I live in a very wet region, seems it's always raining and if it hasn't rained, at least the plants and grass have a heavy morning dew on them. I bought some MG Chemicals conformal coating and painted the boards on a couple of my drones being careful to avoid ports and buttons. I also painted the camera boards.
That being said, how much can I trust this waterproofing? The ground is very wet out this morning, and I don't have the confidence to have a whoop tumble into wet grass.
Is covering the board enough or can the motors be damaged by water? What about ports that don't have things plugged into them, usb port or other? Is a 20 second slap-job of painting on goo really enough that I can now reliably fly over snow?
Opinions, thoughts, and methods to improve waterproofing are all appreciated!

I did a short video of why in my opinion conformal coating is a MUST!

https://intofpv.com/t-conformal-coating-ultimate-test

It’s always going to be a risk, but, I use conformal coating and fly in the rain, and crash in the snow. Haven’t killed anything yet (that I recall).

Brushless motors are capable of running underwater. If you crash into mud, you might want to rinse them out with freshwater. I do find myself having to change out bearings probably more often than most, that could be due to the water, or it could be how hard and often I crash.

I spray corrosion-X into all jacks and plugs as well.
Usb ports get a little tpu printed insert- as an added bonus, it helps keep the dirt and grass out of the port.

I try my best to not coat the top of chips, just the legs, to allow for better heat dissipation. Disposable eyelash brushes are great for that.

Keep in mind that using conformal coating will give a retailer or manufacturer a valid reason to void your warranty (not that we really have a warranty with any of this stuff short of doa).

Given what I've seen, it's quite effective. The one thing I do not know about is longevity. Gotta get some for myself soon, especially once winter lands again.

On a semi-related note, what does one use to remove it for reapplication in the event that it gets worn and grody?

I think the consensus is that isopropyl alcohol and a cleaning tool such as a q-tip will remove the coating.
I may go back and use that to clean off the tops of the chips that I thoroughly coated with conformal.

Yup, I use 99% isopropyl alcohol to remove it. Microfiber swab or qtip if it’s just a small area, old toothbrush if it’s larger. I prefer the microfiber swabs because they don’t leave behind stray bits of cotton.

If it’s one of my older boards where I just smothered it in conformal coating, it gets a bath in isopropyl in an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner.

One other thing I forgot to mention- if you’re planning on coating a board, I’ve found that it makes life easier to tin every pad on the board, even ones you don’t plan on using. If you end up wanting to use them in the future, it’s much easier to clean off the coating and then solder to the tinned pad than it is to try to get solder to stick to a bare pad that was coated previously.

As far as longevity- I’ve got quads still in the air that I coated 1.5+ years ago. They only get recoated if I had to remove some of the coating to repair or resolder something- and even then, I only recoat the area I removed the coating from.

OP, I’m assuming you got the mg silicone conformal coating that glows under uv light? Make sure you actually check it under a black light- it’s easy to accidentally miss a couple pins while coating.

Don’t forget the Corrosion-X on plugs and jacks if you’re flying/landing in wet. Also, be aware that depending on what your screws and bolts are made out of, they will rust.

https://www.corrosionx.com/products/corr...gI2YPD_BwE

I did get the UV coating, but I haven't bought a UV light yet, though you actually can lightly see the color in daylight uv. I tried to just be systematic and thorough with the coating, but a double-check would be smart.
I will have to pick up the corrosion-x. I think water is second only to bad-piloting for things likely to nuke my quads.
I now have 3 coated quads and plan to coat my other 3 in time.
Thanks all!

(06-Jul-2023, 05:17 PM)FPVme Wrote: I did get the UV coating, but I haven't bought a UV light yet, though you actually can lightly see the color in daylight uv. I tried to just be systematic and thorough with the coating, but a double-check would be smart.

If it cures under UV, is there some reason you can't simply leave it in the sunlight for a bit? I'm not familiar with that particular stuff, so it makes me wonder if that's a way to save a bit of cash.

The UV light makes the coating fluoresce purple, it is just to confirm by sight that you have covered everything you wanted to coat. To the unaided eye the coating is clear and hard to see (although it has a lacquer appearance to my eye and is identifiable in that way)