Lake drowning - and next steps

[MoOriginal]

Unfortunately the mavic got fully submerged in a local fresh water lake I was filming on - user error -
Next steps - I did
Stuck it in rice for 3 days and got it to turn back on.
However, now the RC does not want to connect to mavic, shows its forever connecting - and also the gimbal is finishes calibration but its all over the place and sometimes calibrates looking forward but often looking down...

Does anyone have any suggestions please, to try and work through ...

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Complete disassembly and cleaning. All connectors need to be disconnected and cleaned.

Got Care Refresh? Let them take care of it.

 

[triumphrider]

Hope you have Refresh, if so, just send it in.

 

[frankiez]

Or insurance. Get a new one! [emoji16]

 

[KiterTodd]

Mo... any obvious things to avoid so I don't repeat your Mavic dunking?
Just curious. I do plan on flying this over water for particular things I'd like to film.

Sorry about your Mavic. Hope it works out for the best. Glad you were able to recover it, though!

 

[MoOriginal]

Mo... any obvious things to avoid so I don't repeat your Mavic dunking?
Just curious. I do plan on flying this over water for particular things I'd like to film.

Sorry about your Mavic. Hope it works out for the best. Glad you were able to recover it, though!

Hi Kiter

If you read around always make sure you turn of vps as it gets confused with the water surface and can mis report the height etc.
This is what basically happened with me when I was trying to get an arty shot just above the water with ripples showing...

 

[MoOriginal]

Thanks guys

Unfortunately I didnt get refresh from DJI although it did get a refreshing mountain cold water dip in the lake
Does that count ?

I wonder if there are any places in EU that are doing repairs for non dji refreshers.

 

[Davidss]

...

I wonder if there are any places in EU that are doing repairs for non dji refreshers.

I wonder also; have you tried the main repair agents in Germany or the Netherlands?
ISTR reading of people claiming good service from both those, and as all Refresh cases seem to have to go back to China, the people must have been having non-Refresh repairs done.

Good Luck.

 

[WolfgangStiller]

For future reference, if your Mavic takes a dunk, immediately rinse it in distilled water and then dry. You don't want any dissolved solids or minerals getting deposited on the electronics or connectors.

 

[KiterTodd]

Hi Kiter

If you read around always make sure you turn of vps as it gets confused with the water surface and can mis report the height etc.
This is what basically happened with me when I was trying to get an arty shot just above the water with ripples showing...

@MoOriginal how low were you?
I have read those comments and figured it was advisable, but not a requirement.
I did not turn it off over snow last month...I found that Mavic was less stable and less reliable getting back to the home point, but it didn't do any rapid altitude changes that would cause it to go in the drink. I had it out at night last night and it flew similar to how it does over snow. At low altitudes, it lost it's steady hover. When I raised it up, I "think" it was pretty stable.

Do you think if I'm flying over water at a certain height I should be okay? 5', 10', 20'?
I am curious to know how it behaved for you before it went in the drink. It sounds like you may have been skimming just above the surface...but if you weren't and it just dropped altitude and went for a dip...then that's scary.

Thanks for any details you can share.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

@MoOriginal how low were you?
I have read those comments and figured it was advisable, but not a requirement.
I did not turn it off over snow last month...I found that Mavic was less stable and less reliable getting back to the home point, but it didn't do any rapid altitude changes that would cause it to go in the drink. I had it out at night last night and it flew similar to how it does over snow. At low altitudes, it lost it's steady hover. When I raised it up, I "think" it was pretty stable.

Do you think if I'm flying over water at a certain height I should be okay? 5', 10', 20'?
I am curious to know how it behaved for you before it went in the drink. It sounds like you may have been skimming just above the surface...but if you weren't and it just dropped altitude and went for a dip...then that's scary.

Thanks for any details you can share.

IMO it would be bad to assume that some "experience" that worked will work again. Water conditions (smooth, wavelets, waves, reflections ...) do funny things to both active and passive sensors. So if Bob says "it was fine at 10'" and you assume that's good, you have no idea what his conditions were and what yours are.... Be careful out there. Water is universally wet.

 

[KiterTodd]

IMO it would be bad to assume that some "experience" that worked will work again. Water conditions (smooth, wavelets, waves, reflections ...) do funny things to both active and passive sensors. So if Bob says "it was fine at 10'" and you assume that's good, you have no idea what his conditions were and what yours are.... Be careful out there. Water is universally wet.

That's a good point, I'd still like to know what the situation was for the OP.

What are the impacts of turning OFF VPS? I hear the landings can come in hot, other than that, do you have other performance hits? Would you skim a few feet off the water safely with VPS off? (i.e. Can the GPS hold altitude to fly over a flat surface safely without varying into it?) Extreme question, I know...I'm not really going to fly 3 feet off the deck at speed. But can I?

 

[WolfgangStiller]

My experience is that with VPS turned off the altitiude can easily vary by more than a few feet with no warning.

 

[MoOriginal]

oK - so over a placid lake and very low probably about 4ft and then down to 2 ft to try and get the ripple shot.
I was hovering.
Ive been down lower than 1ft with the p3 - but id forgotten to remember the stories about those with mavic (or those with vps) and water..

The water was dark so probably looked like nothing to the sensors.
I was not moving just hovering..

Initially after take off - hovering above the lake at about 7 foot the mavic was not stable - seemed to be hunting for correct height we remember thinking to ourselves after it took its dip.

I would say 10 ft would be fine - lower at 5ft you get into the range i was in.

To test the vps i would in future get something black - and turn of vps over it and see how low i could with that - not a very good test but better than nothing.

I guess testing the vps on or off and low flying is something you could try in tripod mode perhaps

 

[KiterTodd]

My experience is that with VPS turned off the altitiude can easily vary by more than a few feet with no warning.

Interesting. Okay, when I was flying over snow in bright sun that's the same experience I got with VPS on. It certainly wasn't worse than that, but the Mavic did not hold it's usual rock steady position.

@MoOriginal thanks for the recap. I'm sure it was painful. I have to admit, if things looked good and you were still, I can see making the same mistake. Based on Wolfgang's experience above, I don't know what the answer is. If you have VPS on, it's unpredictable, but it's the same with VPS off. What's better?!? (not flying into the drink is the goal!)

 

[MoOriginal]

Interesting. Okay, when I was flying over snow in bright sun that's the same experience I got with VPS on. It certainly wasn't worse than that, but the Mavic did not hold it's usual rock steady position.

@MoOriginal thanks for the recap. I'm sure it was painful. I have to admit, if things looked good and you were still, I can see making the same mistake. Based on Wolfgang's experience above, I don't know what the answer is. If you have VPS on, it's unpredictable, but it's the same with VPS off. What's better?!? (not flying into the drink is the goal!)

I agree it seems to be unclear - however i think it would just be fly a bit higher to compensate for any drop and be vigilant and i guess get some water skids on the feet !

 

[MoOriginal]

Small update - its been about 5 days
The mavic was in the rice for about 2 days and then out in a warm sunny area for another 3.

It now seems to be working - connecting again to RC and gimbal is starting up correctly.
I took it up today to test it briefly. Flew fine.

All seems good - apart from compass error - I cannot get the compass to calibrate - giving bogus warnings about interference etc.

What a tough thing