Phantom 3 spends 2 hours in the lake

[RC Madman]

Well, it seems to officially be dead-
I have the board completely cleaned and dry, but it is not sending any power to anything- no beeps, no fans no lights- nothing. I have power on the board beside the main inputs, but nothing from there (probably some simple diode or something!)

So, I have to decide if I should

A. Buy a new board and hope my camera still works ($150)

B. Buy a whole new drone (probably an advanced at less than $600) then use it to test my motors, camera, gimbal- then sell the extra parts and keep the advanced.

C. Toss it, and wait for mavics to start shipping (and prepare the wife for another $1000 toy expenditure)

If I missed it above forgive me but how/why did your Phantom end up in the drink to begin with?

 

[theCADman99]

If I missed it above forgive me but how/why did your Phantom end up in the drink to begin with?

I was flying cocky pure and simple. I've been flying RC for many many years and the phantom is so easy I really didn't think I could crash it.
Long story short-
Don't fly without your glasses (was preparing to don a headset to use Litchi)
Don't fly at low altitude (especially 100 yards away, at 30mph)
Don't fly in forest fire smoke

I did all of the above, over water, and snagged an overhanging oak limb.
Really really dumb, completely my fault, and totally avoidable.

 

[RC Madman]

The reason I asked is it could have more than water damage. Seems like it may? I have read many many reports from people sinking their drones underwater and they only needed a good drying. I sunk my toy grade Dromida Ominous in one of my fish tanks and it was good to go after a drying.

 

[theCADman99]

If anyone has this problem- let me save you the trouble of washing, cleaning, tinkering with your drone- I had to buy a new mainboard- and make sure it will work with your motors (not all do). After a new board and battery I'm back flying- but it was an expense on an already aging drone.

If I had it to do over again, I thing I would have parted it out on ebay (must have a friend who an test your motors/camera etc... then purchased a new drone.

 

[RC Madman]

Yep the parts are not cheap unless you can find good used ones. As to the drones age? Yes it does not have the features of some of DJI's newest but they are still worth fixing and capable drones. If the parts market got more reasonable we would be in good shape for a couple more years but DJI keeps the prices high on older version parts. People buy new P3's just to part them out making pretty good money.

 

[jclenik]

WOW!
Great job getting it back!
I know this sounds stupid... But I'm proud of you
P3P brother! Hope it comes back too life

Sent from my LGUS991 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[jclenik]

Although, I think your parts are most likely fried there is one thing I've had some success with, a dehumidifier. I have a big rectangular dehumidifier in our basement and fashioned a large box that can go around it. I cut a piece out for the back of the unit to get air. I've put parts inside the box and let the dehumidifier run for a couple of days. Seems to suck every drop of water from the components. I do agree with the other poster who emphasized using distilled water to wash the parts first. Just a thought.

Jerry

That's a great idea! Not only for this situation either..

Sent from my LGUS991 using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[theCADman99]

Yep the parts are not cheap unless you can find good used ones. As to the drones age? Yes it does not have the features of some of DJI's newest but they are still worth fixing and capable drones. If the parts market got more reasonable we would be in good shape for a couple more years but DJI keeps the prices high on older version parts. People buy new P3's just to part them out making pretty good money.

I'm still very happy with my P3, and I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon- heck my computer can barely handle editing 1080 video as it is! I do wonder if a P4 or Mavic would have seen that tree branch and avoided the crash.

 

[DavidN747]

Mine took a swim in a murky river, (I hit low hanging tree branches which I didn't see from about 200m away) but luckily the battery was ejected when it hit the water. I think that saved my drone!!

The Phantom was recovered from about a metre under water, within about ten minutes, was washed in rain water, partly disassembled (camera and gimbal) then dried thoroughly over about two days, with much of that time in front of a fan heater on low.
The Phantom has never missed a beat since it's ditching, with no ill effects whatsoever.

My family have named it "Sully" - for a successful ditching.

 

[theCADman99]

Mine took a swim in a murky river, (I hit low hanging tree branches which I didn't see from about 200m away) but luckily the battery was ejected when it hit the water. I think that saved my drone!!

The Phantom was recovered from about a metre under water, within about ten minutes, was washed in rain water, partly disassembled (camera and gimbal) then dried thoroughly over about two days, with much of that time in front of a fan heater on low.
Whilst the battery never came good (it spent much longer under water), the Phantom has never missed a beat since it's ditching, with no ill effects whatsoever.

My family have named it "Sully" - for a successful ditching.

Wow, that is great that your bird is still going. I can't believe your battery ejected- that was some luck. .

 

[CLR121212]

Similar just happened to me!

 

[yorlik]

You got into that 50F water like a Navy Seal! Are you one?? VERY Impressive!!!

Great to hear you got it running again with a new PCB! Proof again that rinsing and drying off works most of the time - since your ESC and camera boards all work still.

Just for the record, distilled water is absolutely NOT needed to clean! We repair probably $200,000.00 of very sensitive electronic equipment each year, and some boards are caked with 1" of industrial garbage. The city water out of the sink cleans these. If needed, they are sprayed off with Fantastic or other equiv cleaner and worked over with a brush then rinsed again. Sometimes alcohol is used, but we go thru many gallons of spray cleaner and only a few bottles of alcohol a year.. Then drying.

As for frying a part with the power still on, even in your murky water, you can convince yourself this is highly unlikely by taking an ohmmeter back to the river and sticking the leads in - 10s or 100s of thousand ohms - pretty high resistance - not a short.

From your description I would accept a bet that your board has a broken solder joint or cracked pcb trace - some of those components are pretty heavy. To hit the hard water with, what, 10 G? It might be fun to take a magnifying glass and look around where the battery leads come in and see if you can find the loose component or cracked pcb copper trace close to a heavy component in that area.

 

[theCADman99]

You got into that 50F water like a Navy Seal! Are you one?? VERY Impressive!!!

Great to hear you got it running again with a new PCB! Proof again that rinsing and drying off works most of the time - since your ESC and camera boards all work still.

Just for the record, distilled water is absolutely NOT needed to clean! We repair probably $200,000.00 of very sensitive electronic equipment each year, and some boards are caked with 1" of industrial garbage. The city water out of the sink cleans these. If needed, they are sprayed off with Fantastic or other equiv cleaner and worked over with a brush then rinsed again. Sometimes alcohol is used, but we go thru many gallons of spray cleaner and only a few bottles of alcohol a year.. Then drying.

As for frying a part with the power still on, even in your murky water, you can convince yourself this is highly unlikely by taking an ohmmeter back to the river and sticking the leads in - 10s or 100s of thousand ohms - pretty high resistance - not a short.

From your description I would accept a bet that your board has a broken solder joint or cracked pcb trace - some of those components are pretty heavy. To hit the hard water with, what, 10 G? It might be fun to take a magnifying glass and look around where the battery leads come in and see if you can find the loose component or cracked pcb copper trace close to a heavy component in that area.

Hey yorlik no seal here- and it was very uncomfortable for about 3 mins lol.

I went over that board with a set of high power mag goggles, and couldn't find a thing.... I was stumped. I had voltage on the board, but I couldn't get anything past that.

Several of the pins around the main chip in the middle were corroded green. I used a dental pick and cleaned everything... even took the barometer out and cleaned underneath... still nothing.

I didn't even have a broken blade or a crack in the shell- so I dunno.. I must have missed something.