[climberrn]

My roll servo stopped functioning after sitting on the ramp in Monterey for a few days, one day of heavy rain. She spends all her time in a hangar, unless on a trip. Pulled servo and sent it in to Dynon. The repair sheet said it was water damage. I’ve seldom flown in rain. Probably been a few years since, but she sat outside numerous occasions on trips. Many of them getting rained on. The roll servo is in the right wing of a 7A, and been there for almost 10 years. This is the first time this has happened.

Anyone have any issues with electronics in the wings getting damaged? And any suggestions preventing it happening again?

 

[wjb]

I had a Garmin roll servo fail soon after coming out of the paint shop ... I could see some whiteish dried residue in the body of the DB15 connector in the servo. My best guess is that when the power washed the plane during the pre-paint prep, they sprayed up into the open, outboard inspection panel. The servo connector points up, and I can easily see the water (and other gunk) follow the wire bundle down into the servo connector and short stuff out.

My best suggestion is to waterproof as best you can. It's hard to see, however, how the water can get up into the servo without directed flow up thru the inspection port.

 

[tthrew]

A friend of mine and fellow VAF‘er (Bill L) had a roll servo ”freeze” at OSH a few years ago - pretty sure he did a post on the experience. As I recall, it was a TT servo, but I could be wrong. His plane was not painted yet. Bill is still on VAF and may respond.

 

[bruceh]

I had my Dynon roll servo lock up, It also went on/off line a few times prior to the lock up. The airplane was tied down outside and did get rained on at some point before this happened. The servo could not have possibly gotten wet since it is mounted up on the spar, inside the wing and not in any way exposed to the rain. I sent it back for Dynon to fix/overhaul and got the same diagnosis that it had water damage. I live in dry SoCal, and the airplane is hangared normally. Maybe that is their standard excuse? They sent me a remanufactured servo and it has been working fine ever since (over 6 years).
I have more details in my blog entry for this issue.

 

[climberrn]

I had my Dynon roll servo lock up, It also went on/off line a few times prior to the lock up. The airplane was tied down outside and did get rained on at some point before this happened. The servo could not have possibly gotten wet since it is mounted up on the spar, inside the wing and not in any way exposed to the rain. I sent it back for Dynon to fix/overhaul and got the same diagnosis that it had water damage. I live in dry SoCal, and the airplane is hangared normally. Maybe that is their standard excuse? They sent me a remanufactured servo and it has been working fine ever since (over 6 years).
I have more details in my blog entry for this issue.

The inside of my wings are clean. Plane painted. Everything seems tight. I’m leaning towards this.

 

[Daida]

Condensation?

From the way and the position the servos are attached i doubt that rain or washing the airplane can get the servos wet.

My plane is always hangared (no air condition). Sometimes (large changes in temperatures and or humidity) condensation makes the complete bottom/underside of the wings and fuse dripping wet.
Cold aluminum skins and warm & humid air mass…….
I always wondered what the inside of the wing would look like.
Maybe i will check next time. But i can imagine that the inner portions of the wing look like the outer ones, dripping wet. I would empower my assumption with the even less ventilation inside the wing but in the same atmosphere than the outer skins…..meaning that drying of lasts much longer.

Edited: Same when cruising high (cold) and warm & humid situation at destination/ shutdown….

 

[Carl Froehlich]

Yep - I trashed the wing mounted Dynon roll servo on the last build while I prepped the plane for paint (wings off). The servo was frozen solid after it got wet during the Alumiprep/Scotch Brit cleaning process (wing rotated for both prep and painting).

No one to blame but me. I should have taken the servo out. Lesson learned the hard way - so when anyone else takes their plane in for paint remove the servo and put it on the shelf pending post paint reassembly.

Side note - I suspect this is not unique to Dynon autopilot servos.
Carl

 

[climberrn]

Good

Condensation?

From the way and the position the servos are attached i doubt that rain or washing the airplane can get the servos wet.

My plane is always hangared (no air condition). Sometimes (large changes in temperatures and or humidity) condensation makes the complete bottom/underside of the wings and fuse dripping wet.
Cold aluminum skins and warm & humid air mass…….
I always wondered what the inside of the wing would look like.
Maybe i will check next time. But i can imagine that the inner portions of the wing look like the outer ones, dripping wet. I would empower my assumption with the even less ventilation inside the wing but in the same atmosphere than the outer skins…..meaning that drying of lasts much longer.

Edited: Same when cruising high (cold) and warm & humid situation at destination/ shutdown….

this is the answer I was looking for. Makes sense now. Thank you.