Worried about salt air croading the electronics

[Bill Shryock]

Hello all,

I'm new to the quad world, I've had my Pro Platinum for just over a month. I have worked with electronics most of my life and I have a concern with my Mavic. Last week I went to Gulf Shores, AL and flew on the beach for two days. My concern is the salt spray and salt air on the electronics. By the time I left the beach both days I could feel the salt spray on my body so I know that the Mavic inhaled quite a bit of salty air through the cooling system. My concern is that I may have started a slow process of corrosion that will eventually destroy the drone from the inside.

Do any of you have any incite or suggestions? I messaged DJI a week ago and I haven't received an answer so I'm guessing that I never will. Am I worried about nothing or is there anything I should do? I'm very aware of what salt water and electricity will do, that is why I'm concerned.

Any incite, suggestions or experiences will be appreciated.

Thank you for your input.

Bill

 

[Simmo]

Everything has a use by date, usage in a hostile environment could hasten that date.
I would envisage that a Mavic could possibly have a usability of say 2 years? If you are going to fly in a salt air scenario often, I would at least halve that.
@Thunderdrones would have a more 'edjumacated' comment on the Total Time of the Mavic I'm sure.

 

[beach_Dr]

I fly mainly over the sea, and I'm sure that the salt will cause a problem in the end.

Been flying mavic for 15 months and no visible corrosion yet... Hoping for many more

 

[Former Member]

The main components that would be open to damage are any of your connectors on the boards, the cooling fan, the motors, and the battery terminals. The main and core boards have a shiny water resistant coating on them that protects the solder joints and battery terminals on those boards.

One last thing, sand is your biggest enemy of all at the beach. It can get into your gimbals motors, into your fan, into your motors, etc. Anything that sand gets into that you cant blow out will need to be replaced.

 

[MiniPalourde]

The main components that would be open to damage are any of your connectors on the boards, the cooling fan, the motors, and the battery terminals. The main and core boards have a shining water resistant coating on them that protects the solder joints and battery terminals on those boards.

One last thing, sand is your biggest enemy of all at the beach. It can get into your gimbals motors, into your fan, into your motors, etc. Anything that sand gets into that you cant blow out will need to be replaced.

Apart from the battery, is there a component that seems to fail before evertyhing else with a normal use of the aircraft? What's the life expectancy of the Mavic in your experience?

 

[Former Member]

Mavics are the same as cars. As long as you keep up with the maintenance, they could last forever. I just sold a great running 1978 Volvo with 333,000 miles on it but it had been maintained over the years.

Regular maintenance items would be props, batteries, gimbal ribbon cables, and gimbal vibration rubber bands. However, these items could last years if you dont abuse your bird, and keep it stored in the house, as long as you dont live in an igloo.

 

[beach_Dr]

When flying on beach, I'm very wary of sand. Take off only from grass next to beach / car park / large elevated rock, and then walk to vantage point from where I fly. And either land on large elevated rock or hand catch. Don't want any sand blowing up into motors

 

[Bill Shryock]

Thanks for the replays, I appreciate the information. I could have/should have been more careful about the sand. I did spend some time after cleaning things up and there was some sand on the extended landing gear and some ended up in the case. I hopefully got all of that out but I feel confident that I didn't get any in the motors or inhaled into the fan. I was being careful but I'll use a landing pad from now on. The Mavic is not showing any signs of damage yet.

As far as the salt air, I spend many years repairing electronics and I know that it doesn't take much salt water to destroy electronics and that is my main concern. As Beach_Dr stated, I hope that there is enough protection inside to keep the salt from the electronics. I know that after a SCUBA Dive I always spend a lot of time and effort cleaning salt water from all my gear because the salt crystals will grow and just destroy seals and anything with a battery. Hence my concerns.

I never even thought about it until later in the day when I started feeling the salt on my skin. Since I don't live anywhere near salt water it will be a rare thing, going to the beach but we do have fresh water beaches here so the sand advice is very useful.

Thanks again for the responses,

Bill