how to save your electronics if you get them wet.

[trw]

i just expirienced this so it does work lol. Take your electronics apart as fast as you can, pull open the casing(s) and spray down the electronic boards with motor cleaner, let it dry and your car or truck should roar back to life.

[Tc3-dude]

You a lucky person then. I got my esc wet once and it died on me.

[born2rc]

Yeah, just make sure there is no residue. Another way to save your electronics is not get them wet in the 1st place.

[Dallas]

my stock ESC died on me about 2 or 3 weeks ago, why didn't you make this thread then
:( still saving for a new one i miss driving it so much

[elecracr]

If they get wet, dont press anything, b/c if you dont there is a good chance you can ge out alive, if you push something the water will cause a short and you will have problems.

[ElectricThunder]

Sometimes you can also let the electrics air dry. Depends on the seriousness of the ummm.."soakage". Another tip is put your electronics in balloons. The down side to this is no air cools down the ESC and/or receiver.

[lerningdriver]

If they get wet, dont press anything, b/c if you dont there is a good chance you can ge out alive, if you push something the water will cause a short and you will have problems.

problem is you only know if it's wet when it wont go :cool:

[trw]

well heres the story behind my discovery:

last week the Tamiya Pajero i bought came in, and so i pulled it out of the box and drove it offroad constantly trying new things, then Friday it started raining, and well while i was sitin inside pouting lol, i studied the design of the chassis, well after studying it my conclusion came to be that the wheel wells were so close to the body and the rest of the chassis was protected, that not much water would get in if i didnt go to high onto the hood of the body.
(btw i was and still am running the stock MSC)

Well my cunclusion was very correct, for two days strait i constantly dove my truck into various deep puddles, everytime it would come out perfectly alive.
Till earlier today, i was driving my truck in a ditch filled with very murky water, and ahead i didnt see a deep deep hole, and i keep going till my truck all of a sudden sank into the hole almost completly submerged, i panicked so i gunned the throttle forward, and the truck started slowly getting out until the receiver malfunctioned from water and slammed into reverse, the truck shot out of the hole, and reversed into a drainage pipe and stopped dead in its tracks.

thats when i grabbed it and ran into the house, tore all the electronics apart and hosed em down with motor cleaner, 15 minutes later i plugged it all back up and everything was working fine again.

[tec_41]

I would just say your lucky trw!

[Sparkey_STi]

Note also tho... you said MSC... not ESC. My dad had a Novak Hyperfet (i think... it was just some novak with no sticker on it... looked like that). Set his truck down, took off. He went about 5 feet in 5 sec, went to turn, hit a small puddle... GONE. Nothing. We tried air drying, cleaning ect. Nothing. There is a HUGE DIFF in MSC to ESC. Also, in your story you said it was the RX that made it flip into reverse... not the ESC - my bad, MSC. So, try that with a ESC... lemme know how that works out for you when your driving in puddles... diffrent story.

[trw]

i knew in advance i would eventually face water, thats why i kept the MSC in the car, plus the fact i cant afford a waterproof ESC, and i wont be buying an ESC for it until i can.

[Sparkey_STi]

Thats fine... im just saying your giving these people false hopes and what not. Your talking about a MSC instead of a ESC. You get a ESC wet (other then a QC2) You can kiss it good bye. There is no saving them. It takes one sec of running and a drop of water to destroy a ESC. MSC's are indestutable. Iv yet to break a MSC... not litterally as iv cracked and chiped them, but they all still work.

[rpmmaxxed]

I have to go against what you just stated. I have unfortunately gone through a puddle with my super rooster on my F-1 car. It did go off uncontrollably, but, i let it air dry, and it is workin fine to this day!

[trw]

yea ive also gotten an ESC wet...unfortuneatly it was when i was a newb at electric...and it was at my track so a guy opened it up..and he sprayed it down with motor cleaner and it worked again.

[Kenny T]

I think all Mtroniks waterproof ESC. You can get one for $40, very cheap I think it goes down to 12 turns.

I ran my TA02 through a 1.5 inch deep puddle, the water got stuck in the chassis since it's a tub chassis, it soaked the ESC. Screwed up. Let it sit in the car for a month and it worked fine.

I guess it just depends on your luck.

[nitrofun]

Thats fine... im just saying your giving these people false hopes and what not. Your talking about a MSC instead of a ESC. You get a ESC wet (other then a QC2) You can kiss it good bye. There is no saving them. It takes one sec of running and a drop of water to destroy a ESC. MSC's are indestutable. Iv yet to break a MSC... not litterally as iv cracked and chiped them, but they all still work.

Really? they can't be saved? Funny That I got my Novak Dually soaked once, I cleaned it w/motor spray and it has worked flawlessly for over 6 monthes since that day with a d5 10 turn and hard running, but I guess that wasn't possible.... :D :rolleyes:

[Sparkey_STi]

Har har... some work some dont. Iv just had a DROP of AIR! You know, the cans of air, turned it upside down to cool my motor one day, accedently shot the ESC, poof gone. Also, was driving my RC10B and it started to rain, i had a cooling hole, it was just sprinkleing lightly, and it fried. You guys got lucky, iv never been able to. Iv tried everything. Maby its just motor spray somehow "revives" them.

[nitrofun]

well maybe it depends on your ESC, any ESC that I've owned that was priced around $70 or more has yet to fry, yet my cheap low end beat up speed controls have all fried. They were all used within their parameters with the number of cells and motors specified, they simply are built cheaply and don't last as long. My experience has been the more expensive speedos just hold up better.

[Sparkey_STi]

2 of the ESC's iv fried were when new priced at about $80 i think. They were top notch back then

[chaabi]

Hi All,

Just drove my car in a puddle by mistake. The result after drying it is, the steering still works perefectly, but the the acceleration doesn't. I am assuming the motor died because the ESC seems to be working.
My car is an RS4 rally, with Airtronics ESC, Trinity gt2 15T motor.
I am a newb, and I don't have a motor spray.

What do you guys think got fried? And what should I do?

Thx in advance

[tec_41]

Hmm, if the esc & servo still work its obviously not the reciever so it must be the motor. Do you know what all got wet?

[gizmoguy303]

Hi All,

Just drove my car in a puddle by mistake. The result after drying it is, the steering still works perefectly, but the the acceleration doesn't. I am assuming the motor died because the ESC seems to be working.
My car is an RS4 rally, with Airtronics ESC, Trinity gt2 15T motor.
I am a newb, and I don't have a motor spray.

What do you guys think got fried? And what should I do?

Thx in advance

If you are positive that the ESC was not damaged simply replace the motor with another one to prove whether or not the motor is at fault.

If you are unsure whether the ESC is damaged or not, I would open the case, set it on a shelf, and let it air dry for a few days. If their is still moisture inside the ESC and you are trying to use it, something will short and your ESC will be toast.

My guess is that it's the ESC. As long as the motor is dried out it should be working properly.

[chaabi]

Thx gizmoguy303

I'll leave it totally dry for a day and i'll try it again. Btw, there was smoke coming from the esc right after it stopped. I thought it was just water evapourating from the heat sink.

[rcguy2477]

If there was smoke comming from the esc, than it was deffinitly the esc that died. I havnt heard of a motor frying because of water.

[gizmoguy303]

Open the case and let it sit for a few days, then try it again. Sounds like it's dead, though, if smoke was coming from it.

Some people wash their motors with soap and water. I don't think the motor is your problem.

[chaabi]

Thx for the help guys. My car came back to life but not as good as before. It is very unstable, forward is fast as usual, but reverse is very slow not usual. plus, usually when i am accelerating and suddenly press on reverse, the car brakes, two seconds later it goes to reverse. Now it brakes sometimes and some times it doesn't and that 2 seconds period is still there. Another thing is the batt that was in the water with the car, when i put it on the car only the reverse works not the forward, and if I put another batt, the car works fine. So i totally discharged the batt and peak charge it again. The result is the forward works fine, and the reverse very slow.

What do you guys think I should do? My esc is airtronics contender the first esc in this site :
http://www.rccaraction.com/rc/articles/esc_guide.asp
There are like 2 philips screws in it, one says "N" ,and the other "H". What are these for?? How can I adjust my esc?

Thanks All again

[chaabi]

I am even more cunfused now :confused: with that same batt the car was running fast forward and slow backwards. Then everything slowed down till stop as if the batt died. i waited for like 2-minutes then ran it, the forward doesn't work, and backwards works very fast as if the battry was just charged :confused:

I am sure the batt wasn't dead, cause after that i discharged it and the discharger pulled 843 mAh ot of it. This is a 1500 shark pack.

Need help.

thx

[trw]

the ESC may be malfunctioning.

just a heads up though.....its impossible for the motor to fry from water.....actually water is good for the motor...i know in an article it mentioned that if u stick a motor in water while its running, the burhses will form perfectly to the comm....plus it cools off the motor too.

but yea...the 2 second wait between reversing is the ESC trying to keep the electronics from overloading...cause it takes more power to reverse the motor then it does going forward.

but sounds like some damage was done to the ESC as well as the battery.

anoither heads up...but when smoke is coming from your ESC....its definitly not water lol....for smoke to be produced from evaporation....your ESC would have to be hell hot.

but I've never seen an ESC smoke before, and ive done quite a job to some ESCs so i know it would have to be severaly damaged or something to Smoke.

Usually ESCs have fail safes built into them so if they get near the danger level of heat they shut off.

but like i said above, sounds like some damage was done to the battery and ESC.....might want to take it to your LHS and have them install a temporary ESC just to see if it works....usuing that same battery....if it repeats these problems then try a new battery with your old ESC if these problems still occur then both the battery and ESC need replacing.

[chaabi]

K, then sounds like i must start shopping for a new esc. Any suggestions for a basic reversable esc that is water proof, or at least water resistant?

[trw]

you could try Mtroniks....they make waterproof ESCs

[chaabi]

I will probably get an Mtronics eventually to drive the car in our long snowy Canadian winter. For now, my airtronics esc seems to work ok, I drove the car today with the messed up batt, and an ok batt. I used the messed up batt first, car was driving normally for like 4 mins, then forward stopped working, but reverse worked. I unplugged the batt and repluged it, everything went back to normal and I drove it till batt died(like 1 min). Then I put the ok batt, everything was normal. Btw , the messed up batt is kind of new, I used it for like 5 times only. Where the ok batt is very old.

I read once somthing abouy batts having memory, or somthing like that. Is my case related to somthing like that?

[trw]

Yes Ni-Cd batteries do develope memories....example if you charge an Ni-Cd up 100% and go driving and only use up 50% and come back and charge it again, then you'll only get that 50% of runtime...the battery wont let you use 100% anymore.

to where as Ni-Mh batteries dont develope memories, you can charge it and go out and use it as much as you want come back and charge it again and still get the 100% capacity out of it.