WEBVTT - Waterproofing Technology 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in touch with technology with text stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.000 stuff works dot com. Be there and welcome to tech stuff. 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:17.079 I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren boc Obam. And it 0:00:17.160 --> 0:00:19.639 looks like we've got a little listener mail to take 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:22.959 care of today. Yes, Henry wrote in by a Facebook 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.880 and asked, can you please make a show explaining ingrish 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:30.240 protection and water resistance for electronics? Specifically, what exactly does 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.760 x feat up to x minutes resistance mean? That's an 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:37.839 excellent question, Henry. Yes, thank you. Yeah, we're very thankful 0:00:37.920 --> 0:00:40.640 for you sending that in, and we wanted to talk 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:42.600 about this because you know, that was one of the 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:44.600 things I always wondered for a while too, like what 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:47.960 what does water resistant versus water proof mean? What does 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.440 it take to make something like that? Why don't we 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:54.640 see more tech that's water proof? I mean, come on, iPhones, 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:57.040 as soon as you drop it in the water. Everyone 0:00:57.120 --> 0:00:59.080 knows that if you drop your iPhone in the water, 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:02.160 it could short out. You've got a broken iPhone, And 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.039 those folks at Apple are just like, we don't cover 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.760 water damage. Yeah, you shouldn't have dropped it in the water. Yeah, time, 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:11.720 try not dropping it in the water, and whereas we say, look, 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:15.080 I understood that I was holding it wrong, but could 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:17.479 we at least make it so that it can withstand 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:20.360 some water. Well, here's here's the whole deal about it. 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:23.680 We're gonna talk all about waterproofing and why we want 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.880 to do it in the first place. So what the 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.560 heck is it about water that ruins tech in the 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:33.400 first place. Well, here's the thing about water. Water, unless 0:01:33.400 --> 0:01:39.200 you're talking about distilled deionized water, is conductive. Yeah. Conductive 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:42.640 means it allows electrical current to flow through it. That's 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.280 what conductive is. Right. So, if you have a material 0:01:47.400 --> 0:01:50.320 that allows electric current to flow through it, and you 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.560 put that in contact with an electrical circuit where electricity 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.160 is supposed to run a very specific pathway, right, which 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.960 all electrical circuits are based on. Mean, it's there. The 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:03.360 electricity in your iPhone isn't just like bouncing around all 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:07.120 Willie Nilli going through extremely specific path right. I kind 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:09.480 of like the vision of a of a phone that 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.000 if you were to open it up you just see 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.280 electrons going all over the place. That would be a 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:18.200 broken phone. Yeah, also possibly a terrible Hollywood movie. But 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:22.600 if if you were to introduce this conductive material to 0:02:22.840 --> 0:02:26.800 a circuit and allow electrons to flow through a direct 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.560 pathway from point A to point B instead of going 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.040 through all these different gates like it would in a transistor, 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.760 like a series of transistors, you get what's called a 0:02:35.840 --> 0:02:39.680 short circuit. Now, a short circuit is uh is not 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:41.880 a good thing. I mean, this is where you have 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.400 two different voltages, difference in voltage, and you create a 0:02:45.440 --> 0:02:48.400 pathway directly between the two and then the voltage essentially 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:53.239 equalizes as soon as it possibly can. And if that 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:55.839 is on two parts of an electronic device that wasn't 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.080 intended to be connected, you can have some some problems, 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:04.960 including actual circuitry damage a k a. Frying your electronics. Yeah, 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:10.240 so if you've ever heard about something in electronics hitting water, 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:12.120 and you've got a whole list of things you're supposed 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:14.120 to do, and the first one is make sure it's 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.880 powered off as long as you're safe about it. Because 0:03:16.880 --> 0:03:19.120 what we'll get into that specifically, the reason for that 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:23.240 is because it otherwise the the this current, this the 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:25.840 circuit can't work the way it was supposed to because 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.400 you've got this conductive fluid messing everything up. Now we 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.840 did say d distilled and de ionized water is different. 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:36.600 Is different. That's because pure water, absolutely pure water that 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:39.920 has no ions in it, has no other uh contaminants 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.800 in it, no other particles of stuff. Right, it doesn't 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.840 conduct electricity. So if you've ever heard that water just 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.760 conducts electricity on its own, there's a little technically correct 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.160 pure old H two O. Yeah, there's a little asterisk there, right, 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:56.200 So uh yeah, if it turns out that there's not 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.160 the stuff in it, then um, it may not cause 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:01.320 a short circuit, which is good. You still don't want 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:05.320 to have with electronics. I wouldn't do that on purpose, 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.640 just to test it out. Don't don't go filling your 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.240 swimming pool would distill deionized water and then carry your 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:14.000 iPhone into the deep end. That's that's not really the 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:16.800 best solution. Also, that would be really expensive, yeah, and 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:19.920 also probably wouldn't last very long. I mean you'd soon 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:21.920 get contaminants in that way. I'm pretty sure that by 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.400 pouring it into a swimming pool you would negate the fact. Anyway, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.240 if you invited any of my friends over, it would 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:32.200 definitely negate the effect. Um. Okay, But so some stuff 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:36.280 to remember about how to deal with electronics once they 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:41.200 get wet. Before we get into waterproofing technical bits. Um, 0:04:41.480 --> 0:04:43.360 if if a device is a plug in device and 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.239 it is plugged into a wall outlet and it falls 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:49.960 into some water, don't don't reach into the water. No, 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:54.880 definitely do Yeah, that would be seriously uh, seriously hazardous, 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.400 and you do not want to do because electricity is 0:04:57.400 --> 0:04:59.880 flown around all willy nilly, um. You want to disc 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.000 anected from the power. But probably the best way to 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.320 do that, if you, if you can, is to just 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.359 break the circuit, just to turn off the entire power 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:09.839 to that room, right, go to the circuit breaker and 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.120 turn off that circuit before dealing with anything else, because 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.640 you don't want the chance of any electricity arching from 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:19.520 the source and hitting you. I mean that could even 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.880 if it didn't kill you, it could severely injure you. 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:25.760 And so the best thing to do would be to 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.280 to trip the circuit breaker if it hadn't already tripped, um, 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:33.680 but then unplug it from the wall and then remove 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:35.640 it from the water. Once you don't have any active 0:05:35.640 --> 0:05:37.640 electricity moving through It's not like you're going to have 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:41.080 like some sort of um residual electricity. Oh yeah, no, no 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.239 no know, once once it's done zapping, it's done. Yeah, 0:05:44.640 --> 0:05:46.839 so then you would want to remove the device from 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.200 the water once it once you're shirt's safe. If it's 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.280 a battery operated electronic device, you're probably going to be 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:55.200 safe just removing it because the voltages there are very low. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.080 It's not like it's going to be I'm talking about 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.159 like a typical battery up like a mobile device like 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:04.120 a phone or a watch or a tablet something like that. Yeah, 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:06.159 you're not going to have enough voltage there for it 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:08.400 to really do any harm. You really could just reach 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.920 out and grab it and pull it out. Yeah. Yeah, 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.640 if for any reason you do have any concern about 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.960 whether there's still some residual electricity going through the outlet 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.080 or anything like that. Heavy duty rubber gloves like like 0:06:20.160 --> 0:06:23.480 the kind like like kitchen gloves or Doctor Horrible cosplay gloves, 0:06:23.640 --> 0:06:26.080 you know. Um, anything that covers any skin that you 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.279 might submerge will help keep you safe. See that's exactly 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.280 why I have mine in my bathroom, but I don't 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.480 tell people that's why I have them in the bathroom. 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:37.680 I approve of this plan. Um. Also, like wooden or 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:41.080 plastic salad tongs or chopsticks or anything like that. Would 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:45.279 you know, a non conductive man, you want to use metal, right, Yeah, 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:48.080 that would be bad. Yeah. Once again, conductivity not not 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.280 your friend. So if it's a battery operated device and 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.640 the battery is removable, take out the battery, you know, 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:56.680 make sure the device is powered off, take out the 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:00.640 battery and set it aside. Uh. The longer the battery 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:02.760 sits in there, and the longer there there's water in 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.240 this device, the worst off it's gonna be. Because Uh, 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:08.360 one of those short circuits that you could talk about 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:10.480 is like just imagine a battery where you connect the 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:12.880 to the two sides of the battery with a direct 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.240 path that burns out a battery. Fact, So you want 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:18.440 to get that battery out of there, and you want 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.960 to allow the electronic device to dry thoroughly, and that 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.480 can take up to a week or longer. Um. And 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.480 if you're talking about a device that actually plugs into 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:31.480 the wall, I wouldn't feel comfortable ever telling anyone to 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.000 try it out again. Uh No, I would take that 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:37.400 to a to a professional. Yeah, because tion or even 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.600 if you are absolutely certain that's dry, here's the thing. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:44.840 Sometimes those contaminants and water can actually adhere to parts 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.960 of the circuitry, which means that if it could permanently 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:51.560 change the electrical flow inside the device, which could get 0:07:51.600 --> 0:07:54.760 really sparky, really exactly, so you don't want to mess 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:57.200 around with that. But if it's battery operated, you know, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.680 you probably have heard that it's good to put it 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:02.800 in some sort of material sand or something, some some 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.960 sort of desiccate that will pull out water. Rice is 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:09.400 probably the most commonly suggested one, But at any rate, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:11.200 you want to give it several days, if not a week, 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:14.640 to let it dry. Once it's dry, then you can 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.280 reconnect the battery to the device and test it out. 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.920 And if the anything in the water has dried on 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.520 the circuit try that's wind the device might be permanently yeah, 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:26.960 whether you know, it could be perfectly dry that point 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:29.800 it's just never gonna work again, or it might work fine. 0:08:30.120 --> 0:08:32.000 It kind of depends upon what the purity of the 0:08:32.000 --> 0:08:34.680 water was and how much how long it was submerged, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:37.760 um whether or not there were other things in there. 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:40.280 And once you once you get it to that point, 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.439 you have the actual moment of truth. It'll either work 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:45.800 or it won't work. And if it doesn't work, you 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.000 probably are gonna have to buy a new one because 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:52.880 most warranties do not cover water damage specifically because it's 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:56.200 such a common problem and it's hard to fix. Yeah, well, 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:59.520 I you know, I think it's usually considered, um, what 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:04.360 what's the is negligent? Yes? I think of it as 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:10.160 an act of claude c l O d's the clumsy fool. 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:14.960 Most of most problems that relate to me can be 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:20.960 described like that. So Henry specifically asked about ingress protection. Yes, 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.559 and this is a rating system. Yes, that tells us 0:09:25.679 --> 0:09:30.440 exactly how safe it is to use various electronics around 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.679 water sources. Right, and also physical things like like physical 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:39.640 like hands or tools. So yeah, ingress. If you're wondering 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.560 what the heck does ingress mean, especially if you play 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.679 the Google game Ingress, it's not the Google game. We 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.520 did a full episode about Ingress the Google game way 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.520 way back. But ingress is an entrance into something. It's 0:09:53.559 --> 0:09:58.040 a way of getting into some sort of enclosure. Ingress 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:03.960 Protection is created the International Electro Technical Commission, which lots 0:10:04.000 --> 0:10:07.320 of countries belong to, including the United States, and as 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:10.520 a rating system. And if you look at the rating system, 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:15.440 you will know how well that particular component is rated 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:21.800 against intrusion, either by physical stuff or or fluid fluid 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:24.880 we should say, but yes, water, physical particles versus liquid 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:28.960 particles exactly, So it's an actual standard. It's not that 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:33.080 water isn't physical. That's yeah, well, yeah, I know what 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:35.520 you mean. You mean like like mad like solid matter 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:40.080 as opposed to liquid. Yeah, you know, we're we're casual 0:10:40.200 --> 0:10:42.440 with the states of matter here at tech stuff stuff 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:44.760 to blow your mind. Probably a little more of a 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:48.760 stickler for it, uh I e C. The the International 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:53.679 Electrotechnical Commission designates this standard as six zero five to nine, 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:55.080 so you can look it up if you want to. 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:57.440 They have the charts and stuff that explain it, but 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:00.440 we'll go through it, and defines the standard as a 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:04.760 part providing protection of equipment against certain external influences and 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:09.280 in any direction, protection against direct contact. So the reason 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.760 why this would be important is multiple reasons. It's one 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:17.120 to tell you about how robust that particular component is 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:20.680 to any given type of intrusion, and partly to warn 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.719 you a potential user as to the kind of operating 0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:27.959 conditions this device works under and whether or not. It's 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:29.400 a good idea for you to reach your big old 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:33.160 grubby myths in there. Sure. It however, does not cover 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.760 other issues that you could encounter with various devices, such 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:42.760 as corrosion resistance or the effects of ice exactly. So 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.200 there are other things that can muck up a device 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.520 that don't get covered by this. There are other standards 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.600 that that involves. But English protection really just has two digits. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.560 The basic i P code has two digits in the 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.720 first digit indicates the protection level against solids like dust. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:05.839 That would be the finest of the solids, the least frocks. Yeah, 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:09.440 they actually do. If you're talking about zero, there's no 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.640 protection against a solid substance. A one is I think, 0:12:13.679 --> 0:12:14.920 I think you have to get up to a two 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.280 before you're getting to the point of human fingers. Like 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:19.960 a one is bigger than essentially the back of the hand. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:21.880 If it has an i P of one, it means 0:12:21.960 --> 0:12:24.600 that the back of an average person's hand could come 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:29.640 into contact with whatever component that is well, possibly with 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:32.920 getting harmed. Actually, yeah, anything larger than that would not 0:12:33.000 --> 0:12:36.720 be able to come into contact. So yeah, it's all 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.040 about it's all about the covering. If you think of 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:42.120 it as like a cover. So yeah, the solid numbers 0:12:42.200 --> 0:12:44.280 range from zero, which is no protection at all, so 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:46.680 you just got a big old open fan. Essentially, the 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.679 Death Star had a lot of I P zero tech. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:52.120 You know, they had like all these these walkways with 0:12:52.160 --> 0:12:55.080 no railings. You could fall right into the core. Uh. 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:57.040 Then if you want to go to the opposite side, 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:59.760 that would be a six, which is totally protected against 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.360 also known as dust tight, just as water would be 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.600 water tight or air tight. You know that kind of thing. 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.080 Duct tight is a thing. Yeah. Yeah. The second digit 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:11.440 is um liquid protection, and that ranges from zero, which 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.880 is no protection at all, to an eight, which means 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:19.360 that that object would be protected against continuous immersion. Yes, 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.080 and in fact, there are older versions of ingress protections 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.000 that go up to a nine for water. But in 0:13:26.040 --> 0:13:29.959 that case it means that it is perfectly safe from 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:33.760 water jets at high power from multiple directions simultaneously. So 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.720 essentially a dishwasher, if you were to put it in 0:13:36.760 --> 0:13:40.480 the dishwasher, water would not get into this thing. Um. 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.920 But really, the all those sources I was looking at 0:13:43.960 --> 0:13:47.480 was specifically talking about zero to eight for liquids. So 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:51.240 if you had something that was rated i P five seven. 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.040 It would mean that that particular device would be dust 0:13:54.160 --> 0:13:57.319 protected but not dust tight, meaning that if you were 0:13:57.360 --> 0:14:00.240 really determined, you could get some dust in there, and 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:03.720 that it would be protected against temporary immersion and fluid, 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.640 so you could drop it into like like let's say 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.080 that it's a watch and you're washing dishes. You wouldn't 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:12.600 have to worry about the watch getting too much water 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:15.079 in it because it's protected against that, but you wouldn't 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.080 at the same time want to go skin diving with 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:22.200 the watch. So with these i P ratings, we're not 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.160 just talking about how well a particular component is protected, 0:14:25.400 --> 0:14:29.480 but also how well the device protects us against being clods. 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:32.960 Getting back into that, so if you have an i 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.360 P component that has low numbers, then you know there 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:38.960 are components here that you could easily come into contact 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:42.760 with if you yourself were not careful. So using that 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.040 death Star example, we would see that the rating is 0:14:45.120 --> 0:14:47.680 very low, and we would know this is not a 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.880 safe place for me to be, uh, you know, unobservant. 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:54.000 I would need to watch my toes wear a hard 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.760 hat and a jet pack. Yeah, and uh, and also 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.720 don't do anything wrong because management on the Death Star 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:05.680 as a no tolerance policy for mistakes. However, you're of 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:10.640 chances of rapidly ascending the ranks. They're really high. I 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:12.920 never thought about it that way. Yeah, if you've ever 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:15.640 wanted to be an admiral, just wait around a week 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.720 in the Imperial Navy and you'll get there. You might 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.080 not last very long, but you know, advancement is certainly 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:26.040 an opportunity. So anyway, if your big old machine of 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:28.800 awesomeness has a huge fan moving at high velocity inside it, 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:32.080 you probably want to protect against something accidentally being able 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:34.360 to touch the van. So you would want to make 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:36.400 sure that that i P rating would be such that 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:39.720 only specific tools would be able to move through there. Right, 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.320 You wouldn't want anything too large to be able to 0:15:42.360 --> 0:15:44.120 pass through and make contact with the fan. That would 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:46.720 be dangerous. At the same time, you wouldn't want to 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.480 be dust tight because it would be air tight. Uh, 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:53.320 And having a huge rotating fan and airtight chamber probably 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:57.440 wouldn't really help you out. No. Imagine having a computer 0:15:57.640 --> 0:15:59.920 where you have a computer fan that's supposed to help 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.640 spurs heat, but you have no vent. Well, that heat 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:06.240 is just gonna continue to sec it's just gonna be 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:08.360 right there in your laptop or a computer. It's not 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:10.480 going to move. And then eventually got a fried machine, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.560 as anyone who has worked with me would realize, as 0:16:14.600 --> 0:16:17.760 I somehow managed to get my machine clogged every time 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.160 within a couple of years. It's really just my way 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.080 of getting a new laptop every couple of years. So 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.520 now we go on to the next part of Henry's question. 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.880 I think we've covered ingress protection pretty thoroughly. So what 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:34.680 does x feet up to x minutes resistance mean? Well, 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.479 I P ratings indicate there's a spectrum of resistance to intrusion, 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:41.760 right that you you can have uh devices that have 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.400 different levels of resistance. So some devices have no protection 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:48.400 at all, and some have an incredible design that keeps 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.080 everything clear of any kind of particle or fluid. But 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:55.080 most fall somewhere in between exactly. So if you're looking 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:57.600 at x feet up to x minutes, that's kind of 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.560 describing that in between phase. The depth or feet part 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.920 of this is all about water pressure, right, because water 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.840 water has weight, So the deeper you go in a 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.440 body of water, the more weight or a really pressure 0:17:11.600 --> 0:17:14.000 you're going to be subjected to yep, and so your 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:16.480 device is going to be under that same amount of pressure. 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:20.200 So if I have a device that's you know, not 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.760 totally water tight, it's very resistant to it, but I 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:26.320 start adding more and more pressure to it, that might 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:28.639 mean that it puts puts enough pressure on the device 0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:30.560 to allow water to start to get in, to start 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:32.960 to seep in. Right. That's why watches, for example, we'll 0:17:33.040 --> 0:17:36.680 have those those depth ratings exactly exactly. They'll say that, well, 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:39.520 you know, we've tested this to this amount of pressure 0:17:39.600 --> 0:17:42.840 and it is able to be resistant to water at 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.199 that pressure, but beyond that, we cannot promise that you 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.400 won't have a failure of this device. So I gadget 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.000 with a design that resists water intrusion. It may only 0:17:52.000 --> 0:17:54.200 work at surface pressures, meaning that you could be able 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.920 to operate in the rainstorm but not necessarily submerge it 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:00.639 in water um or you might be able to do 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:04.920 some snorkeling but not scuba diving with it, or something 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:07.080 might be splash proof, you know, like like you could 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:08.800 wash your hands, but you wouldn't want to take a 0:18:08.840 --> 0:18:12.679 shower exactly. Yeah, I always want to take a shower. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:17.520 Just went nip that rumor in the bud. Um. So, yeah, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:20.959 you want to make sure that you follow those those 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:24.520 uh those warnings on there. It's only good at X 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.959 number of feet. As for the minutes, again, that kind 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.360 of tells you that a gadget may be able to 0:18:30.440 --> 0:18:34.040 withstand a temporary immersion, like we said in the ingress 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.040 protection uh that you know, if you if it's underwater 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:39.560 for maybe a minute or two, there's no big deal 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.440 that there's there's probably no uh no opening that water 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.560 could get into easily. But the longer that it's down there, 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.159 the more likely you're going to have a failure of 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.679 one of the protective surfaces. Yeah. So it could just 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:56.359 be the company really just kind of covering its bases saying, well, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.800 we know this thing is technically supposed to be water tight, 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:02.560 but uh, we don't really want to make a claim 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:06.080 that customer could come back and say, hey, you said 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.840 it was waterproof, I wore it when I went swimming 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:11.359 and now it doesn't work. It's you could look at 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:14.119 it a source of some wiggle room as well. Um, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.520 not necessarily stating that the companies that say this are 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:21.000 trying to be uh you know, to edge around it. 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:24.240 It's just that's another possible legally speaking, it's important to 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:29.600 protect themselves. Absolutely understand that. So, um that those both 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.240 of those elements obviously are really important to determine. Uh, 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.960 whether or not a gadget is going to be capable 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:39.760 of going into the water and then coming back out 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:45.480 still working. So how can electronics manufacturers make a gadget waterproof? 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.760 What do they have to look at in order to 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:50.320 make sure that their device will continue working even if 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.600 it has been exposed to water. Uh, First of all, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.000 you gotta make sure your materials are waterproof. So that's 0:19:58.000 --> 0:19:59.800 a big first step. Yeah, if you have a smart 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.120 phone and made out of paper towels, probably not going 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:06.439 to be very waterproof. I don't that would be a 0:20:06.520 --> 0:20:08.920 really I don't want that smartphone. I'm going to pass 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:11.879 on the paper towel so strong and thoroughly absorbent, but 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:15.639 not particularly useful for a communication. Yeah, you have to 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:19.280 make sure that those materials will be able to repel 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.360 water or at least not least not absorb it exactly. Yeah. Um, 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.760 you also don't want materials that would dramatically expand or 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:30.600 contract in heat or cold. Yes, because as we know, 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:34.720 water is not always the same as room temperature, so 0:20:35.080 --> 0:20:37.480 it could be that the device is exposed to a 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.439 fairly dramatic change in temperature. I mean, you know, if 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:42.919 you were to jump into, say, a mountain lake, might 0:20:42.960 --> 0:20:45.680 be very brisk. Sure even just you know, like if 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.000 if you are hanging out in a mountain lake region 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.840 and it's chilly outside and your your device is contracted 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:56.760 in ways that that open up a crack somewhere, bad time. 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:58.680 So that's that's one thing you have to keep in mind. 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:04.359 Um More more traditional hydrophobic coatings. Hydrophobic of course, just 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.399 meaning water resistant, a repellent, water repellent, I suppose, right, 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:12.560 um More traditional hydrophobic coatings like Teflon, which is the 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:17.399 most popular brand name for the material poly tetra floro ethylene, 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.200 Which makes me understand why people usually just say teflon. 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.120 By the way, uh, in case you're curious, she got 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:27.560 that on the first try. I would not have been 0:21:27.600 --> 0:21:29.800 able to do that. I did. I did have to 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:33.159 cough before I said it, because I was aware that 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:34.520 I wasn't gonna be able to take a breath for 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.320 you know, seven or eight minutes, or at least what 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:39.639 feels like it in the role of that word. Um, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.239 those can come in very much handy in terms of 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:46.560 this waterproofing material outer casing kind of stuff. Um, But 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.760