Fished out my P3 from the flood. Need some advice.

Well here is an update.
Got the board as clean as possible. Checked for any damage. It looked OK.
Started to put things back together today.
Put the battery compartment back on. Ran all the cables for the gimble.
Mounted the circuit board and made some of the connections.
Test fit the battery to make sure everything is lined up and the battery compartment will accept the battery without any trouble.
Hot glued the LED lights back in place.

Tomorrow if I have time I am going to install the gimble and the landing gear and antennas along with the compass.
Had a hard time remembering where all those tiny screws all went..LOL but thank God for pictures.
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Give it more time to dry, I believe you weren’t able to open the gimble so the inside may still have humidity. If yo7 have not done that, you may want to put it in rice, to get all water out. Same goes with the motors.
 
Give it more time to dry, I believe you weren’t able to open the gimble so the inside may still have humidity. If yo7 have not done that, you may want to put it in rice, to get all water out. Same goes with the motors.

I think I am going to replace the motors. I have two full sets of motors. The gimble I finally got apart and cleaned. Amazingly it was not as bad as I thought it would be. All the parts were in a small closet with a dehumidifier going for the last three days. Then I blew warm air on them with a fan for a day..it’s pretty dry. I still won’t fire it up for at least another week. I am not going to put on the top shell until I’m ready to start it.. more time in the dryer still. But it is looking good. I just hope all this tedious work was not in vain...lol
 
Of course it wasn't in vain. Your efforts will serve as an example for future generations of drone pilots. Just so we're clear, you are donating it to the Smithsonian Museum, right?


Your name don't happen to be Smithsonian does it? LOL
 
Well the great flood of the Kankakee River got my drone. Short story is that I took it up in some unfavorable weather to get some footage and paid the price.. Didn’t have enough battery to get back and she landed in a corn field that was flooded. About two feet of water..

Took down the last know GPS coordinates and waited for the water to recede enough to go looking for it. That took about two weeks.

Using the IPhone and the coordinates the sucker was sitting in the mud right where the GPS said it would be. Pulled it from the mud and took it home. Pulled the battery out.. Needless to say there is mud in the battery compartment..

Need some advice on how to approach cleaning this thing up and trying out..

My plan was to disassemble the housing and let it air dry. It’s not soaked anymore, but I want to make sure that it’s dry before going on with anything else. I want to blow it out with canned air after it dries and start cleaning any debris from it.

Don’t want to put any power to it until I got cleaned and dry..
Any suggestions would be helpful. I have have one apart before to change a ESC board before so I am familiar with disassembly of the craft.

Just checking for any help from people that have had this happen to them.

Thanks for and advice and help in advance..

Mike
 
Give that entire drone in WD-40 the WD stands for water displacement the 40 means it was the 40th concoction that actually worked. I meant to give the drone a bath in WD-40 if this doesn’t work I don’t think anything will but good luck to you
 
Give that entire drone in WD-40 the WD stands for water displacement the 40 means it was the 40th concoction that actually worked. I meant to give the drone a bath in WD-40 if this doesn’t work I don’t think anything will but good luck to you
 
Give that entire drone in WD-40 the WD stands for water displacement the 40 means it was the 40th concoction that actually worked. I meant to give the drone a bath in WD-40 if this doesn’t work I don’t think anything will but good luck to you

You know I actually thought about that. But there are much better solutions for circuit boards out there. I chose to not use any solutions.
I painstakingly went over the board with a soft toothbrush and a horse hair dusting brush. I think I got it pretty clean that way.

Also, I visually inspected the board and every single component on the board with jewelers glasses so I could see the connections on the the very very very small components. There was no visible damaged to to shorting or burning.

We will see on April 14 or 15 whether or not this was in vain. That is the "fire this thing up" date. I will record this so i can let everyone else see my good fortune,
or my agony of defeat....lol
 
You know I actually thought about that. But there are much better solutions for circuit boards out there. I chose to not use any solutions.
I painstakingly went over the board with a soft toothbrush and a horse hair dusting brush. I think I got it pretty clean that way.

Also, I visually inspected the board and every single component on the board with jewelers glasses so I could see the connections on the the very very very small components. There was no visible damaged to to shorting or burning.

We will see on April 14 or 15 whether or not this was in vain. That is the "fire this thing up" date. I will record this so i can let everyone else see my good fortune,
or my agony of defeat....lol
 
If you have access to a vacuum chamber or can build one that would be a major plus. The vacuum will pull all of the slightest bit of moisture out of the smallest crevices on the board and the motors.If you don’t have access to a vacuum pump like a air conditioning mechanic would use to pull a vacuum on an AC system,then you can use the type of vacuum machine used for storing food for a long time.If you don’t have access to that.Put all the parts of your drone into a large plastic bag and use a shop vac or a vacuum cleaner and use the adapter tube end then give it a light spray with WD-40 I think this is your best bet good luck
 
Well so far so good.
Got everything back together with the exception of the top piece.
Going to change all four motors some time this week.
This weekend I will fire it up and see what happens. I am feeling pretty good about this.
I think it will run.
 
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Hey buddy I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but With all the sensitive electronics and sensors,Gyroscope,Altimeter And not to mention the gimbal which can be finicky under normal conditions.Then factor in the camera and all the other systems like a simple one like the charging system,It would be an absolute miracle of modern science if that bird ever flew again.That being said I am an optimist and I hope for you and all the people out there that even have the guts and confidence in themselves to tackle a job like yours,That when you command your drone to lift off and fly the way you want it to it does just that with no problems.GOOD LUCK man
 
Hey buddy I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but With all the sensitive electronics and sensors,Gyroscope,Altimeter And not to mention the gimbal which can be finicky under normal conditions.Then factor in the camera and all the other systems like a simple one like the charging system,It would be an absolute miracle of modern science if that bird ever flew again.That being said I am an optimist and I hope for you and all the people out there that even have the guts and confidence in themselves to tackle a job like yours,That when you command your drone to lift off and fly the way you want it to it does just that with no problems.GOOD LUCK man
 
Have someone with a video cam standing by to record the power up. :)
 
Have someone with a video cam standing by to record the power up. :)

OH that is for sure. Like I said in an earlier post, its either going to be the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. Either way you will see it. But I am confident that it will fire up. Once that happens then I will take her outside and send off on a short flight. Gonna happen this week end for sure.

I also want to say thank you to everyone who has followed this thread and have offered advice on what to do. Without this forum and the people in it, this would have been more difficult or next to impossible to even do. Fingers are crossed.

If this things comes back to life, it will be renamed "The Phoenix"


A phoenix depicted in a book of legendary creatures by FJ Bertuch(1747–1822)
In Greek mythology, a phoenix (Ancient Greek: φοῖνιξ phoînix) is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again.
 
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