Drone went swimming

[Airtex]

My vision 2 did a nose dive into the pool the other day. Took it apart; dried it out; and, was able to fire it up the next day, except the camera wouldn't and rotate up and down. Two days later, it won't start at all.

Question: It's my first drone, so a lot of attachment going on, but ... any idea what it might cost to replace the control board? The motors seemed to respond well, until everything quit working. I will probably get a P4 and stay clear of water, but would still like to fly "Old Paint" from time-to-time. Advice appreciated.

 

[Mark The Droner]

No personal experience, but I've read that a lot of people have had good luck thoroughly drying out their drone for a good amount of time, like a couple weeks. And some will throw some rice in the drone to help absorb the water. You might have damaged it firing it up after only one day. You might have shorted something out. Good luck!

 

[Airtex]

Thks. I'll try drying out more and go from there. It flew perfect yesterday, but no more. I'm going to a drone shop and see what they say about replacing the control components.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[Blommetje]

Ah, I feel your pain. Mine took a swim this morning in the local lake. I have no clue on why but it sucks no less.

Anyway, as I started the Baywatch tune I dove in the water and swam to shore. Dried it out quite well already and fully opened it to give it some air.

It is my first drone also and I have not a lot of (none) experience with electronics.

Of course, not the patient person alive I turned it on after 3 hours and yes, it turns on!
Two problems:
1) the cam is toast. No action at all
2) the engines won't start up

I'm now turning to debugging. Is there a smart way / easiest way to do this?
Check an error report or so?

All advice is so welcome, since it is not really mine but my sports club, for events. ..

Regards,

Blommetje

 

[Blommetje]

After some more tinkering I have the gimbal moving again. The first time it was really level and steady.. second time it was doing all kinds of crazy movement.

No visuals yet..

No engines yet...

Blomminator

 

[Blommetje]

What a day. After a few more hours of frantically trying to get it working I have made a bit of progress.

The gimbal is working. Sometimes there are sudden movements. .. but in general, good. The camera also, it records both pics and movie. I also did an advanced calibration and nothing come up.

Issues now:
- turn on --> connection is not stable
- app blinks with red 'light' --> gps is not connected. Can't get it working..
- motors won't turn --> when starting (by down/inward the controls) the drone LED blinks red, 5 times, fast.
- computer won't run software for diagnostics, keep getting error 'please connect to controller' (whatever that means)
- live stream from camera to smartphone is black. No preview or whatever. Pics/movies are recorded though. (This appears to be a quite common issue, a broken cable or a broken pcb)


Well, to sum it up. Had a flat tire going to the field. The drone crashed in the field. The day is quite shitty. Now for a hot coffee and reparing my bike...

 

[Airtex]

Ah, I feel your pain. Mine took a swim this morning in the local lake. I have no clue on why but it sucks no less.

Anyway, as I started the Baywatch tune I dove in the water and swam to shore. Dried it out quite well already and fully opened it to give it some air.

It is my first drone also and I have not a lot of (none) experience with electronics.

Of course, not the patient person alive I turned it on after 3 hours and yes, it turns on!
Two problems:
1) the cam is toast. No action at all
2) the engines won't start up

I'm now turning to debugging. Is there a smart way / easiest way to do this?
Check an error report or so?

All advice is so welcome, since it is not really mine but my sports club, for events. ..

Regards,

Blommetje

I tried to fire it up again today. took most of the connectors out and plugged them back in to try and take any corrosive layer off. it seems to work. the only thing that's not working is the ability to rotate the camera, but I can live with that after seeing my drone at the bottom of the pool. you might try putting a fan on it overnight and then removing and replacing the pins several times. Seems like that what helped me. Good luck!

 

[Blommetje]

Wow! You are very lucky! Hopefully I will be the as lucky...

I let it dry out.. and I'll try again later. So far.. it is not flying... which is quite a basic function for a drone. [emoji23]