Protecting brushless motors from salty air vs. Nitro SR heli

S

Skyhook

Member
Hi there,

We are looking at a potential shoot filming surfers off a beach, with my Skyjib 8 on Axi 4120s.

We would not be flying at a height that would risk water droplets hitting the aircraft, but I'm thinking the salt in the air could do some damage to the motors.

I have seen AP footage of surfers, but both clips were shot using SR helis, one electric, one nitro.

Nitro SR's can be protected by a load of grease and the motor of an electric SR is fairly safely tucked away under the canopy, but on an electric MR they would be very exposed. Does anyone have any suggestions of how they could be protected, or think that they can be sufficiently cleaned after a day of shooting?
I'm thinking a load of protective grease would not be an option on an electric motor!

thanks in advance.
 

R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
My suggestion would be to spray some WD40 into the motors before the flight. Yes, I know it's not really a lube, but that's not the point. Just a light coating of water repellent oil before the flight. Then after the flight, clean them out with with electronics cleaner (AKA: Brake cleaner). Then blow them out and apply proper oil to the bearings. I can't see how you'd have any corrosion if you did that.

On a similar subject, I accidentally got my quad wet on the weekend, landed in a lake... I grabbed it out, sprayed it out with compressed air, but it still wasn't working right. So I set it up on a bench with a hair drier set on low, blowing over it for about an hour. Works fine now. Not sure if the camera was damaged though. The picture seems a bit grainy, but it's a cheap camera (just a $30 FPV cam) and maybe it was already like that, I didn't pay enough attention before.



Skyhook said:
Hi there,

We are looking at a potential shoot filming surfers off a beach, with my Skyjib 8 on Axi 4120s.

We would not be flying at a height that would risk water droplets hitting the aircraft, but I'm thinking the salt in the air could do some damage to the motors.

I have seen AP footage of surfers, but both clips were shot using SR helis, one electric, one nitro.

Nitro SR's can be protected by a load of grease and the motor of an electric SR is fairly safely tucked away under the canopy, but on an electric MR they would be very exposed. Does anyone have any suggestions of how they could be protected, or think that they can be sufficiently cleaned after a day of shooting?
I'm thinking a load of protective grease would not be an option on an electric motor!

thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
I hunt brackish water and use guns/boats, stuff happens. have sank em a few times and got pretty good at getting things back in order. WD-40 is a great repellent but we typically use triflow oil. similar water reppeling properties but won't cause any rust/corrosion itself. I also sportfish offshore in the pacific for tuna, marlin, etc. over there we also use triflow but theres another spray product called corrosionX that has a bunch of a different versions for different applications. It is super popular here for preventing salt water damage to all kinds of things

http://www.corrosionx.com/

with the kinda rig your talking about, if it was mine, i'd be calling them guys and chat with them about what you got and need
 

E

E-Copter

Member
Hi,

i would suggest that you "tropicalize" first of all the electronics and especially connexions and pcb's, with either silicon protective clearcoat for PCb's, or Plastidip , and protect as much as possible all conections ( servo connectins and others, just use heatschrink for this around the various connectors.

There is a grease you can use for the other connectors and especially pattery connectors, ask your local phone company, they have special ones that are very, very efficient.

last of all, the motors don't need to be protected to much, enamel wire have a coat around for the winding, you can spray eventually high temperature very slight (but very slight only coat on the winding and spray some triflow oil on the magnets to leave a small coat, but be careful with WD40, it will kill the original lube in the bearings very quickly, so triflow will be much better.

The most important, don't use Dean connectors, the pring will get rusty very quick due to connections sparks + salty air, then become loose and you will encounter power cuts in flight after some time. generally, using Deans connectors on multirotors is like using just one bolt on a ferrari wheel to fix it lol : you like to take risks :))))

Best regards,

Fabien
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
on real aircraft here, we use silicone under heatshrink to make a connection corrosion free

the grease is called dialectric grease, it's for electrical connections

the only thing around water i've ever used wd-40 was on jet ski spark plugs to push water out. it makes corrosion like mad don't it. it destroys guns
 
Last edited by a moderator:


hexacop

hexacop

HexaCop
E-Copter said:
Hi,
last of all, the motors don't need to be protected to much, enamel wire have a coat around for the winding, you can spray eventually high temperature very slight (but very slight only coat on the winding and spray some triflow oil on the magnets to leave a small coat, but be careful with WD40, it will kill the original lube in the bearings very quickly, so triflow will be much better.
Fabien
Click to expand...

Fully agree, and I would avoid to use any WD40 as it will ruin the ball bearings of your motors.
 

S

Skyhook

Member
Thank you guys for your suggestions. Looks like I have some reading up to do!
E-Copter I'll have to find out if that Dialectric grease is available in the UK, most probably from another brand.

thanks again, will let you know how I get on!
 

R

R_Lefebvre

Arducopter Developer
Wow, is WD40 THAT bad? I knew it wasn't a great oil, over-promoted and used inappropriately. But I didn't know it would flat out "ruin" bearings.

Dielectric grease is very common, you should have no trouble finding it in the UK.
 

kloner

kloner

Aerial DP
that stuff was invented here. a door to door salesman representing himself as the guy that invented it sold my grandma stock back in the 50's after the war. they made out like bandits 10 years ago when she dumped it all. It was from here, first sold here, invented here in SD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40

I'm not exactly sure which part of it is, but you'll notice the can says displaces water and prevents corrosion, but it says nothing about rust......... the stuff will rust out a gun overnight. it's weird stuff. a petroleum product that attaches to water is strange and not normal
 


hexacop

hexacop

HexaCop
WD40 will not directly ruin your bearings but the real issue is it dries up and leaves your bearings fairly lubricant free.
 


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