I killed my Mavic Air

[DidierPrivate]

I killed it!

20 minutes later it was fished out of the beautiful and salty water of La Maddalena and spent the next 3-4 days in a bag of rice. but alas....I could not bring it back to life.

thanks guys

Hello,
I had a similar disaster but resurrect my Mavic. This is how ...
Btw, I think that the "rice" method could work, but just in case of moderate humidity.
What I've done to successfully recover my baby was :
1. turn on your oven in convection mode (fan on) and set the temp to 40-45 °C (this is within the admissible T° range)
2. wait 20-30 minutes for T° stabilization and check the T° – ideally with a thermometer ; adjust if necessary ;
[Edit] : Remove battery, of course ;-)
3. put the bird in the oven and LET THE DOOR OPEN, otherwise the T° will raise far too high rapidly;
4. In my case, I took it out from the oven after 36 hours ... RESURRECTED !
Pls tell me if it has worked for you.
Didier (Brussels, BE)
PS - Sorry for my poor english.

 

[Moserg]

Just to mention, recently someone said on this forum, after dropping Mavic into salt water, removed battery, flashed/merging with pure water multiple times ( salt itself is good electrolyte ) to wash the salt, and only after that three days in rice. And it was alive.

 

[FMR]

I killed it!

I was on a boat in Sardinia, and when taking off (the 3rd time in that day) I got a momentary notification saying IMU error - but it disappeared. I then got the all clear, took off and then drone drifted and hit some cables and spun into the water.

20 minutes later it was fished out of the beautiful and salty water of La Maddalena and spent the next 3-4 days in a bag of rice. but alas....I could not bring it back to life.

Now I have a fly more combo and car charger but no Mavic.....

I know its too late and an expensive lesson to have learned; but please can you guys tell me what I can do with the dead drone and the extras?

thanks guys

Paper Weight **

 

[Patmaherjfm]

When you get stuff wet... It's the battary that kills things, power from the battery goes to places its not ment to. So, how much charge and how quickly it's removed are the main factors that decide if it will work again.

I would have taking it apart and cleaned it up. Then if theirs no obvious burning and motors turn free, power it up from a fused battery.

Id have a look inside, lots of YouTube videos will show you how to take it apart

 

[mad monkey]

realistically, if its already "dead" you can't make it any worse!

plus now you have a spare chassis incase of crash damage. maybe no internal boards.. but some real good spare parts available there

 

[Fried Eagle]

If your drone falls in any type of water, DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE. Get it to a technician IMMEDIATELY. Rice does NOT WORK. I repeat RICE DOES NOT WORK.

It has worked several times for me.

 

[elwyn5150]

Not sure if State Farm is at your location, but for $60 you can buy a $1000 policy with no deductable and coverage for any loss.

Dude, barn door open; the horse has already bolted.

 

[MrRobville]

You would have had to immediately and very thoroughly flush it with fresh water to stop the very corrosive effects of salt water.

Additionally, any salt that remains would continue to corrode the electrical and metal parts of the drone, as well as short out components as it's a bit conductive.

Thanks for the clarification.

If your drone falls in any type of water, DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE. Get it to a technician IMMEDIATELY. Rice does NOT WORK. I repeat RICE DOES NOT WORK.

Easy there mate. It's not like there'll be any mustard gas emerging from it.

 

[Patmaherjfm]

It has worked several times for me.

Thanks for the clarification.



Easy there mate. It's not like there'll be any mustard gas emerging from it.

Lol

Again, remove the power source asap, clean, dry, fused power source. rice is very good at drying, but does nothing to remove salt, or other conductive foreign bodies.

 

[Slowcaptain]

Just curious why rice method won't work on a drone when it works on phones and other gadgets. I understand, salt from the water would not be absorbed by the rice but a drone dumped in freshwater should be "cured" by rice. No?

 

[Ray Hasan]

Thanks for all the constructive feedback guys, however I think those who are pointing out the obvious such as paper weight / horse has bolted / DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE etc deserve a little mention. Why do you guys feel you need to contribute when you have nothing to contribute? Anyways, for those who are interested in how it’s going, I’m sending it in to DJI for them to do the final assessment. Why? Because if nothing else, they’ll sell me a ‘body only’ drone.

 

[MrsTreat]

Just curious why rice method won't work on a drone when it works on phones and other gadgets. I understand, salt from the water would not be absorbed by the rice but a drone dumped in freshwater should be "cured" by rice. No?

Rice really doesn't work on drying anything out IMO. Folk on the web say it does but that hasn't been my experience. Try kitty litter as a desiccant for good results.

 

[Slowcaptain]

Rice really doesn't work on drying anything out IMO. Folk on the web say it does but that hasn't been my experience. Try kitty litter as a desiccant for good results.

Well, before Samsung went waterproof I was able to successfully revive an S4 and more recently Oneplus 3T both of which fell in alpine lakes here . Never tried kitty litter. May be next time lol

 

[Slowcaptain]

Thanks for all the constructive feedback guys, however I think those who are pointing out the obvious such as paper weight / horse has bolted / DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE etc deserve a little mention. Why do you guys feel you need to contribute when you have nothing to contribute? Anyways, for those who are interested in how it’s going, I’m sending it in to DJI for them to do the final assessment. Why? Because if nothing else, they’ll sell me a ‘body only’ drone.

Good luck to you OP. I hope something good comes out of it.

 

[Merced69]

Just curious why rice method won't work on a drone when it works on phones and other gadgets. I understand, salt from the water would not be absorbed by the rice but a drone dumped in freshwater should be "cured" by rice. No?

Rice is actually a very poor desiccant, hardly better than air itself, if humidity is low. It can actually slow things down by restricting airflow. Unless you have a very high humidity, a fan will be better than rice.

 

[Patmaherjfm]

Thanks for all the constructive feedback guys, however I think those who are pointing out the obvious such as paper weight / horse has bolted / DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE etc deserve a little mention. Why do you guys feel you need to contribute when you have nothing to contribute? Anyways, for those who are interested in how it’s going, I’m sending it in to DJI for them to do the final assessment. Why? Because if nothing else, they’ll sell me a ‘body only’ drone.

Good luck with that bro, hope it works out for you. Live and learn I guess.

 

[Ray Hasan]

So DJI is quoting me 680€ for something - not sure if they are repairing my totally bricked drone (how can it be possible?!?) or if it’s a new one.

 

[Former Member]

You can NOT bring electronics back to life once dropped in Salt Water. The Salt acts as an electrical conductor and fries all the on-board electrons in a mili-second. Flushing with fresh water wont work, its to late, The bag of rice after a fresh water drop may work, but better to use a blow dryer. But since this was a salt water crash, due to pilot error, you might as well toss the drone in the garbage.

Are you sure about all this? It might be a little bit rash.

 

[Former Member]

If your drone falls in any type of water, DO NOT PUT IT IN RICE. Get it to a technician IMMEDIATELY. Rice does NOT WORK. I repeat RICE DOES NOT WORK.

What has been your experience with putting a drone in rice? Just curious.I have seen many that were put in rice, and they seem to be dry, but have a rice coating all over everything.

 

[Patmaherjfm]

Lol, I'm not sure about rice, the important thing is that's dry, and clean before trying to power it up again. Also, if it doesn't work, I'm sure I could salvage something from it