Does anyone have any ideas on how to make the motors on a multicopter waterproof so that you can fly in rain?
I've seen a few videos of multicopters flying in light rain, but I would have thought that the rain would short out the motors?
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These look pretty waterproof, and they market them as being 'rain resistant':
http://www.microdrones.com/products/md4-200/md4-200-key-information...
Pretty clever design, it's mostly encased, with little disc covers over the motors.
http://aquacopters.gostorego.com/?p=28
Is is safe to apply a Silicon Conforming Coating to an APM2.5 board? For example, this one:
http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/protective-coatings/conformal/s...
Would this interfere with any of the sensors or cause any of the chips to overheat under normal use?
If not, anybody got any advice for applying a the coating to the board?
Consider waiting till mid 2012 for this product to be available. http://neverwet.com/
It's been my intention to make an amphibious quadcopter for a long time. Unfortunately, I'm lazy so what follows are my waterproofing tricks.
As mentioned, BLDCs are essentially waterproof already, with the bearings being surprisingly resistant to corrosion. The magnets and stator aren't so much. If you want them to last the BLDC outrunner motors need to be disassembled at which point you can coat the stator & magnets in MG Chemicals aerosol silicone conformal coat or dip it in epoxy based paint with the bearings removed. The cooling of the motor windings will obviously be compromised so you can use thermally conductive epoxy or simply swing smaller props and reduce your current draw. You can skip waterproofing the motors entirely if you dunk them in 99% alcohol after each use and that will protect the bearings as well. This will shorten their life considerably, but I don't spend more than $12 on BLDCs so I don't really care if I have to replace them every couple months.
Put all of your control electronics in a cheap tupperware container and backfill it with paraffin wax or silicone rubber. This can include your ESCs, although I've had reasonable success potting those in automotive grade Silicone RTV. This is controversial because the acetic acid supposedly will corrode the pcb and components over time, although I've never had any problem.
I just put my LiPoly batteries in a latex balloon and seal the mouth against the wire connector using hot glue.
I've run all of these components completely submerged in a bathtub using the above techniques.
There was an ROV article on the front page awhile ago:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/arduino-rov-sub
The amount of CoTs things I've seen work underwater with the stupid tricks listed above is surprising. If you have to have moving parts, make them non-corrosive, and use epoxy to pot components that need a heatsink. Silicone, hot glue, wax, mineral oil, and rubber diaphragms for everything else. I've never used these techniques deeper than 40 ft, but my default position these days is "it'll work underwater" until I've seen these fail.
Hello Sir
http://www.mgchemicals.com/products/422a.html
Conforming liquids is what you need to look at. They are industrial chemicals for protecting PCBs against moisture.
You can make a spray solution out of them and spray the PCB boards of your Ardu Copter. This process is called CURING, which is often used in robotics applications.
There are other such chemicals but they are super expensive, so this one was reasonably priced.
If you use Brushless motors probabably you need not spraying them.
For sonar and other breathing parts, you might want to place a tape or cotton ball when u spray, to avoid clogging them.
You also need to follow all the hazmat precautions when handling these liquids during the mixing and spraying.
I purchased breathable waterproof fabric and tried to make a jacket for the Ardu copter, and the fabric was too cumbersome to shape.
We used shrink-wrap plastic and it worked but the sonar was the issue and before each flight u need to shrink-wrap again. Any membrane will have this problem.
D
I use conformal coating on all my all my boards. I don't fly in rain but have flown in light rain and never had a problem.
...dex multirotors from first post is by far best for that .. http://vimeo.com/37773332
http://www.liquipel.com/
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