Just got my Mini 2 back from Costco.
It was sitting on their roof for 2 days in the rain.

Drying it out now with rice.

Let's see if it still works!

Stay tuned.

It will probably work...but may take a long time to dry out, maybe 2 weeks. I had an indoor security camera get drenched and it took two weeks of sitting to be working again. Keep it in the driest room of the house, with normal a/c or heat.

Hello there davee930. Thank you for reaching out and for these information that you have give. The DJI Mini 2 is not waterproof and since the said DJI drone sat in the pouring rain for 48 hours. I would recommend you to contact our DJI support team at https://www.dji.com/support?site=brandsite&from=nav for further assistance. We will do there best to help you and give out the best resolution for this issue. Just a reminder that DJI do not recommend doing a DIY in fixing the said issue to avoid further damaging the said unit and voiding the said warranty of the said DJI drone. Thank you.

So I dried it for a couple hours, took it out, turned it on, put it in my palm.

Then a couple seconds had passed, and then a couple more. Seemed to be working great!!

Then I started to smell something burning like wires you know?

Next thing I know, it exploded in mid air into 3 pieces. (One piece went whizzing by my face)

The biggest piece, the one with the battery, just sat there on my hardwood floor in flames.

Anyone have a drone for sale?

Rice will never work,
Turning on a device that's even remotely damp will cause oxidization

What you should have done is binned that battery for a start
Then you should have put the ac in a cooling down oven, only so hot that the shelves cant melt the AC
with that you you have to make an educated judgment call, i would say deffo less than 50C.
Once the oven has cooled, then place it somewhere that's warm all the time, such as a cupboard with
your boiler or hot water tank in it for at least 24hrs If there is no lens fogging on the camera
after the warming period, then its probably safe to try it, if there is lens fogging after this period then
it needs to sit longer. that's only for fresh water.

Salt water is another matter entirely....

That is sad to read.

So I dried it for a couple hours, took it out, turned it on, put it in my palm.

Then a couple seconds had passed, and then a couple more. Seemed to be working great!!

Then I started to smell something burning like wires you know?

Next thing I know, it exploded in mid air into 3 pieces. (One piece went whizzing by my face)

The biggest piece, the one with the battery, just sat there on my hardwood floor in flames.

Anyone have a drone for sale?


So you took everyone's advice, dried it out properly lol a couple of hours only? then it exploded and nearly hit you in the face, i would say its a shame a large bit didnt hit you on the head to knock some sense into you. come on did you really think a couple of hours was going to work? plain dumb thing to do. any warranty is now void!

Most of the advice I have seen gives the drying time in days, not hours. Some places will trap water through no or very slow ventilation and others via meniscus effects.

Did you video it by any chance? It would be a good youtube lesson in what NOT to do.

This is so ridiculus that i think he is trolling us....

Miguel Leitao Posted at 9-28 02:15
This is so ridiculus that i think he is trolling us....

Yeah, you could be right, is anyone really that simple?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 9-28 02:10
Most of the advice I have seen gives the drying time in days, not hours. Some places will trap water through no or very slow ventilation and others via meniscus effects.

Did you video it by any chance? It would be a good youtube lesson in what NOT to do.

A video? Of something drying?
"as fun as watching paint dry"

Indeed, I love watching paint dry, :-)

davee930 Posted at 9-27 19:12
So I dried it for a couple hours, took it out, turned it on, put it in my palm.

Then a couple seconds had passed, and then a couple more. Seemed to be working great!!

Sad event to hear about.  Got to be more careful when drying out electronics.  If it ever occurs again to any electronics think days or week(s) vice hours.  

My GEPRC Crocodile 5 Baby (yes I know it's not a DJI drone but it does have the digital DJI FPV unit) had a gyro failure and went nuts, flew sideways then upside down and straight into a water drainage ditch because ofc it did... why would it crash into the ground when water is available? (heh)

It took me about 10 minutes to find it in the drain as it was right down in the thick smelly mud sludge at the bottom. When I found the drone it was still powered on surprisingly (the props were not spinning as I managed to disarm the drone just before it went into the water).

Anyway, I quickly disconnected the battery then took it home. Once there I filled a container with 99% isopropyl alcohol then put the drone in it to displace any water and muck. Afterwards, I shook the drone to remove as much of the isopropyl alcohol as possible and let it dry out. I put the drone somewhere warm for several days and waited.

When I tested the drone and the DJI FPV (video transmission) unit it all worked normally except for the gyro which showed weird orientation and drift which is what caused the crash to begin with. I got a new flight controller to replace the faulty one with the bad gyro and the drone is perfect again.

Moral of the story: don't try to test your drone until after it has had a chance to fully dry out... wait several days not just a few hours.

Anyway, sorry for your loss. We learn from our mistakes so don't beat yourself up too much.

Sorry about your luck OP. Just out of curiosity how did it manage to end up on top of a Costco? Surprisingly there isn't much inside of these things. A couple of PCBs and wires/connectors to the motors, camera etc. Most of the space is taken up by the battery. I know it's too late now but you could attempt to disassemble per below (at least partially and dry it out good and proper and quickly. The longer electronics sit with water on them, the more corrosion will occur which kills it.  Did you have DJI care?

Bashy Posted at 9-28 03:56
Yeah, you could be right, is anyone really that simple?

I give him credit for his creativity.
Particulary liked the dramatic end where the battery is in flames in the hardwood floor.

Thanks man!  

Yeah you got me. For some reason I had an uncrotrollable urge to troll yesterday. So sorry everyone. What I should have said was that it worked perfectly fine. Did not explode at all!

So the good news is, you can leave your drone out in the rain for days if you want.

The reason it was on Costco is because I thought it would be a good idea to take off the roof and get a cool downward shot of all the skylights at night. It's right in front of me and I'm on the 13th floor facing it so I couldn't resist.

Dumbass me didn't even think about the mandatory compass recalibration when you land on a steel structure.

I had to wait 2 days for their maintenance guy to retreive it for me while it poured like bitch.

2 hours...2 weeks... pretty much the same time in Canada ;-)

GaryDoug Posted at 9-28 20:13
2 hours...2 weeks... pretty much the same time in Canada ;-)

Nah I'm just a very impatient Canadian.