Thread: Ideas on water proofing PS

well, a marine application only really needs to be 'splash proof'. What type of power supply are you talking about here? Something like an M2-ATX should be relatively easy to mount in a small metal enclosure. A little silicon around the joints would be plenty of protection, i would think.

Originally Posted by CraziFuzzy

well, a marine application only really needs to be 'splash proof'. What type of power supply are you talking about here? Something like an M2-ATX should be relatively easy to mount in a small metal enclosure. A little silicon around the joints would be plenty of protection, i would think.

Do you think that moisture or condensation will be an issue? Maybe a fan to circulate the air? The M2-ATX or similar would be fine for the application.

if you're going to use a sealed enclosure you can have a vacuum inside it, or just fill it with an inert gas.

or you could just fill the enclosure with silicone, no water and no air.

something like this

i never thought of that! ^
u just gave me an idea that i can use

I'd say a silicone conformal coating over both sides of the boards will do the trick. We used to use it on standalone engine management circuit boards that ended up in all kinds of IC powered devices... As far as connectors, some waterproof AMP or weatherpacks should keep the water out. Just make sure you use the right plugs/grommets and some dielectric grease to seal em out.

Originally Posted by animantoric

I'd say a silicone conformal coating over both sides of the boards will do the trick. We used to use it on standalone engine management circuit boards that ended up in all kinds of IC powered devices... As far as connectors, some waterproof AMP or weatherpacks should keep the water out. Just make sure you use the right plugs/grommets and some dielectric grease to seal em out.

With the Conformal Coating does heat management become an issue? I would assume you drive the base operating temperature up since air can no longer directly cool any of the components.

Originally Posted by AustnJPR

With the Conformal Coating does heat management become an issue? I would assume you drive the base operating temperature up since air can no longer directly cool any of the components.

This is my conserns as well...

3M have a liquid cooling fluid, that you can submerg everything in. (I've seen whole ITX-E Motherboards submerged and works great).

Build a thin walled aluminium tank, fill it with this 3M liquid, mount a rotary fan. (so that the liquid get som sirculation), and place the tank inside the coolant tank or ballast tank for the boat.

Originally Posted by AustnJPR

I am looking for some ideas for water proofing a power supply.
Maybe an NEMA enclosure?
Conformal Coating?

I have to take in consideration things like heat build up and condensation / moisture build up.

This is for a marine application by the way.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thx.

It all depends on you PC setup. If you are running a powerful system, then your going to have heat build up. I currently run a OPUS 320 and have a AMD Turion X2 processor with alot of devices and the PSU only runs slightly warm. Now if its a M30ATX or M4-ATX, I heard those get hot, they need to be cooled really good. What PSU are you running?

You can try using a liquid cooling system. Silicone it and embed rubber tubing around the voltage regulator and other hottest areas of the board. ciriculate water through the tubing and bango should be good to go.