I ran across an electronic circuit board encapsulation epoxy when building solar panels. It's a special epoxy you mix with a hardener. Electronics are covered with it to safeguard against weather and vibration, it strengthens and holds together whatever its applied to. I see it available in clear and colored. Colored is used by companies that want to hide there circuit board components from the competition. I'm thinking about coating my electronics on my Phantom 2 with this, over all the solder joints and up any soldered wires about a quarter inch, circuit boards etc. This would surely hold any bad soldering against its connection forever. You wouldnt be able to repair a circuit board after this but who cares, we replace them anyway. Has anyone tried this? I dont want my Phantom falling out of the sky so I think it's worth it. Expensive stuff but so is the Phantom. If any Phantom dealers are reading this I would suggest buying some in bulk so you could sell small quantities to Phantom owners (unless your more interested in selling parts haha). You can see various examples of this material if you search Ebay, unfortunately you have to buy at least a hundred times what you need. Any input here would be appreciated. I have a gallon left over so I may as well try it.
Safeguard electronics with encapsulation epoxy?
- Thread starter CrashMan
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I use a thing called liquid tape - got it at Home Depot. Comes in red, green, white, blue. No "clear". Dab a few drops/apply a layer over each of the power connections. Good for "proofing" the bird against humidity and vibration (nothing light enough will waterproof your Phantom when it's flown into a lake/pond/ocean, btw.) With a bit of touch and the right tools, it can be removed for access to the connections at a later time.
It wouldnt be heavy at all, it would be like thicker paint. I dont think heat would be an issue because its made to coat electronics. Companies that want to protect designs use this material colored and 1/8" thick over circuit boards. I see someone on ebay selling a small quantity for 30 bucks. This is something that would be to expensive of a process for dji to do in mass production. It would have to be done after soldering everything together. By hand. I will send a few emails to research the heat issue, I doubt a thin painted coating will be a problem. Something that thin couldnt have an insulation value to speak of.
CrashMan said:
Well... it COULD... but it's probably formulated not to. In fact, depending on the material, it could even act as a dissipator.
I'd be very interested to hear what you find out!
I will email a leading supplier in the field monday and express our concerns, perhaps they will specify the exact encapsulant (sometimes refered to as potting)required. Will get back to you.
There are a couple other threads on here about waterproofing, too, like this one about Corrosion-X
viewtopic.php?t=13425
Might search for the others.
There was another product, too, mentioned somewhere else, and if I remember the manufacturer had specifically stated that they could no longer warranty a Phantom that had the treatment. No one was quite sure why. They covered other equipment... but singled out the Phantom as not being compatible, IIRC.
viewtopic.php?t=13425
Might search for the others.
There was another product, too, mentioned somewhere else, and if I remember the manufacturer had specifically stated that they could no longer warranty a Phantom that had the treatment. No one was quite sure why. They covered other equipment... but singled out the Phantom as not being compatible, IIRC.
There are concerns, I will find out in a day or two. One thing for sure is changing anything on any product will void warranty. I wouldnt wait around for warranty anyhow, parts are cheap. I doubt you get any warranty on anything if a wire comes off and you crash hard. You could never prove it. May as well forget you have it in any crash situation. I do agree that heat on components will need to be looked at. Perhaps just doing the places where wires are soldered will have to be considered, it's the problem area anyway. In any event, we will find out, I wont have a problem testing it out on my bird if the manufacturer says it doesnt trap a lot of heat. Anybody that wants to sell parts for Phantoms will never approve this fix.
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