This is a long story but here it goes.
I was flying the mavic pro over a quarry that has water in it. I was actually flying without my phone connected since it had been stolen a couple of days before, but didn't want to miss out on flying at this great place and recording. As I was flying the wind must of pushed me hard enough to a tree, after that the drone fell down into the water of the quarry.
It fell into shallow water and after climbing down there I recovered it and found the gimbal plate was broken where it connects to the gimbal. Also the ribbon cable was broken.
I was concerned with the water damage and knowing that I didn't have the coverage I decided to open up the drone and attempt to dry it. With a blow drier on low and from a considerable distance I managed to dry up water droplets from the main board and everything inside looked fine other than the ribbon cable and the plate.
After a few days with the gimbal/camera assembly taken off the drone I decided to put it together and attempt to fly it just to make sure nothing else but the camera were broken. To my surprise it actually hovered and only had an error about the front sensors not being connected.
Fast-forward getting the plate and the ribbon cable replacement. Had some trouble getting it on but after I managed I turned it on and immediately saw gimbal overload errors. The gimbal was violently rocking back and forth. I tried to calibrate and it never got over 5%. The other thing that I noticed was that there was no video feed to the (borrowed) phone that I connected to the remote.
It wasn't long before it got worse. At this point I had turned off and on the drone a few times since the gimbal rocking back and forth was concerning me. I looked closer to the video cable and at one part it does seem to have lost its shape, the small cables are not bundled together but none seemed to be broken. But as I turned it once again to see the errors smoke begins to come out of the drones front area, close to the gimbal assembly area. After that I gave up on it for a while since I was actually studying abroad when the drone crashed.
Now that I am back home, after taking the drone apart I see that the ribbon cable seems to have shorted since it looked burnt, with a couple of small cables being exposed. There is also a tear on the ribbon cable. So now I am here messing with the parts to see if it is worth buying the whole camera set up or trying to replace parts one by one.
I'd like to know if anyone has any insight into what might be wrong. At the moment I have the camera/gimbal connected to the visual board by the video cable. With a new phone now I cannot see anything from the feed. I have tried taking pictures and videos but nothing is recorded in the SD card. The only thing that happens when I press the picture button is the shutter sound but nothing else.
I have upgraded everything to no avail. So here I am wondering if I should look to replace both cables as well as the visual board. The front facing sensors seem to be giving information to the phone as there are readings, don't know how good they are however.
So what do you think? Should I replace all the cheaper parts and try to see if the camera is working, or should I just take the plunge for the whole assembly for >$380 or perhaps just call it a day and order a whole new mavic for $800 since I have two batteries(my third one doesn't charge after the crash) and the remote since it did also go into the water. Any advice would be appreciated, even just pointing me to more threads, I've been looking and reading anything I can find through mavicpilots and googling. Thanks.
TL;DR: Crashed Mavic while flying blind, fell into fresh water. After ribbon replacement, gimbal overload error, and no visual feed. Also short circuit occurred and damaged the replaced ribbon cable. What to do next ??
I was flying the mavic pro over a quarry that has water in it. I was actually flying without my phone connected since it had been stolen a couple of days before, but didn't want to miss out on flying at this great place and recording. As I was flying the wind must of pushed me hard enough to a tree, after that the drone fell down into the water of the quarry.
It fell into shallow water and after climbing down there I recovered it and found the gimbal plate was broken where it connects to the gimbal. Also the ribbon cable was broken.
I was concerned with the water damage and knowing that I didn't have the coverage I decided to open up the drone and attempt to dry it. With a blow drier on low and from a considerable distance I managed to dry up water droplets from the main board and everything inside looked fine other than the ribbon cable and the plate.
After a few days with the gimbal/camera assembly taken off the drone I decided to put it together and attempt to fly it just to make sure nothing else but the camera were broken. To my surprise it actually hovered and only had an error about the front sensors not being connected.
Fast-forward getting the plate and the ribbon cable replacement. Had some trouble getting it on but after I managed I turned it on and immediately saw gimbal overload errors. The gimbal was violently rocking back and forth. I tried to calibrate and it never got over 5%. The other thing that I noticed was that there was no video feed to the (borrowed) phone that I connected to the remote.
It wasn't long before it got worse. At this point I had turned off and on the drone a few times since the gimbal rocking back and forth was concerning me. I looked closer to the video cable and at one part it does seem to have lost its shape, the small cables are not bundled together but none seemed to be broken. But as I turned it once again to see the errors smoke begins to come out of the drones front area, close to the gimbal assembly area. After that I gave up on it for a while since I was actually studying abroad when the drone crashed.
Now that I am back home, after taking the drone apart I see that the ribbon cable seems to have shorted since it looked burnt, with a couple of small cables being exposed. There is also a tear on the ribbon cable. So now I am here messing with the parts to see if it is worth buying the whole camera set up or trying to replace parts one by one.
I'd like to know if anyone has any insight into what might be wrong. At the moment I have the camera/gimbal connected to the visual board by the video cable. With a new phone now I cannot see anything from the feed. I have tried taking pictures and videos but nothing is recorded in the SD card. The only thing that happens when I press the picture button is the shutter sound but nothing else.
I have upgraded everything to no avail. So here I am wondering if I should look to replace both cables as well as the visual board. The front facing sensors seem to be giving information to the phone as there are readings, don't know how good they are however.
So what do you think? Should I replace all the cheaper parts and try to see if the camera is working, or should I just take the plunge for the whole assembly for >$380 or perhaps just call it a day and order a whole new mavic for $800 since I have two batteries(my third one doesn't charge after the crash) and the remote since it did also go into the water. Any advice would be appreciated, even just pointing me to more threads, I've been looking and reading anything I can find through mavicpilots and googling. Thanks.
TL;DR: Crashed Mavic while flying blind, fell into fresh water. After ribbon replacement, gimbal overload error, and no visual feed. Also short circuit occurred and damaged the replaced ribbon cable. What to do next ??
