If you fly over water check this out

[Fdnyfish]

I seen this on someone's youtube video

http://www.water-buoy.com/movies.php

I ordered 2, I will attach them when flying overwater

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc_-UFCeMnw[/youtube]

 

[mikrob]

That's cool. At least you don't have to find a scuba diver. It would be nice to have something that prevents the Phantom from being submerged though. Lakes provide a great open area for flying without trees & wifi interference.

 

[RedFishChaser]

Will it really matter recovering the Phantom and GoPro because all the electronics will be ruined!

I guess the plastic parts can be salvaged and reused on a new Phantom.

 

[MrMediaGuy]

I've seen at least two people recounting stories of falling into pools, lakes, etc., and being able to dry everything out and it works fine. Trick is to take everything apart, get out as much water as you can, and then pack everything except the shell into bags of dry rice for 24-48 hours, just like you would with a cell phone that went into the pool. You have probably a 70% chance of everything working again. If you had the misfortune to go into salt water the odds are against you, but you can immerse everything at least twice in distilled water first to get rid of the salt before you start the drying process -- and pray.

And of course you will need to open up your motors once dry and relubricate them.

My Phantom is only 80g over 1kg, so I actually put four styrofoam packing peanuts inside the empty space in the shell (not blocking any airflow to the ESCs of course) to offset the extra 80g, and I just use a single WaterBuoy. Which hopefully I will never see in action.

 

[RedFishChaser]

Will it really matter recovering the Phantom and GoPro because all the electronics will be ruined!

I guess the plastic parts can be salvaged and reused on a new Phantom.

Why do you assume that the electronics will be ruined?

It's just that water and electricity don't go well together. Especially salt water.

From the previous poster about seen some water logged Phantoms operating again... that's GREAT to hear! And thanks for the tip on drying the unit before trying to get it powered up and flying again! I just hope that I will not have one that ends up in the water. Nevertheless, I won't have any floaties on the Phantom.

 

[Siddy]

I got a keyring like this few years ago (took valve of order of lifejackets over free delivery)
I email the company you showed above last month asking how there product would stand up attached to a Quad, keys are one dead weight and quad has more dragging point against water ie would they say use 2 on one. Or if they have any other modles in the pipeline.
I got a mail saying they've got the mail and thats it.

Think you'd have to mount 1 along each side on the lower belly to keep it top afloat.

 

[RedFishChaser]

It just that water and electricity don't get well.

Yeah. Bad assumption on your part.

My Phantom and Gopro have both been dunked.

They continue to work just fine.

I'd like to see the stats on how many that hit the water that continue to work after some drying Versus that end up dead. Some may be saved, but I doubt that most don't. Why else would they say on many electronics not to get it wet/submerged!

 

[Roadkilt]

Two huge wet landings. One into a river with a crash, smashed the gopro off its mount, floated upside down thanks to foam noodles on the landing skid. Dried out, go find the forum, and everything works fine. Ocean hard crash, sank, and recvered. washed everything down with fresh water. Gopro fully exposed and soaked with gimbal. Phantom GPS not working but everything else is, including gopro and gimbal. BAttery shot, wont hold charge. So act fast, rinse with clean water, dry thoroughly, recalibrate and carefully test motors, GPS, etc. I'm impressed with its recovery.

 

[SCADAMON]

http://youtu.be/ofmfyJqeFbU

 

[RedFishChaser]

justsomeguy....

You know what, you know that you're always right! That's your personality!

Piss off if you're going to be offensive just on opinions and asking for some data. You're just the type of person who's always right that gets on people's skin! Know it all! End of my discussion and any dealings with you as you're always right neoteny head!

 

[not5150]

justsomeguy....
You know what, you know that you're always right! That's your personality!

The thing is.. on this he is right. Placing wet electronics in bags of rice or silica gel pellets (purchased from pet stores) has been done for literally decades. It doesn't always work, but it has saved two of my cameras and a phone.

I'd say stop acting like a child and take it as one of those "you learn something new every day" type lessons. Also stop being lazy and google it yourself.

 

[Voyager11]

The only think I see as a problem is salt water. I many cases its corrosive content is the end of certain electronics. But then again relatively speaking replacing parts is cheaper then replacing the whole UAV. I love the idea. Came up with something similar with cell phones. I learned a lot but no money to make it come true. I did learn that the best triggering device is a common aspirin. good job!

 

[mroberts]

One simple answer is, god forbid, to actually put the GoPro in its waterproof case! Yes it will cost you a small amount of flight time, but you drop your liability by a few hundred bucks!

It seems Phantoms handle water better than the GoPro, and at least are more modular so you may be able to salvage some of it.

Re the WaterBouy, all we need now is a Shapeways bracket for it!

 

[mroberts]

One simple answer is, god forbid, to actually put the GoPro in its waterproof case!

Please explain how one would use the waterproof Gopro case in conjunction with any of the gimbals that are currently available.

Thanks is advance for sharing your knowledge on this subject!

Well, with some of the heavily customised ones you're SOL. The more basic ones seem to have a flat mounting plate, so hopefully you could rotate the mount 90 degrees and attach it to the back of the case rather than the base, or you coud cut the tabs off the base of the GoPro case and attach it directly "right" way up. Re-balancing the gimbal may take a bit of effort.

The gimbals meant for larger cameras should hold the case with no worries.

You can no longer use the video out, but I've got a super cheap camera I was using before I got the GoPro cable, so I'd run that in parallel.

IF I were going to fly over water, I'd be willing to either make some sacrifices in order to protect the GoPro, or I'd have to be willing to accept the risk of losing the whole thing.

Personally, I wouldn't (and haven't) flown over water on the assumption that everything would work fine after a swim, nor that I'd be happy to write off the lot. I've used the waterproof case (no gimbal) and the "disposable" camera when I've done a small amount of over water flying.

 

[mroberts]

The more basic ones seem to have a flat mounting plate, so hopefully you could rotate the mount 90 degrees and attach it to the back of the case rather than the base...

Which specific gimbals are you referring to?

This one seems like it would have potential.

 

[mroberts]

As I suspected.

Your claims are just Idle speculation that aren't based on any real experience.

Not helpful.

I would prefer to call it "thinking". You're right, no good has ever come from speculation or hypothesies. I apologise unashamedly for expressing thoughts or creativity.