What's red and white and six feet under?

[Roadkilt]

My Phantom! in the ocean!

Ironically I was flying along a beach to get a nice long shot to finish off a video on the aeroxcraft gimbal. In that video, which I made a few days ago I mention not to fly stupidly over water as there is no protection to the gopro, the gimbal, or the phantom (no room for floats when the gimbal is there).

Then I hit a big pole someone had jammed into the beach, flipped into the ocean and sank...I ran into the water in my clothes, grabbed it and hurried home. It got a fresh water shower, and the blow dryer treatment, again! I was peeling off seaweed from the gimbal motors and shaking sand out of the skids. what a mess. Poor GoPro has no way to rinse or drain properly, and I notice fog in the lens.

Tomorrow I'll recalibrate the IMU, hook up a battery and power up the motors without props. Power up gimbal too, and Gopro. Worse case is I just blew $1300. Best case is everything is fine. Most likely case is gopro is toast, and everything else works. That's my guess anyway, I'll let you know! In the meantime I'll post my video of the aeroXcraft gimbal, its a beauty. Or was a beauty.....

 

[jumanoc]

Hey, I suggest not to try power anything as soon as tomorrow.
Some guys had sucessfully recovered all the submerged components by unasembling phantom and putting all with some bags of dry rice y some days, until all get dry. Hair dryer warm is not enough for complete drying..

 

[Roadkilt]

Good points. I have over 200 flights on the motors and was thinking of replacing them. That decision may have just been made.

 

[bumper]

There's hope.

Your first removed batteries of course - - it is incredibly important to get batteries out of the equipment as soon as possible. Minutes, even seconds count in salt water, as electrolysis corrosion starts immediately, and mostly stops just as soon as any electrical difference in potential is removed. Some corrosion will continue between dissimilar metals, as they will act like batteries in the presence of electrolyte (i.e. salt water). With this in mind, if there will be a delay in rinsing in distilled water, use whatever clean freshwater is available as an immediate initial rinse.

Rinse the GoPro several times well in distilled water. Shake or otherwise drain as much water as possible. Dry, either circulate warm dry air and/or use a desiccant.

good luck

bumper

 

[Roadkilt]

thanks for the suggestions...tomorrow will be interesting...

 

[Audaciter]

I hope everything gets dried out nicely, with no significant damage. I look forward to seeing many more
videos, of the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

Rock On Roadkilt.

 

[DeweyAXD]

There's hope.

Your first removed batteries of course - - it is incredibly important to get batteries out of the equipment as soon as possible. Minutes, even seconds count in salt water, as electrolysis corrosion starts immediately, and mostly stops just as soon as any electrical difference in potential is removed. Some corrosion will continue between dissimilar metals, as they will act like batteries in the presence of electrolyte (i.e. salt water). With this in mind, if there will be a delay in rinsing in distilled water, use whatever clean freshwater is available as an immediate initial rinse.

Rinse the GoPro several times well in distilled water. Shake or otherwise drain as much water as possible. Dry, either circulate warm dry air and/or use a desiccant.

good luck

bumper

Top advice there IMO... I think when it comes to electrics people don't think of rinsing them off due to fear of futher water damage but if you manage the drying process very carefully it can make all the difference. I'd pay close attention to the copper windings in the motor (you don't want to risk them failing due to corrosion in a few weeks). Compressed air to blast the water/dirt out but might just be worth replacing them for safety if they do fire up.

 

[Iron Creek]

Uncooked rice will also help with any moisture (please don't ask how/why I know this..)

Will need a very large container with a lot of rice, let it sit a couple days.

 

[marcus_canada]

I'm waiting with baited breath to hear the outcome. I'm rooting for the Phantom

 

[CameraGuy]

A week to 10 days in bags of rice. Don't even think about turning it on.

My Go pro did survive. It dried out, I took it apart. Don't waste your time doing that. The lens is sealed. Mine has some mould spots that won't go away, even 45-50 days later. It doesn't seem to effect the image, but it is not my primary GoPro anymore.

I have not rebuilt my old phantom. I have used it for spare parts, and that works well.

I am sorry to hear about your trouble. I know all to well the pain.

D

 

[Roadkilt]

OK, so everything has been disassembled, rinsed in fresh water, blown dry, sat for a day in a warm dry room. here we go so far:
1. GoPro works, except for WiFi. Foggy lens went away and seems optically fine. So far all functions seem to work. Amazing considering I couldn't open it up and span it dry in a salad spinner. That was not expected.
2. Removed gimbal and will test it separately with time
3. the Phantom:
no obvious damage to body or brains, wires unstuck etc, no salt or corrosion on contacts
motors all spin up ok without weird sounds, temperature is more or less the same (without load still, no props)
tx to Phantom seems fine for motor controls, pitch, yaw, throttle etc
recalibrated IMU a few times to be sure, basic cal is fine, compass/gyro etc at normal levels...but....
Now the bad part:
advanced cal keeps giving me Error 26, won't go away with tapping or recalibrating...Basic calibration says OK though, weird
Although start up sound, yellow flashing startup LEDS, brief green flash all normal, it immediately goes to double yellow flash like its in ATTI mode. Switching between GPS and ATTI makes no difference, its like it lost its GPS ability.

I'll let it dry out overnight before trying calibration etc again and see if the antenna or GPS is the culprit.

Any ideas? It's better than I thought it would be, but still not much better than a science experiment right now. Certainly no way i'm hanging anything on it until it is all green.

I'm open to ideas, it's going to become a spare Phantom if I can't solve this. Between updating the board, getting fresh motors and maybe the NAZA or GPS is damaged it may not be worth repairing when I can get a new one for a couple hundred more.

 

[marcus_canada]

Definitely sounds like the GPS unit is hurting. Did you peel off the grey stuff covering the GPS unit and clean/dry it too?

I was setting mine up one day with the top off after some modding and I had the same startup problems you mention, I had forgot to plug the GPS unit back into the NAzza - D'oh !!

 

[GearLoose]

Very sorry to hear that you dunked it (again). Considering how often you fly over/near water, have you considered the Aquacopter or QuadH20?

About Error 26. I do advanced calibration fairly often and I always get the Error 26 warning, even though I haven't had a crash or bump since the last calibration. It was mentioned on another forum that Error 26 messages like this can be ignored. That is what I have done as nothing makes it go away -- it does disappear after I do the calibration but is always there again at the next calibration.

 

[Roadkilt]

Todays update.
1. GoPro is fine except for wiFi Remote. Not at all. Well, I guess I should be happy.
2. Gimbal is fine. AeroXcraft guts responds well to fresh water and drying. Well thats $350 I saved.
3. Phantom is still double yellow flashing after warming up. And error 26. I'm willing to ignore the Error 26 but having no GPS is a bit scary.

I have accepted my responsibility and after long deliberation between a F450 and a Phantom I've ordered a new Phantom. I likely will get a F450 next year, but i fly in parks and near people, not over them usually, but near them. I backpack my rig, and I need something harmless looking and "hobby" ' to not get too much attention. the Phantom is great for this. The F450 starts looking seriously dronish (is that a word?) So to stay under the UAV radar I'll keep the Phantom with its pathetically short flight times. That will keep me out of trouble, how far away can you fly in 4 minutes?

On that note, any comments on how liPo batteries are lasting? I'm at about 40 cycles per battery and I find them getting less perky after a few minutes. I usually fully charge them immediately after a days flying so they are ready to go when the weather seems right. I've read that anywhere between 40 and 200 cycles is average, but some may fail after 20 charges, and others may go to 500. Wow. But realistically, I dont want to worry about a minute or so on a battery that cost me $20, I'll go get another.

Also, anyone hanging battery on the outside or sticking out that crap battery door to get a bigger battery? I'm thinking about replacing the door with a velcro strap so I can use 2500mah batts and get a bit more time. Comments?

 

[mikrob]

Todays update.

Also, anyone hanging battery on the outside or sticking out that crap battery door to get a bigger battery? I'm thinking about replacing the door with a velcro strap so I can use 2500mah batts and get a bit more time. Comments?

I cut an opening in the edge of the door to allow the wire connectors to hang outside the door.