Nanocoating Waterproofs Any Gadget 314
An anonymous reader writes "Water has always been the bane of electronics, however American company Liquipel just announced that they have developed a way to completely waterproof any device against the elements. Using a revolutionary process, Liquipel applies a hydrophobic nanocoating to phones, computers, and other devices that completely waterproofs them and protects them against accidental exposure to liquids."
Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
What? Your TV is only 3D HDTV? It's not WATER PROOF?! Why not? Are you poor? Why haven't you bought one? How else do you plan to entertain under water?
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
Then she can do his back.
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
and put, on his three wolf moon shirt
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"Then she can do his back."
Or he hers...
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
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That's the best kind of story!
shower tv (Score:2)
Re:shower tv (Score:5, Insightful)
At least for the kindle, waterproof gadgets have already been invented.
It's called a zip-loc bag, and it is great for unwinding in the tub.
Re:shower tv (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the ipod touch/iphone works really well in a plastic bag as well. The touch sensor seems to have no problem being behind the extra plastic, which is nice in heavy rain.
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My DX is -JUST- big enough to not fit in one. Sadface.
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It's called a zip-loc bag
I put my phone in a zip-loc bag and it took on water.
If you intend to mix electronics and water, it's cheaper to spend the 20~50 bucks and buy a real dry bag.
Re:shower tv (Score:5, Informative)
Funny you mention it, I recently saw a plastic-baggie type product designed especially for this purpose: allows full submersion of electronics, and works with capacitive touch screens despite being made of a fairly thick plastic. LokSak [loksak.com]
While I suppose the standard zip-loc would work for the purpose, but this looked much more confidence inspiring.
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Yes, a bag you can buy for about three and a half cents will surely work as well as one that is purpose built! The big thing is the temperature of the water; seal something up on a nice warm summer day and take it rafting with you, then drop it in the river... And watch as the inside gets just as wet as the outside. Moisture management is only effective if you take watertight sealing, plus humidity/condensation into account at the same time.
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
That's the most interesting response I've seen from Siri yet...
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Informative)
My Android phone is waterproof (IS11CA) and I actually use it to watch video/listen to audio in the shower/bath pretty much every day. They do actaully sell TVs for use in shower by the way.
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Insightful)
I wonder how people can actually do this kind of thing. I always feel relieved when I'm in the quiet sanctity of my bathroom, and the only thing I hear is water flowing and bubbles bursting. I still prefer actual books, too. They just work, and when I drop them, all I lose is a cheap paperback.
There's way too much noise (aka "entertainment") in the world anyways.
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There's way too much noise (aka "entertainment") in the world anyways.
You forgot to shoo everyone off your lawn... :-)
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
Let me guess, she doesn't poop either.
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
Since my wife doesn't have hairy legs and never needs to shave her legs, I'm curious - do women need to shave their legs in the shower?
The non-inflatable ones do, yes.
Re:My Phone Drinks Too Much (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
using lasers to saw off her legs seems like an extreme solution...
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Laser hair removal is not permanent. It may make the hair be gone for an extended period of time, but it is not permanent.
If you want permanent hair removal, you have to go with electrolysis. It is time consuming, can be expensive for each trip and is not the most comfortable thing to go through, but it is permanent.
I should know. Been doing it for years. Pretty soon, I won't have to shave my neck area at all. What has been done is now perfectly smooth. No issues with irritation when wearing a tie.
Re:Announcing Waterproof 3D HDTVs! (Score:5, Funny)
Love,
MPAA
PS: Yes, I said persecuted not prosecuted.
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what about space age polymers? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:4, Interesting)
My dilemma is this: If I get an expensive heavy duty mechanical keyboard, I will somehow managed to drop a gallon of paint on it no matter how careful I am. So I just use $20 el cheapo Microsoft Curve keyboards, which invariably wear out after a year because I hammer it so bad.
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:4, Insightful)
I've killed two separate MS Natural 4000s, one about 30 minutes after getting it. It's very rare that I'll spill, but man, it seems like just a little splash has a high probability of rendering it useless.
Personally though, the extra comfort of a comfortable-to-use keyboard is worth an occasional fairly-expensive (at least for a grad student) replacement. I never understand people who spend like $1500 for an awesome gaming rig or something and then get a cheapass keyboard, which is one of the couple components you actually use. But I might just be overly sensitive or something; I do pay a lot of attention to arm ergonomics as fallout from wrist problems many years back.
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:5, Funny)
Get back to us when you kill an IBM Model M keyboard. It's like the Tonka Truck of keyboards. You hit someone with a Model M, they're going down.
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:4, Funny)
You hit someone with a Model M, they're going down.
Unfortunately that'll be me hitting you after I have to listen to you type for a couple hours. :-)
(I'm well aware of the model M's reputation, but I don't find the better "button feel" to be anywhere near worth the noise, let alone the lack of a split keyboard or the Natural 4000's reverse tilt which I really really wish was more common. That alone makes typing far more comfortable; I don't understand why it's basically the only keyboard out there with that feature.)
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I have killed an IBM Model M keyboard. One of the original PS/2 models. A friend of mine got drunk, passed out, and somehow managed to knock it on the floor, and then dropped a 50 pound 23" CRT on top of it. A couple of keys popped off and broke.
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A couple of keys broke? The keycaps are easily replaceable on Model Ms, as long as you didn't break the molded plastic tube under them. Broken keycaps don't equal a "killed" keyboard any more than a flat tire equals a "wrecked car".
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:4, Funny)
Dare I make a "Yo dawg" comment?
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You just squint your eyes. When there is a will there is a way.......
It may have gone too far when you are standing up on a chair, leg over on the dresser, holding your phone up desperately trying to get signal in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere to look at Internet porn.
Cirque Du Soleil had nothing on me that day.......
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Oblg.: http://www.crazywebsite.com/Website-Clipart-Pictures-Videos/Funny-People/Girl-Laptop-Bathroom-1LG.jpg [crazywebsite.com]
Perhaps she is chatting on IRC, the Internet Relay Crap
Or maybe paying for an ebay order with PeePal
That's one heck of a core dump
Just imagine the poor guy who has fore play with her. The packet route goes from bathroom floor - laptop - desk - her lap - his face - him realizing what he really actually ate - back to bathroom floor.
Isn't the round-trip of life beautiful?
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The really terrible thing is having an executive hand you a dead phone, asking for you to fix it, only to answer that first obvious question with, "I dropped in the toilet".
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They're called "accidents" Mr. Douchbag
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Yes, they do.
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or even dropped our phone in the toilet.
Gotta talk while pissin.' Yes, I've seen that happen. Yank it out, pull the battery and sim, clean them with alcohol if handy, wait in anxiety while they dry.
You wouldn't catch me leaving my TEK 2246 out in the rain, but my former boss who owned a construction company, left his portable corded Skilsaw rotary with a carbide rebar-cutting blade out in the rain. Man, that was one pissed-off corner-cutter.
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i recently spilt some water on my keyboard and the left ctrl key died. i took it apart and examined it closely, but i couldnt see where the problem was. i ended up having to use software (ctrl2cap) to switch the function of it with the capslock key. of course, now i have no capslock key :/
anyway, shit happens. it'll happen to you too one day.
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* One of our customers expects all text on drawings to be in all caps for clarity.
* Variables have to be typed in all caps for historical reasons.. (all variables are that way already and the codebase is much too big to refactor efficiently.. mostly because there are no automatic tools available and the code is stored in binary files linked to an ancient database)
Just two usage cases for the caps lock ;)
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Whenever I use all caps for variables (or constants) I tend to have underscores in them and rarely use digits. WHAT IS WRONG WITH A FREAKING SHIFT LOCK!?!?!
Whew. Sorry, but whoever thought a caps lock was an improvement over shift lock was an idiot.
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Remind me to never be your friend. How do you live with your own mistakes, or don't you ever make any?
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I've had a douchebag in the seat next to me on a plane make a spastic grab for his drink while reaching over me...and my laptop. Not all exposure to water is defined by the owner of the damaged item being the one who is pathetic, and none of the times my electronics got wet had to do with my negligence. I've also been caught in a scirrocco in Italy while walking back home, knocked off the side of a dock by a person turning with an oar tucked stupidly under their armpit...the ways in which water and other
Re:speak for yourselves.... (Score:4, Funny)
who needs a solution that creates more problems?
(hyperbole aside... seriously, buying new software and learning a new platform just to get that cool magnetic DC plug that Apple will sue anyone else who uses it over?)
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I accidentally brought my cheap Samsung phone in a hot tub with me for several minutes before I realized I still had it in my pocket. After fully disassembling it and baking it an environmental chamber for a couple hours at ~100F, it worked just fine and I'm still using it.
I call slashvertizing (Score:2, Insightful)
The link is from a questionably "objective" source that has no real info on how (or if) it works. But by all means mail them your gadgets! They were nominated for an award you've never heard of!
Re:I call slashvertizing (Score:4, Informative)
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The interesting part is they took the battery cover off underwater.
Now usually on most phones I've seen, the battery connects via bare copper. How can it still actually function, without allowing water to short circuit it?
Ditto for headphone jack. Either it covers the connection or it lets water in.
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Pure water is actually a reasonable insulator. You can generally immerse electronics in pure water, then dry it off and it will work, if it stopped working at all. I'll bet all their amazing immersion demos are being done with deionised water
Water with ions in it, such as from salt or contamination, is conductive and will corrode. I'd like to see them dunk a "waterproofed" phone into seawater.
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My guess is that the video used distilled water, which is highly resistive. Water only conducts if it contains impurities.
For the actual product, I would expect them to apply the coating with the battery already in, and you simply can't take it out without needing to reapply the coating.
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Or the copper contacts have small plastic lips/edges on the battery/phone contacts, so they're watertight enough when the battery is seated (held in with the battery tension).
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Does this coating prevent conduction, or is it merely a method to avoid the corrosion water causes? That's the real problem - shorts are bad, yes - but that's usually not what kills a gadget.
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Already works: Just find a suitable container, fill it with mineral oil, and submerge the electronics in it.
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... can be tricky, because mineral oil and air do not have the same dielectric constant.
Meh. (Score:2)
Gripe: can you guys find a way to coat the upper B and E strings?
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I've found them to start off great, but they deteriorate after a while and feel kinda yuck. I think bang for buck standard phosphor bronze is about as good.
What I want to know is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What I want to know is... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you'd have to do a little more than sneeze on it - but I am well aware of stories in the past where e.g. sporters who sweated a little (much) got told by the service center that the humidity indicators in their iPod (or similar) indicated the device got wet and thus the warranty was void.
But just to address your specific example - your $15 Walgreens watch probably has little to no openings and whatever interface controls are there are very easy to make waterproof. Compare to the many slots and compartments on a typical smartphone which often are required to be easily user-accessible. You wouldn't want to have to unscrew the back of your smartphone every time you'd just want to recharge it (if it ran for 2 years on a few button cells like your watch, then that wouldn't be much of an issue).
But, more importantly, your $15 Walgreens watch is $15. If they actually got a claim from somebody with valid proof that they only dove to 19.95m and not over 20.00m, sending out a new $15 Walgreens watch is a heck of a lot cheaper than going over that paperwork and trying to tell you that you must be mistaken.
For $400+ devices, on the other hand, it's a lot cheaper to open it up, point at the humidity tags, and say "sucks to be you".
Re:What I want to know is... (Score:5, Insightful)
In that case, the best and cheapest option is to nano-coat the humidity tag. ...
No problems with replacement then
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Re:What I want to know is... (Score:5, Insightful)
why is my $15 Walgreens watch waterproof to a depth of 20 meters, but if I sneeze on my $400 Android / iPhone it's ruined and I voided the warranty?
A couple of thoughts, here.
1) How do the microphone, micro SD slot, speakers, and charging/data port on your watch work after you've taken it down to 20 meters?
2) Has it ever occured to you that the makers and retailers of your $15 watch are simply banking (literally) on the fact that essentially nobody will every submit that cheap watch to 20 meters of water? And if someone does do so, and the watch inevitably fails, what percentage of that already tiny percentage are going to actually bother to pursue warranty service/replacement on something that costs less than a decent pizza? They could simply replace that costs-them-$3 watch every time all three people in that group take a shower, and they'll still make more money than they would have by not saying "Waterproof to 20 meters!" on the packaging and not having to service such claims.
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The manufacturers could easily do it given financial incentive.
They could do it given market demand. As it is, the market wants cheaper and/or more fashionable, and "Indestructible" isn't sexy enough to show off your metrosexual design tastes.
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why is my $15 Walgreens watch waterproof to a depth of 20 meters, but if I sneeze on my $400 Android / iPhone it's ruined and I voided the warranty?
Your $15 Walgreens watch has rubber seals on the backplate and around any buttons/knobs.
Your $400 Android / iPhone doesn't. If it did, the phone would be a lot bulkier.
Looking at their list of "approved devices" [liquipel.com], I'm wondering how the nanocoating interacts with user removable batteries.
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Because no tech wants to touch it after you've sneezed on it.
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Nanocoatings Are Going Mainstream (Score:5, Interesting)
Hydrophobic nanocoatings... (Score:5, Funny)
... are just the thing for rabid technophiles!
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Retro stuff (Score:2)
I went straight to Ziebart!
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I went straight to Ziebart!
No, its "Zie Bart, Zie"
Legit! (Score:2)
My friend knows these guys and had his iPhone done. I didn't believe it, but it's legit.
Skin Moisture (Score:2)
I'm not an electrician, but... (Score:3)
How could you coat the interior of a microSD card slot that's covered with a loose-fitting cover and make it waterproof? If the nano-coating doesn't conduct electricity then any card you insert won't make contact with the contacts. If it does conduct, then it's useless as a waterproofing seal over electronics. The same would seem to hold true for any earphone plug or charging port, right?
Re:I'm not an electrician, but... (Score:5, Informative)
How could you coat the interior of a microSD card slot that's covered with a loose-fitting cover and make it waterproof? If the nano-coating doesn't conduct electricity then any card you insert won't make contact with the contacts. If it does conduct, then it's useless as a waterproofing seal over electronics. The same would seem to hold true for any earphone plug or charging port, right?
I don't know how it works for sure, but I imagine its just surface tension. The coating doesn't physically close the slot, it coats the outside of the slot with a film that repels water. Water doesn't go into very small places at routine pressure -- the raindrop-size drops you encounter all the time are its least-energy state, the "natural" curvature of water drops. The coating keeps water far enough away so this curvature radius doesn't contact the inside of the slot.
Re:I'm not an electrician, but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Recoating after battery swap? (Score:2)
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Maybe coat all your batteries independently and the device without the battery in .... that would solve that I would imagine. Good question.
Waterproof? How about salt-water or soda-proof? (Score:3)
There are many more liquids in the world than water. How does this coating stand up to something as corrosive as salt water or Coke?
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There are many more liquids in the world than water. How does this coating stand up to something as corrosive as salt water or Coke?
Presumably well, hydrophobic coatings are apparently quite good at reducing corrosion. I'd be more interested to know how it stands up to something capable of wetting hydrophobic surfaces, like alcohol. Or with some fat content, like whole milk or soup.
not revolutionary (Score:5, Informative)
What I've read in the media of this process suggests that it's parylene. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parylene [wikipedia.org]
If so, it's not revolutionary, but a good application of an old coating technology. When I get my iPhone 5, I'll probably send it to these guys for coating.
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What I've read in the media of this process suggests that it's parylene. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parylene [wikipedia.org] [wikipedia.org]
Doesn't parylene turn yellowish under UV exposure though? Except for the fluropolymer version (which I suppose it could be).
Re:not revolutionary (Score:5, Informative)
I have done Paralyne coating back in the 1980's. It is a vapour deposited plastic. If you are putting down Paralyne 'C' (the chlorinated version - there was no fluorinated version back then as far as I knew) then it could give a tough plastic coating that could be 100 nm deep. This forms a thin coating over all surfaces including under electronic components on boards. I have even seen it creep between stacks of microscope slides that aren't quite flat. This coating was transparent. If you put down a thinker coating you could get interference colours, and if you kept going it would look milky - particularly with Paralyne 'N' (the unchlorinated version)..
Paralyne was a standard 'tropicalization' process for electronics to be used in harsh environments. You tended to 'tropicalize' circuit boards with masking over the board edge connectors. As Paralyne was good at penetrating, you probably could not coat anything with a 2-way switch, or plugs. But things like earphones and displays would probably be fine.
Yellowing? I never saw it go yellow. It would have to go amazingly yellow because the coat is so thin.
Oh Gawd, not this rubbish again! (Score:5, Informative)
Prior to studying Computer Science in University, I went to college and studied Electronics Engineering. I worked for an industrial electronic design and manufacturing company for 3 years between one and the other. Most products went into the oilfield. Scada, wellhead controllers, remote sensing equipment, etc. When manufacturing circuit boards 50 at a time, they would put them into a commercial *DISHWASHER* to get all the water soluble solder flux off and wash the board clean. Because chips follow the original Texas Instruments Mach32 procurement process (as outlined by the US Air Force in the 1960's and 1970's), they are hermetically sealed, must past gross leak, and fine leak tests, thermal shock, high altitude testing, centrifuge tests, and other tests, water won't 'leak' into the chips and wreck them. When power is applied, damage can happen. When there is no current, electronics are inert. To keep things 'dry' under power, silicone spray can keep the rest of the electronics from creating short circuits (due to conduction through water, etc.). This was also important in highly corrosive environments (hello petrochemical plant). They also used Hall-effect keyboards and switches to eliminate any chance of an electric arc in hazardous environments (when a seal fails in a methane/ethane/propane plant and you need to press a button to shut off a pump to stop the leak, and pressing the switch blows up the plant you have failed). As stated previously, you can enjoy this new 'wonder technology', or you can get a can of silicone spray. Have fun!
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When there is no current, electronics are inert.
Galvanic corrosion can occur whenever two dissimilar metals meet and are provided with an electrolyte, so you might want to be careful about that. I wouldn't get anything with a copper heat sink wet, for example.
Boats... (Score:5, Interesting)
Yeah, right. Read their site. (Score:3)
Their site reads:
If my electronic is accidentally exposed to water after being Liquipelled what do I do?
Do not panic! Please follow the aftercare instructions such as drying the device as much as possible, powering down the unit (if it is not an emergency and you do not need to make a call), removing the battery and battery cover if possible and not restarting until it has dried. Please note not to charge your device for 24 hours until it has dried out.
Most electronics will survive water contact if dried out. After all, one of the last steps in PC board manufacture is a pass through a dishwasher-like device. This "nanocoating" starts to sound like a placebo.
It's lame that phones have connector holes in them at all. With inductive charging, Bluetooth headphones, and WiFi or cellular for everything else, why should there be connectors at all. I'm surprised that Steve Jobs didn't eliminate holes years ago on uglyness grounds.
There are at least three phones on the market designed to survive immersion in water. It's not rocket science.
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...Well, these things are cyclical I suppose...
Well, this was cyclic, but then it wasn't for a while....
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I guess this will eliminate employees "upgrading" their company crackberries by dropping them in the toilet.
Yah, that could make for a problem buying used phones on ebay.... you'd never know why someone is selling a "perfectly good and working phone" for a discount.