$1,000 Spray Makes Gadgets Waterproof 278
Rio writes "A new $1,000 spray claims to protect notebook computers, iPods, cell phones and other electronic gadgets from liquid, making them completely waterproof, a Local6.com report says. A creator of the technology said it could be used for emergency first-responders, bio-medical devices and historic preservation." This might be a bit of a flashback from last year.
Not a Spray (Score:5, Informative)
The FAQ for the Golden Shellback [golden-shellback.com] (what they call this stuff) site says:"9. What aspects confuse people most about this process:
a. People get confused and think this is a spray. It is not, the coating needs to be applied in a piece of equipment.
b. People seem to wonder a lot about the contacts and how they are sealed. The contacts are not, the surfaces are sealed. So, water can run in and out.
That right there ought to deal with a lot of the statements and questions that are about to be made in this thread.
I am a little skeptical (Score:3, Informative)
In order to waterproof anything electronic, every entry point for water needs to be completely sealed. Does anybody else see the problem here? Yes, that Blackberry might still be powered on. But no, you probably can't depress the keys any more and you almost certainly can't charge it or plug in headphones.
Also, 0.001" thick? I bet it scrapes off on accident rather easily. I also highly doubt that anybody could apply a coating that thin from a hand-held spray can.
Re:I am a little skeptical (Score:3, Informative)
Or - rather than sealing off every entry point for water, you take the device apart and seal every surface - which is what they do. It doesn't matter how thin the surface of the coating is - inside the device, unless you make a habit of pulling things apart and scratching them.
Oh - and it's not a spray.
Definitely NOT a spray (Score:4, Informative)
a. People get confused and think this is a spray. It is not, the coating needs to be applied in a piece of equipment.
Re:Awesome. (Score:3, Informative)
I always wanted to make an iPhone call from 1000 feet deep. Of course, that big air thingy sticking in my mouth is kind of a hinderance, but go technology!
But it won't protect the iPhone from the pressure at that depth...
Re:Sounds like a conformal coating (Score:3, Informative)
This isn't a conformal coatings, it's a hydrophobic coating more like Scotch Gard, or Rain-X
Conformal coating?!?!? (Score:5, Informative)
Sounds like a conformal coating [wikipedia.org] which is nothing new, you can buy a can of the spray on type at your local electronics store for a few bucks.
Re:Awesome. (Score:3, Informative)
That is true. The motherboard inside it could crack from pressure, The multi-touchscreen could become inoperable, the screen could warp, and I can 100% guarantee that the speakers would blow out.
Not to mention you would have to prepare yourself for the bends if you ever manage to get that deep ;)
Re:I am a little skeptical (Score:1, Informative)
Um, plating (zinc or cadmium) is thinner than that on most parts (0.0005" or less) and doesn't scrap off easily.
It's also not a spray.
http://www.golden-shellback.com/faq.html
The article doesn't say and thus you don't know, just how durable the coating actually is.
However, like cad or zinc plated parts I have my doubts about the wear surfaces. I can't see how the coating won't eventually (days, weeks, months, years) get worn off the parts you are touching and rubbing with your fingers and hands removing the water-proofing.
I'm also skeptical, if the contacts are not coated how do they not short out?
See FAQ 9.b from the link above.
I was just researching this same thing. (Score:5, Informative)
Like a month ago we had to make something IP54 Compliant This is part of the IEC 60529 Standard
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code [wikipedia.org]
So even though I am the Linux Software GUY, I started to investigate water repellent coatings.
I think they are just using a hydrophobic coating.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophobic [wikipedia.org]
Hardly worth $1000 a bottle.
Similar to Scotchgard, Rain-X, Aquapel, Jigaloo, RainClear and Magic Sand.
These use Organosilanes like Trimethylsilanol (TMS) (CH3)3SiOH, or perfluorooctanesulfonates (PFOS) C8HF17O3S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PFOS [wikipedia.org]
Look at the fluorene chains on this one,
fluorocarbons are the basis for things like Teflon and Fluorinert that don't react with anything and so in Teflon's case make good non-stick surfaces.
Unfortunately Scotchgard has been "reformulated" to make is "safer" PFOS never breaks down, good for electronics, bad for people and the environment. the new Formula (Perfluorobutane sulfonate PFBS ) is designed to break down after a month, so you'd have to keep reapplying.
If you want to research this further see Patents, 3574791, 6676733, and 6994890
Also get on youtube and look up magic sand, some cool videos there.
Re:Awesome. (Score:5, Informative)
Hate to say it but 3G (1900MHz) is microwave.
Re:Awesome. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How long does it stay active for? (Score:2, Informative)
Haven't there been lots of examples of mineral oil cooled PCs, submersing everything but the optical drives?
Re:How long does it stay active for? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Awesome. (Score:4, Informative)
3G isn't tied to any particular frequency. IIRC, AT&T is in the process of moving all of their towers to operate at 850 MHz because the range per mW is better. They've been working on that for some time. That includes 3G coverage.
Re:Magically Repeling Water and Not Air (Score:4, Informative)
Actually, water droplets are thicker than water. Go to a mattress store and ask about their mattress covers; buying a waterproof cover is pretty much mandatory for a foam mattress (think *sponge*), and the current level of technology [comforthouse.com] stops water and allergens but not air.
Mattress sellers often have a demo device, basically a closed tube where one end is covered only by their fabric and the tube has a whole bunch of colored mouthwash in it. Air goes through it, but you can't shake the mouthwash out.
This would obviously ding fan efficiency, but fanless laptops already exist...
I would wonder about their claim of "Completely Waterproof" ... does that mean I can drop it in the tub and scrub it clean? There has to be a limit somewhere...
Re:Not to spoil a good joke, but why not? (Score:5, Informative)
Regulators don't flow air until there is (slight) negative pressure...
normally, yes, however they have a purge button on them that overrides this and forces air to flow, quite useful for clearing them out, or using the regulator to inflate other things, or in case of a malfunction of some form.
During training to become SCUBA certified you remove the regulator from your mouth, hold the purge button, and breathe the air as it passes your mouth. This is a required skill as it will allow you to breathe even if there is some form of equipment failure.
Re:Not a Spray (Score:4, Informative)
Also, according to Gizmodo [gizmodo.com], the coating of your electronic devices will be offered as a service for $50-$75. They also have a nice demo video posted.
Re:Not to spoil a good joke, but why not? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes you do. The trick is to position your tongue so that it touches the top of your mouth as you breath in carefully. This stops the water from going straight to the back of your throat and causing a dangerous coughing fit.
You don't breath in too much water, really no worse than the first breath or two from a snorkel you just purged (where you use the same tongue technique to prevent coughing).
You learn this technique so that you can breath from a regulator that is in free flow which can happen when the diaphragm in the regulator fails. Normally you would try to fix the free flow under water (there's a couple of easy tricks you can try) but if that doesn't work you need to know this technique. In addition to sipping air from the regulator you would also theoretically be ascending to the surface as fast as you can safely since you'll quickly run out of air.
Re:flim-flam-film (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not a Spray (Score:3, Informative)
water, n., a rarely-pure liquid unfairly characterized by the unfortunate fact that very small concentrations of dissolved ions have the ability to short out electronics
Re:Awesome. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not to spoil a good joke, but why not? (Score:3, Informative)
Part of scuba training is learning some universal sign language (like 'going up', 'going down', 'follow me', 'out of air', etc). But to learn more advanced sign language would take quite a bit of effort.
Being able to send a text message would be nice when there's a disagreement about something (like "I want to go over there to look at something" and your diving partner wants to say "No, it's too dangerous because of currents"). I doubt this would happen often though. It would also be nice on decompression dives when you are waiting 15 minutes or more to decompress underwater and have nothing to do so you could have a conversation with your diving partner via texting.
Waterproof white boards and special markers are used for this purpose but where's the fun in that for a geek?
Seen this demonstrated before (Score:3, Informative)
On Tekzilla:
http://revision3.com/tekzilla/newtime/ [revision3.com]
Can't remember where exactly in the episode, but it's there, and there's some good footage of various pieces of tech all wet and still running.
Re:Not a Spray (Score:1, Informative)
pure water actually is not very good for that definition