So I was flying my Phantom 3 Pro at our local veterans memorial and out of the blue, the grass sprinklers come on! I am flying low - about 7' - and the spray from the sprinklers hit my Phantom dead amidships - and it was not a gentle spray - think full force water hose with a concentrator head attached - I would guess maybe 100PSI?

Anyway, BOOM it knocks my Phantom into a pole and the props cut out and SPLASH there goes my baby into a 1 1'2' deep reflecting pool!

I got it out as quickly as I could, pulled the battery, and have it sitting outside in the sun to dry. My plan was to let it sit for at least 24 hours before trying anything.

Should I consider drying it with a hair dryer?

If anyone has any helpful tips or suggestions, I am ALL ears!

Thanks in Advance!

I would think a few more days of drying out would be good.

No need to set anything in the Sun as that may overheat the electronics.

Good luck, hope it all works out for you.


RedHotPoker

I've read on here where putting it in rice has saved some.  That's one piece of bad luck!

RedHotPoker Posted at 2017-9-3 13:09
I would think a few more days of drying out would be good.

No need to set anything in the Sun as that may overheat the electronics.

Thanks Guys - Not planning on flying until next week so I will let the baby dry in the trunk of my car for a few days (out of direct sunlight but in warm temps)

BamaBob Posted at 2017-9-3 13:59
Thanks Guys - Not planning on flying until next week so I will let the baby dry in the trunk of my car for a few days (out of direct sunlight but in warm temps)

Aloha Bob,

     If you try the rice desiccant technique, be sure to wrap the bird, without blades, in paper towel, then put it all in a plastic trash bag.  Make sure no one thinks it is trash though!  The rice will indeed pull all the water and humidity out of the bird for your best shot at reviving the bird.

     Hope this helps!  Sorry about your bird.

Aloha and Drone On!

BamaBob Posted at 2017-9-3 13:59
Thanks Guys - Not planning on flying until next week so I will let the baby dry in the trunk of my car for a few days (out of direct sunlight but in warm temps)

Not in the trunk, you want to dry it out & trunk could cause humidity so go with the rice technique.
What ever happened to those silica gel packs that came with electrical equipment? Thy could be handy.

You can always buy silica gel, in a hobby craft store. They use it to dry flowers...




RedHotPoker

Rice absorbs moisture.  I don't know if it would work with something this big, but when I worked on ships, virtually anything I had to dive over the side to retrieve, survived if we put it in a ziplock bag full of rice.  -Just an idea.

I'm sorry to hear the accident. Water damage is a catastrophic destruction and I would not suggest to use it any more. Anyway, a hard lesson.

BamaBob Posted at 2017-9-3 13:59
Thanks Guys - Not planning on flying until next week so I will let the baby dry in the trunk of my car for a few days (out of direct sunlight but in warm temps)

You want to give it plenty of fresh air, not humid air in an enclosed space.  A desk fan on low power blowing air over it for a couple of days would be best, remove the battery so that the air can flow through the ventilation holes easier.  If you don't need it for a week then wait a week before trying it.

Only use rice if you don't have anywhere that isn't humid, eg if you are on a boat, in which case a few packets of silica gel in an airtight box would be much better, although it will still take a long time unless you blow air through the aircraft.  You can tell when it is dry because the silica gel packets will stop gaining weight, although that may also be because they are full - recharge them occasionally.

If it was fresh water, not salt water then it is quite likely to be OK but the battery should probably be disposed of.   If it was salt water then even if you get it flying again it probably wont survive for long and the battery should definitely be disposed of as there is a serious risk of fire.

Airflow and moisture absorbent ..... NOT closed in space.

Good luck !

Nigel

Hmmmm...if there is a big enough electrical dry box to house the whole phantom inside..tat will be great..turn down to 15% it 5%

Cetacean Posted at 2017-9-3 15:44
Aloha Bob,

     If you try the rice desiccant technique, be sure to wrap the bird, without blades, in paper towel, then put it all in a plastic trash bag.  Make sure no one thinks it is trash though!  The rice will indeed pull all the water and humidity out of the bird for your best shot at reviving the bird.

I know this is an old post but if someone is referring to it now please take Cetacean's advise and wrap the bird in paper towels.  If just submerged in rice alone the grains will get in places you don't want it to and once swelled with moistier will be a bear to clean out..

When I was in the Navy, and we're talking 1950's, I was carrying an oscilloscope over the gangplank onto my boat when I tripped and dumped the scope into the sea.
We got the divers to recover it and immediately dumped init onto a drum of WD40.
Took it out, drained it, left it draining for several hours and turned it on - BINGO, worked just fine for many more years.
Bear in mind that back then there was no such thing as LCD's or trtansistors so were talking high voltage cathode ray tubes and valves!!

Split the drone case and spray liberally with WD40, make sure you cover all the PCBs, dab it dry with tissues. Bit late now for the OP but anybody currently having a problem, keep a can of WD40 with the drone for future disasters!

WD40 is water's biggest enemy!

T3rdEye Posted at 12-28 10:58
I know this is an old post but if someone is referring to it now please take Cetacean's advise and wrap the bird in paper towels.  If just submerged in rice alone the grains will get in places you don't want it to and once swelled with moistier will be a bear to clean out..

Aloha T3rdEye,

     Wow!  That is an old thread!  Mahalo for getting that out.

     Take care and be safe!

Aloha and Drone On!

This was an old "dead" thread from 2017.  All it takes is for someone to spam the forum with an irrelevant post talking about household pipe valves, only to bring it to life and have people start commenting on it again.  That's what's happened here with the recent activity, everyone has overlooked the date of the original post.  The original poster has probably moved on and not even frequenting the forum any more.