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Mavic goes swimming or lands on cargo ship

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Well, I got it back this afternoon! It took a little damage. Broken front legs and a little prop damage. Haven't really looked it over full yet but here's a few pics for everyone that requested them.

And thanks for everyone that helped out in getting it back! I got some beers for the guys at the dock but the security guard wouldn't let me leave them :/20180301_143946.jpg 20180301_143955.jpg
 
So I checked the voltage on both of the externals and one of them was fully charged. Either I didn't plug it in or there is another issue.
 
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At least you know why it came up short. That is crazy, I can’t believe it made it and you got it back!
Yeah, the security guard at the dock was making it sound like I could have caused an international incident. Saying I was going to have to go through customs or the coast guard to get my drone back. Lucky the guys at the dock were helpful and the captain of the ship as well.
 
Great result, good news
 
So after closer inspection, the one battery had used a small amount of the battery. Charge was down to 4.24 from 4.35. When I went to charge it, it gave me an error to check the connections. So I'm pretty sure this was all down to the sloppy job I did in putting the xt30 connectors on the batteries. Believe it or not, I didn't even bother to solder them. I just rammed the cable ends onto the terminals and put some heat shrink covering over them. I hadn't intended on leaving them like that but it had worked fine for long enough I just forgot about it. It looks like one of the connections worked it's way loose.
 
In honor of the Greek owner of the Pantelis and her Captain who obviously rock, take a shot of ouzo and crank the tunes!. Roopa!
(Filmed on location at the Tacoma Greek Festival)

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When you cancel auto return once it will not initiate it again. I just rammed the cable ends onto the terminals and put some heat shrink covering over them.
WTF :eek::eek:

Not only that's unreliable as heck, but it's also a huge fire risk...
 
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did you get anymore footage from the SD card? What about posting the full flight? I think by now this flight has become a bit famous on here;).
The SD card was unreadable. I had to format it. I do have the cell phone copy of the full flight though. You can see on my return trip I went towards the one bit of land where I could have made an emergency landing because I was thinking I might need to. I decided against it cause I thought I would probably make it and didn't want to have to drive and go get the drone. Maybe I'll upload the full video. Might want to talk to my lawyer about that first though :P
 
WTF :eek::eek:

Not only that's unreliable as heck, but it's also a huge fire risk...

The shrink tube was really thick and I cooked in on there good. I did 4 batteries like that and that's the only one that failed. Needless to say they are soldered now.
 
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So I was flying out over Commencement Bay this morning with my modified Mavic. I had two external batteries mounted among other modifications. I had recently replaced the ESC board and was noticing that the batteries seemed to be draining slightly faster over the last day or two. I suspect this was due to some sloppy soldering on my part when replacing the board.

In previous flights I had gone 40k feet out and back with 20% battery remaining. On this flight I hit 55% battery at 35k feet (there was no wind at all on this flight) where I turned around. I knew I would be cutting it close with a 10% battery margin for the return trip but I came up about 5k feet short.

I hit forced landing at 10% as I was approaching an anchored cargo vessel. I reluctantly attempted to land on the ship but I don't think I made it. What do you guys think? Does it look like the it landed on the ship or is in Davey Jones' Locker? I sent the shipping company an email to see if they could contact the crew to check for me but I am not hopeful. The ship will be in the area most of the week in case it is on the deck.

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You missed the boat. Sorry.
 
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