💦👨‍🔬 Silicone Conformal Coating VS KOTKING VS Hot Glue - Best Waterproofing for FPV Drones

The results of this test are: Silicone Conformal Coating disappointed me, Hotglue impressed me, and KOTKING may be a decent compromise.

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TimeStamps:
00:00 BLUF
1:45 Thanks, PCBWay
2:35 Details of this test
12:40 PROS/CONS of Silicone Conformal Coating
14:25 Testing Hotglue
18:06 PROS/CONS of Hotglue
21:00 PROS/CONS of KOTKING

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**DISCLAIMER: Remember to always use caution and your best judgement when building and flying RC aircraft, and when working with 3D printers, electronics, or electrical devices. Be mindful of the laws, regulations, and best practices for your particular location. Be a good neighbor, and HAVE FUN!**
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About RCwithAdam: Adam's goal is to HELP YOU build your skills and eliminate frustration and confusion through creative, educational, and encouraging videos featuring Radio Control airplanes, FPV drones, electronics, and 3D printing!
#RCwithAdam #waterproof #kotking

[atomicskull]

The problem with hot glue is long term adhesion in high vibration environments. It eventually starts to come loose from the substrate. Also nothing will bond with silicone except silicone so the flexible silicone wires end up being a channel to the PCB for water.

[fordmeisef]

I like how you start with punch line and show your process. Much appreciated. I see you really want the products to work; because, ultimately, that's what we want.

[ColinMill]

I simply used the Ambersil conformal coating I have been using to protect electronics in, for example, greenhouse automation, for decades and it has worked just fine. I give the board about 6 coats and make sure the surface of the board is completely flooded every time. I allow it to dry without heating but using a gentle fan to speed evaporation of the solvent. It then needs to be left for at least 24 hours to cure - it's not a quick process. As a final check I go over checking with a DVM set to the 40M ohm range to see if I can get any conductivity.
When they conformally coat board in production they totally immerse the boards in a vat of the coating, dry, and repeat and this makes sure the coating finds it's way under component legs etc.

[ericbommer]

Curious if you thought about liquid electrical tape. Can be found at most home improvement stores. Flex seal could also be another option.

[cpnkrk]

I had this running in the background at 1.5x speed and I was just listening to it while working on a project... I was SO confused as to how the line-up was "Silicone Conformal Coating, Cocaine, and Gorilla Brand Hot Glue"... Had to run it back to make sure O_o

[nikitasavenkov]

I haven't had a chance to try 422C, but 422B was actually very good. It can definitely waterproof electronics from dew or light rain. But you should put several thick layers of it. Currently 422B is discontinued and 422C is quite difficult to find in my country. So on my latest build I've tried kotking. It's kinda meh. The only positive I can say so far is a thick layering. But I didn't try it if a fields.

[PilotPlater]

I appreciate this. I too was displeased by off the shelf conformal coating products

[ert]

instead of removing the heatsink, you can glue around it to allow it to do it's job but at the same time waterproof

[Mediamarked]

Oh wow, those SimonK 12A esc's take me back. The "carbon" ZMR250 frame, DAL cam 700tvl with a 8channel heatsinked 200mw Boscam vtx.. RCX/ZMR branded motors shedding their magnets every session, burning up your first Naze32 v5 because of the individual BEC's. Flying the cheapest branded 5030 2 blade props until you went to 4s, and they just burst under the RPM boost. Being amazed at the DYS 1806 2300 motor power..
Flying with the flysky v1 protocol with sudden brownouts at 50m away, getting v2 and getting up to about 2km until your vtx crapped out. Straight up because you got the signal back when you dropped down.

Fun times. Met Boris B in my beginning, he was the catalyst to a hobby many of us owe to him.

Flying without rules, though, we still got that going...

[jerichojoe]

Not sure how solvents would affect some PCB boards; but I have had some luck waterproofing some of the things that I work on with DIY liquid silicone. I prefer to use naphtha but most organic solvents will do the job. Even mineral spirits. You take 100% silicone one I prefer the GE brand. And you Begin mixing insolvent and stirring until it dissolves in the solvents. Continue mixing solvent until you get the consistency that you want. You can make it as thin as paint or as thick as gel. Then you apply. The solvents will evaporate within a few hours. The vocs and solvents will evaporate completely; leaving you with a coating of 100% pure silicone wherever the mixture has made contact or has run into if thin enough. I'm not suggesting anyone do this because I'm not responsible if anybody damages their electronics; I'm just stating that I've used it myself without issues. Different plastics and different PCB boards May react differently to solvents so do so at your own risk. Silicone is very very heat resistant, completely waterproof, resistant to both mildly acidic and basic conditions, durable, cold tolerant, takes quite some time before breakdown occurs, and uv resistant. I've used this thin silicone to waterproof everything from my hot tent, to electronics. I do however recommend lightly scuffing the outer perimeter of the rear of the heatsink and leaving bare-metal exposed so that the heatsink can do its job exposed to the atmosphere to dissipate heat. Have fun. Again do so at your own risk, solvents sometimes react negatively with certain plastics.

[crank_FPV]

You were going a tiny bit light with the conformal. Maybe that’s a normal layer but I just go so much heavier and get really great results. Really only need just to save the quad and that’s the goal! Great vid man!!!!🎉🎉 also have used fpv worry free with great results

[MACYNET]

I suggest to try solvent free silicone, like kafuter 705

[ryanrocksize]

I've tried Kotking before, its a gigantic pain in the ass to remove if you plan to resolder absolutely anything, it stays there almost permanently unless you physically rub it off with friction, and it really takes a lot of friction to take it off, ever since that, I've switched to the 422B and never looked back, makes build adjustments so much easier on the long term and Kotking just isn't really a great application material to work with at all.

[mathewrtaylor]

❤I appreciate the bluf. Thanks for the walk through as well!

[stuckintrees]

Hey Adam great video I think I saw one time in another video if you use a heat gun on conformal coating it rises the air bubbles out of it

[techman]

While coating u had to use vibration on pcb so any air will come out that the problem

[mansonandsatanrock]

Whether you care about saltwater resistance really depends on where you live.

I live in the middle of canada, just fresh water here.

I use conformal, but I use tons of it a coat, and do 2 coats.

Had a vehicle fall into a deep puddle and sink completely, and the lights were still on when I pulled it out, and it carried on working after.

[johnnyrocket]

21:04 It says on the back of the Gorilla Hotglue Pack, to store it below 130°F, so this indicates the temperature where it starts melting. There are different types of hotglue which can resist higher temperatures. Just read the manual ;;;-)

[Freedomusa]

Thanks for doing these tests. Wish you would have done the liquid tape or equivalent. I just lost an ESC in a water plane so I am researching

[peterbrown]

I don't use hot glue because I have had too many people build project/test boxes using hot glue and totally fail when exposed to freezing temperatures.