Soaked!

[david_taurus83]

We had quite a heavy shower and strong wind here this evening about 6pm for an hour or so. Paid no mind to it and around 9pm I looked out the back to see this:

 

 

Telegizmo on the ground, wet inside. It must have been a good gust to get underneath and lift it off as its usually pretty good at staying in place with moderate wind. 

 

Scope, kit, mount, all drenched. Have no idea how long it was exposed for either. 

 

 

Ive gave everything a good wipe down including the inside of the cover and turned the dew straps inside out and put on full power. Hopefully give it a good dry out. Thankfully I always keep the lens cap on so no moisture on the lens. 

[tooth_dr]

What a nightmare David, hopefully no permanent damage, although my own experience is that astro gear is pretty robust so fingers crossed.

[StuartT]

oh no! That's alarming. I have a Telegizmo on my rig all the time. Over a year now. But it's relatively close to the house, so maybe a bit more protected from wind. 

I must admit I have never even thought of the possibility of wind blowing it off!

I hope it all dries out ok

[Nigella Bryant]

Oh goodness, hopefully it'll dry out okay. Astro equipment is really, really robust. I had a mishap last week with one of my solar telescopes parting company with the mount straight on to the floor. Didn't even break out in a sweat, lol. It bounced off the other two, hit the side of the shed and onto the floor with me horror struck. Working fine though, lol. 

[DaveS]

Oh gawd, that happened to me last week. I was annoyed with myself as I have a rope to tie the cover down and had been working in that area cutting up prunings.

Had to go out, just in my dressing gown to bring the soaking wet OTA in, and the TS 130 photoline is a heavy old beast. Needed a while to dry out the camera, as I could see the heatsink was soaked. Fortunately no power on it as water and lekky is a good way to fry your kit.

[Alan White]

I feel your pain, was the cover not strapped down?
Hope all dries OK and no lasting damage occurs, I know how painful that is.

[david_taurus83]

Thankfully all seems to be OK though I can't connect to the Pegasus powerbox on the scope now. Its definitely working as I've connected my laptop to it via the USB3 cable and it's fine. Can switch devices and dew straps on and off. But as I route the PB through a Startech USB2 ethernet extender to the shed, it's not detecting it on my mini PC in there. So even though its all dry I may just dismount it and bring indoors for a thorough drying out. 

[david_taurus83]

I'd say this would be the cause. Don't know what all that gunk is though. This side faces up so looks like moisture has ran down the ethenet cable and mucked up the connector. The other side which faces down is dry and clean.

 

[Carbon Brush]

Ouch! It is always worth dismantling electronics to remove water. You get little drops under components and in corners.
These remain long after everything seems to have dried.

If you put some isopropanol and deionised water mix in the housings it will help rinse out the rainwater.
A gentle hairdryer, or top of radiator will easily evaporate off the mixture.

I know water and electronics are not considered mixable.
I have though recovered mud covered flood damaged electronics.
Provided there was no power atthe time of immersion and you don't give time for corrosion, you usually OK.
Wash the boards in the sink using a mild detergent.
Rinse off remaining detergent with tap water.
Then pour on the IPA/water mix and hang out to dry.

The ethernet connector is of course cheap to replace.
Not worth the effort of cleaning up and hoping there are still good contacts.

HTH, David.

 

[david_taurus83]

Yes will be replacing that connector. Thankfully the cable head itself isn't as gunked up so should clean off with a small brush between the contacts. The cable would not be so easy to replace as its buried! 

[DaveL59]

ouch, that'll be the copper corroding, quite possibly from long term use outdoors as moisture would find its way into the connectors. Worth using some dielectric grease on/in all the connections to keep moisture from causing corrosion issues, tho be careful as it's not easy to get off your hands so quite possible you'll transfer it inadvertently onto your optics. That'd be a lot of fun to then try to clean up.

[david_taurus83]

16 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

ouch, that'll be the copper corroding, quite possibly from long term use outdoors as moisture would find its way into the connectors. Worth using some dielectric grease on/in all the connections to keep moisture from causing corrosion issues, tho be careful as it's not easy to get off your hands so quite possible you'll transfer it inadvertently onto your optics. That'd be a lot of fun to then try to clean up.

I'm going to seal the new couplers with some hot glue to prevent moisture getting in there again. I always leave a spare dew strap left on under the cover to prevent condensation from forming and its worked a treat so far. I'm hoping the connector issue is due to being exposed to rain for a few hours. The downward facing side is bone dry and fine so hopefully it's not long term exposure.

[DaveL59]

38 minutes ago, david_taurus83 said:

I'm going to seal the new couplers with some hot glue to prevent moisture getting in there again. I always leave a spare dew strap left on under the cover to prevent condensation from forming and its worked a treat so far. I'm hoping the connector issue is due to being exposed to rain for a few hours. The downward facing side is bone dry and fine so hopefully it's not long term exposure.

sounds like a plan if it stays flexible tho its a bit permanent? Potentially you'd have to replace the cables either side if things fail.

I've used dielectric grease on the LAN and power connects for the CCTV even indoors and it works well, even the mini IP box camera that was hog-cam which is under a cover but exposed to atmosphere and that's been running for a couple years with no issues, not bad for a non-IPxx metal boxed camera. Makes disconnects easy but as said, if it gets on your fingers its easy to accidentally transfer trace grease onto things you didn't want to, esp if working in the dark. For stuff that's left permanently connected tho its good and does its job well.

[Swoop1]

I've heard of people rescuing waterlogged phones etc. by overnighting them in a bag of dry rice in the airing cupboard?

[Prador]

5 hours ago, Swoop1 said:

I've heard of people rescuing waterlogged phones etc. by overnighting them in a bag of dry rice in the airing cupboard?

I wouldn't recommend that. All you're doing is introducing another contaminant in the form of starch and rice dust. Might do more damage than help. Silica bags are a much better alternative and not too pricey.

[david_taurus83]

I've changed the RJ45 coupler but it's no good. Looks like a couple of pins on the plug have completely corroded so it will mean stripping down completely and try to feed a new cable through the conduit. My dilemma is do I replace with ethernet cable and stay Limited to USB2 or take a chance and try and feed a 15m USB3 repeater down there 🤔

[DaveL59]

is it not worth running both? That way you've network options down the road if you decide you need it.

Or just crimp a new end on the LAN cable, not hard to do if you have the gear.

Edited November 10, 2022 by DaveL59

[david_taurus83]

7 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

is it not worth running both? That way you've network options down the road if you decide you need it.

Or just crimp a new end on the LAN cable, not hard to do if you have the gear.

I used a 25mm water pipe as conduit. Wishing I had grabbed that 32mm gas pipe instead now. One of the data cables and power cable need to be fed/pulled through at the same time. Bit of a tight squeeze.. 

[Carbon Brush]

On 10/11/2022 at 16:29, Swoop1 said:

I've heard of people rescuing waterlogged phones etc. by overnighting them in a bag of dry rice in the airing cupboard?

The airing cupboard evaporates water and the rice absorbs the vapour.
This process does nothing to remove other contaminants.
You might drop your phone in the sea, in the washing up water, in the bath......
Rinsing with IPA and water as I described allows you to remove both dissolved and solid 'extras'.

HTH, David.