Dumb question but will GPS work inside my radio box?
It is 1.5 mm birch plywood with special waterproof plastic tape for the lid. There is an aluminum tuned exhaust pipe mounted to the top of the lid, and the box contains three servos, steel pushrods, NiMH battery, and the RC receiver.
Also passing through the box is a brass tube for the driveshaft.
Anything outside the box needs to resist high pressure water spray and submersion. When the boat stops it sinks almost all the way down.
Also aerodynamics are a concern if mounted outside. Frontal area >250 mm² would require beefy braces plus possibly upset the aerodynamic stability of the boat.
One more concern mounting outside is the fuel sprays all over the place. The carburetor naturally has a fuel cloud standing off it. Also a competitor starting their engine next to me can spray unburnt fuel from the exhaust all over my boat, so anything outside needs to resist nitromethane, methanol, and propylene oxide. We take special care to ensure our paint is fuel-proof. It will strip most paints and dissolve most plastics.
Mass is important too. A solution <20 g would be nice while 80 g is unacceptable.
On the other hand there is no ESC or noisy electronics.
Can I simply use a small GPS and mount it inside my radio box? That would save me a world of effort trying to mount one of those big, heavy, ungainly antennas outside my lid with water and fuel spraying it.