noremacyug
Newbie
DISCLAIMER: YOU FOLLOW THIS AND YOUR STUFF FRIES….. DON’T COME KNOCKIN ON MY DOOR.
So, I decided to go ahead and waterproof the stock electronics from my new Honcho RTC i got this past Monday. I figured I'd snap some pics along the way and do a write up that would hopefully help someone else out. What I’ve done could be applied to other ESC’s, receivers, etc.
Supplies
-Gardner Bender Liquid Electric Tape (other brands out there, this is just what my local Lowes carried)
-Flashlight
-Toothpicks
-Drill, small drill bit
-Razorblade
-Dielectric Grease
-Paper Towels
-Wire Coat Hanger
First things first, find a good working area where the wife won’t get her panties in a wad should you make a mess. I just put a towel down on our kitchen table. But honestly, I don’t think the liquid tape would be hard to clean up. It looks like if you just let it dry, it peels up like silicone does.
Okay, so…… remove the electronics from your RC if you haven’t already and lets crack them open.
Starting with the ESC, remove the Axial sticker that runs across the bottom and up the sides and then set it aside. Next look on the sides of the ESC and you will see some square openings with tabs in them. Find something laying around the house that will fit in there and depress the tabs to open up the casing.
Here it is cracked open and board out
Heres the board
I decided to delete the on/off switch as it looked to be a pain to waterproof and I need to get in the habit of unplugging my batteries anyhow. So I simply cut it off and soldered the wires together and then shrink wrapped them. You could just twist them together and put some liquid tape on them. Or you could completely desolder them from the board, it’s whatever you choose.
Now that we have the circuit board out we need to start applying the liquid tape. Simply brush on a thin coat (I started with the bottom of the board, do whichever you want). Then we let it cure for a while. In about 10 or so minutes you should be able to start another coat.
Put it on in multiple thin coats until you see no more green from the board or any solder points. After the bottom is adequately covered flip it over and start applying to the top. The top is much harder because you have to make sure to get it all around the capacitors and keep it off of the heatsink. After coating the top a couple times you need to start looking over the ESC both top and bottom for any pinholes like below. Use your flashlight to help see in the nooks and crannys and then put a bit of liquid tape on the hole and use a toothpick to push it in the hole. This may, and likely will take a few times before you get the hole full.
I decided to drill some holes in the casings so that when water does get inside the case, it hopefully wont stay and will drain via the holes.
After you have thoroughly coated your ESC, checked, and double checked for any pinholes then lets see how it fits back in the casing. After a fit check I noticed that I had too much on the outer edge of the circuit board and my board was now too wide to fit back in my casing. So, I simply and carefully cut off the excess with a razor blade.
After removing the excess, I then reapplied a thin layer of liquid tape, let it dry and then started cramming it back into the casing. i had to be gently forceful in doing this. But I eventually got it back in. However, in doing so I broke loose some of the coating on the bottom of the board. So, before putting the bottom back on I simply piled on the liquid tape very heavily and then crammed the bottom on. It was coming out of the holes and everywhere, I simply wiped it off.
Ok, the ESC is back together, but we aren’t done yet. Be sure to wiggle the wires around and look for any gaps. The liquid tape didn’t seem to want to stick to the wires the greatest and I kept having to fill in areas. Just make sure you fill in any holes or gaps you find, like the gap around the black wire.
Now the ESC is finished, just need to poke holes in the sticker where i drill holes in the casing. On to the receiver.
For the receiver, the steps are the same as with the esc, but now you don’t have to watch for the heatsink. I also didn’t worry too much about getting liquid tape on the receiver’s pin outs as once the liquid tape dries it can be easily cut off the pins with a razorblade. The LED board is also easier as you just coat it thoroughly since it has no case. Just make sure you don’t fill up the connectors on the LED board with liquid tape. A little getting in isn’t too bad as it can be removed with a razorblade, but I’m not sure you’ll be so lucky if you cram it full.
Ill simply show photos for the receiver and led board. But read after as there is one last step after you get everything coated in liquid tape.
Receiver
LED Board
For the last step, after you have coated and reassembled everything, you want to take dielectric grease and use it on all of your connections. The receiver pins for instance, I will coat them and then pack my servo, ESC, and LED headers with grease before I plug them in. Also the motor hookups, and any other connections on the truck will be packed with the dielectric grease.
That should have you. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Heres a vid of me reluctantly testing out the ESC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpawzhWUvw
So, I decided to go ahead and waterproof the stock electronics from my new Honcho RTC i got this past Monday. I figured I'd snap some pics along the way and do a write up that would hopefully help someone else out. What I’ve done could be applied to other ESC’s, receivers, etc.
Supplies
-Gardner Bender Liquid Electric Tape (other brands out there, this is just what my local Lowes carried)
-Flashlight
-Toothpicks
-Drill, small drill bit
-Razorblade
-Dielectric Grease
-Paper Towels
-Wire Coat Hanger
First things first, find a good working area where the wife won’t get her panties in a wad should you make a mess. I just put a towel down on our kitchen table. But honestly, I don’t think the liquid tape would be hard to clean up. It looks like if you just let it dry, it peels up like silicone does.
Okay, so…… remove the electronics from your RC if you haven’t already and lets crack them open.
Starting with the ESC, remove the Axial sticker that runs across the bottom and up the sides and then set it aside. Next look on the sides of the ESC and you will see some square openings with tabs in them. Find something laying around the house that will fit in there and depress the tabs to open up the casing.
Here it is cracked open and board out
Heres the board
I decided to delete the on/off switch as it looked to be a pain to waterproof and I need to get in the habit of unplugging my batteries anyhow. So I simply cut it off and soldered the wires together and then shrink wrapped them. You could just twist them together and put some liquid tape on them. Or you could completely desolder them from the board, it’s whatever you choose.
Now that we have the circuit board out we need to start applying the liquid tape. Simply brush on a thin coat (I started with the bottom of the board, do whichever you want). Then we let it cure for a while. In about 10 or so minutes you should be able to start another coat.
Put it on in multiple thin coats until you see no more green from the board or any solder points. After the bottom is adequately covered flip it over and start applying to the top. The top is much harder because you have to make sure to get it all around the capacitors and keep it off of the heatsink. After coating the top a couple times you need to start looking over the ESC both top and bottom for any pinholes like below. Use your flashlight to help see in the nooks and crannys and then put a bit of liquid tape on the hole and use a toothpick to push it in the hole. This may, and likely will take a few times before you get the hole full.
I decided to drill some holes in the casings so that when water does get inside the case, it hopefully wont stay and will drain via the holes.
After you have thoroughly coated your ESC, checked, and double checked for any pinholes then lets see how it fits back in the casing. After a fit check I noticed that I had too much on the outer edge of the circuit board and my board was now too wide to fit back in my casing. So, I simply and carefully cut off the excess with a razor blade.
After removing the excess, I then reapplied a thin layer of liquid tape, let it dry and then started cramming it back into the casing. i had to be gently forceful in doing this. But I eventually got it back in. However, in doing so I broke loose some of the coating on the bottom of the board. So, before putting the bottom back on I simply piled on the liquid tape very heavily and then crammed the bottom on. It was coming out of the holes and everywhere, I simply wiped it off.
Ok, the ESC is back together, but we aren’t done yet. Be sure to wiggle the wires around and look for any gaps. The liquid tape didn’t seem to want to stick to the wires the greatest and I kept having to fill in areas. Just make sure you fill in any holes or gaps you find, like the gap around the black wire.
Now the ESC is finished, just need to poke holes in the sticker where i drill holes in the casing. On to the receiver.
For the receiver, the steps are the same as with the esc, but now you don’t have to watch for the heatsink. I also didn’t worry too much about getting liquid tape on the receiver’s pin outs as once the liquid tape dries it can be easily cut off the pins with a razorblade. The LED board is also easier as you just coat it thoroughly since it has no case. Just make sure you don’t fill up the connectors on the LED board with liquid tape. A little getting in isn’t too bad as it can be removed with a razorblade, but I’m not sure you’ll be so lucky if you cram it full.
Ill simply show photos for the receiver and led board. But read after as there is one last step after you get everything coated in liquid tape.
Receiver
LED Board
For the last step, after you have coated and reassembled everything, you want to take dielectric grease and use it on all of your connections. The receiver pins for instance, I will coat them and then pack my servo, ESC, and LED headers with grease before I plug them in. Also the motor hookups, and any other connections on the truck will be packed with the dielectric grease.
That should have you. If you have any questions feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Heres a vid of me reluctantly testing out the ESC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmpawzhWUvw
It looks way less messy and no big black goo ball in the end. 
