How to reset the ESC? Got wet...

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XashBE

XashBE

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Location
Aarsele, Belgium
Corally RC's
  1. Asuga
I've gotten my rig take a dump in water...

Worked fine afterwards for a few minutes, then it killed itself.

LiPos are okay but ESC starts to blink red fast after the initial LiPo check, having no controls at all.

Yesterday it worked again for about a minute, since then error each time.

Any ideas in what to do? Any hard reset methods maybe?
 
Is it the Torox ESC? In which case they're pretty much waterproof.
The fast red blinking is for signal loss, soo could be that the receiver in the box is wet, so worth checking that since you've got no steering either.
 
You sir just totally made my day!

It was soaking wet indeed. Tore it apart, dried it, tested it and all is fine again!

Thank you very much!

Crazy what the TC electronics survive.
 
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😃 Great to hear it's working again!

There's a big hole in the corner of the Rx box where the cables enter - I think lots of water gets into the box through here.
I've cut a cube of foam to block this up, to try and keep it dry. Also "instant gasket" around the lid of the box (thanks to @Monsieur Velo for this one) to keep water out.
Also try filling the Rx case with WD40 or similar, I use Waxoyl in my RC yacht Rx to keep the water off the board.
 
If you get your rigs wet a lot, you might consider conformal coating your receivers, which generally aren't waterproof.

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It's applied to circuit boards. It mustn't be applied to switches or pads that you frequently attempt to solder. 👍

Edit to add: Fun factoid:
before electronics in our RC's were waterproof, on wet race days, it was normal to put everything that had to stay dry into a condom. Tamiya actually marketed thick, black rubber electronic balloons for the same purpose.
 
Well normally i don't go beyond a wet street, which is fine.

Having a canal where i didn't expected one, was the killer here XD
 
Manolis said:
Since you are talking about waterproofing, can I ask, how waterproof are the brushless motors?

View attachment 5472
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Generally, very water resistant - not waterproof. Bearings need to be kept lubricated - and Sensored motors need to keep their sensors functioning.

Basically, motors should not be immersed and I would never run in salty conditions either.

Splashing them through puddles wouldn't worry me, but rigs need drying off and protecting with PTFE spray afterwards. 👍
 
Yep, it's pretty much run, clean, dry, squirt for post wet-run maintenance.
Choose the lube with the nicest smell - I like GT85, although MucOff bike spray is also quite nice 🙂
 
I brush off any dust, and then wipe any moisture away with a microfibre cloth.

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With my special GT85 sock (never to be mistaken with my special 'dream catcher' sock), I wipe down all the metal and composite surfaces with GT85. PTFE helps build a protective layer, that prevents muck from sticking. Win win.

And it makes plastics look like new. For the win! 💪😁
 
I was given a PTFE spray for lubrication, and it was supposed to be better than WD40. But I didn't like the texture, and haven't used it since. I guess I should try it again, hope it hasn't gone bad.
 
Manolis said:
I was given a PTFE spray for lubrication, and it was supposed to be better than WD40. But I didn't like the texture, and haven't used it since. I guess I should try it again, hope it hasn't gone bad.
Click to expand...
WD40 is a good water displacer - and fun fact: it softens drive belts, lowering rolling resistance, making belt driven cars faster. 💪😎Unfortunately, people insist on using it as a lubricant and it's actually not ideal for that. It also swells bearing seals and does nasty things to certain types of plastic.

GT85 on the other hand leaves a hard film and is good for lubricating tricky things like CVD's or UJ's, dogbones etc. It doesn't collect grime once it's dried. And it makes black plastic look black.
 
Below is a fairly decent explanation of how wd40 can destroy plastics.

Just like there are many metals, there are many plastics that are very different from one another. Overall, plastics can be divided into two basic groups:

Crystalline: Polypropylene, Polyethylene, Polyester (all types), Nylon

Amorphous: Polycarbonate, Styrenics (including ABS), PVC

The main ingredient in WD-40 is a light kerosene-like mineral oil, which is hydrocarbon based. Amorphous plastics and hydrocarbons don’t play well together: hydrocarbons will attack the chemical structure of amorphous plastics, breaking them down - essentially trying to “melt” them. In particular, Polycarbonate (PC) and Polystrene (PS). they are two named plastics on the WD-40 “do not use on these” list.

Crystalline materials are unaffected by the hydrocarbons in WD-40, you can spray them as much as you wish.
 
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