has anyones mav survived water damage???

[genesimmons]

ok scary incedent today, totally my fault no app or settings simply me,,,, i modded my bird for the altitude resctrictions and while i was doing that i changed the asssend decend paramters so she climbs much faster, anyhoo long story short i was shooting the lake today and i flew below my take off point by about 150ft, i didnt have the camera facing down and i got caught up in the moment of the lake and she got to close and i seen water in my camera, i panicked and pushed full speed up, every thing seemed ok then about 2 min later i got a gimbal over load error, and the camera wasnt responding so i brought her home right away, about 400ft from home flying by los only as camera wasnt responding the decend didnt seem to respnd, i panicked again and pushed rth and she started decending, she seemed to respond to sideways and front to back, anyways i got her landed safe and to my shock or not a shock the underbelly was wet and even the battery was wet, i imiteatly took battery out and drove home, i removed the front body and slowly began applying some air from my hair dryer, shes apart and upside down right now, any one survived water issues, is my poor mav a parts machine with only about 5 hours on her, i cant believe i came down so fast, my fault no one elses just wondering if any ones mav has survived water before, and how long before i try a battery in her to see if she comes to llife

 

[Former Member]

Survival from a fresh water dip is around 50/50. If the battery didnt get wet, maybe a little bit better.

Survival from a fresh water total immersion is around 25%.

 

[beanbubba]

ok scary incedent today, totally my fault no app or settings simply me,,,, i modded my bird for the altitude resctrictions and while i was doing that i changed the asssend decend paramters so she climbs much faster, anyhoo long story short i was shooting the lake today and i flew below my take off point by about 150ft, i didnt have the camera facing down and i got caught up in the moment of the lake and she got to close and i seen water in my camera, i panicked and pushed full speed up, every thing seemed ok then about 2 min later i got a gimbal over load error, and the camera wasnt responding so i brought her home right away, about 400ft from home flying by los only as camera wasnt responding the decend didnt seem to respnd, i panicked again and pushed rth and she started decending, she seemed to respond to sideways and front to back, anyways i got her landed safe and to my shock or not a shock the underbelly was wet and even the battery was wet, i imiteatly took battery out and drove home, i removed the front body and slowly began applying some air from my hair dryer, shes apart and upside down right now, any one survived water issues, is my poor mav a parts machine with only about 5 hours on her, i cant believe i came down so fast, my fault no one elses just wondering if any ones mav has survived water before, and how long before i try a battery in her to see if she comes to llife

I have had a couple water incidents. I had one bird crashed at the top of a 70 tree for 2 weeks and it rained for 4 days of that time. Finally got her down (actually thunderstorm winds blew her down), opened her up and fully dried everything out and she flew first try. I noticed some corrosion on several electrical connections that I had to clean up a few weeks later, but all was good. The other time I got caught in a heavy rainstorm mid-flight and flew for 6 minutes in the storm. Did the same procedure and that bird is still flying today. The mavic seems resilient to fresh water accidents, but I have no sea water stories to tell.

PS - make sure to take the birds bottom plate and top shell off when drying out and any fan will speed up the drying process. You don't need heat or a hair dryer.

 

[Just_nick]

Don't remove altitude restrictions. They're there for a reason, and we as pilots don't need drones flying in our airspace. You can literally kill someone with such foolishness, and you have absolutely no business being above 400ft AGL or 400 feet above a structure as a 107 pilot.

As far as your problem, your biggest thing is to identify what got wet and make sure you dry it. Which means you probably need to open up your shell and make sure your components are not wet.

 

[beanbubba]

Don't remove altitude restrictions. They're there for a reason, and we as pilots don't need drones flying in our airspace. You can literally kill someone with such foolishness, and you have absolutely no business being above 400ft AGL or 400 feet above a structure as a 107 pilot.

As far as your problem, your biggest thing is to identify what got wet and make sure you dry it. Which means you probably need to open up your shell and make sure your components are not wet.

That was useless babble of self righteousness that provided zero value to give the dude constructive feedback on the issue. Do you feel better getting that out??

 

[genesimmons]

thank u for the comments, i did open her up both sides and let her comepletly dry, i am happy to say she came back to life, camera works fine and i took her for a quick flight to make sure all was well, i am not sure if i was inches off the water and the blades caused her to be wet or she actually dipped in, i am pretty sure she dipped in as the body was to wet when i got her back for just spray mist, i cant believe she dipped in and came back, i thought she was done as the errors came on quick, and yes with all mods come responsibility, i was more curious than anything and now that i scared the crap out of myself i will be even more cautious, again thanx for the comments

 

[Jim Flannery K0UNX]

Mine went down in a remote area, and sat on the ground for a week, with an ice storm and snow. It was already dried out when I got it back, and flew as soon as I put a fresh battery in it. No problems at all.

 

[wowography]

Just a thought.. Took a peek inside my MPP awhile back. I noticed the application of a conformal coating applied to the circuit boards. This is a costly chemical coating/polymer that protects electronic circuits from moisture or other harsh environments. It's conceivable, as long as DJI gets those water incursion units back many of those main boards may find there way back in a refurb at some point.

 

[genesimmons]

Just a thought.. Took a peek inside my MPP awhile back. I noticed the application of a conformal coating applied to the circuit boards. This is a costly chemical coating/polymer that protects electronic circuits from moisture or other harsh environments. It's conceivable, as long as DJI gets those water incursion units back many of those main boards may find there way back in a refurb at some point.

are u refering to that grey putty looking stuff? i noticed that when i opened her up to dry,

 

[wowography]

That's is a thermal compound, it helps to transfer heat between the heatsink on the bottom of the drone and the componetnts on the other side (for example). The other stuff you may see is a silastic compound that is placed near critical soldered parts or componets with connections. It keeps everything in place through all the vibrations etc.

 

[genesimmons]

That's is a thermal compound, it helps to transfer heat between the heatsink on the bottom of the drone and the componetnts on the other side (for example). The other stuff you may see is a silastic compound that is placed near critical soldered parts or componets with connections. It keeps everything in place through all the vibrations etc.

ahhh good to know, i dont want to know how anything works inside there haha, i never want to take her apart again to many small wires

 

[FrankIII]

Survival from a fresh water dip is around 50/50. If the battery didnt get wet, maybe a little bit better.

Survival from a fresh water total immersion is around 25%.

Survival from a fresh water dip is around 50/50. If the battery didnt get wet, maybe a little bit better.

Survival from a fresh water total immersion is around 25%.

I sure wish I had those kind of finances to afford all of the AC's you have owned. Nice

 

[FrankIII]

Don't remove altitude restrictions. They're there for a reason, and we as pilots don't need drones flying in our airspace. You can literally kill someone with such foolishness, and you have absolutely no business being above 400ft AGL or 400 feet above a structure as a 107 pilot.

As far as your problem, your biggest thing is to identify what got wet and make sure you dry it. Which means you probably need to open up your shell and make sure your components are not wet.

Here Here. While flying I too always wonder when I will see a UAV in front of me. It might be a scary situation to have to avoid it.

 

[FrankIII]

That was useless babble of self righteousness that provided zero value to give the dude constructive feedback on the issue. Do you feel better getting that out??

YUP I'm glad he did. Obviously you are not a commercial or recreational pilot. We quite often think about it. PLEASE STAY BELOW 400'. Thanks.

 

[forsythem]

Hey, guys providing polite suggestions around not disabling height restrictions... I thought the Mavic was unable to actually discern the actual distance AGL. I understood that the firmware/software limitations prevented the Mavic from ascending above a height set from the takeoff point, and not actual AGL above where the drone might be flying.

So, a pilot could remain 20m AGL at all time, and ascend the drone up a 200m mountain, while still remaining legal and quite safe from aircraft. It was my understanding that the stock firmware, as it can't calculate AGL from the drone's location, would prevent this from happening.

My apologies if I've misunderstood anything - happy to be corrected.

If my assumptions are correct, then a Mavic owner could modify his drone to ascend above stock firmware limitations, do so as per my example above, and still be obeying all flight legalities.

Again, if so, why would you have a problem with this?

 

[genesimmons]

no i think the problem is the limit set in the mavic stock is 1640ft which is already higher than prob safe, when u mod the mav it can go to over 8000ft from point of take off, thats where the safety issues happen, i belive the mavic knows both atitudes, it knows the acutal altitude its at above sea level at all times and it knows the altittude above its take off point, we only see the above take off one though but both are imbedded in photos i was told and the software i use i am pretty sure shows actual altitude, sure if i climb my mav up a mountian maintaining a certain height the whole time not breaking any rules but i think whats being mentioned here is not climbing a mountain and flying into aircraft airspace like 8000ft is the problem,

 

[okw]

Just a little information ... The Mavic does not know how high it is above sea level, nor does it know how high it is above the ground level (once outside the limits of the downward sensors, approx 40'). It only has a reference to its take off point.

During take off, the Mavic records the barometric pressure and sets that as zero height. It then adjusts the height display on the RC as it flies based on the change of barometric pressure from that zero point. If you fly over ground that is either higher or lower from the take off point, the Mavic has no way of knowing this.

 

[genesimmons]

Just a little information ... The Mavic does not know how high it is above sea level, nor does it know how high it is above the ground level (once outside the limits of the downward sensors, approx 40'). It only has a reference to its take off point.

During take off, the Mavic records the barometric pressure and sets that as zero height. It then adjusts the height display on the RC as it flies based on the change of barometric pressure from that zero point. If you fly over ground that is either higher or lower from the take off point, the Mavic has no way of knowing this.

i dont think this is totally correct, i was told on here that the the mav infact does know both altitudes above take off point and above sea level, i asked in a preeviouspost because the altitude i seen in the software that was imbedded in the photo was not the same as i seen on the app, when i dedutcted the elevation of the city i am in above sea level then i got the correct altitude, a memeber here stated both altitudes are embeded in the image but we often only see one, i assume the software i was using allowed me to see the above sea level altitude as it was very different than the one shown on the app itself

 

[okw]

i dont think this is totally correct, i was told on here that the the mav infact does know both altitudes above take off point and above sea level, i asked in a preeviouspost because the altitude i seen in the software that was imbedded in the photo was not the same as i seen on the app, when i dedutcted the elevation of the city i am in above sea level then i got the correct altitude, a memeber here stated both altitudes are embeded in the image but we often only see one, i assume the software i was using allowed me to see the above sea level altitude as it was very different than the one shown on the app itself

Then I would love to hear how the Mavic has determined its altitude above sea level. The barometric pressure for a given altitude changes constantly with the weather, so that can't be used to calculate it. I sure hope somebody comes along and explains it.

 

[genesimmons]

Then I would love to hear how the Mavic has determined its altitude above sea level. The barometric pressure for a given altitude changes constantly with the weather, so that can't be used to calculate it. I sure hope somebody comes along and explains it.

i assume its using the simple gps,all gps can do altitude above sea level, i was told the mav records both but we often only see one, the software i used to view my images in the advanced tab shows altitude and it was wayyyyy off from what the app stated i was, when i deduct the elevation of the city then its accurate, so to me i am seeing both, the app shows the above take off elevation and the images store both, ill try and find a screen shot if i can, the app i used on my phone was "fstop pro" go into advanced settings and scroll down to altitude, i am curious as to oothers if that is above sea level, i was confused as to the differnce from the app to that number but a memver here told me the mav records both so i deducted my city and then that elevation on the fstop was correct, if thats not the case then techinally i was flying in space haha according to the image data but deduct my city and its correct