A Water Competition Next Year?!?!?!

[fox46]

Actually, contrary to popular belief, 12V systems love the water. In fact, the proper way to break in a brushed motor is to immerse it in water, and run it for 10 minutes. (BTW I'm talking about low voltage DC systems) Some electric trolling motors for fishing boats are designed to fill with water because it dissapates heat better than air. The big problem though is when you get into sensitive electronics where you're working with minute currents, they are easily affected by the small amount of electricity that does get lost/shorted through the water. Solution: dip all the circuit boards in wax! The other downside is corrosion and rust. Solution: spray the connections and motors with silicone spray/grease/WD-40! Water by itself is unconductive- it's the ions and particles in the water that conduct electricity. Has anyone ever seen the Junkyard Wars episode where they built the electric submarines- (the first show they did with subs)? The one team's sub was completely filled with water, and it was running fine- if I remember correctly, they actually planned it that way, because of the above^^. Try it for yourself- take a fisherprice motor, and wire it up to a robot battery, then chuck it in a bathtub- even chuck the battery in! It's a sealed battery it'll survive.