I got a little too ambitious and was trying to circle a fountain at the downtown square in my hometown.  I clipped the top of the fountain, and it plunged into the water.  The water broke the fall, but unfortunately, well, yeah... water.  The first thing I tried to do was turn off the battery, but it was not responding and just stayed on, so I removed it.. That may have been a bad idea to remove it while it was still on.  A few minutes later it let me turn it off, but it will not turn on now.  I removed the gimbal to let that dry out, and I also removed the battery, and tried to see if it would come on if I plugged the charger in (after I had dried the battery out).  No luck.  The troubling thing is that I can't test the rest of the aircraft to see if anything else still works, because the battery is the first thing in the chain to figuring out the rest.  Anyway... I'm not necessarily asking for help, so much as moral support.  I just watched $3000 flash before my eyes.   Hahah.  It was a glorious couple of weeks.  I was just starting to get some good footage, too.  Boo.

I can't watch the footage from the crash at the momet, because the Mp4 is corrupt from the camera shutting off in the middle of recording.  If I get that fixed, I'll share it.

Sorry for your loss, it sucks

Sorry to hear that. As far as the file, see if there is a way you upload the raw file online and link it here to the forums. Another inspire owner may be able to retrieve the file for you. Unfortunately mine is waiting in line for repair.

Honestly I got it for the potential of getting smooth motion shots, and I wasn't all that concerned with flying up high (the problem being that it seems to be safer up high haha).  I had considered getting a Ronin for my DSLR, but I didn't like the thought of having that stuck on my camera when I wanted to get close selective focus shots and things like that.  This was my first drone experience, and I know I probably shouldn't have jumped straight into one that expensive, but the video quality and fluid motion was just what I was looking for, where the Phantom Vision 2+ had too much of a fisheye look to it.  Now that the new GoPro Hero 4 is out, I probably could have settled with a gimbal, a phantom, and one of those.... But I just wanted the whole packaged deal, and the sensors to fly indoors really put it over the edge for me, although I soon realized that was not very practical unless in very large spaces.  I guess it was just a very expensive experiment for me haha.  Back to making videos with my handheld Canon DSLR lol.

I shot this with it yesterday.

I have dropped energized electronics in water before and was able to recover them with process.  Try this at your own risk.

1. Remove battery and towel dry.
2. Towel dry the rest of the device.
3 Put device in oven at the lowest possible temperature, 125F to 175F, for several hours. This will dry any remaining moisture in the device. Do this as soon as possible. These temperatures are above the 104F that DJI recommends and I have no idea what will happen. I have done this on other devices not an Inspire.

For the battery I would suggest using a hair dryer. The white top of the battery just snaps in place on to four prongs. Pop the top off and dry useing the hair dryer on it. The battery itself is sealed so it is the electronics that you want to dry.

You mileage may vary. Good luck.

jonathanlipking Posted at 2015-3-7 11:07
Yikes, that sucks!

I'd highly recommend insuring your equipment or even join the PPA (your membersh ...

PPA insurance does not cover any UAV equipment. They only cover cameras used on the ground.

Keep it in the airing cupboard for a week and keep you fingers crossed.

I have dropped electrical equipment in water before and when fully dried out it has worked fine. Try not to put electric current through it until properly dry.

My fingers a crossed for you mate.

As stated below give it time to dry out. You could invert it in a large container and pour a ton of Rice into it. I have dried out radio transmitters that way before. The Rice will soak up any moisture. See if you can borrow a Battery from someone. Also put a voltmeter across the two Battery Terminals and see if any voltage is present? The Dji Battery has electronic components in it, not just Cells.

Drummerboy
  I was surprised to see a video of Paris Tx, good video.  I work up there a lot I'm interested in what video settings you are using.  My videos are pretty poor quality I get a lot of grainy videos I've been in RC for years but my video and photography skills are lacking.

Sorry for your loss I sort of did the same thing once - I was focused on the monitor and not on the bird itself. Wham right into a light pole.{:3_41:}

Thanks, everyone!  Larry,  that's cool.   I had the video set on 1080p at 60fps.  Since most people don't have 4K displays, there are a lot of artifacts when you try to watch it on any other kind of monitor, and I wasn't sure about compressing it, so I just put it on 1080p.  I never had a chance to figure out a solution for the white balance being dark one second and and light the next.  Other than that, I didn't really change much.  I sure hope I can get a battery to test in it, and hopefully everything still works!  I tried plugging the camera directly into my computer with a USB, but it didn't recognize the device.  I'm assuming that it has to be plugged into the Inspire for it to work that way.  Hopefully that's not an indicator that the camera is messed up.  Even if my drone is broken, I'd like to still get the hand held system for the camera.

Drummerboy, Sorry to hear about your Inspire. Dont' give up hope. Keep the group posted and keep working toward a fix. That is too nice of a machine to scrap with out exhausting every possible resource.

Also, you mentioned the Ronin, my friend just got one and he has his set up with a quick release so he can get the camera off to get those handheld shots. I like it but be aware, it's heavy! I shoot with an "Allsteady Pro 5"  from Turbo Ace and even with a Ninja 2 and a remote focus controller mine is still lighter than his with just the camera on. We both shoot with the 5D mkiii and I think I even had a heavier lens than him. With that said, the Ronin seems to have better build quality and a better balancing system. They both get nice smooth shots so function wise I think they are equal. Just thought you could use some food for thought if you do decide to go that route. Hope  you get the bird back in the air!

My Inspire works, as far as I can tell!  I bought a new battery, and the aircraft turned on.  The next step is replacing the props, because they are broken.  (it came with two sets, but I already replaced one set before). Does anybody have a suggestion for the best place to buy replacement props?  Everyone I've seen that's a legit store says that they are out of stock, and the places on Ebay have some pretty shady looking delivery times.

Hi, sorry to hear about your Inspire. I have a question about what was captured in your flight record. I have lost my Inspire as well after it disconnected. My flight record doesn't say it disconnected by instead shows I descended it from 20 metres above the water at full descent rate into the ocean (I didn't, I'm an experienced flyer being an owner of two Phantoms). My flight record ends the instant it supposedly hits the water.

Have you checked your flight record to see when the flight actually ended? Was it the instant it landed in the fountain or a second or two later? Any information you have would be much appreciated.

How do I check the flight record?  I actually got the aircraft to start up again, have a video feed going and everything, so that's good.  I haven't flown it yet, because I need new propellers, but I should be able to check this for you.

Sorry to hear this. I know the feeling when I lost my phantom 2. That's still not half as bad as the inspire doe....

drummerboyc2002 Posted at 2015-3-12 05:57
How do I check the flight record?  I actually got the aircraft to start up again, have a video feed  ...

The flight record is on the Pilot App under the User Centre icon. Then click on the middle icon down the bottom of the page. You should then see a summary list of all your flights. And if you click on the flight you can actually play the flight record of the whole flight. It's cool but in my case it says that I descended my Aspire at full speed into the water.

Let me know how you get on.....

Bad news man!!! Get a giant plastic bag fill it with uncooked rice and seal it tight for 5 days...See if that works.
I just called to insure all my equipment today this stuff will happen ....

Sucks to hear this. Try the rice trick works every time.

bag of rice. dont be tempted  to turn it on.

Thanks everyone, but it's working again as I said.

I'll check the flight record when I get a chance.  The video of the crash stopped a couple of seconds before the crash, for some reason.

Glad to hear that your Inspire is working! Have you contacted DJI in regards to repairs? I had an incident that I posted about (see link below), and when I contacted DJI they stated that they would not issue a RMA because the craft went into the water. Tahoe Ed however stated that "I am sorry for that.  We should allow you to send it in and determine the cause of the crash.  I can escalate the response to you.", but as of yet I still have not heard anything. Just want to know if no RMA for craft exposed to water is correct.

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... amp;page=2#pid66787

Hi Drummerboy, have you try to fly again with your Inspire?
Unfortunately this morning  I had your similar experience. During landing and a strong wind the inspire fall in water (sea).
1 or two minute later I recovered the inspire, back to home i washed it with home water to eliminate the salt.
Now the Inspire is inside Hoven to dry water but the battery is dead.
Have you recovered the last shooting after the crash?
Thank for your information

I had to get a new battery, and after giving the Inspire about a week to dry, it turned right on.  However, I need new propellers, and I can't find them anywhere to test and see if the unit will fly correctly.  The video that I recovered didn't show the crash.  It stopped a few seconds before it happened, but I was able to recover the video.

Great news, yes someone on another forum crashed in a river and they also were able to fly again!

Thank you Drummerboy!

@Acidsnow. Yes i just read the story.  Fortunately it crashed on river water. I just hoping to be as lucky as him. My fear is the salt water. I opened the camera and the electrical contacts are very clean. The same for Gps and other parts. Will see tomorrow.

Luinil- My oven won't go below 170º do you think it's ok to put it in there. It was in flight mode so the gears/arms are up. I have to put in upside down sitting on the motors. I'll put big balls of aluminum foil under each one I guess and keep the door open and slid the drone out a little. What do you all think? I'm desperate here. lol I will probably start a new Topic on this so please don't be pissed at me. Ours switched from GPS to ATTI on its own and took off. I saved it and fought it to bring it back. I've got around 375 flights in this thing and I use ATTI often but this was different. There was no wind at all.

manuele.trullu Posted at 2015-3-15 08:52
Hi Drummerboy, have you try to fly again with your Inspire?
Unfortunately this morning  I had your similar experience. During landing and a strong wind the inspire fall in water (sea).
1 or two minute later I recovered the inspire, back to home i washed it with home water to eliminate the salt.

Hey I just had th same situation, my new two old week inspire 1 crashed in the ocean this morning, I was able to pull it out before the minute pass, the drone was still on, I was able to turn the battery off and take it out. About two minutes into drying the drone with a towell, the battery  sitting in the sand just started burning and smoke was coming out of it. I have read about the rice and leaving it to dry on a cold temperature but I wander if the salt will damages the circuits and what is that I would need to take a part to before leaving it to dry in rice or cold temp? Need help, thanks every one

A big sorry for your loss. I had lost one my best drone a few weeks ago. It is very heart touching moments. After that I am went to dji's repair shop, for repairing my damaged drone .

Yet another thread dragged up from the dead - Admins - please!