Wet Controller...Gatorade

[Dronefool]

After a few months without flying (work is busy) I decided to bust out my Phantom 3 pro and started charging the controller. Meanwhile I was thirsty a few hours later and set a fresh glass of blue gatorade precariously above my controller (charging on the floor). Somehow I knocked it over and it landed squarely upside down on my upward facing controller. Minutes later there were still drips of gatorade coming out the bottom of the controller. I could cry...

Anyways, at this point what's done is done. I currently have it in a bag of rice and plan to leave it there a couple days. The issue is that this is not just water and my guess is that it is basically a ticking time bomb from here on out. Thoughts? Options?
1. Send it in to DJI?
2. Buy a new one and throw it away.
3. Quickly sell it on ebay (with full disclosure of the accident) and buy a new one.
4. Risk continuing to use it and hope it does not end up causing a huge accident or something.

Please advise. The darn controller is so expensive (((

 

[Dronefool]

Another option could be taking it apart and cleaning with alcohol?

 

[Tony Cowan]

Rice is nice idea but I would think the mother board is shot. As you had power going to it. No need to try and sell that. As you would not get much. I would just get another. Which I did after I dropped mine on the floor. I paid 90 dollars for a new one. Sold other to forum member. But he quickly modded it. Good luck.


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[fordruid]

Sell it and buy a new one for safety and peace of mind. Or save it for non-wetted (is that a word?) parts if you ever need them.

 

[go fast]

Or just try it , you may be surprised if it works hover keep the a/c close then go from there...

 

[peter west nz]

Probably the sugar content is the biggest problem. If it wasn't powered up at the time, a good wash in distilled water, then isopropyl alcohol[or meths], then a dry with a hair dryer might just save it. Make sure you unplug the battery - wash it, but not connected in the tx.

 

[J.James]

Even if it can be saved Im going to have to agree with peter west that it would need to be rinsed out and then dried. Tho you would want to take the battery out before even trying some thing like that. But gator aid is conductive and has salts in it. So you dont even want any of the dried goo touching any thing that can short out.

 

[Wolfiesden]

I would...
Take it apart. Unhook and remove the battery. Rinse it out thoroughly with fresh CLEAN water (filtered is best). Dry it best you can (shake it out, towel dry the surface gently). Lightly rinse it out with rubbing alcohol (60-70%). Dry again. Wrap it in cheesecloth. Put it in a bin with either white rice or (better) bury it in Fresh Step Crystals cat litter (its pure silica gel). Leave it in that bin for the weekend. While doing that, wipe the battery with a damp clean cloth. Dry it.

Re-assemble it and see what happens.

Basically you need to get the gatoraid out so it doesn't gum up things as the water in it evaporates. The alcohol combines with water to help remove it. The cheesecloch allows air/moisture to move while keeping the rice/descant out of the mechanical areas. The rice or cat litter perform as a descant to farther dry it out. You don't want to submerge the battery so wipe it clean. Worst case is its already toast so you can't break it any more than it already is. Best case is you get it cleaned and it works. And you learn not to put open glasses of anything near electronics.

If its toast, go buy a new one. Keep that one for mechanical replacement parts and the battery is probably fine too.

 

[Samuel Castleton]

Sell it and buy a new one. Think of this. If you are flying your drone and all the sudden your controller goes out, then there goes your drone also. Which is a total cost of $800. But if you just buy a new controller it will cost you about $90. It will for sure help you in the long run


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