I've crashed few drones, sometimes without any critical damage, at least one never got his wings again.....
I look at it as part of this game, we all will or have been defeated by gravity in some way or another.
I crashed my first mavic few days ago, into freaking salt water. It was impossible to find it so I had to wait 6 hours while the sea slowly lowered it's level. And at perfect timing I went back and saw it laying upside down on the bottom. I got it back, but also got myself a little wet.
What went wrong?
100% pilot error. I was flying in a very low spot under a bridge, done it many times, but this time my eyesight and brain didn't function in perfect harmony and I tought I was on the other side and pushed my thumb on the left pin to fly up and finish the shot, but bam.... I flew right up under the bridge and in seconds I was down..... Nothing I could have done to save it after the mavic crashed up under the bridge.
So I was 100% sure I had completely ruined one of my drones. But one is stubborn, and nothing goes without a try. But after many hours in sea water, impossible. I took out the battery and let it lay in clean water for a while, used silica crystals to dry it, and as I tought, the pcb boards and all inside of the mavic had thick layers of dry salt covered everywhere.
I grabbed a toothbrush and a 100% isopropyl alchohol and started brushing it, brushed hard and kept the boards wet. Helped the alchohol to dry with canned air..... Eventually the air can was empty so my wife's hairdryer was blasted on cold settings. (Probably going to get killed for that.....)
In the beginning the electronics looked like that :
Slowly but surely it started to look like what it is, an electronic device.
I've made it clear that there isn't a as much as particle of salt inside the device, it's cleaner than new.
So it was thrown into silica box for the night and turned on next morning. ****, the remote wouldn't connect, so I switched to wifi. No luck. I tried repeatedly to bind the controller with the mavic with no luck. I wasn't surprise.
Next stop : the forum. Pm'd the guy who knows his stuff when drones are the subject Thunderdrone. He didn't take long to ask if I had bind the controller, and sent me a how to video.... I almost found the comment insulting, of course I had, and what was the video for?
Well I watched it and it turns out I was doing it wrong. Did it as in the video and voila. It instantly connected.
the gimbal was fully functional but video was black. I noticed a cracked flat cable when I was looking for a reason. Got new cable today and the screen lightened up.
Now my salty submarine is fully functioning and looking like this : (he's dancing because it was really hard wind today.)
Dropbox - 2017-05-15 00.27.52.mp4
Nothing is impossible, and those little lizards (I've always found mavic look like a lizard or a frog, both with legs out or packed together) are tougher than I could imagine.
I feel like my decision to try to repair it and succeed is a much better deal than turn it in to dji care and be disappointed for few weeks about dji service. I got it up in few days and as a bonus I know the device alot better and it's build. I Even know it's soft spots and where it can take a punch.
And guys when you crash the best way to deal with it is to not throw to many f's at it. It's all part of the game, it's never about how often you're knocked out, it's about to stand up once more than you get down, that way you simply cannot fail.
I look at it as part of this game, we all will or have been defeated by gravity in some way or another.
I crashed my first mavic few days ago, into freaking salt water. It was impossible to find it so I had to wait 6 hours while the sea slowly lowered it's level. And at perfect timing I went back and saw it laying upside down on the bottom. I got it back, but also got myself a little wet.
What went wrong?
100% pilot error. I was flying in a very low spot under a bridge, done it many times, but this time my eyesight and brain didn't function in perfect harmony and I tought I was on the other side and pushed my thumb on the left pin to fly up and finish the shot, but bam.... I flew right up under the bridge and in seconds I was down..... Nothing I could have done to save it after the mavic crashed up under the bridge.
So I was 100% sure I had completely ruined one of my drones. But one is stubborn, and nothing goes without a try. But after many hours in sea water, impossible. I took out the battery and let it lay in clean water for a while, used silica crystals to dry it, and as I tought, the pcb boards and all inside of the mavic had thick layers of dry salt covered everywhere.
I grabbed a toothbrush and a 100% isopropyl alchohol and started brushing it, brushed hard and kept the boards wet. Helped the alchohol to dry with canned air..... Eventually the air can was empty so my wife's hairdryer was blasted on cold settings. (Probably going to get killed for that.....)
In the beginning the electronics looked like that :
Slowly but surely it started to look like what it is, an electronic device.
I've made it clear that there isn't a as much as particle of salt inside the device, it's cleaner than new.
So it was thrown into silica box for the night and turned on next morning. ****, the remote wouldn't connect, so I switched to wifi. No luck. I tried repeatedly to bind the controller with the mavic with no luck. I wasn't surprise.
Next stop : the forum. Pm'd the guy who knows his stuff when drones are the subject Thunderdrone. He didn't take long to ask if I had bind the controller, and sent me a how to video.... I almost found the comment insulting, of course I had, and what was the video for?
Well I watched it and it turns out I was doing it wrong. Did it as in the video and voila. It instantly connected.
the gimbal was fully functional but video was black. I noticed a cracked flat cable when I was looking for a reason. Got new cable today and the screen lightened up.
Now my salty submarine is fully functioning and looking like this : (he's dancing because it was really hard wind today.)
Dropbox - 2017-05-15 00.27.52.mp4
Nothing is impossible, and those little lizards (I've always found mavic look like a lizard or a frog, both with legs out or packed together) are tougher than I could imagine.
I feel like my decision to try to repair it and succeed is a much better deal than turn it in to dji care and be disappointed for few weeks about dji service. I got it up in few days and as a bonus I know the device alot better and it's build. I Even know it's soft spots and where it can take a punch.
And guys when you crash the best way to deal with it is to not throw to many f's at it. It's all part of the game, it's never about how often you're knocked out, it's about to stand up once more than you get down, that way you simply cannot fail.
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, I have a P3 that I recovered from the ocean and it survived after replacing 2 motors and the camera.
