makes you look like youre in a professional video production studio.
My quads always get the conformal coating treatment, they’ve survived dunks into the bath, in the sink, down the (clean) toilet, and my 5” spent an hour at the bottom of a lake while we tried to find it, when we did the first thing I did was disconnect the battery while still under water, stuck in on a desk fan for a few hours and it was fine, even the Caddx Vista and camera survived.
Did you conformal coating the vista unit and the camera?
And if you did - how did you do it?
Thanks :)
@@hadaralon interestingly no I didn’t which was quiet a surprise. I did put one under a black light once and they do have a very light pink shine to them so maybe some of it is done at the factory. I’m convinced the unplugging the battery while under the water probably saved the vista.
I conformal'd the VTx of my old drone after landing in wet grass killed it.
Am looking at ways to waterproof my new one, but it has a barometer that I don't want to ruin.
Video appreciated.
I was wondering the same. I would think you can just take a very small piece of tape and cover it.
All mine have a barometer, and using the brush it’s so easy to just coat round the edges of it, leaving the top clear. Just keep the brush without too much on it and push the end of the bristles towards the component carefully, don’t just try brushing past it.
AWESOME video! BTW, did you tested the camera? One of my whoops feel into the pool, then water got into the camera and chlorine destroyed the sensor when it dried! 😢
I had a betaflight F3 I never felt like changing and crashed into a drained lake. A mostly drained lake. Needless to say it motivated me to update it to an F4. Keep on the sunny side
This was all while an F3 could still handle all of betaflight. No quads have an F3 anymore unless it's been sitting in a closet. I also just got a mobula6 so you make me feel like I'm still in the club lol
you can get little rubber bungs to block the USB ports
JB, I have the HS 170 predator small little drone fell in a trashcan full of dirty water I couldn’t find the drone for about 20 minutes finally seen lights flashing at the bottom of a trashcan full of water took the drone out unplugged it dried it with a hairdryer an plugged it back in and flew it. then I had a drone same one laying on some wet grass it was wet and it shorted out, figure that one out!
Can you do a video how to clean small motors when they get dusty/dirty? I spray out with degreaser and it works fantastic, even restoring rpm and power.
Interesting as always. Did the camera still work?
Yep! 100%.
I use spray conformal coating! You just have to be careful!
At work (pcb manufacturer) we just use normal transparent spray paint
Maybe not the most professional solution but a couple layers of that work just as well + cheaper + more accesible
Cool video about waterproof and a little drone I enjoyed watching you almost destroy your mini
I have a betafpv meteor 65 that sunk into a washer machine full of dirt water for about 8 minutes, and it survived, is still fully working. I didn't believe when I tested because it's so freaking insane, but is very true...lol
You literally used logic to prove why people should like the video lol. Nice job.
Isopropyl alcohol won't remove conformal coating. Acetone is what you need to use (aka nail polish remover)
or gunwash/thinner
Thanks again for a informative video👍👍 but I wonder. How to conformalcoat a dji air unit? After watching your video I bought the Diatone Roma F5 HD. Really want to conformal coat it since I live in Norway, and it rain or snows "all the time"..
The air unit is effectively waterproof. I know more than one that's gone completely underwater and been fine. You don't need to do anything to it.
A food dehydrator works well, if ya have one!
My Smart HD PNP from GepRC ended in rain water tank. Was there about 30 secs, after drying it really well it flies like new... no waterproofing done by me. Don't know if some was done by GepRC or if it is even possible to waterproof Vista unit. I guess I was lucky.
hey man love your videos im looking to build an fpv or buy a nazgul evoque i already own a dji fpv drone i am wondering what rc controllers/radios will bind with the dji air unit/caddex vista units if any at all i dont really wanna use the original dji fpv controller or the v2 controller are there any controllers/radios out there that work with those units or would i have to buy a whole seperate control chip or what ever they are and install that ?
Priceless knowledge, especially these days! Happy drying 😁
Lol I clipped a branch above my pool , yep had to buy another lol
Talking to a local store here in Norway, they said acrylic solution is better than silicon when it comes to water resistance.
Now, I would think the silicon solution is preferred due to the heat resistant properties that is greater than the acrylic solution?
From what I've read and understand based on the local store here, the silicon solution will handle 200C and the acrylic solution resists up to 125C.
I'm in UK .. here are all weekends raining 😂😂😂 2023 is so far very wet
13:10 I go Big Fat Greek /w the Windex, Ethel Alcohol dries faster. Just be aware that there is a polishing compound in Windex, but I've never had a problem with it being conductive... It becomes some dust to brush off b4 applying a coating.
Remember your dru drone shake n bake review ?
One thing you missed (probably obvious to you but may not be to new pilots): *Don't conformal coat the motors.* They're already waterproof.
Saved my tinyhawk a few times from failure with this. Lost a motor tho. Top tip. 😎
Well technically he did not fly it into water. The esc where off so the potential to damage the esc was zero. anything else was close to zero. If the motors had full power that would been a completely different thing. Also the low voltage in a whoop is different from a 6s setup. (Probably would have survived but still not a real test)... Also as fresh water is usually not that bad. Saltwater on the other hand will fry anything not super protected.
Or because it is a Pool it has (I assume) Chemicals in order to keep it as clear as that is. which ever chems that JB uses for his pool are most likely going to increase the conductivity of the water. Water in and of itself is not conductive. Water with dissolved and or suspended solids is conductive. Distilled/pure water has very high resistance compared to say pool water with dissolved chems in.
Hey,
Just have a little question, do we follow the same protocol if we didn’t thermalcoated it?
Thanks a lot for All those infos!!
I hit the like button at 9:08. I like to live dangerously.
That water solution might help with my mobeetle6 board overheating and disabling the gyro
I once dropped my 5'' quad into saltwater due to some weird rxloss. It was approx. ankle deep and full of seaweed, so the quad plopped into that mess right to the upper deck. The battery terminals and the ESC power traces had likely shorted out, everything started boiling and fuming, and as a cherry on top the battery caught on fire. While in water. Yeah. I yanked it out having wrapped my hands in my shirt, but the ESC board has been ruined - some power traces eaten clean off the surface. Silicone insulation on some motor wires had puffed up, cracked and turned brittle, and the carbon fiber near the power terminals had visible pitting.
To sum up, I had to replace the ESC board, rewire all motors (thankfully the coils themselves were not corroded) and buy a new action camera. That was enough of a lesson to lacquer-coat the boards.
Information I could have used last winter before I flew my tinywhoop into the toilet.
Hey Joshua, I have this Mobeetle6 as well! I'm curious of the ECU temperatures with the coating on. Supposedly if the VTX is running at 400mW, it will lower the power depending on the temperature of the unit. I feel like this coating would keep it from dispersing heat like it should. Just curious! Thanks for the video!
Hmm, I took the time and made sure my quads were properly coated, also using 422 silicon (even under the chipset and other SMDs), and we fly in snow and crash into water all the time. Sometimes we even get lucky and manage to turtle out of the snow. Never had any issues what so ever, never let the quad dry either, just slap it against a tree or wall to get rid of the thicker snow or mud, fresh pack in and full throttle again. Of course I don't COUNT on it being fine, but after 50+ crashes in snow I'm confident that proper application of the goop is key, and that it will work way better than some argue.
Right I was kind of blown away he never mentioned silicon but hey I'm use to snow and oceans. I guess some of us just need to deal with water proofing more then others haha. In my experience even manufactures usually use Conformal more for water resistance then water proofing. ie for some casual rain not submersion. The best ones combined them both!
Thanks for the video! But what about the battery? Do you need to cover the balance plug? And if you unplug it from the drone while underwater won’t the water touch the battery electronics and cause a short circuit?
OK Kemosabe, I Liked it! But a question for ya, Did the Camera survive ??, I'm guessing notta chance. Please let me know. Thanks. B. G.
Yep, it was fine.
Desiccant, not rice. It will get moisture out better than a fan But may take longer. I’ve fixed fogged cam lenses with it.
hi, new to FPV Drones. Can I use Acrylic Conformal Coating for this?. Thanks
I'm curious to know if you conformal coat a nanorx and then put heat shrink on it will the heat to shrink the wrap melt the conformal off?
@Joshua can acrylic conformal coating (Ambersil) be used, or is that a no-no?
Yes acrylic is ok but it's not as flexible and chips off.
Dear JB! I have a question Is it okay to apply a conform coating to the ELRS SMD ceramic antenna in FC?