Bamboo GT Waterproof improvements.

Have there been any success's with waterproofing the Bamboo GT?
I see some work done with the Carbon......I would imagine the Bamboo is by design better suited to waterproofing anyway.

Would simply using silicon sealant around the entire battery casing underneath be sufficient? Also perhaps the cable inputs.

What about the motors, they are exposed, but would they be damaged by wet surfaces.......I am not talking about using in rain, or through puddles, but wet surface that might throw up water.

Thanks.

 

I wouldn't worry about sealing around the battery, it has a foam layer which it pretty water tight. However around the motor cables, power button and charging jack a little silicone is a good idea. Not sure about the motors maybe some of that water proofing spay. I think the biggest vulnerability is the remote, and I'm not sure what to do about it..... plastic bag maybe haha

 

Good to hear that, i wasn't sure what the evolve seals were like, Ill follow your suggestion.

Hope to be ok with the remote, don't plan to use in the rain, just maybe while surfaces are still wet or damp. Happens a lot here !!

 

I wonder if plastidip will help cable coverage. Super experimental idea I'm throwing in.

 

skateboards are not made for the rain let alone electric skateboards. your bearings would have to be cleaned and oiled after every wet ride

 

and open motor vents (with small pcbs in the end of the housing) - i know a bunch have said its no problem - but gonna keep mine as dry as possible

 

So as for the battery compartment, PlasiDip, silicone coating, and even the default foam are great for waterproofing, the cable ports need extra care though. PlastiDip again is a good idea for plugging those cable inputs on battery compartment. The motors, in a lab, run the same wet as they do dry, even completely submerged... BUT, BIG BUT HERE...

SERIOUSLY DO NOT TRY THIS UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES.

The water we are getting on our motors is not distilled or even "pure water". There's going to be sand and grit suspended in the water which will destroy the internal bearings and magnets in your motors. Anywhere that I ride here in Minnesota also has some kind of salt on the ground, whether naturally occurring or from agriculture or from deicing the winter before. Salt, water, metal don't mix.

Now there are some tricks that will help out. I've been using CorrosionX for coating my electronic bits and as a general lubricant and SpeedX for my bearings. My board is still fairly new to me, but I've been riding regularly this winter in snow and slush. I've gotten it completely soaked five or six rides already but after every soaking ride, I dry off everything, reapply CorrosionX to the motors, and spend a few minutes cleaning and reapplying SpeedX to my bearings. Then you have to test your motors and make sure they sound clean. I've only had to tear apart the motors once after a sloppy off trail session and I could hear the grit inside the motors.
This is the stuff I use:


TL;DR
Keep your board dry unless you have time to do a thorough breakdown and cleaning/lube afterwards.

 

So I took my Evolve Bamboo GT "wanderstick" out for a real slog today. At the end, the board was soaked, I was soaked, and I can only hope every lady I passed was soaked. Anyway, just to show off that really wet riding can be done, I thought to take some photos and give an explanation on how to dry, clean, improve water resistance on your Bamboo GT. All in all, you'll be looking at about an hours worth of work (Maybe more if it's your first time) from removing housing to putting it back on. Also you should be doing your cleaning right after you're done riding, no lollygagging!

As you can maybe see, 6.1 Miles on Fast and at most times during the ride there was some standing water pooling on the deck below my feet. This is what your shoes will look like and (until someone comes up with fenders for these things) this is what your pants will look like. The bottom of the board isn't much drier.

What I'm really trying to get across here is that everything is really f'ing wet. And so, it's time to dry, clean, and re-lube!

First things first, quick wipe down of the whole board with a rag to get the big chunks of debris off and a second wipe down with a paper towel or clean rag to dry off excess water. From there you want to unscrew all eight (8) of the bolts holding the battery housing to the deck. Be careful and hold your hand under the housing to keep things from breaking as you unscrew the last three (3) or four (4) bolts as the battery itself is quite heavy and you could crack the case. From there you want to disconnect the motors from the PCB boards. Two (2) rounded triangular plugs and two (2) white plugs with locks on the top, just have someone with small fingers squeeze the white plugs and pull them out. Everything should look pretty close to this:

As you can see there isn't a lot of water inside the housing, so really there isn't much need for worry about the stray puddle or a light rain, at least, not after your housing is fully sealed. From there unscrew the four (4) corner screws and pull up straight up, gently, on the top PCB panel. It may feel quite stiff pulling the top board out as there are five (5) plugs that go directly from the top to the bottom PCBs. BE CAREFUL NOT TO BEND THESE PINS! A good constant upward pull should do it though. You should now be able to disconnect the battery, power switch, and charging port cables from the battery and the top PCB. The top PCB should be able to unplugged from the battery now and should be fully isolated (meaning you can pick it up and throw it across the room if you wanted).
And the bottom PCB should look like this!
Do not touch the bottom PCB board as it is still hooked up to the battery and could shock you or release the magic smoke (short a circuit or worse, the battery, and kill your board).
Like I said in the above post, I use CorrosionX to protect the electronic bits and SpeedX to protect the bearings and motors. CorrosionX is safe on all electronics and is metal-philic (don't know if that's a word) and hydrophobic so it sticks to metals , coats it, doesn't wipe off very easy, and repels any water that might get on it. A lot of RC hobbyists use the stuff for light waterproofing, though you'll see a ton of folks say it's not safe for ESC controllers, which is probably true, but having it coated is better than nothing.
At this point I used a hair dryer and some cotton swabs to clean and dry the boards and then a soft paint brush to coat the boards with CorrosionX. You can be liberal with the stuff and make sure you coat all the nooks and crannies and even the plugs. The CorrosionX will stay wet for a long, long, long time and will need to be re-applied as it dries out over time (several months). Since you've got all your screws and bolts handy, go ahead and coat those too.

Just make sure to reapply loc-tite where you need it and check your board every once in a while for loose screws.

That's basically it. The plugs are, for the most part, dummy-proof and only fit the plug they came from. Be careful when reseating the top PCB board and make sure you're lined up perfectly before you push down, don't bend those pins!
As for motor break down, Milly has a great tutorial on how to change your motor bearings to sealed bearings! Along the way it's actually a pretty good tutorial on how to take apart your motors too.
That's here: Motor rebuild with new sealed bearing

So now I'm running out things to say, I guess if you have questions, let me know!

 

Nice info thanks Bohemeian, any reason you didn't disconnect the battery before you started doing anything?
Also if you are riding in bad weather regularly you may want to replace those black bolts with stainless ones, I have done this, coz you know bling bling.
Finally if anyone wants a vid on removing the Motor controller as one unit.

 

You know, I was kinda wondering why there wasn't an easy way to disconnect the battery. I'm probably just blind and not seeing the connection that is shown at 1:32 in the "How to Replace Motor Controller" video. I bet its covered in that blue shrink wrap on my Bamboo. Next time I'm in there I'm going to look for that.

 

Yeah I found it a little hard to get my hands on to, mine was under the shrink wrap too.

 

Great post Bohemeian !!!!

Very very helpful and useful, thanks a lot........being in Ireland we have to accept water as part of daily life ....want to protect the board as much as possible. Order placed on amazon for the corrosionX

 

I'm going on two months of wet roads now without any problems. Thanks Nano Pro Tech!!!

 

i encontrar in youtube

 

I love the effort but wouldn't it be easier to simply use this stuff Liquid Tape and yes it will be kind of permanent but how often would you need to take of the cover and you can always reapply. This would also allow you to make sure the cover plate on the plastic cover can get some extra waterproofing. Anybody any experience with this liquid tape?

 

Or just replace the stock foam with thicker foam so you get a good seal.