Ever had that sinking feeling? Watched the sail or cabin disappear below the waves?
I have and in fact I deliberately sink my boat on a regular basis.
Reading on another forum I read about a fellow modeller losing most of his electronic because his Yacht got swamped and took on a lot of water.
Here in OZ we have a great little product called INOX. http://www.inox-mx3.com/inox.htm. It’s a Lubricant Protector that repels water. It’s available in a lot of overseas countries as well.
In any boats that are likely to take on water I drill a whole or two in the Servos Case (after it has been dismantled) and I sink them in a Batch of INOX for about 2 hours letting it penetarte right through.
Take it out and let dry off. Don’t wipe off excess.
From here you have protected your electronics and maybe even saved a few grams. I know one guy who takes the whole servo under casing away without any problems.
If the boat gets any water it’s a simple matter of blowing off excess water or if it’s a complete sinking then a Little flush with Metho Spirits, another short bath and your away again.
The Australian Battle Group (Big Gun R/C Warships and Sinkings) passed this on to me years ago and it has saved me many times from replacing Servos and Receivers when I got water inside the Hull.
I don’t know about Inox, but WD40 is not a good plan. In the US we have Corrosion Block or Boeshield which might do the same job. WD40 is a little tricky with electronics because it is conductive and might therefore short out your electronics. Dry film lube might be the key, maybe even try MacLube, is that available in the UK? The stuff you use on headfoils and luff slots on big boats to reduce friction. residual ,non sticky, non conductive and water resistant.
In the States, we have a dielectric liquid called CorrosionX, which can be used to treat your electronics prior to use, or after getting wet. It will protect your gear, or rescue it from a wetting.
Don’t forget, if you get your electronics wet with pondwater, to rinse it asap with clean water (distilled/deionized/etc.) before treating it with CorrosionX.
Some powerboaters will even mount servos unprotected (not in a radio box) after treating or filling the parts with CorrosionX.
Ian–
Why do you not recommend using WD-40 on electronics?
WD-40 also absorbs moisture,( seen it used on bicycle chains, and it holds in moisture, cusing the chain to rust) as well as desolving any lube that may be in place (such as the servo gears)
Good reasons. I’ll bet others were also wondering. It was designed to displace water in machinery (WD-40 stands for Water Displacing formula #40) so people probably assumed it would ‘dry out’ radio gear. I have never seen any rusting after it was applied tho.
I have heard of people suggesting using WD-40 on wet radio gear, but I’ve never heard of any success with it. I have very positive experiences, as well as others, with CorrosionX. I carry a small pump-spray bottle of something call the Stuph, which is CorrosionX with a different color dye in it, in my toolbox for the powerboat.
the only problem with it is the price: $1 an ounce(40ml).
there is one thing that i’ve always done with my receivers, i take the case off, then, holding the antenna wire, dip the unit into melted candle wax. never had a moisture problem since.
Yeah, and you can’t plug the crystal or servo connectors in either. If you did get any moisture in, it’ll be a bear to get out, or you’ll have to melt all the wax off to dry it out.
It’s best not to let things get wet in the first place.
One of my boats sat on the bottom this summer for three days! I put my receiver in a toy balloon and use a twist tie to seal it off. Not a drop inside the receiver and once I let the servos dry all was fine.