Great stuff my man! We'd all be interested to hear how it's doing 2 years later. Also, I was thinking that pure olive oil might contain a percentage of H2O, so boiling the oil first would remove that. It's recommend for any road going full size vehicles running veg oil.
Thanks I got some good tips from this! I work a lot with cheap 'waterproof' outdoor lighting and electronics. Experience tells me that things are never as waterproof as they claim! Here in the UK the water always finds a way in....
Outstanding experiment. I don't think the oil will oxidation to the point of smelling with the flex rubber skin sealing the major points. Simple yet effective, and cheaper then some solutions!
Id keep other screw open on other corner to let air out, its hard to blow into bottle, and easier to see when its full, when oil comes from other hole.
Nice idea, this is a recent video so I'll give some thoughts because I really need to do this myself. I don't have the answers just yet, not critising just thinking aloud here. The oil will heat up from the motor, it is incompressible so it must escape somewhere. When it cools, we are back to stage 1 again, the difference in pressure pulls water inside! I would guess past the 'O' ring, which because it is not properly seated in a channel, cannot do it's real job. It's just a squashy gasket in your case. Sump pumps (12v caravan type) have an expansion chamber behind the 'lip seal' on the shaft. This very fine delicate rubber piece is lubricated by the water, and yet any pressure forces it to seal tighter onto the shaft. Ok up to 10 metres which is impressive. The grommet for the leads is also tricky. We need a single bubble wrap or something as a bladder in the oil? Have you cycled one of your examples under water for a while?
Yes, a servo with air in the motor granted. One expert tells us tricopters use extra power for the 3rd servo, another that servos hardly use any power! But if you are truly filling up all the internal spaces with oil, the little high speed motor is not going to like trying to push oil around like a hydraulic pump rotor?
Also I know that people make Aquarium Mineral Oil PC computers where the PC is a clear waterproof case and it is filled from top to bottom with Mineral Oil. So the Mineral oil must not effect electric stuff if they can do that. So I wonder if Mineral Oil may work too.
Brilliant … will try this method on a current new build as it will save a small fortune on the true submersible servo’ s which I have found can be anything from £70 to over £150. How has your waterproofing held up in the real world have you had any issues ?? Thanks for sharing such a simple idea that you have executed very well
You could just add some corrosionx or silicon modified conformal coating to the electronics and metal parts of the servo as shown by Peter Sripol and FliteTest
Have you considered hydrophobic compounds? Could a shaft seal assembly be made? Tight spaces would be an issue, but I'll bet you could make a shaft seal with oil soaked string, and then next to that (waterside) hydrophobically treated ;) string. This wrapped shaft, within a metal tube, making smooth and tight connection. Fill servo with oil of choice. Then just dip the whole thing in insulator of choice, eg. epoxy, latex. If heat is a problem, use a thermally conductive oil inside, with a heat sink to the outside, could be a very simple design. The shaft is the only real issue. Everything else is no problem. Maybe a brushless servo will tolerate the intrusion of the oil better than a brushed servo? Thanks for the ideas! Im going to do this for my crawler. I'll see how tiny I can make a shaft seal assembly. 6mm? :) Gotta cross some rivers!
Cool! A few thoughts, for your consideration: Presumably clean mineral oil would work at least as well without doing miscellaneous disgusting (possibly damaging?) organic things as it sits around in there. An faster way to fill it air-free would be to stick a long skinny needle down to the bottom so the oil emerges underneath all the air. Save some tapping. The cable feedthrough seems like a possible weak point. Make sure either the epoxy seals it at a relatively rigid part of the strain relief, or use a suitable (bonding well to plastic most important property) RTV sealant that will have some elasticity. Strain relieving the cable will of course mitigate the need for flexibility.
For an air free fill-hold the servo so that one removed screw is the highest corner point and one removed screw is the lowest corner point-inject the oil from the lowest point until it comes out the highest screw hole forcing out the air.
I'm proceeding with this procedure now.(using mineral oil, btw) I find that Lasco brand #4 O-rings (02-1629) work best for my servo, but your servo's "neck" diameter may be different from mine.
That won't work for long because there is still too much air left in the servo. What I do is I made a vacuum chamber out of a Mason jar. I open up the servo and submerge it in mineral oil inside the Mason jar. I then use a good vacuum pump which removes all air, including the air inside the servo wires. Then, you remove the vacuum and let it sit in the oil for about one hour to let the oil migrate into the tiniest place where there had been air. Then I seal up the servo while it is still in the oil.
So maybe I am doing something wrong. I followed your instructions but the servo seems to work for a couple of minutes then quit. I took some thermo images of the servo and the circuit board seems to be getting hot. I hear sizzling inside servo case and after that servo does not work. There seems to be little to no leakage from servo case. Do I need to coat the small control board inside the servo with silicon paste or something else. Any other experiences or thoughts on the process. The servo I did is a plastic case not metal as the one you did . My metal case one like the one you used will be here on Tuesday. Just don't want to screw up that one by making a mistake.
There should be no reason that inert oil affects your board. Some capacitors and diodes, if cheaply made, are not sealed and can take on liquids. My guess is that you were using a really cheap servo. It could have been messed up from the outset even before you added the oil.
I’ve also done this twice with the exact servos in the video and everything works until I add the oil. The only thing I can think of is that I used baby oil instead of olive oil…😢
Don't you think there will be air inside the motor? And if the oil will enter the motor later? Won't it give problems with the contacts in the motor? Or do these motors have no carbon brushes inside?
@@FahlmanCascade but still, there is something in that motor that is trying to turn several thousand rpm when you move that servo. It must now do that while overcoming the drag from oil instead of air. So it is going to use a lot more power, even with nothing connected to the servo. So basically you're building a power hungry slow servo.
Amazing! One wonders whether it would take it all one step further and immerse the entire electronics package in oil.....not that I'm prepared to take that risk! But it'd be an interesting experiment with some expendable radio system. Also: what's your take on mineral oil instead of olive? ("Pompeian, full-bodied flavor. Because your submarine and your salad are worth it.")
I should have used mineral oil. I just used olive oil because that's what most people have lying around. I think most electronics would be happy in the oil, but I'd certainly think twice with anything expensive...
Hi Bob. Fantastic and explanatory tutorial tip indeed. !!! And just what was looking for. However olive oil is an "alive" organic one, sooner or later should decompose. It has a remarkable acidity effect as well. (In my reminds some from my old marine engineer fellows considering the use of olive oil for technical purposes as a "crime".He He!!) I am thinking to test with sewing machine oil.... Nevertheless the idea is brilliant. Thanks.
Didn't work for me, the motor got oil in it and stopped working with mineral oil. And the gearbox got jammed up. I had to flush it all, then seal all edges with epoxy resin (UV cure) and the O ring on top. Works!
What to stop a person from putting all the servos outside of the WTC and also using motors that the internal coil of the motor is waterproofed with potting resin and Stator has green waterproof coating. Then your servos and motor would be outside the WTC. You would have one hole in the WTC for the wires coming out. Main difference with wires you can seal the hole good, but with shaft and linkage seals you always have a chance of a seal breaking from shaft and linkage moving.
Your receiver is not waterproof. For every servo out in the wet, you need to waterproof 3 servo wires. 3 servos. 9 wires, plus another two for the motor. 11 connections to leak versus 3 linkage seals. You do the math!
@@RCSubGuy Sorry I should have been more clear, Just the servos and motor would be outside the WTC. Everything else would still be in the WTC. Then on one side of the WTC there would be a real waterproof big 12 pin connector in one hole, with 9 pins use by the servos and 3 pins being used to power the brushless motor. I am not saying this is better then having everything in WTC, I am just saying its another option. I still prefer having everything in WTC.
I am not so convinced about your solution with oil filling. This oil also goes into the potentiometer and motor and there isolates the sliding contacts. At some point the servo will stop working because of that.
I am curious what potentiometer you are reffering to? To my knowledge there are none in a servo. The servo will operate on a pwm signal from the controller. A signal of a give pulse width makes it turn left, another pulse width turns it the opposite, and a third centers the servo. If I am mistaken please advise.
I did the same thing but packed it with red lithium grease, no o rings, but that would probably be what makes yours water proof, instead of mine as water resistant ...? so far, 3 years later, the 5thscale rc truck gods tribunal hasn't rained hellfire down on me and my Chinese servos lol
@@RCSubGuy brushed servo has a brushed motor. Does the motor also gets filled with oil? if yes, then how do brushes maintain contact with the rotor? Isn't there a chance for oil to get between the brush and the rotor?
Any air trapped in there whatsoever will compress and allow water ingress. The technique for filling the servo is critical. YOu might need to use a vacuum chamber to pull the air out. During installation, ensure you put the servo upside down so that the electronics and motors are higher than the plastic gears in case of water ingress.
Not all Olive oils are created equal. Chech the PH of your olive oil before putting it in your servo. (PH strips) Many olive oils are "acidic". This acid will corrode the electronics after a while. Use unscented "baby oil" instead. it is a highly purified and clean mineral oil. It's non conductive( wont short electronics), ph balanced, (wont corrode metals) won't go rancid, (get thick and lumpy) non-hygroscopic (wont absorb water itself), wont grow bacteria, etc etc etc And if you are really serious about doing this, cycle the servo several times in a small vacuum chamber to ensure all of the air is displaced by oil, ( no air pockets) before putting in that last screw. You will be amazed at how much air will come out of a servo case that you "thought" was full of oil.
@@gavinwilkins5466 I can only assume that you have not completely sealed the body seam or the shaft output. Disassemble and take another look at how you tackled those two areas.
