Catastrophe...

[Stillen]

Team 549 the Devil Dawgs would like to help as well. Please let us know what you think you may need and if we're not using it, I'll ship it out next day to you...

Email me directly at mikestill@5615.com

[Stuart]

well the good news is part of IFI tests is to soak the controllers and vics in salt water. so with a bit of drying time not all of your electronics will be . . . a wash

[ham90mack]

Ouch... we had a sprinkler situation in our school this year, but luckily it was both before the build season and away from our rooms. A sprinkler was set off at 2am on the second floor. The water leaked between the floors and soaked the rooms below. All of the unfortunate teachers in those classrooms had to wait a week for repairs while they griped about their soaked gradebooks with bleeding ink!

[Graham Donaldson]

Ouch... can you say that sucks? I'll say that we'd love to help, but being all the way in NJ I'm not sure how much there is we can do... all the best in "recovering" from that, because you can't really drive, test code, anything. Do you have any old chassis that you could test code on and practice drive, because that would be something.

Tough luck, particularly this late in build season.

Bring in the hairdryers!

[Compnerd]

Wow. So sorry that happened. My team is from Affton. We hope everything goes well, and look forward to seeing you at competition

[ChuckDickerson]

DON’T PANIC! My job requires me to spend a lot of time on boats with a lot of very expensive electronics. I have had experience with sensitive electronics not only getting wet but also freezing and actually sinking with a boat straight to the bottom in salt water.

My professional recommendations are:

1) Absolutely DO NOT POWER ANYTHING UP!

2) Get it out of the freezing cold ASAP. The ice will cause stuff to crack.

3) Open up all of the electronics to the board level and liberally wash in distilled water if there is any sign of existing water damage that may have contaminants. Don’t wash any boards that didn’t get wet, of course.

4) Soak/wash the boards in alcohol. Regular isopropyl that you get at the local store is what I have used. It will disburse the water especially from hidden places. Try to squirt it from a syringe if possible.

5) Let everything dry out thoroughly. Try a hair dryer or even an oven set to a low temperature (~125 to 150 degrees).

Trust me, it may not be as bad as you think. I have saved many pieces of equipment this way. I am still using a $35,000 piece of equipment to this day that sank in 40 feet of salt water for ~24 hours about 3 years ago.

Email me if you have any questions.

[Idaman323]

Well hopefully we can salvage the stuff. Thanks for all the tips too, We'll definatly try them. Right now we are waiting on some welds so we do have a bit of time to carefully dry the electronics. Heh, Especially when this all happens the day after you get the camera tracking after not being able to any year before.


Richard, I know where that is. We may take you up on the offer later on when we getting closer to getting finished, thank you.

Compnerd, I do remember you from our rookie year, 2005. We were in the pit next to yours and had to keep borrowing your tether because we forgot ours.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by DeepWater

DON’T PANIC! My job requires me to spend a lot of time on boats with a lot of very expensive electronics. I have had experience with sensitive electronics not only getting wet but also freezing and actually sinking with a boat straight to the bottom in salt water.

My professional recommendations are:

1) Absolutely DO NOT POWER ANYTHING UP!

2) Get it out of the freezing cold ASAP. The ice will cause stuff to crack.

3) Open up all of the electronics to the board level and liberally wash in distilled water if there is any sign of existing water damage that may have contaminants. Don’t wash any boards that didn’t get wet, of course.

4) Soak/wash the boards in alcohol. Regular isopropyl that you get at the local store is what I have used. It will disburse the water especially from hidden places. Try to squirt it from a syringe if possible.

5) Let everything dry out thoroughly. Try a hair dryer or even an oven set to a low temperature (~125 to 150 degrees).

Trust me, it may not be as bad as you think. I have saved many pieces of equipment this way. I am still using a $35,000 piece of equipment to this day that sank in 40 feet of salt water for ~24 hours about 3 years ago.

Email me if you have any questions.

I've had a lot of experiance cleaning up electronics that have been immersed in water.

Deepwater (quote above) is correct, although I'd avoid using alchohol unless needed, because alcohol can leave a residue which is conductive. Alcohol is also a solvant and can damage plastics and polymers such as Polycarbonate.

The most important thing is to get it out of the freezing cold as the expansion of water when it freezes can crack parts (especially plastic).

100 degrees F in an oven for 3-5 hours should dry most components and not soften any of the plastics (do NOT go over 200 F).

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I agree with Daniel, but check with IFI first. The more critical items are the RC, Victors and Spikes. With permission from IFI their covers could be removed prior to the low temperature baking (Victor bottom covers, RC both and Spike both) I would change out the fans on general principles as the water might have flushed any lubricant from those. The compressor will likely dry out by itself but the motors might be a different story. I think the Chalupas have a seal at each end, the window motors are also sealed and should be no problem. The open motors should dry out by themselves but a low temp bake might also help. However the lubricant might have washed out, a drop of oil here and there would help. Don't power anything that has visible condensation. There should be no problem with the battery and the terminal block will dry out if you open it. The only thing I would change out is the small breakers. I believe the main breaker is intended for outdoor use and should be fine.
In the past I have used a home oven set to the lowest temperature with the door cracked open. (many ovens have a detent to keep the door open a few inches.) An hour or two usually does the trick.

[arabsponsor]

Team 538 is in Alabama but would like to help. If you need any replacement parts let us know. If we have them we will ship them overnight to you. Just don't give up and know that FIRST teams always pull together to help when disater strikes.

[DeAnnaC]

We are probably the closest team to you - we are in O'Fallon/St. Peters MO and are meeting at Hwy 70 and TR Hughes Blvd. I'm not sure what we can do to help until you know what is damaged, but I've asked our team to take a look at your post.

Will your group be meeting on Saturday? I am making lunch for our team already and could make and deliver lunch for your team so you can stay focused on your robot and it's repairs.

I'm glad to see so many have posted suggestions on recovery.

DeAnna

[purduephotog]

Just some thoughts that might help you salvage some components:

Using DI (Distilled, non-conductive) wash/rinse every component that was soaked. Open up the electronics packages and ensure that they are thoroughly rinsed (assuming they got wet in the first place).

Using 100% ethanol (difficult to obtain, I know) will suck the remainder water off the surface and present a fast drying solvent that can flash off.

Finally, place the components in a desiccant box (Think silica gel) to help drive out the remaining amounts.

This is probably useless for motors but might save your camera, sensors, gts's, gyro, etc.

I'm really sorry to hear this- and would love to help if we can.

[yodameister]

If there are any parts that we can get to you, just drop us a PM and we will help whereever we can. We have some extra motors, victors, kit frame, etc that we would be willing to share (if we can)

[Bharat Nain]

Call IFI, let it dry, completely. There is a good chance they will still work if you take good care of them. Ofcourse, you will still have to buy certain extra parts. Hopefully teams nearby will help out. Good luck - I don't think you are sitting in that bad of a situation.

[RoboMadi]

UGH n OUCH!...... I'm really sorry

a lot of advice and precautions have been given already....
I'm just going to point out something different

TADA!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to F.I.R.S.T.! This is what FIRST is all about. I think you should be more concerned about the time you've left and make the best out of it.
After reading this thread, i can say that every other person/team has at some point and time has faced something similar. But this doesn't mean that one should start focusing on the catastrophe; focus on the outcome and what can be done in next couple of weeks before the shipping.
So be strong, don't worry; you're being backed up by the whole CD/FIRST community.
...... and don't hesitate to drop a line if ya need anything. We would be glad to help you out in any way possible.

Imad