GCinDC's Giant DH Comp

About water ingress, I just finished sealing my max-e with plasti-dip at all seams because it failed and Andrei reported that it was corroded like nuts when he got his hands on it, and anything water damage related isn't warranted.

I know it was staying dry in your bag, but uh, yeah, do make sure of that. Repair costs were very reasonable despite the entire controller board necessitating replacement, but it still hurts and I don't have a backup controller.

Admittedly, I thought the controller itself was waterproof. Well... it is now!! And it's gorgeous now instead of salty-sprayville, though it's in a well-covered location anyway.

I second the external cooler. Maybe with heat pipes so you only have small external holes?
 
without silicone between the lid and the controller case it was only a matter of time before you get some inside corrosion.
maybe it also helps to put some electronical insulation stuff (spray, plastidip) at the conducting paths to the thermistor and where it is soldered to the pcb.

the mini-e is really cute, and also the birds :lol:
 
Holes with goretex and waterproofing spray but seriously guys am very disappointed i have my lyen 24 fet with holes at the cable side(protected side from water) and riding in the rain (wet roads 99%) and is looking good as new .It is the same as with the motor if something goes in evaporates through the holes . This why zero and brammo cost so much.
 
sardini said:
Holes with goretex and waterproofing spray but seriously guys am very disappointed i have my lyen 24 fet with holes at the cable side(protected side from water) and riding in the rain (wet roads 99%) and is looking good as new .It is the same as with the motor if something goes in evaporates through the holes . This why zero and brammo cost so much.
Click to expand...

GCinDC has mounted the controller with the wire outlets on top (the back cover on top would be better) and he rides through big puddles and in the rain.
If you do the same with the Lyen controller it will fill also with water and you will get soon corrosion problems. Ok, you will not get troubles with a temp cut off because it doesn't have one :p
 
madin88 said:
sardini said:
Holes with goretex and waterproofing spray but seriously guys am very disappointed i have my lyen 24 fet with holes at the cable side(protected side from water) and riding in the rain (wet roads 99%) and is looking good as new .It is the same as with the motor if something goes in evaporates through the holes . This why zero and brammo cost so much.
Click to expand...

GCinDC has mounted the controller with the wire outlets on top (the back cover on top would be better) and he rides through big puddles and in the rain.
If you do the same with the Lyen controller it will fill also with water and you will get soon corrosion problems. Ok, you will not get troubles with a temp cut off because it doesn't have one :p
Click to expand...

This controller was supposed to be perfect, they must write to the spcs with bold letters that is not Waterproof! dont get me wrong i was in love with this think, but i don't need all this gadgets, simple is best .

P.S. i have a temp sensor attached directly to the fets

@GCinDC
Did you have corrosion problems with infineon boards?
 
sardini said:
@GCinDC Did you have corrosion problems with infineon boards?
Click to expand...
nope. the gaskets on the ends worked pretty well, and i tried to keep the water off the wires. not that much internal damage from fire either, but they weren't much of a help avoiding that... :roll:
20140501_170311.jpg


who said the adapttos were perfect? not me. i did figure they were basically waterproof, but w/o the gasket, i think a smear of silicone on the outside seams would be plenty (if it's stays outside). any more and they'd be tough to pull apart. no probs at all w/ display.
 
The Adaptto never stated that the hardware is waterproof. Usually, if the gadget is, the manufacturer grabs about it, take watches, and gopros, flashlights and so on.
Even if you put silicone on the plastic covers it will not be waterproof. You still have the heatsink screws and also the outgoing cables to think about. It is better to cover the board with protective film and leave some breather holes. If you take your cold controller inside the house the moisture will penetrate inside and without the breather holes this moisture will stay there and attack the metal parts. In ideal world the controller box should be inside the frame, covered from water splashes just like in Zeros and Brammos and E-cars.
 
I have read that silicone grease can alter the function of some electrical components- e.g. reduce resistance of resistors as it soaks in? Is that at all true? It sounds like fiction. What would you recommend coating it in? I know that people run computers in vegetable oil for cooling sometimes. But... spreading vegetable oil on my controller?

Also the display I believe was advertised as waterproof. And it is. Believe me, it is. Silicone gasket all around. So you only have to think about the controller. For the curious, complete board replacement was $140+SH. Which is super reasonable.

Also, spoke at a panel at the local uni today and on my way out EVERYONE stopped to check out my KMX. They freaked out when i demonstrated the acceleration... it was fun. Also, I have a flag and four 3m tape reflectors AND rear red blinker and side reflectors but a cop still stopped me because he didn't notice them. Didn't even mention the electric assist. Also a dude on a Harley called me gay at a stop. If only that light was green, and he was riding next to me... I'd have smoked him :) sometimes the attention is tiresome. But raises awareness.
 
i did always wonder about you, xenodius... what do you expect riding around w/ rainbow colored flag? not that there's anything wrong with that.

just teasing, man. i would totally hunt that bastard down in traffic. :twisted: great reason to have a camera on board too! i'd wanna see the vid..

Allex said:
Even if you put silicone on the plastic covers it will not be waterproof. You still have the heatsink screws and also the outgoing cables to think about. It is better to cover the board with protective film and leave some breather holes.
Click to expand...
yes, for sure the heatsink screws, but the wires, i don't expose them to water. but i gotta say, the silicone tubing used where the wires go in are LONG, fat, go inside the case pretty far and MUCH better than the infineon grommet things, that would really need to be sealed too. and there are no tiny wires/holes going into the miniE except within larger wires that fit in those tubes. sure, if you want to get it real hot, then dip the wire end in water, i'm sure it'll suck in as it cools. check out the tubing around the wires where they go into the controller here:
file.php

it could be easier to mount tho. i'm not sure i understand the design of the enclosure, with the inset plastic ends with grooves..

here's a crappy vid showing the suspend mode, (set to turn hibernate after 340 seconds), and waking up entering the master password, and then the menu password:
[youtube]xp798LwRYm8[/youtube]

madin88 said:
maybe it also helps to put some electronical insulation stuff (spray, plastidip) at the conducting paths to the thermistor and where it is soldered to the pcb.
Click to expand...
did you see the thermistor in one of my pics? which one and where? i couldn't find it!

ps. i assumed the boards were all sprayed w/ conformal coating. i have to think that's standard practice, no?
 
sardini said:
This controller was supposed to be perfect, they must write to the spcs with bold letters that is not Waterproof! dont get me wrong i was in love with this think, but i don't need all this gadgets, simple is best .

P.S. i have a temp sensor attached directly to the fets
Click to expand...

If you want, you can order a waterproof version of the Adaptto controllers for an additional fee (its like the same as with the Kelly controllers).
 
Well, my display went through water hell and back without blinking. Never had any condensation or anything inside. I think I'm going to open up my controller, and conformal spray, and silica...

I think the Harley dude was one of those, "I have a big loud bike, check out my monstrous man-balls, I'm so cool, evoke pay attention to be because I'm a 16 year old girl" and not a "hey, I take care of my machine and enjoy beautiful days by rising around on it" rider. I sympathise with the latter and laugh at the former.

Unfortunately due to the mounting design I have to mount with heatsink screws up. But plasti-dip makes that essentially irrelevant. Wire end is deliberately tilted down a bit. All in all, easy enough to take care of... in my opinion, still a perfect controller. It just requires common sense I suppose.
 
xenodius said:
Unfortunately due to the mounting design I have to mount with heatsink screws up. But plasti-dip makes that essentially irrelevant. Wire end is deliberately tilted down a bit. All in all, easy enough to take care of... in my opinion, still a perfect controller. It just requires common sense I suppose.
Click to expand...

The heatsink screws i will swap to stainless steel ones and i will add some kind of silicone glue to make them water tight. Plasti dip would be also a good idea to cover the controller electronic board.
Yes its a very good controller and we do criticise at a high level - imho. :)
 
You think plasti-dip on the board would be fine? I just did the screws and end plates. I suppose it is an insulator... but, it melted some heatshrink I had, wonder if it might affect PCB? Probably not, but, I'm a bit too cautious there. Vegetable oil is a safe bet but not fancy enough =D
 
careful with vege oil. it is an extremely good solvent, more so than fossil oil.

plastics, rubber(coatings on components?)etc. may not be safe.

after some thought, i would consider making breathing holes over waterproofing, as the continuous heating/cooling cycles(esp with regen or charging) will pull moisture inside and condense somehow or other,
just like with a hubmotor, and we know from Justins tests how fkn hard it is to stop that happening.

perhaps just situate controller to be protected from water but still open to air?
 
GCinDC said:
tgif....
Click to expand...

Awesome video! I'm surprised I never see you on M street, that's my route every day except I take a left onto key bridge. Yep, watch out for those cars turning left in traffic, that's a bad spot...
 
yeah, that's canal. was cruising 50mph on the flat (in a tuck :p ). having that kind of speed has opened up new routes! :wink:
Cresh said:
Awesome video! I'm surprised I never see you on M street
Click to expand...
that's not my usual route. i was going to sibley hospital after work to see a friend. (not to sound old, but i've been riding M street since 1985, almost 30 years! - so i know that hairy alley turn that car was taking. hideous traffic all around there during rush hour.) i do ride to balston once a week, usually monday, and take route 50 for a bit unless it's real windy. i then take military to chain bridge to get back to DC..

i noticed neezydeezy is somewhere on the hill? maybe we should have another meet up? and there's a drew in germantown? not sure of others.
 
Yeah let's do another meetup - I'll get my greyborg running on a spare controller with battery in backpack so you can take a look. The area for battery is huge on the greyborg frame but my cellman triangle pack won't fit :-(
 
ridethelightning said:
careful with vege oil. it is an extremely good solvent, more so than fossil oil.

plastics, rubber(coatings on components?)etc. may not be safe.

after some thought, i would consider making breathing holes over waterproofing, as the continuous heating/cooling cycles(esp with regen or charging) will pull moisture inside and condense somehow or other,
just like with a hubmotor, and we know from Justins tests how fkn hard it is to stop that happening.

perhaps just situate controller to be protected from water but still open to air?
Click to expand...

Yeah, that'll do, I really don't expect it to get wet. I didn't think vegetable oil would do that, hence it's use in the immersion of overclocked PC's... but, probably true. I suppose you're right. I'd still like to grease the board with something.

Hope I'm not hijacking your thread with all this talk about MY intentions for MY adaptto controller, GC =)
 
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