Water-"proofing" the crazyflie

[ion]

I live in florida, and it looks like the rain has returned!

I've seen on various sites some spray-on coating to keep water off of things, but I don't have the first clue what would be safe for this unit.


I'd love to make this more weatherproof so if I land in some damp grass or in a tree, I won't have to worry so much.



Any suggestions? Or should I be better of using electric tape around the board?

[derf]

Hi,

I've been thinking about the same thing, but so far I have not been brave enough to actually sacrifice a Crazyflie.

This was the video that inspired me to waterproof a Crazyflie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6spt3fAD2U
Unfortunately the guys from EZ Drone did not reveal how they achieved the waterproofing.

Some people used a coating called "Neverwet" (http://www.neverwet.com).
It's not really designed to waterproof electronics, but seems to work to a certain degree.
Running motors underwater seems to amazingly work without any coating, as long as the wires and contacts are isolated.
I haven't figured out yet how all the contacts, the battery, the On/Off switch and the USB socket could be waterproofed reliably.

Another (hackish) approach to achieve at least "weather"proofing, could be to wrap the Crazyflie in thin plastic wrap.

Here are few random links that I found:
http://www.conformalcoating.co.uk/How_C ... _Board.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26M8-fruHbg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aASggDw9GeQ
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/26/neverwet-on-electronics/
http://electronics.stackexchange.com/qu ... lectronics

Maybe the Bitcraze guys can comment whether they think it's viable.

Regards

[Fucitol]

Have their been actual reports of Crazyflies dying due to water?

Since some electronics can survive after being submerged I wonder how the CF would fair with that. If you don't give full throttle the power running through it are quite modest so maybe short-circuits wouldn't be totally fatal?

The motors draw a lot of power though, so if you get a short-circuit while they are spinning it might very well fry a few components.

[tobias]

Well we have been wondering the same thing. I guess it is time to try it!

I actually think it will work quite well without much protection, short term. Long term things will probably start to corrode etc.

Thoughts:

• I wonder how the radio communication will work underwater if at all.
• [*/]
• The pressure sensor might be damaged
• [*/]
• The button function might starting to behave strangely
• [*/]

[tobias]

So I did a quick first test with an old 6-DOF Crazyflie Nano we had laying around . I connected to it, put it down in tap water and...

1. As soon as the antenna and PCB got under water the radio connection was lost.
2. About a second later the red led turned on (battery low indication or it froze in that state)
3. Two seconds after that the red led turned off. Only the blue led lit now.
4. Took it out of the water and the red led started blinking again.
5. Power toggled it and it showed self test error.
6. Could already see small bubbles around the battery connector pins on the bottom side of the PCB. Unplugged the battery and cleaned the PCB.
7. Turned it on, it worked and flew again however it will probably start corroding after some time if I don't clean it properly (alcohol or distilled water)

So the next step. I will try to water protect it with lacquer but that I have to acquire first so maybe next week.

[chad]

Interesting experiment! I'm glad you did it and not me. Thanks for the info. On a side note, I was afraid I might find this out on my own the other day when I crashed my Crazyflie 2.0 and my 2 year old daughter retrieved it and ran toward the bathroom rather than back to me. I thought she was going to drop it in her bathtub!! Fortunately she didn't, but it's good to know it could still work short term and long term (with an alcohol bath) if she had.

[poizone]

Water contact and LiPo is a dangerous game and submerging the antenna will always cause you to drop signal no matter what. Water is pretty much opaque for our radios. I'd suggest a shell that clamps together with a rubber seal between the halves for anyone looking to go near anything wetter than a damp towel.

[Fucitol]

Thanks tobias for testing this!! Indeed corrosion might be more of a problem then actually submerging it.

You could try again dropping it in a full sink while going full throttle

[TylerStorm]

I was involved briefly in a "Remote Operated Submarine" club for a while and they primarily just used epoxy. Heat can become a problem, though, so for some components, it's a good idea to epoxy in pieces of aluminum or something else that conducts heat well to act as heat sinks.

Just my 2 cents. I'm new to this forum by the way. Hello everyone! Just got my Crazyflie yesterday. Looking forward to playing with it!

[derf]

Here is another YouTube video of a waterproofing test, this time by the FliteTest team:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4z8QMgTEA4