Flying your drone in the rain; waterproof vs water resistant

[FormerMember07122019_2]

Other than accidentally being caught in the rain why would someone want to do this. VLOS would be harder, the pictures would be worse and you risk damaging your drone. The only possibilities I can think of are flying in humid environments or getting too close to a waterfall trying to get a great shot. Any others?

Ken

 

[JDawg]

Rob,
Is this the product I asked you about in a PM? Hope so, I have no reason to fly in the rain but would like to fly when it snows which happens only a couple of times per year here.

 

[AnotherMavicPilot]

Since we are talking about Mavics in the rain, there is this video. I can't vouch for authenticity and it was a stupid thing to do, but it looks interesting. It does not show a crash landing but I think an "unplanned" landing was not because of water; it just could not fight its way back against the wind.

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I'm more impressed by how well that coped with the wind, guaranteed the drone is toast though!

 

[AnotherMavicPilot]

Other than accidentally being caught in the rain why would someone want to do this. VLOS would be harder, the pictures would be worse and you risk damaging your drone. The only possibilities I can think of are flying in humid environments or getting too close to a waterfall trying to get a great shot. Any others?

Ken

Search and rescue? Crime prevention? Helping firefighters?

Or just because we can!

 

[FormerMember07122019_2]

Search and rescue? Crime prevention? Helping firefighters?

Or just because we can!

Those are good. Maybe DJI should make a waterproof version of the Mavic 2 Enterprise.

 

[LivinLarge]

What about water on the motors? I know that centrifugal force would fling most of it off but with the sheer number of drops involved the motors would get wet.

Brushless motors are not bothered by water, in fact they can run under water. The bearings could rust over time, especially if exposed to salt water.

 

[LivinLarge]

Look forward to seeing your results. I have built several waterproof, floating quads. A folding quad such as the Mavic will be difficult to seal. If you close off the openings, there will not be airflow to cool it. Also the barometer needs to breathe. Camera and gimbal will be a special problem.

 

[Mossiback]

Brushless motors are not bothered by water, in fact they can run under water. The bearings could rust over time, especially if exposed to salt water.

Good to know. Thanks.

 

[LivinLarge]

Good to know. Thanks.

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[AnotherMavicPilot]

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Ok you've passed the test!

Next up we have the MP2 using the wet suit!

 

[crazyju]

Since we are talking about Mavics in the rain, there is this video. I can't vouch for authenticity and it was a stupid thing to do, but it looks interesting. It does not show a crash landing but I think an "unplanned" landing was not because of water; it just could not fight its way back against the wind.

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At least he had a helmet on!

 

[paulatkin73]

i did something like this on one model, but i am pretty sure mavics do not have it.
you get your board and after everything is soldered in - you dip everything into something like this:
Gardner Bender White Liquid Electrical Tape 4 oz.-LTW-400 - The Home Depot
so it would prevent shorts if board gets completely soaked. especially contacts from the lipo. if that gets water - it will produce very nice audio and video effects and will probably melt everything around it as well.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

In the past, if the weather even looked like it was going to rain, I didnt fly my drone. It was not worth the risk to the delicate electronics inside to experiment. That said, I will be buying and paying for a product being advertised as making my drone waterproof for my brand new Mavic 2 and doing complete testing. After the test I will give a full independent review of the product and post it here. I am very skeptical of the ability of any product that says a person can fly a drone in the rain and not damage the drone, unless the drone itself is waterproof. Any aftermarket product made for a drone will not make the drone water proof, simply water resistant. Timex watches, back in the day, were touted as being water resistant. I tested mine under the kitchen faucet. It leaked and I never was able to get the water bubble out from inside after that, but it kept on ticking. In the 80's, Casio came out with the Gshock which was really waterproof, and I went scuba diving with mine numerous times without a problem or leak. I will be testing the water resistance of this product.

I own Phantom 4 Pros, Mavics, and Mavic 2 zoom and Pro.

1. I will install the product on the drone and then fly it in the rain for 5 minutes.
2. When it gets back, I will completely disassemble the drone and see if water did actually get into the interior of the drone or any components.
3. After disassembly and inspection, I will post a review here.
4. If any water is present in the interior of the drone, or the drone crashed caused by water getting into the interior and making the drone malfunction, I will be sure to follow up with the manufacturer of the "waterproof" at to why their product didnt stop pouting water from getting inside the drone, as is their claim.

Until I have completed testing, I still wont fly my drone in the rain. Yesterday, there was a light mist, and after 10 minutes of flight time, the drone came back soaked with water on the top and props. I disassembled it, dried it out, and flew it again this morning. Anyone who accidentally flies in the rain should at least dry their drone out for a few days before flying it again.

More to come.

In the past, if the weather even looked like it was going to rain, I didnt fly my drone. It was not worth the risk to the delicate electronics inside to experiment. That said, I will be buying and paying for a product being advertised as making my drone waterproof for my brand new Mavic 2 and doing complete testing. After the test I will give a full independent review of the product and post it here. I am very skeptical of the ability of any product that says a person can fly a drone in the rain and not damage the drone, unless the drone itself is waterproof. Any aftermarket product made for a drone will not make the drone water proof, simply water resistant. Timex watches, back in the day, were touted as being water resistant. I tested mine under the kitchen faucet. It leaked and I never was able to get the water bubble out from inside after that, but it kept on ticking. In the 80's, Casio came out with the Gshock which was really waterproof, and I went scuba diving with mine numerous times without a problem or leak. I will be testing the water resistance of this product.

I own Phantom 4 Pros, Mavics, and Mavic 2 zoom and Pro.

1. I will install the product on the drone and then fly it in the rain for 5 minutes.
2. When it gets back, I will completely disassemble the drone and see if water did actually get into the interior of the drone or any components.
3. After disassembly and inspection, I will post a review here.
4. If any water is present in the interior of the drone, or the drone crashed caused by water getting into the interior and making the drone malfunction, I will be sure to follow up with the manufacturer of the "waterproof" at to why their product didnt stop pouting water from getting inside the drone, as is their claim.

Until I have completed testing, I still wont fly my drone in the rain. Yesterday, there was a light mist, and after 10 minutes of flight time, the drone came back soaked with water on the top and props. I disassembled it, dried it out, and flew it again this morning. Anyone who accidentally flies in the rain should at least dry their drone out for a few days before flying it again.

More to come.

To the the owner of THUNDERDRONES:

It did not take long for me to loose complete respect for you and your company.

No where did I post ever that anything we make is WATER PROOF, and so you start off with a LIE.

HERE is how THUNDERDRONES came at me:
Im going to post it on my website. because this is wrong.



And this was my Response:



And after he was done begging for Promotional Products and did not get them he wrote this



Before he even gets started Thunderdrones starts off with LIE

There was no reason to take this tone: NONE

So I dont need you to do any test or review for me for a stinking 5 minutes.

I was thinking along the lines of sending you a Phantom 4 sendiing you a Mavic 2 and having you flly it for a month.

That is the kind of guy I am. I am ashamed of you and this post and your company for starting off talking about the Mavic Wet Suits with a big fat lie::

NO ONE EVER WROTE THAT THE WET SUITS WERE MADE WATER PROOF<
NO ONE EVER WROTE THAT WATER WOULD NOT GET INSIDE THE DRONES>

Im sorry your feeling got hurt , but this post started off with a LIE , . I will never believe anything you say or do ever, and I will always have this POST of lies .

What a shame you choose this Rabit Hole to go down,

Phantomrain.org
coal

 

[Phantomrain.org]

As soon as I read this I started researching water proofing drone and all the stuff I saw was disassembling the drone and applying Corrosion X or Silicone Conformal Coating. Sounds like you found something that protects from the outer body of the drone.

One of the problems with the sprays was not that they did not work, they did work incredibly , but there highly flammable and thus the Best Products were taking off the market.

We considered that route long ago. ultimately we found a better way for the Phantoms to negotiate water in torrential downpours as we have the Mavic 2 Wet suits.

As the owner of Phantomrain.org I can tell you that everytning I have read from Thunderdrones on this post is from someone that has no idea what they are talking about...

.

 

[Former Member]

To the the owner of THUNDERDRONES:

It did not take long for me to loose complete respect for you and your company.

No where did I post ever that anything we make is WATER PROOF, and so you start off with a LIE.

HERE is how THUNDERDRONES came at me:
Im going to post it on my website. because this is wrong.

View attachment 58911

And this was my Response:

View attachment 58912

And after he was done begging for Promotional Products and did not get them he wrote this

View attachment 58913

Before he even gets started Thunderdrones starts off with LIE

There was no reason to take this tone: NONE

So I dont need you to do any test or review for me for a stinking 5 minutes.

I was thinking along the lines of sending you a Phantom 4 sendiing you a Mavic 2 and having you flly it for a month.

That is the kind of guy I am. I am ashamed of you and this post and your company for starting off talking about the Mavic Wet Suits with a big fat lie::

NO ONE EVER WROTE THAT THE WET SUITS WERE MADE WATER PROOF<
NO ONE EVER WROTE THAT WATER WOULD NOT GET INSIDE THE DRONES>

Im sorry your feeling got hurt , but this post started off with a LIE , . I will never believe anything you say or do ever, and I will always have this POST of lies .

What a shame you choose this Rabit Hole to go down,

Phantomrain.org
coal

Im sorry if your feathers got ruffled. In answer to your post, I get dozens of demo products from Approved Vendors here, and elsewhere. I give my unbiased reviews, and most vendors are happy with that. I did not "beg" you for a promo, and my feelings didnt get hurt. I simply asked for a review copy so that I might help to meet some of the skepticism that you are being met with here, as I mentioned in my message to you. Since you were too busy to send me one, I decided to buy my own. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Any member here could do the same thing. Buy one of your products and give a review.

My business is to rescue drones. Ive been doing it a long time, and I love what I do. I help people every day here and in person.

I will reserve my opinion and review on your product until I have received and tested it. No need for you to cast aspersions here about me or my company, I did not cast one at your company or your person, so you really shouldnt do that either. Can I say that I have lost all faith and respect in you and your product? I wont do that until I have tested it.

You claim that you were thinking of sending me a Phantom and a Mavic 2 to keep for a month? Thats not what you mentioned in your answer. Thats also not how I do reviews. Companies ask me to review their products, and send me the demo way before I ever mention it here. I felt an urgency to reach out to your company and offer you to read the review before I released it. That was fair. It would not take "a stinking 5 minutes," more like 5 or 10 hours to complete the test, disassemble MY perfectly good Mavic, and look for and remove any water that got inside, not to mention repair any parts on my dime that got damaged. Stinking 5 minutes? More like 10 hours and $1500 risk that your product would work and not toast my new $1500 Mavic 2 Pro.

Well, there we have it. I will do my review with the skin I bought and post it here as soon as possible. Since you offer no guarantee that water will not get inside, and since you offer no compensation if something were to happen to an owners drone, I want to let my fellow members, followers and customers know if your product will allow damage to their drone.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I actually have the wrapgrade and I dont feel it helps with waterproofing. You need something that can get into the seems and joints. The wrap just covers the impermeable plastic housing anyways. One of the problem areas I see is the camera body and the lens and like you said the vents.

Because I have lost all respect for reasons I posted below for Thunder-drones , let me explain to you the difference between the Wrapgrade skin and the Mavic 2 Wet Suits.

We have used the Concepts that we applied to the Phantom 4 series drones to allowing them to Negotiate Water so they could if needed fly in the rain, snow , storm ect.

So before Thunderdrones start making up more lies , I need to Educate him:

Redundancy is one of the Concepts that proved so Powerful on the Phantom 4 Pro:

Here is one of the ways it was used on the Mavic 2 Battery Compartment, the weakest link .

We applied a seal on the inside and outside of the battery compartment.
We used the Seal to create more Pressure on the battery to compress it down.
We Covered the Battery with 2mm thick Closed Cell Neoprene .
We added another outside seal using a 3m adhesive that goes arround the actual seam of the battery.

This is called Redundancy; When you apply these concepts to the weak links of Water Resistance. the drone has a much
better chance of flying in the RAIN> SNOW, Hail.

When I tell you that thunderdrones is spilling fourth some nonsense I mean it.

Why Thunderdrones has decided to humiliate himself and his company with false words is beyond my understanding.

Phantomrain.org
coal

 

[Former Member]

Because I have lost all respect for reasons I posted below for Thunder-drones , let me explain to you the difference between the Wrapgrade skin and the Mavic 2 Wet Suits.

We have used the Concepts that we applied to the Phantom 4 series drones to allowing them to Negotiate Water so they could if needed fly in the rain, snow , storm ect.

So before Thunderdrones start making up more lies , I need to Educate him:

Redundancy is one of the Concepts that proved so Powerful on the Phantom 4 Pro:

Here is one of the ways it was used on the Mavic 2 Battery Compartment, the weakest link .

We applied a seal on the inside and outside of the battery compartment.
We used the Seal to create more Pressure on the battery to compress it down.
We Covered the Battery with 2mm thick Closed Cell Neoprene .
We added another outside seal using a 3m adhesive that goes arround the actual seam of the battery.

This is called Redundancy; When you apply these concepts to the weak links of Water Resistance. the drone has a much
better chance of flying in the RAIN> SNOW, Hail.

When I tell you that thunderdrones is spilling fourth some nonsense I mean it.

Why Thunderdrones has decided to humiliate himself and his company with false words is beyond my understanding.

Phantomrain.org
coal

Have you opened up a Phantom or a Mavic to see if water got inside? If so, what did you find?

Im trying to be objective here, but you seem to be taking the low road.

 

[Former Member]

i did something like this on one model, but i am pretty sure mavics do not have it.
you get your board and after everything is soldered in - you dip everything into something like this:
Gardner Bender White Liquid Electrical Tape 4 oz.-LTW-400 - The Home Depot
so it would prevent shorts if board gets completely soaked. especially contacts from the lipo. if that gets water - it will produce very nice audio and video effects and will probably melt everything around it as well.

Most DJI drones have conformal coatings on the boards to help with water resistance. It will resist, but, as you said, if enough water accumulates, there is sure to be a problem.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

Im sorry if your feathers got ruffled. In answer to your post, I get dozens of demo products from Approved Vendors here, and elsewhere. I give my unbiased reviews, and most vendors are happy with that. I did not "beg" you for a promo, and my feelings didnt get hurt. I simply asked for a review copy so that I might help to meet some of the skepticism that you are being met with here, as I mentioned in my message to you. Since you were too busy to send me one, I decided to buy my own. I see absolutely nothing wrong with that. Any member here could do the same thing. Buy one of your products and give a review.

My business is to rescue drones. Ive been doing it a long time, and I love what I do. I help people every day here and in person.

I will reserve my opinion and review on your product until I have received and tested it. No need for you to cast aspersions here about me or my company, I did not cast one at your company or your person, so you really shouldnt do that either. Can I say that I have lost all faith and respect in you and your product? I wont do that until I have tested it.

You claim that you were thinking of sending me a Phantom and a Mavic 2 to keep for a month? Thats not what you mentioned in your answer. Thats also not how I do reviews. Companies ask me to review their products, and send me the demo way before I ever mention it here. I felt an urgency to reach out to your company and offer you to read the review before I released it. That was fair. It would not take "a stinking 5 minutes," more like 5 or 10 hours to complete the test, disassemble MY perfectly good Mavic, and look for and remove any water that got inside, not to mention repair any parts on my dime that got damaged. Stinking 5 minutes? More like 10 hours and $1500 risk that your product would work and not toast my new $1500 Mavic 2 Pro.

Well, there we have it. I will do my review with the skin I bought and post it here as soon as possible. Since you offer no guarantee that water will not get inside, and since you offer no compensation if something were to happen to an owners drone, I want to let my fellow members, followers and customers know if your product will allow damage to their drone.

I am angry with your Lies, your post and complete lack of knowledge about any of the product that we sell, Im ashamed for you,

I am going to post a video on my website about your company, the phone calls I had to take in the middle of the night because of your Non Sense about a Product that you know nothing about.

Not only that Im goiing to save you the time :::

I HERE BY SWEAR THAT WE FOUND WATER INSIDE THE MAVIC 2 WET SUIT.

Sign it like the Liar you are. :::

With that said everyone can thank you for your LIES : Because Im pulling the RELEASE ,

I will wait , I will post more videos. I dont need this for a living , but you do.

Im in no hurry, I waited a long time to consider doing the wet Suits for the Mavic,

The damage you have done to your company has for surpassed the damage of water found inside the drone.

Phantomrain.org
coal

 

[kilomikebravo]

I've never heard of Phantomrain or Mavic wetsuits but you definitely picked the wrong place to dis Rob at Thunderdrones. He has helped countless forum members and has a sterling reputation here. So ease up with the unfounded criticisms, eh?