Help: Crashed Phantom 3 into Pool

[afeather]

In August of 2018, I was using my drone at the beach and a gust of wind slammed it into the beach house and it fell into the regular water pool (not salt water). I jumped in and retrieved it and then tucked it away for a few weeks to let it properly dry. I used a hair dryer, compressed air, etc. to make sure it was completely dry. The battery worked fine. It turned off and on and was able to charge. So, I plugged the battery in and one of the motors started smoking. I removed the battery, bought a new motor, installed it, and plugged in the battery. Again, the new motor smoked so I removed the battery. I assume this means the main board has gone bad. Before I buy a new main board, I want to see if the camera was damaged. So I removed the new motor I installed and wanted to see if I could get the camera to work without that motor. At this point, my battery stopped taking a charge and was dead. So I bought another battery and plugged it in with the motor removed. Nothing. I get no activity from the drone at all.

I would still be willing to buy a new main board but it would suck to buy that and find out the camera was bad. Anyone have any advice on this?

 

[WV. Rootman]

Sounds like it wasn't all the way dry when you put the battery in? Who knows what all is fried now? I've had a P3 under water for days and it still works.

 

[afeather]

Sounds like it wasn't all the way dry when you put the battery in? Who knows what all is fried now? I've had a P3 under water for days and it still works.

It was still powered on when I retrieved it from the water and then I quickly removed the battery. It could have shorted out while in the water. I have no idea.

 

[With The Birds]

You need to open the shell and perform a visual inspection. Corrosion related damage should be obvious and a strong indication its not worth the investment of a main board. VPS, OFDM, GPS boards and compass are probably only viable short term even if the main board swap gets it running.

As to the motor smokingg it would seem at least one ESC inverter mosfet has failed source to drain exposing the motor windings to B+ Voltage. It should have only smoked for a short time before melting the die or internal connections in the package. Either way the main board is probably beyond economical repair, a short to the gate on the mosfets would have taken out the ESC SOC also.

The battery failure is probably the internal fuse opening- the failed mosfet(s) could easily have exceeded the protection rating.