Can anyone tell me if a Mavic Pro can be salvaged after sinking in a river. Pilot error.

There have been a few reports about Mavics that have been sunk in rivers or the sea. The elecronics seem to be quite robust. If it has not been exposed to the water very long, I'd remove the battery, rinse it with clear water, dry it and the put it into a warm room (not on a heater) in a bowl of rice for a few days.

The rice will pull the humidity out of the Mavic. Good luck!

Maybe. I've seen at least one person claim to have had their Mavic completely submerged and found it to be fully operational after it was dried out. And I'm guessing that you know that Care Refresh does now cover water damage, so if it had been purchased for the Mavic in question and the aircraft is recovered, the owner can get a replacement.


Many people recommend placing it in a sealed container with rice, though the silica gel pack approach always seemed like a better solution to me, though I've yet to have a need to try either one.

Dronoob Posted at 2017-2-4 11:50
There have been a few reports about Mavics that have been sunk in rivers or the sea. The elecronics seem to be quite robust. If it has not been exposed to the water very long, I'd remove the battery, rinse it with clear water, dry it and the put it into a warm room (not on a heater) in a bowl of rice for a few days.

The rice will pull the humidity out of the Mavic. Good luck!

Thank you for the tip.

I do not have Care Refresh coverage. I finally was able to pull it out of the river(after 6 days).
I submerged it in clean hot water and moved around while submerged. Used air compressor to dry it as much as possible, then put in a sealed container full of rice.
I'll remove it in a few days and see what happens.

I would suggest rinsing in distilled water since the minerals in regular tap water can leave a residue which may be conductive.

Skudrun Posted at 2017-2-4 14:56
I do not have Care Refresh coverage. I finally was able to pull it out of the river(after 6 days).
I submerged it in clean hot water and moved around while submerged. Used air compressor to dry it as much as possible, then put in a sealed container full of rice.
I'll remove it in a few days and see what happens.

Good luck and please do let us know how it turns out.

keep nus posted and good luck... This tiny graine of rice can do wonders....

I tried the rice trick after it was 10 ft down for 15 minutes and no go

John94si Posted at 2017-2-4 18:45
I tried the rice trick after it was 10 ft down for 15 minutes and no go

Sorry to hear that - for your sake and mine.

Well I powered up the Mavic and it cycled through the start up. The gimbal seemed sluggish when calibrating but the props moved as normal although it wouldn't link to the remote. I tried to reconnect by the procedure to link a new remote but slill no luck. I also tried wi fi to my phone and still no luck. I guess next step is begin taking it apart looking for corrosion or moisture.

I'd recommend giving CorrosionX a try. It would've definitely made the recovery almost 100%. I spray all my boat and outside electronics with that stuff, it does wonders

oops, double posted somehow

Skudrun Posted at 2017-2-8 12:25
Well I powered up the Mavic and it cycled through the start up. The gimbal seemed sluggish when calibrating but the props moved as normal although it wouldn't link to the remote. I tried to reconnect by the procedure to link a new remote but slill no luck. I also tried wi fi to my phone and still no luck. I guess next step is begin taking it apart looking for corrosion or moisture.

Sorry to hear that.
Hope you can self repair it.

Any updates?

I have been an EE for 30 years and did repair work as a sideline business.  Take my advice and send it back to DJI.
I have had maybe a 5% long term  success rate with electronics that have been submerged.  In most case after tearing them down and cleaning them out with RO/DI water and the drying them and using contact cleaner on the cables and motors I do get them working BUT they always start to develop problems after a few weeks.  Most of it can be traced back to connectors starting to corrode or wires getting water in the jackets that starts to corrode out the copper inside the cable.  

MasterT Posted at 2017-2-8 13:04
I'd recommend giving CorrosionX a try. It would've definitely made the recovery almost 100%. I spray all my boat and outside electronics with that stuff, it does wonders

I just noticed they even specify "for drones" on their web site.  

Ive been searching for this kind of thing... lost mine in some water clipped a tree and the drone crashed in a mud puddle.

Unfortunately i did not know about the DJI Care program, i'll be calling the local hobby store and telling them to inform others, if i was told about this i would of got it guaranteed its a no brainer

I dried it in rice for a few days until i couldn't take the stress of not knowing and the drone powered up and just blinks red LED, i get the same problem with the remote will not connect...

I'll have to find out how to get it repaired, could be pricey considering i'm in Canada.  Worst part is I only got to use my Mavic 5 times until this happened.

That's another thing could do. Coat the boards inside with neverwet (from adafruit). Well maybe not, motors and camera/gimbal might not make it underwater.

Reminds me of this thread. SMH

http://forum.dji.com/thread-78579-1-1.html

Good luck OP

WolfgangStiller Posted at 2017-2-4 15:14
I would suggest rinsing in distilled water since the minerals in regular tap water can leave a residue which may be conductive.

Wolfgang,
               Very good point -- Distilled water (Pure)  is not conductive !! many do not know this.
If the op had his Mavic go for a swim in salt water, no matter what he uses to clean it or dry it out -- in time that dip it took is going to take it's toll --- early signs of water damage is a White powdery buildup around the solder joints, connections to the PC board and component's   

SkunkWerxs Posted at 2017-4-18 19:08
Wolfgang,
               Very good point -- Distilled water (Pure)  is not conductive !! many do not know this.
If the op had his Mavic go for a swim in salt water, no matter what he uses to clean it or dry it out -- in time that dip it took is going to take it's toll --- early signs of water damage is a White powdery buildup around the solder joints, connections to the PC board and component's

It's worth a shot and there's a good chance he may a get some more time out of the equipment but for something this complex a salt water bath is almost always a death sentence after a few weeks.

There's somebody who claims to have saved his Mavic Pro after salt water crash: Youtube - 'DJI Mavic pro salt water recovery and works again/how to do it!'

Mine just dropped yesterday into the sea and I'm now drying it into the sun after rinsing it with tap water. But seeing the corrosion everywhere I will bring it to Dji tomorrow when back home ...

Submerged in water for 6 days, if worth trying to revive but I would think the electronics would be shot after so many days in H2O. If there are a couple of rare cases of bringing back to life, I hope this is one of those rare cases. It'll be interesting to the know final outcome. Good luck !

Mine recently went for a swim in a river and I left it in rice for over a month.. My buddy and I tore it right down thanks to an awesome teardown video on youtube by TronicsFix.. We pulled the motherboard, cleaned out all the rice put it back together and it seems to work really well... I did lose the battery it wont work anymore but that IMO is minor compared to the entire device..  One issue I am having is when it came out of the water the red lights on the landing gear stayed red indicating critical error... as expected...  However, after the rebuild those lights are continuing to stay red indicating some sort of critical error yet I get no errors on my remote or in the DJI Go4 app... We tested it in flight for a good 25 minutes doing various things and everything seemed to work as normal... I wonder if there is a reset procedure for those lights does anyone know?  Are they like a check engine light in a car... Stays on even after its fixed until the light is physically reset somehow?  Aside from the solid red lights on the landing gear everything works perfectly so far!

I recently crashed my Mavic Pro in the ocean trying to get the Miami Vice shot in sport mode and it went down into 10' of water for 20 minutes until I went swimming and recovered it.  Battery started heating up and was immediately toast.  Washed the drone off w/ fresh water and took it back to the hotel, put it in the shower, took all the panels off the drone and put a hair dryer on no heat mode for 2 hours.  Tried it later that night, it connected, camera turned on, but then started smoking where the camera is located so immediately turned it off again.  Left it off for 6 more days out of the case and then turned it on tonight and to my surprise, the camera connected (heard so many horror stories of the camera not connecting but turning on), lights came on, and it flew perfectly (so far).  Tested the GPS home point activation and that worked as well.  We'll see after more tests tomorrow but so far so good.

I love taking shots around water. Hope I never it but you guys have left some very good tips.

anamorphic23.98 Posted at 2017-12-22 20:45
I recently crashed my Mavic Pro in the ocean trying to get the Miami Vice shot in sport mode and it went down into 10' of water for 20 minutes until I went swimming and recovered it.  Battery started heating up and was immediately toast.  Washed the drone off w/ fresh water and took it back to the hotel, put it in the shower, took all the panels off the drone and put a hair dryer on no heat mode for 2 hours.  Tried it later that night, it connected, camera turned on, but then started smoking where the camera is located so immediately turned it off again.  Left it off for 6 more days out of the case and then turned it on tonight and to my surprise, the camera connected (heard so many horror stories of the camera not connecting but turning on), lights came on, and it flew perfectly (so far).  Tested the GPS home point activation and that worked as well.  We'll see after more tests tomorrow but so far so good.

Very lucky indeed! Salt water is usually the end game for electronics. Sometimes we get away with fresh water (ie lakes and rivers) if we are quick to retrieve the drone!

I also love taking shots over bodies of water be it the ocean or inland lakes etc. I have another 10 months of my Care Refresh package left and I'm going to get as many water shots as possible between now and then. I think after my care refresh expires I may be less inclined to work too often over water!

I recently sank my mavic pro in Lake Tanganyika which is very clear fresh water. It was 21 metres under water overnight before we could dive for it. The battery is dead.  However, after leaving it on a sunny window ledge for a fortnight,  It seems to be working fine.
The only problem is that the camera is fogged up. I have opened the camera housing but the lens does not seem to be drying.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Seen on you tube that a mavic which was left overnight in a ditch fill with water was salvaged, in any case good luck to you.

Distilled water? Not 100% sure, but believe it is distilled water; you rinse it out with this water because there is not any salt/minerals and will dry without damage to the metal components within the circuitry.  Good luck  

djiuser_ynL3LphuvkJp Posted at 1-26 10:35
I recently sank my mavic pro in Lake Tanganyika which is very clear fresh water. It was 21 metres under water overnight before we could dive for it. The battery is dead.  However, after leaving it on a sunny window ledge for a fortnight,  It seems to be working fine.
The only problem is that the camera is fogged up. I have opened the camera housing but the lens does not seem to be drying.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have now replaced the camera and everything seems to be working 100%. My congratulations to the company for producing such an amazing and robust bit of kit!

Skudrun Posted at 2017-2-8 12:25
Well I powered up the Mavic and it cycled through the start up. The gimbal seemed sluggish when calibrating but the props moved as normal although it wouldn't link to the remote. I tried to reconnect by the procedure to link a new remote but slill no luck. I also tried wi fi to my phone and still no luck. I guess next step is begin taking it apart looking for corrosion or moisture.

I wouldn't do that, your best bet is sending the drone to DJI you just might be surprised at the end price they will charge you for repairs or replacement.

Skudrun Posted at 2017-2-8 12:25
Well I powered up the Mavic and it cycled through the start up. The gimbal seemed sluggish when calibrating but the props moved as normal although it wouldn't link to the remote. I tried to reconnect by the procedure to link a new remote but slill no luck. I also tried wi fi to my phone and still no luck. I guess next step is begin taking it apart looking for corrosion or moisture.

but please give us all more info on your situation when it does end.

My Mavic 2 Pro landed in a river in the west of Ireland last month. Fully submerged to a depth of about two feet for at least five minutes. Managed to retrieve it, took out battery immediately, shook off as much water as I could, and started drying with a hairdryer within 20 minutes. Did this for about an hour, then left it in the sun for a couple of hours. Had to travel then so put back in case with silica gel sachets. Next day put it in an oven at 40C for another hour (carefully monitored). Let it cool off,  took it outside, cranked it up and it flew with no problems. Checked all functions and all work fine. Flew it a few times since and all good. Battery also seems fine, though I want to test it some more to make sure it doesn't suddenly discharge without warning. I'm assuming Mavic builds a high level of water resistance into their aircraft without necessarily claiming they're waterproof. Also  in my case submersion was relatively shallow, so not too much pressure.