RE: [Paddlewise] Filling battery compartment with vaseline?

Allan,

I use my gps with a waterproof bag with a transparent window.
That works fine, but sometimes it's hard to read the gps screen
through the window. That's why I thought I'd try the silicone
grease, so I can use the gps without a bag. (BTW, the unit floats,
so there's no danger of losing it if it falls in the water.)

Recently I tried sealing the edge of the battery cover of my
gps, but a few drops of water did get in, and must have produced
some kind of short, because all of a sudden the gps lost all power.
When I got home I dried the compartment, put new batteries in,
and the unit was fine, except it had lost all stored waypoints
and other data.

The reason why I think FILLING the compartment with grease might
work is that then no water can get in at all. Of course, changing
the batteries would be messy, but that's a price I'm willing to
pay for using the gps without a bag.

Jack Fu
47 37 39 N, 122 07 57 W


-----Original Message-----
From: Allan McLane [mailto:amcl_at_sover.net]
Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 9:36 AM
To: Jack Fu
Subject: RE: [Paddlewise] Filling battery compartment with vaseline?


Jack,

I'm not sure that I'd go and wholesale fill up a battery compartment...
yikes, what a mess that will make!

A little grease on seals usually will do the job. If there's misalaignment
on the cover and gaps that water can get in then maybe try some vinyl
electrical tape or some of that silicone splicing tape.

Just some thoughts as I've never actually tried any of this myself ;]

FWIW, My Garmin GPS 12XL battery cover is designed so that a lot of water
could get in quite easily... I'd prefer some sort of waterproof bag with a
window...

--allan

On Fri, 1 Sep 2000 09:17:37 -0700, Jack Fu wrote:

>>>  A much better choice would be silicone grease, available from
industrial
>supply houses.
>
>Good point, thank you! I'll go look for some silicone grease.
>
>Jack Fu
>47 37 39 N, 122 07 57 W
>




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