I have a question regarding the material to be used for the hatch of my inflatable MALA board.
The outline of the housing is made from a core of AIREX C70 covered with glass and carbon fibre.
As for the hatch, if I use the same principle, the carbon will act as a faraday cage and block the GHz waves.
Do you think that 15 mm thick polycarbonate (Macrolon) is strong enough to walk on it without the risk of bending and therefore of water infiltration?
All your ideas are welcome
Thanks
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I use polycarbonate deck on both of my setups. There has been people >100kg tried it, no issue. See my build for thickness and size of it → Newcomer GER
I just laminated a window from 5mm acryl glass into my lid and placed the receiver below. As it is so small it is stable enough to step on it. The rest is a sandwich construction with a 5mm rohacel core and 2x400g cfk. I think a 15mm policarbonate board is strong enough but much heavier than a sandwich construction. It is easier to build though, it was a bit tricky to laminate the acryl in and keep it transparent.
Signal reception is very good, no issues.
effectively P0LYCARBNATE plate of 632X306X15 weighs 3kg400 so very heavy compared to an airex sandwich core. And yes much less work in implementation. I had also thought of the small window in polycarbonate that can be a good solution. thanks @sat_be
Ok thanks, I was also thinking of not putting carbon fiber and just fiberglass where the VX3 receiver antenna is …which would be a small rectangle of 15 cmX 5 cm … what do you think?
even if it means compensating for the weakness of this window by adding layers of fibreglass…
Fiberglass is very good at letting waves through 
I think this would be fine. Makes life a bit easier
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Glass should work. To laminate a piece of acryl into a sandwich board, I would first laminate the carbon shells on a glass plate or mylar sheet, put tear-off fabric on top and vacuum it. Then cut the window out on both shells once they are cured. Fit the window in the core and laminate the two shells to the core. 1cm overlapp for the shells around the window is enough.
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Carbon works just fine. Used it on two of my three boards.
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When you say that carbon works very well, are you saying that the 2.4 GHz waves pass through your carbon fibre boards?
Sir. Yes sir.
20 char……
200g unidirectional + 200g twill on the board. Lid is 3mm solid carbon made of multiple layers.
Rc controller in a ziplock.