VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

HI Everyone!

Last year, maybe October time frame, I lost control of my plane which has all Fasst components, including a R6014 FS 2.4Ghz Rx, and S3152 digital hi-torque servos on all "important" control surfaces. The lost of control, my fault, caused the plane to dive and it landed abruptly into the river behind our field. It was removed from the water, after about a 15 minutes swim

My problem is as follows:
After checking every servo and the Rx, wiping them clean and dry, I put them into a plastic zip-lock baggy w/ several silica gel bags to absorb any of the moisture. They sat in the plastic bags w/ the silica over the winter (maybe 3 months). It "seems" to have worked on all but one (1) servo, which when plugged into the Rx, acted flaky and was trying to "find" center constantly. I sent this servo into Futaba, and they soon wrote me back saying that the servo's pc board was corroded and would need replacement.

My questions are as follows:

1. Did I take the appropriate steps to remove the moisture from the servos and Rx?
2. What else could/should I have done? (Besides, not put my plane into the water
3. Should I pursue this further with Futaba in terms of getting them to replace for free or less than full-price which is what they are asking for? I mean people actually do fly their planes in the water and so forth, I would imagine that they get wet too???)
4. The BIG question here: Do I trust the other servos enough to put them back into another 40 scale size plane? They work perfectly ... now????
5. Second BIG question: Do I trust the receiver? ( It works perfectly ... now...)????

Obviously, I hate to have to spend the money to replace these components, but I also don't want to ruin a good plane that I worked on over the winter by putting in servos and/or a Rx, that will be problematic. I am not putting them into an expensive plane or a fancy build.. actually just a GP Big Stik w/ some modifications (nothing special).

Can I believe that the Rx and servos that are presently working fine, will be ok for this new plane and no damage was done to the extent it was done on the "bad" servo?

In advance, let me thank all of you for your help and understanding. I am ticked-off I did such a stupid thing in the first place and I am trying to stretch my hard-earned dollars, if you know what I mean.

Again, thank you, your time and information... it is greatly appreciated.

Fond Regards,

Don

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

I would have put them in the oven set to about 150 degrees F for about an hour. That would have driven out all of the moisture before I stored them.
Open the other servos and scrub off any corrosion you find on the circuit board. The electronic circuits are in a sealed chip and will not be effected.
The potentiometer probably should be replaced. You will have to send them in if you don't know how to do that.
If the motor works you probably didn't get any water in that so it should be OK.
Why would you think Futaba should make good for something you did? I am sure they did not design them to work under water.

SpiritSTLFlyer

]Myself, I would pack everything up in a box, and send it back to Futaba, and have everything checked out !!

BuschBarber

My Feedback: (2)

I frequently fly off the water, with sea planes. If you dunk the Rx and Servos, you take the cases apart and clean the circuit boards with Alcohol or Electronic cleaner, I do not know if water can get in to the Pots or Motor, although, I have seen demonstrations, at the Toledo Weak Signals Trade Show, where the Circuit Boards of servos are dunked in a Waterproof chemical and then the servos are operated under water. Manufacturers of radios for the Military use Chemical Coatings to waterproof circuit boards.

We just clean the Circuit Boards for the Rx and Servos and dry them out with a Hair Dryer.

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

All great info... I think the baking in the oven and cleaning the corrosion off would obviously been a better move...

Additionally, the packing everything up and send in to Futaba is probably what I will do since I really don;t want to take any chances.

Thank you to all who replied... appreciate your time and knowledge

Don

sevans16

If you were to put them in a Vacuum that would Boil off the water!!
Water boils at 212 degrees at sea level. I am not sure how much Vacumm it takes to boil water at say 90 degrees??

Silent-AV8R

I run boats too and have a number of the S3152 servos. They get dunked on a regular basis. Here is what you need to do.

Unplug and remove the servo.

Open the case up and blow it dry with canned air.

I then spray Crorosion X in the servo and let it more or less "dry".

Reassemble and use.

I use the same procedure on all my FASST boat receivers and I have many many of these servos and FASST receivers that have gotten wet more than I would like to admit. Never had an issue with this procedure.

Your mistake was not getting all the water out first and then sealing them in a bag. Silica gel or not. I would send ALL those servos in to be looked at.

And please NEVER PUT YOUR RADIO IN AN OVEN TO DRY IT!!! Yes, I am YELLING!!!

nonstoprc

My Feedback: (90)

I probably will not reuse the receiver unless checked by Futaba service. The servos probably can be used on non-critical control surface (e.g., the rudder).

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

Its done all the time at factories.
I had a high value Tektronic oscilloscope that had been left out in the Seattle rain for a long period. I bought it at an auction. I called the factory and this is what they advised me to do.
After I had cooked it for about 6 hours At 150 F, I lubricated all of the potentiometers with contact lubrication. I had to replace one of the transformers but then I used it for about 10 years.

Bass1

Not sure if I'd trust any of the previously soaked components in a valuable and potentially out of control aircraft... BUT... I've had entire setups of very expensive electronic musical equipment and sound reinforcement systems soaked to the max by quick forming pop-up thunderstorms at outdoor concerts/events and we found if we moved the affected gear into a room with it's own thermostat and cranked up the heat to its max setting and ran a few portable fans for circulation for several days, 90% of the gear survived and was put back into service with no apparent damage. However one expensive electronic piano (wooden hammers etc.) was basically destroyed. Of course the AC power was shut down at first sign of rain.

Silent-AV8R

OK. I was simply sharing my direct experience with the exact same piece of equipment and the information given to me by Futaba. People are free to do what they want to. I know what I posted works first time all the time, but hey, if people want to cook their radio in an oven I guess they are free to do so.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

If you see corrosion, though, write it off. With electronic devices, once corrosion starts, it's almost impossible to stop, and it will severely degrade performance.

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

Bax,

Actually I was going to write (re-post this thread) in the specific Futaba forums, so I greatly appreciate you coming over and checking this thread out. Thank you.

So, you think I should forgo all of the above, even sending them (including the 14 ch. Fasst rec'vr) into Futaba for a check-up/cleanup? Man, I would hate to know that I lost the $199. receiver along with four(4) $35. servos because of not only my stupidity in the crash, but also because I did not do the right things to save them. I did go to my LHS and asked him what I should do, as I trust him dearly, and that is what led to the baggy w/ silica gel packs process (which now seem lame). He is also an authorized Futaba dealer.

Is there a post (Futaba approved) and/or a Futaba website page that describes the correct process should this happen again... and as I mentioned, plenty of people MUST have this same problem if they either fly off of the water, or in the marine type setting. That would seem to say to all the marine type applications to not go with these servos (if there is such a thing as a marine-safe servo), or don't even use in a r/c boat?

Another point, is that I also followed the receiver installation instructions on the Futaba forum/website, so I could not wrap the receiver completely in foam and a plastic bag, due to the heat avoidance method described in those pages. It makes it impossible to protect the receiver if this should happen, as compared to yesteryear when we could do so w/o concern for heat buildup.

Should I send them into Futaba and will they do anything to make sure they will operate correctly/flight-worthy for me in the future?

Should I follow the logical and helpful suggestions described above (see Silent-AV8R, and others) and try to salvage what I have?

As I said, of the four (4) S3152's, three (3) came out working w/o issue, and the receiver (R6014) as well (although the contacts on the receiver show some corrosion). I am in a real quandary, as I would hate to lose the whole pack.


Please advise.

Thanks,

Don

P.S. Thank you to all who have offered their genuine help and information, I appreciate you and your help.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

We can only check the current operation. We don't have anything we can do to insure proper operation in the future, as far as water-soaked equipment's concerned. There isn't a process we can do.

For things like servos, the motors and pots are what you should be mostly concerned about. Water gets into them and it's very difficult to get it out, short of heating. And then you have no assurance that you have clean parts. Contaminants will remain, and they will likely compromise service life, if not operation.

As we said above, corrosion is a killer, and we cannot remove it or stop its progress. It's best to write off components with corrosion.

VictoryRoll

My Feedback: (2)

Bax, true, I understand. Man, I am so ticked at myself. I took my eyes off the plane for a moment to look at a timer, and.... well, you know the rest.

I probably will be sporting new servos and a new receiver this year and have to put off the electronics on my second plane until next year, as this is the money that was to go for my second plane's electronics. DUMB !

Also, just to be perfectly clear for those who are reading this and may have done something of the same and got their servos wet in some manner.. I did immediately take the servos out of the plane, and set them on a cardboard box and had warm/hot air from a hairdryer blowing across them, turning them over every once and a while, for about 24 hours, before I put them in the plastic baggies. Just an FYI, so that no one uses these fruitless measures in the future on their mishap. I did NOT, however, open the servos up.

Oh well....

Thanks again,

Don


P.S. Other than Bax, (who I understand must be the most conservative on this subject) who would trust the servos after a full cleaning with alcohol or electronics cleaner and maybe a spray or two of Corrosion-X after the cleaning process?? I mean, wyould you really trust them and put them back into a control surface of a plane? If you can convince me that I have a very, very good chance of success, I may try it out.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

Back in the '70's I had an airplane crash into a sewage settlement pond. Talk about contaminated water- Try that. In those days I had only one set of electronics. They were much higher priced then.
I took it home, opened up everything, and washed everything off with fresh water. I dried everything off with a heat gun and installed it in another airplane. I had no trouble with it.

Silent-AV8R

Go over to the boat forums and ask this question. Especially in the electric boat forums. Literally hundreds upon hundreds of boat guys regularly dunk their radio equipment. Almost to a man they simply open the case, blow out the visible water and spray either CorrosionX or some other water displacing compound. I run 4 foot long boats weighing 20 pounds and capable of speeds in excess of 75 mph, and this has never failed me. BTW we do this same thing on our electric motors and ESCs. I have motors that cost upwards of $750 and ESCs that cost over $800 and this is how we dry them.

However, if you don't dry them ASAP then it can be a crapshoot.