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Water resistance Zubax GNSS (GPS Glonas receiver)

Posted by Andreas Jochum on April 29, 2015 at 8:30am

We here at NicaDrone are testing out a new vacuum polyurethane conformal coating application method that should provide excellent water resistance for the GNSS and the Electro permanent magnet.

Here is the test video for the GNSS, the EPM test will happen over the next few days.

All Zubax GNSS are shipping with the enhanced conformal coating as of today.

TLDR: Zubax Gnss runs almost an hour completely submerged under water without losing GPS lock. Uart communication fails because of corrosion on the connectors. GNSS including barometer passes detailed testing procedure after being submerged. 

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Comments

  • Andreas Jochum April 30, 2015 at 9:37am

    For many commercial drone application reliable operation under all conditions is a requirement before they can be adopted.

    The corrosion problem on the back of the connector has been taken care of. The real problem is the connector mating surfaces themselves. Corrosion X will not help.

    There are two solutions, one is use water tight connectors, big expensive and not to mention the overhead of having the tools and connectors on hand.

    The other is to use solder pads with strain relive and skip the connector all together.

    Both of these options are far from ideal but for the time being you can expect the Zubax GNSS to function properly for a limited time under extreme rain condition.

    And as Pavel mentioned the Barometer vent hole is not coated, here too there is no real solution available at the time.

    PS use Polyimide and tape up the Barometer on your PixHawk. Be careful to create a tight seal on the vent hole. The datasheet should contain some info as well on this topic. 

  • Zubax Robotics April 30, 2015 at 1:17am

    Adam,

    Baro is not coated on Zubax GNSS. The objective of the coating is to make other functions (GNSS and compass) resistant to water spraying.

  • Adam Kroll April 30, 2015 at 1:13am

    Spray some corrosion X on the connectors, that'll fix it for underwater.

    Whats the point of the polyurethene coating?  If you do that won't the baro stop working?  And if you coat it all except the baro, won't water get in where you've left a gap for the baro?

    I spray all of my electronics with corrosion x, but I haven't done it to the pixhawk yet because I'm worried about the baro not working.

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