Yesterday, I did something stupid. After flying my Phantom nicely over manicured lawns at a beach / garden park, I attempted to take off from a piece of wood on a small beach. I had used the Phantom on a lake beach earlier in the summer and was cautious about sand, so I wasn't very concerned.
Almost immediately, the Phantom locked up and flipped over directly into the sand. When I picked it up, I noted lots of black grains stuck to the four motors, magnetically bound.
While I sweated the situation throughout dinner and the evening, I looked up a YouTube video showing someone removing magnetic sand using keyboard cleaner putty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHmUeNPGqk
Rather than go out and look for that putty, I used some Model Magic putty that my kids had. For each motor, I unscrewed each of the 4 bottom screws and pulled the motor out of its well. I had to remove the black holder and the small brass colored ring from the bottom of the motor, then pull apart the cylinder.
I carefully applied the putty to every part of the motor and used Q-tips to bring bits of sand up further along the magnets. It was painstaking work, but when I put it all back together, all moved smoothly. I just tested the quad in actual flight and it worked great -- probably a bit improved, actually, because I cleared up other grit that might have been in there.
I found this video helpful for seeing the parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJixomwlVUs
I post this in hopes that none of you ever have to deal with this. I just wanted to record the steps I took so if you do run into this issue, you'll use the putty to lift the grit right out.
Almost immediately, the Phantom locked up and flipped over directly into the sand. When I picked it up, I noted lots of black grains stuck to the four motors, magnetically bound.
While I sweated the situation throughout dinner and the evening, I looked up a YouTube video showing someone removing magnetic sand using keyboard cleaner putty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHmUeNPGqk
Rather than go out and look for that putty, I used some Model Magic putty that my kids had. For each motor, I unscrewed each of the 4 bottom screws and pulled the motor out of its well. I had to remove the black holder and the small brass colored ring from the bottom of the motor, then pull apart the cylinder.
I carefully applied the putty to every part of the motor and used Q-tips to bring bits of sand up further along the magnets. It was painstaking work, but when I put it all back together, all moved smoothly. I just tested the quad in actual flight and it worked great -- probably a bit improved, actually, because I cleared up other grit that might have been in there.
I found this video helpful for seeing the parts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJixomwlVUs
I post this in hopes that none of you ever have to deal with this. I just wanted to record the steps I took so if you do run into this issue, you'll use the putty to lift the grit right out.