Water resistant Ace 250

[Dodqe]

Seems to rain every weekend here in NY. Been caught out there several times... but I got tired of tying a ShopRite bag over my Ace 250. Looks so ghetto, and it's difficult to work through.

So I decided to make it water resistant.

I disassembled the control box, separated the circuit board, and laid it on a paper plate. I put a liberal coating of Permatex liquid electrical tape on the component side of the board, being careful not to get any on the two big battery contacts. On the other side I coated the little through-holes and the solder sides of the coil connector and headphone jack. Then I lifted the display from the board just enough to brush the tape under it because there are through-holes there too. The display leads got a decent coating because I wanted the tape to flow around each lead sealing all sides.
Next I coated the areas around the button pads on the faceplate. Just enough to make a seal. Then I used a toothpick to dab and drag some of the tape around the entire faceplate. That sorta made a gasket.

Now the hard part....
I waited the FULL 4 HOURS FOR THE LIQUID TAPE TO DRY before reassembling and powering it up. Then I reassembled the box, mounted it on the stick, connected the coil, crossed my fingers and hit 'Power'.
It works! I air-tested it with my wedding ring, a silver dime, foil, and a nail. Wotks perfect. *WHEW*

I read that some people ran into problems with their circuitry skitzing out when using liquid tape but I think they may have powered it up while the tape was still partially liquid.

Long story short, I took a gamble, voided my warranty, and got lucky.

The warranty may still be intact because the tape actually pulls off pretty decently. I think I can clean it up if I had to.

After I reassembled it I realized I should have taken a pic or two... Hindsight's 20/20.

Anyone else coat their boards? What'd you use?

 

[leslie]

Sounds like a great mod Dodge, a few pics would be nice.

 

[Dodqe]

It's supposed to rain today (surprise, surprise) so I will open it up after my hunt and snap a few...

Oh, also I did a '2 birds, 1 stone' mod to waterproof the speaker grill and reduce the insanely obnoxious squawking; black tape over the holes.
Why are volume controls not standard on all detectors? Is there any logical reason?

 

[Dodqe]

Pics:
Permatex Liquid Electrical Tape (Item # 85120)

This edge seal goes all the way around the faceplate...

Liberally coated board. The Permatex instructions say to clean
and dry the surface to be coated, but yeah. I don't think so.

Allow it to dry for 4 full hours before reassembling.

I double coated these areas. They are the headphone
jack, the coil connector, and the display leads.

Remove the button pads and paint the entire area. Then
replace the buttons and press them into the Permatex.

The battery terminal plate was removed and painted.
I forgot to dab a little in the holes where the wires come through...

Double duty: Conventional electrical tape over the speaker
grills serves as waterproofing and audio reduction...

That's about it. I haven't used it in the rain yet, but it does work fine. I found a 1/2 Reale today, so it still works well.
If anyone else tries it, let me know how it works out for you.
And don't forget to wait the full four hours for it to dry! (I can't stress this enough!)

PS-
Do this at your own risk. This WILL VOID most, if not all manufacturer and distributor warranties. I gambled and it seems to have worked. Your mileage may vary.
Best of luck, and HH.

 

[leslie]

Thanks Dodge for taking the time to show us your waterproofing mod.

I think you did a great job on the ACE 250, saved your pics for further

reference, nice for people to share mods.

Thanks again and Good Luck.

H H Les

 

[otlew]

Hopefully your coating will not cause excessive heat build up and premature failure of the circuit components. Probably not since they are most likely very low current devices, just a thought that occurred to me. Other than that possibility, it looks like a great water resistant modification.

 

[Dodqe]

No issues so far... I might give it a real test tomorrow. Hurricane Sandy is coming to visit. If I had a water resistant camera I'd make an extreme metal detecting vid, lol!