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Wet servos!


LukeAFC

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Hi all,

I had a day off work today and being as though it was such a nice day I decided to take my Hyper out, and wish I hadn't.....

Basically everything was going fine and I had a perfect tune until I got distracted by a dog, I turned for a second to get my glow igniter out of the dog's mouth and my car disapeared into a ditch, and yes it was full of water.

I went to look for the car but couldn't see it due to the filthy water. So I had to rush home to put some shorts on and get my wellies and then rush back to my bashing site. After wading around in the ditch for a couple of minutes I found and retrieved my car.

I've since stripped the car, cleaned, dried and lubricated it but unsurprisingly the servos were not working. So my question is what are the chances of me getting away with it and the servos start working again once they've dried out? Or is that wishful thinking?!

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I think the receiver will be ok, it was bone dry when I got the car out.

I'm in the process of rebuilding the car now, there is no damage apart from possibly 2 knackered servos!

I was fuming with the dog owner but I suppose I should have stopped the car before taking my eyes off it but then if the dog hadn't had his head in my tool box all would have been fine!

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do you know the science behind this sounds interesting??

Something to do with water being attracted to a dehydrated substance. I'm sure a scientist will be along to explain better...

Edited by Gymbal
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I like the sound of the rice trick! Would this possibly work with salt as well given that salt can be used as a dehumidfier?!

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You MAY be lucky . Do not "try" the servos until you are sure they are dry.

Water itself does virtually zero damage to an unpowered circuit it is the crap that is left behind that causes problems,so what CAN work is a rinse in plain (deionized) water followed by lots of slow (air) drying with cases removed. Whether the water is just evaporated into the air or is drawn towards a desiccant (commercially; silica gel in bags. In the house you could use dried rice which is Hygroscopic) just make sure the process is complete (once you are certain the process is complete give it another day).

With the water being full of bits and the circuits being powered for a long time in this gungy water you will PROBABLY be S.O.L.however I hope this isn't the case.

Good luck.

If this was in an aircraft or the servos and RX were used in a critical situation I wouldn't even chance it and replace everything, but with a buggy... .

Edited by soup
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ive had servos submerged when some of my model boats have sunk , i took the bottom plate of and rinsed under tap with lukewarm water and then left to dry out for 3-4 days in an airing cupboard and they all worked fine afterwards , in fact i still have some of those servos in my spares box and they are over 30 years old now

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Rice works really well....just don't use cooked rice ;)

don;t use salt .... salt+moisture = corrosion. Salt water is also a conductor where fresh water isn't. As Soup stated earlier...fresh water isn;t a problem as it's not a good conductor. It's the stuff in it that causes the issues, and salt is one of the worst.

Try rinsing and ricing and leave them in a warm place for a bit. You will need to remove hte bottom of the servo to get at the circuit board. Take off the top, romove the gears and unscrew the motor mounts. Then remove the bottom of the case and pull out the servo motor and circuit board. This is the critical part. Wash it and dry it and leave it for a few days and hope all is well.

In the meantime....start shopping for new servos.....

I have recently replaced the throttle servo on my Baja and fitted an Alturn one. Not used one before, but I was quite impressed with the quality and price balance.

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Any ideas on decent low cost servos?

The one's I've potentially knackered are Futaba S3305's and although I can't fault them right at this moment in time I'm not going to be able to stretch to another pair of those.

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