Posts: 21,256 Threads: 587 Likes Received: 8,965 in 6,634 posts Likes Given: 1,425 Joined: Jun 2018 Reputation: 787 Because I live in a location that just seems to be forever wet & miserable (especially once the summer months have passed), I've been thinking that maybe I should conformal coat the electronics in my quad.
I've tried to avoid going out in moist weather as much as possible but that can severely limit stick practice time with a real quad, and I have to admit that on a couple of occasions I have just taken the risk although I've gone a bit easy with the flying. My ESCs and receiver are heat shrink wrapped so I might be able to get away without conformal coating those, but if I was to coat the FC and PDB which are in the centre stack then it might allow me to fly in damp weather without having to worry about ruining the electronics if I land or crash in wet grass.
Has anyone else on here conformal coated their quad electronics and if so, what one did you use? There seem to be three main types of conformal coating - silicone, urethane, and acrylic. There is also epoxy resin and parylene types but these appear to be a bit less common. Which type is best for quad electronics? ![[-]](https://intofpv.com/images/collapse.png) • Posts: 41 Threads: 12 Likes Received: 8 in 6 posts Likes Given: 0 Joined: Aug 2018 Reputation: 0 I use MG chemical silicone modified conformal coating. It seems to work fine. I think I got it on eBay or amazon Posts: 12,099 Threads: 125 Likes Received: 3,739 in 2,836 posts Likes Given: 99 Joined: Feb 2017 Reputation: 388 I personally brought MC Chemicals Silicone because it was the most reviewed, popular and affordable on Amazon. I have yet to use it, so I have no personal experience. As far as moisture, it is supposed to be the best. MG Chemicals Silicone Modified Conformal Coating, 55 ml Bottle with Brush Cap https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008O9YIV6/ref....BbZY3FGMS Here is some information on the difference. https://news.ewmfg.com/blog/which-type-c...ght-my-pcb Posts: 41 Threads: 12 Likes Received: 8 in 6 posts Likes Given: 0 Joined: Aug 2018 Reputation: 0 I actually live in the Pacific Northwest (Olympia WA) so this time of year it’s either raining or just quit and I have flown my coated quads a lot lately. Even without out crashing just taking off and landing in the wet grass they get really wet and so far no issues. You just have to make sure you don’t get any coating inside the usb connector or you have issues connecting. You can water proof them with deox or acf 50 etc. Posts: 3,533 Threads: 265 Likes Received: 2,610 in 1,545 posts Likes Given: 3,893 Joined: Feb 2018 Reputation: 78 If any place needs the coating it's Oly. I lived in that wet mess of a City for 30 years.
Posts: 1,013 Threads: 11 Likes Received: 452 in 349 posts Likes Given: 372 Joined: Dec 2017 Reputation: 16 (28-Nov-2018, 03:08 AM)voodoo614 Wrote: Here is some information on the difference.
https://news.ewmfg.com/blog/which-type-c...ght-my-pcb Good information. Reading through the comparisons of the different types, it seems to me that the Acrylic Resin types would be best suited, but I have no experience with any of them (live in SoCal). Posts: 21,256 Threads: 587 Likes Received: 8,965 in 6,634 posts Likes Given: 1,425 Joined: Jun 2018 Reputation: 787 Thanks guys. I think it's probably a toss up between the silicone and acrylic stuff:- - Silicone is probably maybe better suited for quads to than the acrylic stuff from a vibration perspective due to it having some flexibility, although it's difficult to remove but I'm not sure why I would ever need to. The only question is over the conformal coating of pads that haven't been used which are then later needed. It may prove difficult to remove the coating from those pads effectively so they can be reliably soldered to.
- Acrylic can be easily removed for rework of components and soldering if need be, but that may actually be a disadvantage because with it being a rigid non-flexible coating I'm not sure if there is a risk that it could crack and then start to let in and trap moisture, or if it could start getting chipped over time on something that is being constantly manhandled and sometimes crashed.
Anyway, I found a few suppliers in the UK who sell this MG Chemicals coatings but it's generally selling at around $25 or more for a 55ml bottle which is pretty expensive, with one joker asking $160 for a bottle  I guess this stuff is imported from the states which is why the cost appears to be so high. I found one UK supplier who is selling it for $12 but they are currently out of stock, plus they want another $10 in shipping charges. While this is still the cheapest option (if/when it comes back into stock), with shipping charges forming nearly half the overall cost, that is a hard pill to try and swallow. • Posts: 1,070 Threads: 70 Likes Received: 742 in 378 posts Likes Given: 577 Joined: Jan 2016 Reputation: 44 28-Nov-2018, 12:23 PM (This post was last modified: 28-Nov-2018, 12:32 PM by KonradS.) (28-Nov-2018, 10:54 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: - Silicone [...] It may prove difficult to remove the coating from those pads effectively so they can be reliably soldered to.
You don't have to remove the silicone coating - just touch the coated pad with hot iron and apply fresh solder on. It looks messy after coating melts down, but it will work as any other solder joint. EDIT: if you want to be sure, just pretin all the pads you are about to coat. Posts: 21,256 Threads: 587 Likes Received: 8,965 in 6,634 posts Likes Given: 1,425 Joined: Jun 2018 Reputation: 787 (28-Nov-2018, 12:23 PM)KonradS Wrote: You don't have to remove the silicone coating - just touch the coated pad with hot iron and apply fresh solder on. It looks messy after coating melts down, but it will work as any other solder joint.
EDIT: if you want to be sure, just pretin all the pads you are about to coat. Thanks for the tip  I've never used conformal coating on anything before so it's good to know how to work with it. I'm swinging towards the silicone stuff and it appears to be the one that most quad pilots use to protect their flight electronics from what I can tell. Coincidentally, JB seems to have posted a review of another product just yesterday called "DryDrone Shake 'n Bake" but $20 for 5ml of fluid (or $40 for 15ml of fluid), a plastic bag, and a paperclip seems pretty expensive to me, plus it also requires loose circuit boards to be put into a bag containing the fluid and then shaken around. That's no use for my currently built quad because I'm not de-soldering all the wires from the boards and removing them just to apply waterproofing. It might be useful for others though who are still at a pre-build stage and think the $20 / $40 price tag is worth paying... Posts: 41 Threads: 12 Likes Received: 8 in 6 posts Likes Given: 0 Joined: Aug 2018 Reputation: 0 Like some of the previous posts it’s no problem soldering after applying even the smallest pads. It just burns off as soon as you touch it with the iron and I generally use two coats. Obviously you have to recoat the area. I think the bottle I bought was $18 and will last a long time. I think I even saw it offered from aloft hobbies or maybe RDQ • Posts: 41 Threads: 12 Likes Received: 8 in 6 posts Likes Given: 0 Joined: Aug 2018 Reputation: 0 I just looked and Aloft hobbies has it in stock for $16 they also have corrosion X which you can use in connectors to keep water out and still have continuity Posts: 12,099 Threads: 125 Likes Received: 3,739 in 2,836 posts Likes Given: 99 Joined: Feb 2017 Reputation: 388 I am not from the UK. But a quick search, I found this. https://www.techsil.co.uk/mg-chemicals-422b-55ml Posts: 21,256 Threads: 587 Likes Received: 8,965 in 6,634 posts Likes Given: 1,425 Joined: Jun 2018 Reputation: 787 (28-Nov-2018, 04:40 PM)voodoo614 Wrote: I am not from the UK. But a quick search, I found this.
https://www.techsil.co.uk/mg-chemicals-422b-55ml Thanks Voodoo. I did already look at that that supplier but for some reason I got confused with the shipping charges because this is classified as a hazardous product in the datasheet and it looked like they wanted to charge 23 GBP (~$30) for any hazardous product shipments. I've just looked again and it seems they actually class this as non-hazardous from a shipping point of view for whatever reason which only costs 6 GBP (~$8) in shipping. So at 16 GBP in total (~$20) this looks like the supplier I need to use  • Posts: 21,256 Threads: 587 Likes Received: 8,965 in 6,634 posts Likes Given: 1,425 Joined: Jun 2018 Reputation: 787 (28-Nov-2018, 04:30 PM)Garrace Wrote: I just looked and Aloft hobbies has it in stock for $16 they also have corrosion X which you can use in connectors to keep water out and still have continuity Thanks for the tip on the "Corrosion X" stuff. I've not heard of that before so I'll take a look and if any good I'll see what damage UK suppliers charge • Posts: 1,312 Threads: 50 Likes Received: 832 in 504 posts Likes Given: 372 Joined: Jul 2018 Reputation: 51 If you haven't bought yet then this just popped up on the UnmannedTech site. Fiver for 15ml, and a UK supplier. https://www.unmannedtechshop.co.uk/elect...l-coating/
The ground is for dead people. • |
