Hy!This afternoon, I went and flew my drone, but it got out of control and crashed in a tree. It was only a 2 meters crash but it landed in some kind of mud.
Two motors had a lot of mudon them but the rest of thr drone was fine (it fell on one side). The battery was ejected, I don't know how, so I didn't have to disconnect the battery^^
I cleaned the accessible mud with some tissues in the first 10 minutes after the crash.
When I try to turn the motors (by hand), one (which had the least mud) turns alright, but I can still spot a bit of dirt under the motor; for the other one, I have a harder time turning it. I can still turn it, but I can feal the mud "creaking" and blocking the turn.
My guess now is to wait a day or so until it's dry, but then what should I do?
Open the motors?
"Swoosh the air with a hair dryer"
...?

If you have any suggestion or remarks, don't hesitate!
thx

Okay, I don't know how, but to I managed to get the sd card problem fixed.
For the motors which had some mud, well I flown my drone 15 minutes an hour ago and they looked fine.
thx for the help!

Personally I would replace the motor with the mud inside to be on the safe side

Hello zephirlorne，it would be better to replace the motor. If you need repairing service, feel free to contact our tech support via support@dji.com or http://www.dji.com/support.

I would have to agree with Nutz and DJI-Paladin.....you may never be able to get all the dirt and grit out of the motors.........and if they fail that would be catastrophic, especially in the air!
Good Luck!

Tmygun Posted at 2016-6-21 07:32
I would have to agree with Nutz and DJI-Paladin.....you may never be able to get all the dirt and gr ...

Always better safe than sorry

Personally,  I would get a spray can of electronic cleaner and another of compressed air and try to blow it clean.  Then,  if I still felt resistance to turning the motors,  I would consider replacing it.

Too bad distilled water couldn't be flushed through it, then dry it thoroughly for a few several long days.
Compressed air, would be advantageous before it dries. Once the mud has solidified inside, that motor can be tossed in the waste bin.
Don't crash a good drone over a $20 motor.


RedHotPoker

You could use compressed air BUT, you never know if you get all the dirt out and what if there was some fine tiny stones and what if your flying and a stuck piece loosens up and gets caught and makes the motor hard to turn or even stop. If that happens your aircraft is going to crash.

Best practice would be to replace the motors.
If you are not good at soldering on the board then cut the wires instead and solder them together. Then use heat shrink to make sure the wires don't come apart or short with each other.

I would have flushed it vigorously with pure water, but only if I was able to do it before any of the mud dried.  Dried mud on the inside of the motor shell will throw it off balance.  You also need to get the grit out of the bearings if any got in.  Using electronic cleaner is not the way to go (sorry Kneepuck), because you're dealing with a water soluble material that will wash out with water much easier than with a chemical solvent.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-6-21 19:12
I would have flushed it vigorously with pure water, but only if I was able to do it before any of th ...

True,  that.  But,  if using water,  use only Distilled water.  I would still flush with electronics cleaner after it dries though.

Pure = distilled
But,  many people have reported on these forums that they have been successful recovering salt water dunks also.  I'd be flushing with several gallons of distilled/RO water.

AG0N-Gary Posted at 2016-6-21 20:17
Pure = distilled
But,  many people have reported on these forums that they have been successful reco ...

Ah ha!  I love it when I get to bandy semantics!  Purified water is not distilled water.  Even in the grocery store.  Purified water has been filtered to remove impurities.  Distilled water has been boiled to steam,  and that steam captured,  filtered and condensed to remove all conductive elements.  You can pour true distilled water on a piece of powered up electronic equipment with no harm,  as it has no conductive qualities.  Don't try that with purified water though.

EDIT : The motor was not litterally covered in mud but had some mud on it (not too much) and some went inside it

Hey thanks for the quick responses!

I tried to clean the motor a bit more by removing the dirt I could see with a screw driver and blowing it out.

Here is a link to check out a video of the motors spinning (showing mainly the motor who had some mud). It looks like the motor turns just as well as the otherones, and doesn't grinds. (don't worry if you see the motor not attached, I detached it to "clean" it)

PS: there is another thing which is weird, it tells me that there isn't any SD card installed but there is actually one (It showed that before the crash as well).

Kneepuck Posted at 2016-6-21 22:55
Ah ha!  I love it when I get to bandy semantics!  Purified water is not distilled water.  Even in  ...

How well I know.  We used water cooled on most of our high powered TV transmitters.

zephirlorne@gma Posted at 2016-6-21 22:54
EDIT : The motor was not litterally covered in mud but had some mud on it (not too much) and some we ...

Looks like some crud on the top surface of that motor.

Are the contacts of the microSD card clean?

Is that your lunch on the floor?

zephirlorne@gma Posted at 2016-6-22 13:54
EDIT : The motor was not litterally covered in mud but had some mud on it (not too much) and some we ...

With the issues you have maybe you should send the aircraft in.
In your video when you spin the motor by hand it looks like the motor isn't even mounted anymore.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-6-23 10:10
With the issues you have maybe you should send the aircraft in.
In your video when you spin the mo ...

Yeah, I demounted the motor to clean the mud under it

Airspace Explor Posted at 2016-6-23 09:42
Looks like some crud on the top surface of that motor.

Are the contacts of the microSD card clean ...

It's my snack on the floor
The contacts on the sd card looks clean to me, when I put it in my computer, it tells me that there is still 10GB left of data on it, so that means it's not a problem with the sd card but more like to the drone/dji go app

And, is there a way of disassembling the motor to take a closer look?