Fall in the Sea

[stealthbomber]

It's those Canadians again, they'll eat anything LOL

Ever walk around an American mall, they eat everything.

 

[Curasail]

Try it in simulator mode if its possible?

 

[SteveMann]

Hello Nikolas,

I am very sorry for your loss.

I always wondered if CSC is possible mid-air. Again it is a pity that you found it out the hard way

Now I know, my questions is: can you restart the engine also in the air and would it be possible to regain control if you were high enough?

Ps. Prevent writing in caps.

This has been discussed here every time someone has a CSC induced crash. CSC is simply the on/off switch. It works anywhere, anytime. We calculated the freefall time and the estimated time (2 seconds) to restart the Phantom and determined that anything below 1,800 ft is unrecoverable.

It has reportedly been done when descending from a really high altitude, but with the Phantom off, there's no telemetry and most of us can't see our Phantom at 400 ft, let alone 1,800.

 

[nikolas]

Hello Ren Van de Meer
Thanks my friend for your interest support.
Our friends already replied to your question but one guy here in my country told me that above 300 foot you can restart the motors and regain control
Anyhow Iam not willing to test on that
No more test
Only Safe Flight

 

[kSilva]

When an airliner black box is recovered from a water landing, the very first thing that they do is put it into a container of fresh water and they ship it that way to the NTSB labs.

Every minute the drone is exposed to air after a salt water bath is doing damage.

Disassemble what is easy and put all the pieces into a fresh water bath. At least 12 hours and change the water often.
Chances are your camera is toast already, but I have saved a cellphone that went through the laundry this way.
Go to the grocery store and buy a couple of ten pound bags of the cheapest rice you can find.
Manually dry the water from the drone and parts, then replace the water with rice. Sealed from the room air if possible. You don't want the rice to be absorbing water from the room air. Leave it alone for a few days.

Your barometric altimeter chip is the most vulnerable, and it's inside the NAZA module.

Good luck.

Silica gel would be a lot better than rice.

 

[bobmyers]

Hello Ren Van de Meer
Thanks my friend for your interest support.
Our friends already replied to your question but one guy here in my country told me that above 300 foot you can restart the motors and regain control
Anyhow Iam not willing to test on that
No more test
Only Safe Flight

don't believe everthing your friend tells you-- it is possible-- but not probable-- check the you tube videos

 

[GrampaF]

I dropped mine in salty water a month ago, posted a similar question and got lots of interesting answers. But mostly, get that top off, unplug things and remove the grey shield covering the GPS under the top. Water is in there and will never dry with the grey stuff covering it.

I used compressed air, then fans, then packed it in enough rice to feed Hong Kong, and sealed it and the rice in a plastic bag for 4 full days.

Having said all that, after its rice-spa treatment, mine gave lots of blinking lights, appeared to connect to its WiFi fine, but showed "No Signal" on the DJI GO app and nothing moved.

So it went back into its rice-tomb and remains there until I can get someone to quote me on a repair.

I bought these ($9, free shipping) on Amazon and two of them are long and perfect for the screws:
Enkay 3036-C Tamper Proof Bit Set, Carded, 10-Piece

Watch the YouTube video out there about taking the top off. It is easy without the screws.

2 "Authorized Dealers" have refused to work on water damage (not a good sign), and DJI HQ in Calif. is taking its sweet time getting back to me about doing a repair.

Please let me know if and how you ever got it working. We could do a private email exchange if you like on what worked and did not work: [email protected] Thanks.

p.s. the battery is shot.

 

[Kevin H.]

For future reference:

First, remove all batteries immediately upon recovery of the unit!!!

When your electronic toy (camera, iPhone, P3P, etc.) falls in the ocean, lake, river, the first thing to do is rinse it thoroughly with fresh water. Pure H20, without any contaminants, is an insulator and won't harm your electronics. It should be noted, however, that fresh water from the tap is not pure H20; it is not completely free of minerals and organics. It is fine as a 'first responder' but once you have the unit back at home and some time to deal with it, the best solution is to go to your grocery store and buy several gallons of Distilled Water. DW is probably the nearest thing the average consumer can easily buy that will perform well. Ideally, you would use Distilled/De-ioinized Water or Methanol. But neither is practical to obtain or keep handy so DW is your best bet.

Thoroughly rinse the unit repeatedly. Do not reuse the rinse water. You want to get all the salts OFF the electronics as soon as and as completely as possible. Disassemble as much as you can and rinse all parts separately, repeatedly. If you soak the unit, when you take it out of the soak, rinse repeatedly. Any minerals and salts left behind will corrode solder connections and could cause short circuits between wires and traces.

Air dry with a fan, turning the unit to get air to all parts. I don't recommend using an oven; too many ways that can go bad.

Good luck.

Kevin H.

 

[jjpetroski]

I got the CSC limiter from Phantom Help and it's the greatest little piece of plastic insurance. Just turn it 90 degrees after start up and viola! ... No CSC. It's like having the seat ejection switch hidden under the red safety cover.

 

[dgd3]

The props can be taken off.
After salt is rinsed, shake off and blow dry.
And like one does for dunked iPhones, bury it into a sealed container of rice for a week so that the rice can absorb the hidden moisture.
Later pick out rice bits that stuck in motors etc.

Now wait for humorous replies to this post.

 

[Wibble]

For future reference:

First, remove all batteries immediately upon recovery of the unit!!!

When your electronic toy (camera, iPhone, P3P, etc.) falls in the ocean, lake, river, the first thing to do is rinse it thoroughly with fresh water. Pure H20, without any contaminants, is an insulator and won't harm your electronics. It should be noted, however, that fresh water from the tap is not pure H20; it is not completely free of minerals and organics. It is fine as a 'first responder' but once you have the unit back at home and some time to deal with it, the best solution is to go to your grocery store and buy several gallons of Distilled Water. DW is probably the nearest thing the average consumer can easily buy that will perform well. Ideally, you would use Distilled/De-ioinized Water or Methanol. But neither is practical to obtain or keep handy so DW is your best bet.

Thoroughly rinse the unit repeatedly. Do not reuse the rinse water. You want to get all the salts OFF the electronics as soon as and as completely as possible. Disassemble as much as you can and rinse all parts separately, repeatedly. If you soak the unit, when you take it out of the soak, rinse repeatedly. Any minerals and salts left behind will corrode solder connections and could cause short circuits between wires and traces.

Air dry with a fan, turning the unit to get air to all parts. I don't recommend using an oven; too many ways that can go bad.

Good luck.

Kevin H.

Good advice but it really depends on where you are and what your water supply is like. In the UK I know London has what we call hard water - full of minerals. Nice to drink but the kettle will fur up like made and soap doesnt lather.
In South Wales the water is very soft. Almost no minerals at all. I top up batteries for the car and the forklifts no problem at all.
Another good source of distilled/deionised water is from an airconditioning unit or a dehumidifier.

 

[Dan MacNeil]

Just for what it's worth, I was fishing for Salmon in the Ocean once and my trolling motor vibrated loose and came off. It was in a shallow area and I recovered it but called the repair place and they said to "KEEP it in water until I could get it to them". Said to put it in big rubber storage bin or plastic heavy duty garbage bags or whatever but to keep it wet. Evidently, once it gets out of water and starts to get dry the rusting/corrosion process starts.

 

[WetDog]

One thing that always interests me is the constant suggestion of placing the device in a bag of rice. Yes, it will absorb water, but so will warm, dry air. And circulated, warm dry air will do it faster than rice, especially for the bits of moisture that are busily clinging to various electronic bits. The absorption of water by the rice will depend on a moisture gradient - which will certainly occur, but will be a slow movement of water molecules.

My thinking is to 1) pull the battery ASAP and throw it away, 2) wash the thing as soon as possible with the freshest water you have on hand, get it home, dunk it in distilled water with some fairly dilute methanol (or vodka if you can bear to part with it) use some compressed air to get the bulk of the water out, open the shell up as much as is possible to do quickly and then put in in a warm (not hot) oven with a small fan blowing air out for as long as your wife will let you. Get the moisture out of the unit as fast as is possible.

If anyone is interested in supplying me with a couple of spare Phantoms, I will gladly set up a controlled experiment. A WAG would be we would need a dozen or so drones to get a good idea on how well the various methods work. Any takers?

 

[Angus Macsac]

Total bummer! I feel for u.....

 

[RoyVa]

Set you mind at ease. On Navy ship they are all the time getting electronics salt water sprayed or completely submerged. The method used to fix is a complete fresh water flush then cleaning. They then put on heat lamps for days until thoroughly dried out. They then test each component and repair or replace any failed components test again and then back into service. So all is not lost. The one thing you will definitely have to replace is the battery. They are damaged no repairable goods after submerged due to being energized. New battery or another battery needed.

 

[GrampaF]

View attachment 35894

Very painful to look at. So is this taken today from my garage of my P3S taking a bath after being in salt water.

IF you get good results, please have a conversation with me on this site to help me out (don't know how, but I see it)

 

[TheRealNick]

I am going to do a rice bag experiment...

Can you do a CSC in the simulator? I am most curious if holding down will also cause it, although I have read that if the altitude is decreasing it will not, but also could not find anyone that tried it...

 

[nikolas]

No one should play the "smart"
I feel you Granpa F
As I posted before the battery is gone
The motors are stacking
The only think that works is the GPS
I will send it to a friend and we will try to spot the problems and replace them
Iam sorry I cannot be more helpful but in my topic "fall in the sea" already our fellow pilots obviously cover the proper steps
Best of Luck my Friend
P.S I don want to be curious but I would like to ask how it happened you the fall in the salt water???

 

[penguinmaster]

It needs a good wash out with fresh water ASAP.

Then several days drying out.

hate to say it but if the camera got salt water in it it is fried call altronix they can he

 

[dgd3]

I suppose the best would be a warmed vacuum chamber.
For cameras and other electronics l've also left them in hot windowsill for 3 days and overnight in 100 degree ovens. One camera fully recovered from the windowsill treatment. I only did this when I'd written off the equipment.
WARNING: don't microwave (it's pretty but too many sparks)