I was starting to stray another forum off topic, so I thought I'd post here. I've been having a bunch of trouble lately regarding flying in these snowy conditions. There is almost a foot of snow outside my house and one hard landing has my quad covered in snow. I've learned the hard way that the ESC's especially can not tolerate even one drop of water inside the heat shrink. You will likely get an error beep on startup instead of the normal chime. Dry them off and they work fine though, no worries. So I decided to prevent future crashes and snow proof my ESC's. Here's what I came up with:
All I did was fill the ends of the ESC with hot glue. I was originally planning on using silicone sealant, like what you would use on bathroom trim, but I read somewhere the catalyst in that is corrosive, so here I am. I'm a little afraid to just dunk it and see how it works, but it's been landing in snow OK so far.
Am I the only one who has crashed from flying in the snow? I haven't read much about it here. Also, the xBee HATES snow (I think I actually fried that) and the baro really doesnt like snow. I actually had to do an eprom erase after a drop got on it, I could not get the bogus readouts to clear otherwise. Yes my APM is in a case, but I landed upside down after an ESC gave out. In a foot of snow.
Does anyone else waterproof their esc's? How do you do it?
Ted
This is what happens when you fly in heavy snow with unprotected ESCs
Replies
I use wd40 sprayed inside the esc and motors for rain/snow flying.
Ted, I am touching wood but I have not had a wet ESC cause a crash but have twice had a wet ESC appear dead after a crash into mud. I have flushed them with clean water then blown them out with compressed air and they have worked again. So yes, you really dont want rain/snow inside the heat-shrimk. I have just used insulating tape to elongate the plastic cover but its not ideal. I was tempted to put them inside the ‘pod’ (check my blog) but decided, of the two risks, overheating was the worst. Sealing the ends is not a bad plan. Choose carefully as some stuff will cause bad metal corrosion.
I have also washed out motors under the tap as clean water is better than mud.