Flying over water

[QYV]

The main purpose for retrieval for me would be my micro SD card anyway, would suck to have great photos lost! If the Phantom still works that's an added bonus!

yep this. I lost a Phantom into a river once and in the end I'd have traded the Phantom away if I could have just gotten the memory card back I had some cool stuff on there.

general consensus is that people have had a lot of luck recovering fully functional Phantoms from FRESH water, not so much from salt water.

 

[Burndog]

general consensus is that people have had a lot of luck recovering fully functional Phantoms from FRESH water, not so much from salt water.

Right.. That's why if and when mine goes down in the ocean I
ll also chuck it in some fresh water asap to flush out the salt which is much more corrosive.

Still need to find a decent flotation mechanism. Small air cartridge that inflates after a water soluble pill is compromised seems the best. Just need to find a lightweight version of what they use in auto-inflate lifejackets.

 

[syotr]

I'm not sure anybody is saying that there's no difference in CRASHING, but that there's no difference in FLYING.

Meta4 wrote" Flying over water is a lot like flying over land in that a crash is likely to wreck your Phantom anyway."
For me the difference in flying is "Pucker factor."

 

[ElGuano]

general consensus is that people have had a lot of luck recovering fully functional Phantoms from FRESH water, not so much from salt water.

Right.. That's why if and when mine goes down in the ocean I
ll also chuck it in some fresh water asap to flush out the salt which is much more corrosive.

Hopefully it remains a hypothetical But if your bird does go down in the ocean, I would strongly recommend against taking any of the moisture recovery measures you commonly hear about for non-flying electronics like cameras, lights or cell phones. If your flying machine goes into the drink, the corrosion will be both immediate and will continue long after you think you've dried it out, and will be working on components that work on keeping the phantom in the air. A bad combination. If you want to try to recover it as a bench exercise, that's great. But I would never fly any of those components except maybe the plastic shell. The risk of catastrophic failure over time has more than skyrocketed.

 

[ProfessorStein]

Still need to find a decent flotation mechanism. Small air cartridge that inflates after a water soluble pill is compromised seems the best. Just need to find a lightweight version of what they use in auto-inflate lifejackets.

It's called the Water Buoy
http://www.water-buoy.com/

And they don't work for Phantoms (or, really, anything).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ_UG7IxIJM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBSiueW2Ih0

Unfortunately, anything of any weight is going to drag the device down deep enough before it sets off that it can not counteract the water pressure in order to inflate.

 

[Burndog]

Still need to find a decent flotation mechanism. Small air cartridge that inflates after a water soluble pill is compromised seems the best. Just need to find a lightweight version of what they use in auto-inflate lifejackets.

It's called the Water Buoy
http://www.water-buoy.com/

And they don't work for Phantoms (or, really, anything).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ_UG7IxIJM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBSiueW2Ih0

Unfortunately, anything of any weight is going to drag the device down deep enough before it sets off that it can not counteract the water pressure in order to inflate.

Thanks ProfessorStein!

Well, Water Buoy is out...

I guess we need to know how negatively buoyant a Phantom really is. Then we can compensate with Pool Noodles on the skids or these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L11 ... UTF8&psc=1

Possibly filling the voids in the Phantoms body with spray expandable insulation foam could help.

 

[ProfessorStein]

That expandable foam can get surprisingly heavy. Not sure I'd go there. And, being an insulator, it would impede ventilation/cooling. Plus it would be hell if you ever had to get in there to service any of the components. Doesn't sound like a great idea overall, to me.

I believe there already are direct replacement 3rd party shells for the Phantom that are waterproof. And I'm anxiously awaiting to hear how syotr is creating his waterproof flyer.

 

[ProfessorStein]

I believe there already are direct replacement 3rd party shells for the Phantom that are waterproof.

Found it.
http://www.aquacopters.com/
(have NO idea how well they work, or what).

There are also a couple of members here, I believe, that have used a product called Liquipel to coat the electronic components.
http://www.liquipel.com/
Liquipel says the Phantom is "not officially compatible" with the coating... but my hunch is that's because DJI didn't want to pay them any marketing dollars to get a seal of approval. It's just electronics. Should still work (except, of course, on the motors).

 

[sbarton]

The waterproof DSLRPro's Phantom used LiquidPel to waterproof their drone.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3pU0XKQZt4[/youtube]

 

[syotr]

Better Solution

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost ... ostcount=1
I have mine nearly finished. Will post water tests soon.

 

[DBeard]

The waterproof DSLRPro's Phantom used LiquidPel to waterproof their drone.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3pU0XKQZt4[/youtube]

THAT.WAS.AWESOME!

 

[syotr]

The waterproof DSLRPro's Phantom used LiquidPel to waterproof their drone.

THAT.WAS.AWESOME!

That was an old video. It is no longer listed on their website. As I recall, it was VERY expensive and had no real warranty.
Best to never let your bird sink, especially in salt water.

 

[TruffleAir]

My first P2, zenmuse 2D gimbal and hero 3+ I crashed into seawater about 6-7m deep. Scuba equipment, underwater search pattern and ~30-40 minutes later I found it! Battery was about 3m away from the quad which I can only assume meant it ejected on impact. I took the battery out of the go pro and apart from the batteries, which I chucked, soaked the entire thing in fresh water for an hour. I dried it out for about three days in 36-38 C.

Gimbal, 2 motors and Naza m are out of action and unfortunately I couldn't recover the footage off the SD card.

Six months later the go pro still works perfectly, with a new battery. The quad is yet to fly again, but I do think it is possible for less than the price of a new one. There is surprisingly very little corrosion to this date.

 

[lake_flyer]

I did some tests with my FC40, which is free for experiments after purchasing a P2. Strapped to 50cc plastic cola bottles to the (dual)battery holders under the motor arms with velcro bands. It worked fine although flying was a bit less smooth of course. Just a plastic bag around the landing gear kept the compass dry. The Gopro in it's underwater case. The only problem I see is to keep the battery connections dry. (A condom sounds like a good idea, haven't tried those in years ...hmmm, can I have a candybar, a packet of aspirin and ahhh, just throw in a packet of those condoms as well....red cheeks all over) But it just works. Landing controlled on water, even with a low battery auto landing procedure, wouldn't be a problem. It floats pretty high on the bottles and the inside doesn't get wet at all. Coming down uncontrolled, upside down, would, of course. But at least it floats.

 

[DBeard]

That was an old video. It is no longer listed on their website. As I recall, it was VERY expensive and had no real warranty.
Best to never let your bird sink, especially in salt water.

Didn't plan on trying to replicate it.
I imagine if you seal the components with a water repellent, they will tend of get hot.

 

[FASTFJR]

Flying over water..........no problem I do it all the time

https://vimeo.com/106115969

https://vimeo.com/106064087

 

[meow man]

That's all I've done, check out my videos just youtube meow man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMWkzlnbW0o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GThUyvlinbA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_umo_dl9CBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfZj1OJo6XA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZJPwRv69Ls

 

[Happyflyer]

Very nice videos Meow Man. I would only do that if I had a big box full of extra money to replace the quad if/when it went down.
A cat person? You should have a cat avatar.....

 

[HarryT]

Flying over water is fine. It's crashing over water that's the problem. I've read too many stories of bad batteries to be comfortable with it.

 

[Meta4]

Flying over water is fine. It's crashing over water that's the problem. I've read too many stories of bad batteries to be comfortable with it.

Water or land it's all the same.
It's not like landlubber pilots only crash into bubblewrap.
You crash, you stand a good chance of losing the Phantom or doing serious damage anywhere.