Guest guest Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 Hi guys,Sorry to keep starting new threads about the Orbit box's but this could potentially be a problem and wanted everyone to see it... Has anyone done any water testing on these things? I just did and wow, I don't find these things very water resistant at all. I closed one up (without the LOR in it of course) and let some water run over it. Here in Florida, we happen to get some pretty heavy rain at times. When I was done, I kept the box upright and dried off all the water on the outside and carefully opened it up.Yep, you guessed it. There was water on the inside. It didn't look like a waterfall had occured but is was enough to worry me. With this investment, any water is too much.So, here I am wondering what to do. Return them and look for a different box or try to find a way to seal these things. I can see some A/C silver tape doing the trick, but at $25 a piece, i'd like them to be more resistant than this.What is everyone elses thoughts on this?Thanks,Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 27, 2006 Share Posted June 27, 2006 I used the RiteTime boxes last year. 4 of them were laying on the ground ... I took the liberty of placing trash bags are still over them.I don't own one, but perhaps there are things that can be done to help further water proof them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 I have purchased three of the orbit boxes for this year and I too was curious as to whether they are water resistant or not. Here in the midwest (Chicago to be exact) we do usually get a pretty good amount of rain and snow. So I went ahead and placed them outside over the past week or so ( we have had a pretty good amount of rain these last few days) and opened them up and I had no water what-so-ever in the boxes. One of the boxes I had placed a paper towel inside and it was as dry as when I placed it inside and not just tht one, all three were dry as a bone. I do not know what happened to yours, but has anyone else done this type of testing on them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hi,It is not uncommon to see a little water run along the inside edges of a box unless the box is NEMA 4X (or something like is water tight (rather than water resistant).I would not be too concerned unless it looks like the water could drip onto the electronics... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 hHi Dan,That's the problem. If you don't cut the inside of the box out, and mount the LOR on the platform, it Looks like it would drip directly onto the board. If you are standing the box upright, not only does it drip directly onto the board but down the length of it. These boxes are not water tight at all.I don't want to cut all of that out myeself so I am definetly going to wrap this Orbit box in some biscyne (not sure if I spelled that correctly) sort of like you would with a christmas present. I'll leave the bottom open so I can just lift the plastic wrapping off the box when I need to get back inside..I'll post some pictures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 llbarnes wrote: That's the problem. If you don't cut the inside of the box out, and mount the LOR on the platform, it Looks like it would drip directly onto the board. If you are standing the box upright, not only does it drip directly onto the board but down the length of it. These boxes are not water tight at all. Luke, I don't know if this is of any use to you, but I always spray any electronics which I am going to use outside in "weatherproof" boxes with Servisol after final assembly. It puts a plastic seal over all the components. Now admittedly I haven't tried it with LOR 'cos I just got mine but it may be worth considering. (any thoughts from you Dan / John on the pros and cons of this)Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 Hey, thanks! If we get the go ahead from Dan, I'm all over that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 28, 2006 Share Posted June 28, 2006 llbarnes wrote: Hey, thanks! If we get the go ahead from Dan, I'm all over that!Please be advised that I have never used one of those Orbit boxes. If it leaks such that it would drip on the board ( as llbarnes said it may very well do ) then it is a problem and the box should not be used.I cannot make a claim either way at this time but the only report I have seen says that the leak in the Orbit box could be dangerous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 LightORama wrote: Please be advised that I have never used one of those Orbit boxes. If it leaks such that it would drip on the board ( as llbarnes said it may very well do ) then it is a problem and the box should not be used.I cannot make a claim either way at this time but the only report I have seen says that the leak in the Orbit box could be dangerous.Dan,I think he was talking about getting your opinion of the Servisol (but I may have misread) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Yes, it was in regards to the Servisol but I recently found that Servisol is mainly for a board with unprotected bottom. The LOR unites are already silkscreened so there is no real need for this.As for using Servisol on the top, that would probably just create more problems as it puts a coat of something over the components thus not allowing enough heat to escape them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 I used 4 of the orbit boxes last year with no issues. I mount mine on the divider in the orbit box and use the key lock to put pressure on the seal. I added a little silicone to the four holes on the back of the box but other then that no modifications. All of the boxes were suspended to a pole or tree so the seal was always pointed up.At the end of the season there were no signs of water damage. I spent plenty of time chasing shorts in the mini light strings but the controllers never had a hick up.Hope this helps and Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 llbarnes wrote: As for using Servisol on the top, that would probably just create more problems as it puts a coat of something over the components thus not allowing enough heat to escape them.Luke,I've used Servisol Plastic Seal 60 for the past 4 years to seal my custom built, sequential logic animation circuits which use Triacs / SCRs and I haven't had a problem. Admittedly they don't kick out much heat, but in my view, if you were to avoid the heatsink areas (mask them off whilst spraying) there shouldn't be a problem. No guarantees mind :shock:Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 TraceWilson wrote: LightORama wrote: Please be advised that I have never used one of those Orbit boxes. If it leaks such that it would drip on the board ( as llbarnes said it may very well do ) then it is a problem and the box should not be used.I cannot make a claim either way at this time but the only report I have seen says that the leak in the Orbit box could be dangerous.Dan,I think he was talking about getting your opinion of the Servisol (but I may have misread)I see... .... I have never used servisol. It is most likely some type of conformal coating. If it says it is for PCBs then it is probably a good thing. It is hard to get a conformal coating on the back of the card due to the heatsinks. Also one must make sure that the connectors (RJ45, RJ11, pin headers... ) are protected prior to spraying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2006 Share Posted June 30, 2006 Ahh, ok. I am new to the LOR's so I don't know exactly how much heat these things put out. I am thinking that I want to keep these things as cool as possible. Definetly not use it on the transformer though don't you think?Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Luke, Maybe I am misunderstanding something but are you mounting these boxes or laying them down? Everyone of these type of boxes is designed to be mounted with the cables coming out the bottom. If you are laying them down then you are obviously using them in a manner that they were not intended to be used. I use mine laying down also but I usually have some sort of cover over them to help prevent water issues. Water resistant means it will shed most of the water not all of it. Water proof still doesn't REALLY mean 100% either.Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Hi,No, my boxes will be mounted on two poles on the back that will be stuck into the ground. The box will be upright with the box opening outward, not upward. Here are some pictures of my test. I would encourage anyone that uses these boxes to conduct similar tests. Can't hurt right?Here is the box standing upright before test. Nice and dry.Here is a close up of the inside. Still dry.Closer...Here in Florida, we tend to get a bit of rain. Darn Hurricanes too. Lot's of rain from all directions for anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. In this test, I just turn on the faucet for about 30 seconds. A box like this should "resist" this kind of water. Although I don't see on the box where it even says that it is resistant. Notice that the box is even tilted backwards.After the test, I gently removed it from the sink as well as dried the outside of the box.Here it is dried off.Here's a close up of the top seam. I was careful to make sure this was dry too so when I opened up the box, a last second drip did not occur.Ouch. Happened again. Looks like the LOR would have been in the direct path of that drip. And that was only a 30 second test. 30 minutes of rain would have failed this box bigtime.Here's the close up. Yikes.Please. Let me know what you think of this test and if I am off on my thinking...Thanks everyone.Luke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 1, 2006 Share Posted July 1, 2006 Luke, None of the pictures are showing up for me.Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 2, 2006 Share Posted July 2, 2006 llbarnes wrote: Hi, Here are some pictures of my test.Luke,You have the link to your pictures set to a local folder on your PC.You need to have them uploaded somewhere and point to that location, otherwise we cannot see them; unless of course, you are running your own server. (but it doesn't look as though you are)Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 Sorry it took so long to update the pictures. Here are the pictures of my water testing on the Orbit box. Fairly concerning that water gets in let alone the little amount from my testing.Let me know what everyone thinks.Thanks againLuke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 11, 2006 Share Posted July 11, 2006 Luke,Could you get a piece of paper towel, newspaper of something that would show water easily and place it in the bottom of the box. After getting the box wet pull the paper out the bottom hole. Be sure no water is around the hole and see if the water is leaking through during the test and not when the box is opened. I see in the pictures that the gasket on top still seemed to have water along it. If the paper gets wet them the gasket does leak, but if it is dry then the leak is happening when the box is opened. This may not be as big of a problem. Also try tilting the box forward so if it did drip it would hit the lid instead of the box.I find it hard to believe that the gasket would leak since you have to clamp the lid down unless it is not seating right.Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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