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Hi everyone! I have now been running my GRBL Shield driven router for a little bit in Hawaii. Prior to Hawaii, it was used in Utah with no issues. It seems that the humid air has taken its toll and the GRBL shield shorted and burned a trace on the Z axis IC. My machine is under our house, covered from direct rain and always tarped when not in use, but the moist air from the ocean moves to spaces that direct rain does not. Does anyone have any suggestions on waterproofing the arduino and GRBL shield to prevent salt air moisture problems?
I am thinking of coating the board with some sort of waterproofing material but would like to do so with some advice rather than experimenting on my own.
A dehumidifier would be helpful if it were in an enclosed space, which it is not. Our house is raised off the ground on stilts, so the area underneath is essentially the same as an open sided carport.
an enclosure for the machine with a dehumidifier connected to the enclosure?
im sure there are some liquids such a corrosion x that ive seen protect some electronics from water damage. but dont quote me on that.
I would look into finding and IP65 or greater enclosure to seal out any moisture. the tricky part would be to keep the cooling intact. you might need to look into a way to cool the system passively with heatsinks instead of a fan
Here is what I would do but I am weird. Mini Fridge + Dehumidifier. I had a computer in a case like that it was awesome kept my sodas in the door.
The arduino is no different than a computer mineral oil should be fine also it would COMPLETELY eliminate your moisture issues. Just get a small glass fish tank with a sealed glass top to keep contaminants out.
I may eventually go the mineral oil route, but for simplicity’s sake I have done a few things. For me, my moisture was mostly coming from one direction. I changed the mounting location of my controller so that the mounting board actually shields the unit. That was a no brainer. The biggest thing I did was use clear plastidip spray on both the arduino and grbl shield. I masked off anything that shouldn’t be insulated, including each of the axis drive chips. This are what generate the heat so I left the tops of the chip uncoated so they can breathe. the small contacts on these chips are what got corroded and destroyed on my last board. I was sure to coat these leads well. I guess we shall see how it holds up.
I just recently finished my enclosure for my x carve as I has to sit outside and I’m in the same situation, I’m less the a quarter mile from the beach ad the humidity gets to everything… so I made my enclosure and covered the whole outside of it with fiberglass, and I purchased a small automatic dehumidifier and a large 5 gallon bucket of Silicon pellets that absorb moisture… stuck both inside so now when it’s to humid the dehumidifier kicks on, on an average day the Silicon pellets do the job… not only that with 1/8 inch plywood, huge enclosure and fiberglass, the machine is practically muted until you open the front doors to access the machine
