Castle creation hv200 waterproofing

[Ganue]

Hi guys,
Is anyone treating there castle creation esc? I have just put 2 in my genesis and I am worried about water damage. What are u guys using?

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[JimClark]

Are you sure they are not already using conformal coating on those?

[Fluid]

Conformal coating will do nothing to prevent failure due to water. The problem with most Castle controllers has been the plugs between the boards. Short these out and the controller fails. I use CorrosionX on mine, but I am under no dilusion that I will never have water damage. The solution is to build waterproof boats.


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[Cooper]

Agreed, I too use corrosion -x, tried to silicone before but eventually a gap will develop around the wires. Just keep um dry.

[Ganue]

Thanks guys. Looks like corrosion x it is.

[capnswanny]

I agree that conformal coating will NOT prevent failure due to heavy water immersion.

Based on my experience, conformal coating WILL help prevent shorting out due to excessive humidity and incidental water contact. It will also prevent corrosion that left untreated will lead to failure.

I prefer a polyurethane (UR) coating as it is easy to apply, cures quickly at room temp, and is more resistant to solvents than the acrylic (AR).

[ray schrauwen]

If you are able to use conformal correctly you can easily encapsulate the the connector that joins the 2 boards. My SF200, and HKT240 are now water proof and tested. That said I also try as hard as possible for a leak free hull. In a crash a boat will leak if hull is breached and then you'll know if you have encapsulated it properly.

No sense mamby pambying around if you want to actually water proof an esc. Aquacraft can do it, I can do it and anyone else can do it.

I use MG Chemicals black Thermally Conductive electronics encapsulating epoxy. Not easy to work with but if you follow the instructionsburnt 003.jpgburnt 003.jpgburnt 003.jpg

The burntiod picture is the before coating and my was leaky (very) 40" mono. Still hums on nicely.

[urbs00007]

questions did you take off the water cooling blocks? have you submerged it yet? why not just soak in corrosion-x?

[ray schrauwen]

My HK T240 is one of the first out. it only had a 1/16" aluminum plate on top (which I removed) and an internal water cooled heat sink that could not be removed. The big cooler you see is a Fighter cat cooler I got from a very nice member on here and added it on after I encapsulated it in 3 stages.
First I coated the connector board, then jammed the stuff in between the fets and air space between the boards, then lastly gooped the whole thing up. You have to mix the stuff and let it sit for 30 minutes or something or it will screw up, been there done that, had to clean it all off. You have to stir each one and when it's mixed a lot and it's very thick

I used this: MG Chemicals Black

They have it in clear but, not where I bought mine. I'm not sure if the clear has heat transfer capabilities???

I also added 14G wires with 3mm connectors for an off board Etti HV cap bank not shown. Just in case the original caps weren't up to snuff but, they were not deformed or bulged at all after battery meltdown. Sine it is V1 I could easily remove the main power input wires and add my own 2 sets of 10G wires to make it 2P friendly without any Y connectors. I don't think you can do this with the latest version Steve sells at OSE.

Haven't run the mono this year yet. Found the heavy leak from loose stinger hardware. Last runs in the fall the boat took on at least 3-4 cups of water and it never skipped a beat. When brought in everything inside was soaked heavily.
The SF200 has been soaked good on a roll over and it keeps chugging. Even though I'm quite confident that it is waterproof, I still don't want to sit it in a bowl of water just to prove the fact. Running it wet was good enough for me.

Castle just came out with a claimed water proof car esc.