Heads up on Castle ESC's

[obrien]

I just wanted to let everyone know not to put WD40 or Corosion X on their ESC's as it will void the warranty. I know of a few people that do that, and I tried it to get the water out of one of my esc's after it went under and quit working.

[Ub Hauled]

Very good info... sorry your ESC stopped working.
thank you.

[rockwerks]

lets see you protect them you loose your warranty, you get them wet and it voids the warranty.........these are boat esc's correct?

[Steven Vaccaro]

You sent it back and they denied the repair?

[AntronX]

You should have that ESC mounted inside a waterproof box, with receiver and UBEC right in there. Servo should be waterproofed and stay outside or in it's own box. Castle makes great ESC's but they are not perfect. They designed and built an ESC, but a hobbyist needs to take measures to make sure Hydra stays dry without doing any mods to the ESC. But i think it's stupid that the boat ESC is not waterproof right out of the box.

[rockwerks]

You should have that ESC mounted inside a waterproof box, with receiver and UBEC right in there. Servo should be waterproofed and stay outside or in it's own box. Castle makes great ESC's but they are not perfect. They designed and built an ESC, but a hobbyist needs to take measures to make sure Hydra stays dry without doing any mods to the ESC. But i think it's stupid that the boat ESC is not waterproof right out of the box.


Thats my point. I guess I should have used :sarcasm1: in my statement. to me if it comes with water connections it needs to be waterproof

[ghostofpf1]

Glad I read this.I was just thinking about using corrosion-x on both my hydra240's......now what....I mounted them up high but no room for a waterproof box??

Ghost

[Steven Vaccaro]

Glad I read this.I was just thinking about using corrosion-x on both my hydra240's......now what....I mounted them up high but no room for a waterproof box??

Ghost


Contact Castle diretly to ask them. This is the first I've heard of this.

[rockwerks]

Glad I read this.I was just thinking about using corrosion-x on both my hydra240's......now what....I mounted them up high but no room for a waterproof box??

Ghost

condom or large balloon and zip ties with silicone or vasoline at the opening Yeah baby going old skol

[Doby]

I coated my HV 180 in 30 minute epoxy and had no problems. Its even been in the water for 20 minutes, upside down in my 1/8th Hydro. Ran it minutes after getting the boat back to shore.

Encapsulated controllers are the way to go!

[JimClark]

Why would you spray it with corrosion-X when they are sprayed with conformal coating at the factory. My guess is the corrosion-x or the WD-40 (insane to use that) eats up the the conformal coating.

Jim

[Doby]

I was told that they were coated, but whenever I got the slightest moisture on it, bad things happened, surging,,,,intermittent etc. Now nothing sems to affect it!

I could see some things eating the coating as Jim stated.

I have epoxied a Schultze 140/60 as well as a cheap E-Bay controller that I have been playing with. So far, no issues.

[JimClark]

The Chinese ESC's definately need waterproofing maybe the Castle should be sent back to get them to re spray it with conformal coating? Maybe they missed a spot.
That reminds me check the buy and sell later today
Jim

[AntronX]

If you take your Hydra and look at the battery wire end, where capacitors are soldered in, there is a small white plastic block in between the power board and the driver board. That's a connector that carries battery current to the driver board and control current back to the power transistor board. They are not waterproof. Once your Hydra is submerged, water will get in there and corrode the pins on those connectors, due to voltage being present there. So you get glitches and possibly even dead controller. Tech at Castle recommended to put some electronic grade non-conductive sealing gel inside that connector. But I just dunk the battery end of Hydra into a cup with silicone conformal coating. It also nicely seals the capacitor's leads and prevents water corrosion of both the caps and those connectors.

[obrien]

You sent it back and they denied the repair?

they repaired the 120 but charged me $90 to fix it. However the repaired both of my 240s. funny thing is, after my last 240 got wet and quit working, I hit it with corosion x and they still covered it.

It seems to me that the coating they are using is hit or miss. I have had a couple of other 120s get wet and keep working.

What bothers me is that they claim these are waterproof and will be fine so long as you don't hit the throttle when the are underwater.

My newest 120, I decided to take some silicone and seal the ends of the wrap with it to see if that will help on the next underwater excursion.

[Raydee]

Is the Silicone conformal coating what Castle uses? I have never dunked one yet BUT I have seen one or two that were and didn't survive.

[JimClark]

Unless they have recently changed yes it is. I remember a post a year back where you could send in the airplane ESC's and they would spray them for $3.00

Jim