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    Very funny ! :)))

  • Jake has built a few boxcopters as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN61RANENGw

  • @careyer, actually talking about quads.

    I avoid saltwater like the plague even though I live on the coast and I was actually thinking of silicon nitride bearings which are good at high(er) speed (and cost even more).

    However, I also agree, if you actually do have to fly in salt water environment, bigger slower motors with big bearings (preferably silicon nitride) and using a lot of good anti corrosive stuff like BoeSheild is the best way to go.

    Tiny little steel (even stainless) bearings are very rapidly destroyed by saltwater due to galvanic action.

    Really you need to immediately total immersion flush them off with freshwater and then a serious flush in mineral spirits would be good followed by lubricating them with whatever you lubricate them with, (WD 40 is really inadequate as a miniature ball bearing lubricant).

    One of the tricks of immersible motors even brushless ones for submersibles is that normally they use self lubricating bushings rather than ball bearings.

  • @McCray: Problem with ceramic bearings is: Their specs only allow very low RPMs (about 2000-5000rpms - that is way to low for a multicopter) + they are expansive like hell + it is difficult to get very small ones e.g. for motors in the 220x class.

    @McCray: You are lucky just having one motor on that water-plane. Chances that you need to change a motor/bearing on a multicopter is at least 4 times as high :-/ - Experience teaches me: Whatever you do... you certainly must revise at least one motor which is btw. a real pain on my DeX Frame.

    Best thing you can do is: Choose cheap as beans motors and mount them in a way that lets you replace them quite easily. And always have a trashcan nearby =)

  • careyer, just using water won't work, you need to flush the motor and bearings with WD-40.

    I've dunked brushless motors many times, in fact I have a FPV plane that is made to land on water (not a seaplane) so pretty much every landing the motors get wet, by using WD-40 you keep the motor, windings and magnets from rusting, but the bearings will have to be replaced sooner or later.

  • Salt water is a killer, you really need to add an additional layer of epoxy to the windings and switch to expensive ceramic bearings (cost more than the motors), but even then tiny little sand grains are hard on them.

    Bigger motors with bigger bearings work better, but nobody wants to stick those in salt water either.

  • Well, mine has $9 Motors which have been eating dirt and mutt on their first live on my testquad.

    By the way, i have the C-Clips removed on the Motors as i had to turn the shafts. That way i can pull of the whole bell incl. prop to clean them.

  • I did exactly that - WD40 on the upper bearing (you can't reach the lower bearing though).... and after each flight wash the copter in a padding pool full of sweet water... I even dipped the complete copter unter water and let the motors run at full throttle for a min or two... after that additionally went with the copter under the shower. It did not help. After 4 days the bearings of one motor was rusted so much that you could not turn the motor anymore. The set of T-Motors was about 200$..... so i guess the best bet is to use cheap as beans motors and dispose and replace them after a few flights

  • spray some WD40 to grease the bearings and oust the water after washing it in sweet water.

  • Nice,
    our Lockkopters do that as well, here a video from LazyZero:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSVhc-d2uWg

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