Are "Infineon" controllers water resistant?

Chaps,

I see a lot of controllers mounted externally on the downtube, where I imagine they see a lot of spray from the front wheel in wet conditions.

Are the controllers from em3ev sufficiently water resistant as standard for this mounting position?

Thanks,
Ant

Punx0r said:

Chaps,

I see a lot of controllers mounted externally on the downtube, where I imagine they see a lot of spray from the front wheel in wet conditions.

Are the controllers from em3ev sufficiently water resistant as standard for this mounting position?

Thanks,
Ant

Click to expand...

Yes they are. They have a rubber seal at each end. Some spray from tires and ground is nothing.

The only time I have had water ingress on a controller was having it mounted upside down and level to where water collected on the bottom impression and seeped in. To combat that, I have mounted the controller at a slight angle with sugru at the lower end. This prevents pooling of the water and let's it run off.

Thanks for that. I was planning on mounting it inside the frame, but now it seems that's just making hard work for myself

Lets put the thing that can't get wet where the wheel sprays it with mud and water.

Sure, there are seals, but seals fail, and often the plugs are right there, not sealed.

Mixed messages here

I would take dogman's advice... don't put it where it's most exposed to spray. If you want it there, at least have a good fender.. then it should be fine.

If you properly assemble your connectors (with dielectric grease and/or good heatshrink) you won't have to worry about spray. Many fast bikes around here put the controller under the down tube to keep the controller close to both battery and motor while having good access to moving air. I don't have a single concern about water with the protections I put in place. What I do have concern with is having my controller in a good air path so it doesn't get cooked.

And yes, I do have a good enough fender. But I'm also in California, where we don't get water from the sky too often, just occasional puddles.

For my wife's bike which has the controller mounted between the bottom bracket and rear wheel, I have plastic fascia that I bent with a heat gun to shield it from spray and keep it clean(er) looking. Before I did the dielectric grease, I was getting some corrosion on that bike, but nothing that hindered performance.

How hard are you going on your bike?

They *can* be water *resistant* but definitely aren't water *proof* in most cases.

I have a Grin 12FET on the bottom of CB2 just behind the BB, and it is fine there since we have little water most of the year. But the water-resistant switch built into it's endcap failed from water intrusion, and I had to wire around it.

I have another "ecrazyman" 12FET that has lived on the bike in various places with completely open ends (no covers at all) and it's had no water or debris related problems, under the same conditions.

So part of the issue is that with a "sealed" unit, if water does get in, it cant' easily get out, so the damage it can do is longer-term.

With an "open" unit, when water gets in, it gets right back out, and isnt' there long enough to do much damage....

I guess that means it is a toss-up, in environments like mine. In wet environments, I suspect potted controllers would be a better choice.

I'd noticed Stealth and the like have the controller outside and hoped this would be a straight-forward issue.

The bike will have a fender and will get ridden in wet-surface conditions at least occasionally. Puddles/mud getting sprayed up will be an issue.

The original plan was to put the controller inside the frame and heatsink to the metal side panel. However, is this more work and, most importantly, takes up space I need for batteries.

I'm tempted to mount it on the downtube, add a shielded drain hole at the lowest point and add some shielding. Either to cover the wiring entrance at the top/front end, or to cover the whole thing, so spray from the wheel can't fit it, but have the top/front end open to hopefully duct through air resulting from forward motion of the bike.

I sure would never mount a controller under the down tube of a bike myself. And I live in a very dry climate!

Buy boy oh boy, when it does finally rain here, I'm going to splash through every puddle I can find, then come home and have to wash 2 inches of mud off my dirt bike. So for me, it's more of a deal where I want that controller where I will get the least mud, and have to wash the least.

Big boxy controllers on my dirt ride go on top of a fender like rear seatpost rack. I still toss some mud on top, but I can just brush that off the box later. Currently I have a very slim controller, so I mounted it on top of the top tube. Again, close to the cleanest place on the bike when it's time to hose off a few inches of mud from the lower parts of the frame.

If you do go with the down tube mount, I'd put a very long front fender on it for sure.

Well it begs the real question of where to mount the controller, hence all the wires. I've mounted my batteries pannier style (an A123 AMP20 prismatic pouch), on a back rack. Controller is on the upper stem of the rack just below the seat. Wires flow out the back side so lie on the rack itself. Also have mud guards. Wrapped the wire set so connectors are not exposed. Then boxed on top. For what its worth, placement & connection is a worthwhile consideration during a build.

I believe the more important concern is heat dissipation. So not covering over the controller, leaving it exposed, and in a manner that wind will flow over the aluminium casing ridges. So wire connections: not exposed. Controller itself: exposed.

Well, if you really wanna stick it where it's gonna get wet, you might wann look at all the discussions about waterproofing, rainproofing, winterizing, weatherproofing, etc. There's a lot of them, about whole bikes and individual parts, both as separate threads and as parts of build threads or discussions about other things, so it could take a good long time to dig them all up.

If you do, you might wanna save the links you find and stick them in the wiki for the next person that needs them.

Entirely possible to waterproof a controller better than it comes from the factory. Indeed, lots of discussions of that.

Also possible to put a shroud over it to keep out 95% of the water, but still let in air flow. Just need proper louvers, or pipe vents with an elbow that air can flow though separating out much of the water.

I definitely don't smother a controller to keep it dry. Out in the air is crucial in my climate.

On my SB Cruiser, the controller is in a part of it's "front triangle", strapped right up against the frame. But the FET heatsink is facing forward into the open area of the triangle (just other wiring near it), with inches of space between it and the forward frame. Then there are coroplast covers on the sides of the "triangle" and open in front/down, folded over each other on top in case of down-oriented rain (like if it's parked outside and a storm comes along), and tied to the frame at the rear, with an air gap between the "mixte" style rear frame members below the contorller so air can flow during a ride from the sort of open front over the controller and hten out the bottom/back. It's not as good a cooling as CB2's under-frame, but keeps direct sun off it, and keeps it from being heated by the hot asphalt on daytime rides, while stopped at traffic lights with no airflow it can get well over 150F down there.

No pics cuz I'm out for wifi as home internet is down today, but you can look in the SB Cruiser thread linked in my sig to see what I mean.