P4 Drone Only??

[ifsteve]

So my P4 went for a swim today (freshwater). It was probably submerged about 30 seconds (no more). I took the battery out and dried as best I could and now its playing the waiting game. I'll know in a week if its salvageable or not.

So to my question. Since I already have two other batteries, hard case, spare props, tracker, and controller (all which are like new) is there anyway to buy just a new drone? I see lots of used ones on here and fleabay and I may end up going that route but would prefer to buy a new one. Best I can find is on Amazon for $760 but its of course the entire setup.

 

[Meta4]

So to my question. Since I already have two other batteries, hard case, spare props, tracker, and controller (all which are like new) is there anyway to buy just a new drone? I see lots of used ones on here and fleabay and I may end up going that route but would prefer to buy a new one. Best I can find is on Amazon for $760 but its of course the entire setup.

Not surprisingly, there are a lot more controllers, batteries & chargers on the second hand market than aircraft.
DJI do sell the drone-only for current models, but it's usually more cost effective to buy a complete kit and sell off your unneeded accessories.

 

[WV. Rootman]

Don't buy. Just fly. Your P4 should be fine. I don't think you need to wait a week. Two days of a fan, heater, etc should do it.

 

[John1960]

Just out of interest ............how did you manage to drown it ?.

 

[ifsteve]

Just out of interest ............how did you manage to drown it ?.

I had it in follow mode in Litchi. We were going around a bend in a river and my buddy had the boat near the bank to stay in the deeper water. Unfortunately the drone was too close to the bank and the water strider clipped the top of a willow and it flipped over and fell down through the willows and bounced into the river upside down. The error in my part was two fold.

1. The first mistake was that I set the follow elevation too low. I thought 30' was plenty well it wasn't.
2. The second mistake was when we went around the bend and the drone starter to get closer to the bank I should have just paused the follow mode and pushed the drone higher.

So no fault of the drone whatsoever, all on me.

As a follow on, I saw a youtube video last night of a guy who built what he called a hot box (carboard box turned upside down over the drone) and a small heater blowing warm air into the box. Ran that a bit last night and will do some more today and then power it up and see what happens.

 

[John1960]

Thanks and good luck hope it fly's ok

 

[ifsteve]

Don't buy. Just fly. Your P4 should be fine. I don't think you need to wait a week. Two days of a fan, heater, etc should do it.

Well looks like you were correct. Dried it out in a "hot box" like I saw on youtube. Still had some moisture inside the camera so I wrapped a plastic bag full of rice around the camera and heated that and let it sit for two days. All good. Reclaibrated the senors and took it out yesterday for a short test flight. Everything responded as it should have. So it appears that all I ended up losing was the battery and one prop.

Life is good!

 

[WV. Rootman]

Well looks like you were correct. Dried it out in a "hot box" like I saw on youtube. Still had some moisture inside the camera so I wrapped a plastic bag full of rice around the camera and heated that and let it sit for two days. All good. Reclaibrated the senors and took it out yesterday for a short test flight. Everything responded as it should have. So it appears that all I ended up losing was the battery and one prop.

Life is good!

How do I know.? I don't care if no one believes me, I crashed aP3 at the base of a waterfall for 3 days. I decided to make a rig that would reach it with a grappling hook on the end. I thought at least I could sell the gimbal arms and body to recover some of my money. I took it home and spent a while wash the silt out of it. I took it apart and put it in a dehydrator for a couple days. Couldn't believe it, with a battery it flew, everything was fine.