Hi,
I crashed my Mini 2 and it fell on a building's roof. It had to spend four days exposed to intermittent rain and sun before I got the authorization to retrieve it.
Now that I have it back, I don't really know what to do, I haven't even dared to try and turn it on yet. On the outside it looks ok and quite dry, but I don't know about the inside.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions!

George

Absolutely do NOT insert the battery into the drone until it has been dried thoroughly. Generally...

• Physically remove all water you can from the drone. For me, I opened the battery compartment and used a kind of downard flinging motion to physically remove as much water as I could.
• Apply airflow / low temperature heat to quickly evaporate water. I used a hairdryer set on medium speed, low temp, to blow air in through the drone's battery door for several minutes. Then rotated the drone a few times to allow it to dry from other angles.
• Place in a ziplock bag with a desiccant and leave for 24+ hours. This acts as a dehumidifier and helps pull any remaining moisture out of the drone.
  

My drone fully submerged (albiet briefly) in a creek, and has worked perfectly ever since. I didn't bother with step 3 in my case though.

Desiccant:
https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Premi ... fiers/dp/B00DYKTS9C

Also, in your case I would be a little concerned about corrosion or rust if it was wet for that many days, and you may also have debris in the motors. Just dry it the best you can and see what happens.

When my Phantom 4 Pro fell into 2ft of water, what i did was, put it into a cooling down oven (not too hot as to melt the plastic mind) until cold, then put it in the cupboard where the hot water tank is over night, it was as good as new the following day, i did however, bin that battery, some will say the battery will be ok, others will not, for me, i err on the side of caution, for the sake of £55 compared to AC replacement, its a no brainer

The silica gel (Desiccant) is a good idea, slower, but a good one, as is a dehumidifier in a small room, that's an expensive option though unless you have solar panels

I had a problem with a Mini also. I suspect water intrusion. It was a used drone that I bought on eBay. One day it failed to takeoff and both front motors were jammed. I did an investigation and found many tiny metal particles inside the front motors. I was able to remove the particles after a lot of effort but did not trust the fix so I replaced both front arms and motors. It is still flying today as I understand (new owner). I would at the very least check all motors for jamming before every flight from now on. Any that are sticking are defective.

Hi, thank you for reaching out. We're sorry for the unpleasant experience. In this kind of situation, I'm afraid that you may consider sending the unit in for a proper diagnosis. You can contact our support team to start up a ticket at https://www.dji.com/support. Also, the warranty can be applied depending on the outcome of the damage assessment including the warranty period of your unit. To check the warranty period parts of your drone, you may click this link: https://www.dji.com/service/policy. Thank you for your kind and understanding.

I thank EVERYONE here for the good help tips, if something like this should happen to me in the future, I will then know what to do.

daneast Posted at 12-3 05:48
Desiccant:
https://www.amazon.com/Dry-Premium-Packets-Desiccant-Dehumidifiers/dp/B00DYKTS9C

Thank you! That was a great tip!

I applied the suggestions given here and my Mini 2 is flying again.
When I first turned it on I got a stuck gimbal and one motor that wouldn't start, but after turning it off, moving both gimbal and motor back and forth a little bit and turning it back on both problems disappeared and up it went as if nothing ever happened to it.
Thank you everybody!

All of the suggestions here were great!  I am so pleased to see no one recommended RICE!  Worst thing you can possibly do is put electornics in RICE!

I am also glad to see that nobody told you to put your drone in the rice, becauseseveral years ago this tip was extremely popular. Actually, I haven't had sutiations like this but I need to be ready to any. I have a dehumidifier which we do use for the basement, but now I know that it can help me with rescuing my drone after water contact

Soniu93 Posted at 8-18 18:36
I am also glad to see that nobody told you to put your drone in the rice, becauseseveral years ago this tip was extremely popular. Actually, I haven't had sutiations like this but I need to be ready to any. I have a dehumidifier which we do use for the basement, but now I know that it can help me with rescuing my drone after water contact

why rice is not a good idea?

gdenyer Posted at 2021-12-4 21:05
I applied the suggestions given here and my Mini 2 is flying again.
When I first turned it on I got a stuck gimbal and one motor that wouldn't start, but after turning it off, moving both gimbal and motor back and forth a little bit and turning it back on both problems disappeared and up it went as if nothing ever happened to it.
Thank you everybody!

how is your Mini2 right now?

I had my Mini2 in a large thunder storm with heavy rain, it was in a 50 foot tall Palm Tree for 10 days, in heat and cold.  When I got it, I immediately  removed the battery, and wiped it off, then inspected it.  Really surprised me how well it looked.  Then took a can of computer dusting gas, opened the battery compartment and carefully blew gas in every hole I could find, being careful NOT to shake the can. (sometimes shaking the can causes liquid to come out of the can, instead of gas.)  I then let the craft sit in the house.  I charged the battery and it took a good charge.  I tested both after a while and all worked well, hope you have the same good luck.

daneast Posted at 2021-12-3 05:41
Absolutely do NOT insert the battery into the drone until it has been dried thoroughly. Generally...

Physically remove all water you can from the drone. For me, I opened the battery compartment and used a kind of downard flinging motion to physically remove as much water as I could.

GLAD you had such good luck!

Mhinc Posted at 2021-12-4 21:22
All of the suggestions here were great!  I am so pleased to see no one recommended RICE!  Worst thing you can possibly do is put electornics in RICE!

@Soniu93 another guy lol
@gdenyer

Dont listen all this people who telling you cant put electronic into rice . I do it many time with my phones etc and all still working


Of course this procedures only you can do if your quaranty is already gone. XD

fateofangel Posted at 8-19 09:19
how is your Mini2 right now?

@fateofangel, it's been 8 months since the incident and it's still doing fine.

OnanBarbarian, thank you for that video!  Looks like you and your four- legged mate, took care of things.  With the results of some crashes posted here, the Mini2 MAY get the reputation
as indestructible

Bob-Mini-2 Posted at 8-22 10:14
OnanBarbarian, thank you for that video!  Looks like you and your four- legged mate, took care of things.  With the results of some crashes posted here, the Mini2 MAY get the reputation
as indestructible

Its not my Video, but yea mini 2 seems to be like hard nuts to broke ^^

I killed my drone by leaving it in water too long. I'd seen videos where Mavics had been in the pool for 5 minutes and needed a lot of work. It went into my dirty dam, about 1m deep and as I was wading around in the reeds and whatever was lurking in there, I imagined the camera would be full of water forever, so I gave up. The next morning I came back and found it. However, leaving it in water for a long time is fatal, because the battery corrodes everything connected to it, via electrolysis. You get a blue crystal powder on the contacts and on chips. Probably some circuitry is completely removed. The rest of the drone looks OK, though, leading you to false hope.

Washing the drone was easy in rainwater, and the camera was completely sealed and OK. However, when I put another battery in, and pushed the start button, nothing happened. Complete destruction of power circuits. I dried it by putting it in the car at 42C, and a small 100W hair dryer. Then applied WD40 water dispersant to the motor axles.

So, I'd say the main thing with a Mini 2 is to get that battery out FAST, and wash many times in distilled water. Then cook it at 45C-50C, to drive water out of sheathed copper wires and gold ribbon cable connectors. Ideally, you should pull it apart to dry the ribbon connectors. Rice is probably too slow, and leaves water in the ribbon connectors.

I really hope this will never happen to my Mini 2 but thanks for the tips! better to be prepared in case the unexpected happens! thanks!

I just crashed my Mini 2  into a creek yesterday.  It took me 4 hours searching with a rake to find it.   I got it and assumed it is dead until I started to read all these stories of using them after getting wet.  I removed the battery, used compressed air to blow it out, let it sit in the sun and now, much to some people’s dismay, it’s in a bin of rice.  

djiuser_eycrt2jKvMFN Posted at 11-13 03:41
I just crashed my Mini 2  into a creek yesterday.  It took me 4 hours searching with a rake to find it.   I got it and assumed it is dead until I started to read all these stories of using them after getting wet.  I removed the battery, used compressed air to blow it out, let it sit in the sun and now, much to some people’s dismay, it’s in a bin of rice.

Hi there. Sorry about what happened to your drone. You can send your drone to the DJI facility to get it repaired. Here is the link to submit a repair request: https://repair.dji.com/. The warranty can be applied depending on the outcome of the assessment including the warranty period of your unit. We appreciate your patience.

I used to work at a battery company making R&D lithium batteries in a 1% or 2% relative humidity "dry room".
A handheld GPS I had got wet sailing.  The screen was foggy.  I tried drying it for some days in the dry room.  No luck.
I then placed it in a small vacuum chamber and drew down the unit.  Now that worked very quickly and effectively.
At low pressure, you "boil" off the water at ambient temperature.  No hurt to the electronics, the unit worked fine afterwards.
There's cheap vacuum pumps available (under $100 USD) and maybe a plastic vacuum bag would do well enough.

Mine drone was stuck on the roof for a couple weeks, before I finnaly rescued it) And i was happy enough to know the battery discoonected when it crashes, so hopefully there was no damage done by the rain. And yes, after drying it and putting another battery in, its acted like normal, but it seems to me motors make a little noise, maybe there is a liitle corosion, or they just need to be lubbed, what can you recomend for this? Maybe WD-40 is the way to go?

djiuser_t8kpBcvZKhkH Posted at 2-4 06:13
Mine drone was stuck on the roof for a couple weeks, before I finnaly rescued it) And i was happy enough to know the battery discoonected when it crashes, so hopefully there was no damage done by the rain. And yes, after drying it and putting another battery in, its acted like normal, but it seems to me motors make a little noise, maybe there is a liitle corosion, or they just need to be lubbed, what can you recomend for this? Maybe WD-40 is the way to go?

Hello, there. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. We encourage you to send your aircraft for proper inspection and repair of the aircraft. If you wish to send your drone in service, you may contact us at www.dji.com/support (Contact Us) We thank you for your cooperation.