Sand removal

[Unisionzz]

Today i tried flying my 3 month old mavic pro on a beach. But when launching it flipped a meter up in the air, turned around en fell upside down in the sand. Due to a quick response i managed to keep most of it out of the sand. Nothing happened to the gimball, camera, body and props, but in two of the engine there is some sand, and one motor turns a bit odd. So this means one motor seems fine to mee, one engine turns smoother then original for some reason and the two others have a few grains of sand in them.

As i'm inexperienced to drones i'd really like some advice as what to do and how to remove the invisible grains of sand from the motors.

Can anyone please help me?

 

[BuzzyOne]

Try compressed air. You might need to replaced the compromised motors. Sand is bad.

How did you manage to flip the Mavic over during launch?

 

[Starz]

Find a way to blow air into the motor to get the sand out. Needle point blower nozzle if you can find one will work better. Remember there are some very strong magnets in there that will hang onto any grains of metal that were in with the sand and that may not come out. Otherwise, thunderdrones.

 

[royster]

You have a compressor? Turn it down to 5-6lbs, turn your bird upside down, shoot away or use one of those compressed air cans for computer keyboard cleaning

 

[Unisionzz]

Try compressed air. You might need to replaced the compromised motors. Sand is bad.

How did you manage to flip the Mavic over during launch?

I don't know, is where can i find the log file? Would be great to find out....

 

[Unisionzz]

You have a compressor? Turn it down to 5-6lbs, turn your bird upside down, shoot away or use one of those compressed air cans for computer keyboard cleaning

No compressor so i guess compressed air will be the way to go. Would that be used from the top of the engines or the side where the turning part connects to the arm?

 

[Starz]

All of the above

 

[PT_Mavic]

I don't like the compressed-air idea at all - you risk blowing sand grains deeper into the motors. Try using a vacuum instead to pull sand out the way it came in. There are inexpensive adapter nozzles for regular vacuum cleaners that let you get into tight spaces - they're designed for detailed vacuuming of computers and other electronics.

Rotate the motors a little by hand after a good vacuuming to see if you can extract more. Rinse and repeat. (Don't literally rinse - figure of speech!)

And for goodness sake, I really hope you're launching and landing on a sand-free landing pad!

 

[Starz]

I'll stand back and watch. I just might learn a new trick here.

 

[Unisionzz]

I don't like the compressed-air idea at all - you risk blowing sand grains deeper into the motors. Try using a vacuum instead to pull sand out the way it came in. There are inexpensive adapter nozzles for regular vacuum cleaners that let you get into tight spaces - they're designed for detailed vacuuming of computers and other electronics.

Rotate the motors a little by hand after a good vacuuming to see if you can extract more. Rinse and repeat. (Don't literally rinse - figure of speech!)

And for goodness sake, I really hope you're launching and landing on a sand-free landing pad!

Launched it from sand free concrete, so thats not the problem, a few minutes earlier a friend of mine launched his mavic at the exact same spot without a problem.

What kind of nozzle are you referring to? Can you maybe show some kind of example?

 

[PT_Mavic]

What kind of nozzle are you referring to? Can you maybe show some kind of example?

C'mon, this isn't all that hard. Entering "vacuum micro" into Amazon got me here in one hop: Amazon.com: vacuum micro attachment kit

 

[tony56shooter]

Launched it from sand free concrete, so thats not the problem, a few minutes earlier a friend of mine launched his mavic at the exact same spot without a problem.

What kind of nozzle are you referring to? Can you maybe show some kind of example?

There is likely metal in the concrete, that my have had something to do with it.

 

[Sevier456]

Today i tried flying my 3 month old mavic pro on a beach. But when launching it flipped a meter up in the air, turned around en fell upside down in the sand. Due to a quick response i managed to keep most of it out of the sand. Nothing happened to the gimball, camera, body and props, but in two of the engine there is some sand, and one motor turns a bit odd. So this means one motor seems fine to mee, one engine turns smoother then original for some reason and the two others have a few grains of sand in them.

As i'm inexperienced to drones i'd really like some advice as what to do and how to remove the invisible grains of sand from the motors.

Can anyone please help me?

Sometimes my mavic will surge ( not sure what to call it ) when making a quick maneuver it almost shuts off and turns back on. No crashes have occurred but it glitches out I'm not sure if the wind hits it wrong but just be carful when at full throttle. As far as the sand goes people buy copter launch pads but I just use my car floor mat. Also I hover above land in spot for a minute get close to the ground then accelerate fast to clear the area.

 

[Starz]

Fun to watch how complicated something simple turns into. Now it's about how to launch a mavic.

 

[Unisionzz]

Update: a few hours ago with some help and a vacuum cleaner i managed to get rid of the sand in the motors. Slowly turning the motor by hand while vacuming helps it i found out. After that i did a dry run without props and it sounded fine. I then went on and calibrated the imu and compass in the backyard. After cleaning and calibrating i flew around my backyard, slowly testing it, and it seems completely fine.

Thanks everyone for the pieces of advice, it probably saved me quite a lot of money!

 

[PT_Mavic]

Update: a few hours ago with some help and a vacuum cleaner i managed to get rid of the sand in the motors.

Congratulations!

If it was my Mavic, now that it's been run a bit and vibrated some, I'd do another motor vacuuming just to be sure. Cheap insurance against a grain or two of sand still in there with the fuse lit.