How to make an RC receiver protection case

by dvogonen | May 27, 2013 | (11) Posted in How To

Receivers are relatively delicate electronics. It is possible to damage a receiver by touching the components on it. The damage is done by small electrostatic discharges (ESD) between your fingers and the electric circuit.The discharge is so small that you will not notice it and the damage may not be immediately observable. You should never touch a circuit board if you have not grounded yourself and gotten rid of any electrostatic charge. Another way to protect electronics from ESD damage is to enclose the complete receiver PCB board in a non-conductive case of some sort.

Water and contact with other electric circuits may also cause damage to a receiver. In both cases a protective case will protect the receiver from harm.

Some receivers come without any protective case (e.g. LemonRX). Others have so flimsy cases that it is doubtful if they are to be trusted (e.g. FrSky). And others come with clumsy covers that are either to heavy, to large or both (OrangeRX, FlySky)

If you have a end-pin receiver (the servo contacts are connected to the end of the receiver, and not on top of it) it is very easy to make a good protective case using only a piece of shrink tube and some hot glue. The result will be a case that is as lightweight as possible and that protects the antennas from breaking of at their bases.

I will make cases for two different receivers: A LemonRX 6 channel receiver and a Turnigy (FlySky) 8 channel receiver. The LemonRX receiver comes without protection of any sort, while the FlySky receiver came with a case that is way to bulky.

The Turnigy original case is first removed.

Suitable pieces of shrink tube material are cut off. Almost all receivers use LED indicators to display their state (Error, Binding, Receiving etc, etc), so a clear shrink tube is preferable.

The LemonRX receiver have antennas sticking out on the sides of the PCB. Slots for these are cut in the shrink tube

The shrink tube is shrunk using some hot air. Before the shrink tube has cooled down completely a hot glue gun is used to lay down a bead of glue at the pinless end of the receiver. Extra hot glue is placed around the antenna.
The other side of the receiver does not need any hot glue since the shrink tube automatically forms a seal around the base of the pins sticking out. 

The shrink tube is pressed together over the hot glue. I prefer using a straight piece of plastic and pressing down on a cold metal surface to make sure the case cools down quickly and becomes possible to handle. The result is a receiver with a tight lightweight encasing .

Wait until the plastic has cooled down and cut away the excess tube and hot glue.

The result will be a very tightly enclosed receiver with a minimum of added weight. The antenna wires are much better protected than by hard cases since the hot glue blobs are flexible and will bend rather than cut off the antenna wire if the receiver is hit e.g. in a crash.

The added weight in comparison to the bare PCB boards is negligible.

I have made a video of me doing the cases in the pictures above. If you have ever worked with shrink tube, there will not be much news in there for you. If you have not it might be interesting to watch


 

COMMENTS

jerimiah85 on May 28, 2013
Good tut. I use 2 part epoxy to water proof mine.works great if your ever flying over water and you go down.
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nunieboy on May 29, 2013
Does that epoxy deal work with esc? I've crashed and killed 2 esc in water already :(
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nightwolf.flying.97 on May 31, 2013
this is really smart

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coffeebean56 on March 10, 2015
Thanks, but where do you get shrink tube that large?
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dvogonen on March 10, 2015
Lots available on Ebay. Also an extremely good size for shrinking onto ESCs after soldering leads directly from the motors.
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How to make an RC receiver protection case