My goal is to take a usb web cam, remove the case, and pot the entire camera, lens included, in a clear epoxy. I am more of an electrical guy, and have not done much with water proofing. Any suggestions or comments that could help me get started would be awesome!
Ryan depending on how much pressure you are going to, you can use the cheap casting epoxy that you get at the craft stores. The only thing I don’t like is the type of bond that you might get on your cable. If the cable type is a PTFE, unsolder and use something else to connect it with. The epoxy will do much better with a rubber jacket cable than thermoplastic materials.
Make sure that you lightly sand the cable jacket and clean it with Acetone if possible. That will ensure that the epoxy has a real good bond to it.
On another note, try to do the encapsulation in a single pour. Better yet, I would recommend getting a little metal project box, put your camera in that … knock a hole in the lid for the “camera” and put a piece of acrylic over the hole … and frankly just seal it all up with the epoxy that is called out for the cable penetrators. It is in a thread here somewhere. Make sure you sand all of your exposed surfaces where the epoxy would go. In addition, you might want to go ahead and get one, or however many you need, of the cable penetrators sold on this site and uses that in the box wall for the interface cable.
This “how to” was originally published 10 or so years ago for MATE, the technique is still the same and may be worth looking at: https://gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/waterproofing-cameras-for-underwater-rovs/
Any updates on this? Lessons learned?