Lost camera in water. Can it be saved?

Joined
Nov 9, 2014
Messages
24
Reaction score
0
Hi guys,
taking on a challenge (stupid on my behalf) I crash landed and while the copter was oK, the camera left the mount and ended up in a swimming pool
I tried leaving it to dry in rice for about a a day and a half but it (predictively) did not respond.
Are you aware of any methods I could use to save it?

Thanks!!
 
ohhhhh That a Big maybe on if it can be saved. if you turned it on while it was not fully dry could of fried it if it was not already fried. and rice will not dry very well being it dont really suck water out of any of the tiny crevasses and even when it does it takes a few days. But being you went in to a pool which will leave CL salts behind when it drys It can also corrode stuf and also is conductive.

Now here is what you need to do to properly Clean it and dry it. take out the sd card. and you can just rinse that under some running water and dry it off and that should be fine being they are not usually effected by water. and no place for water to get in them.

But the camera its best to clean the water out as well as any residue. and here how to do that. You need to use anhydrous isopropyl alcohol. Which is just a fancy way of saying isopropyl alc that has NO WATER in it at all. Or dry alcohol. HUMMMMM were to get that with out going to a chemical supplier to get lab grade anhydrous alcoholic or having the dea knocking on your door thinking you are making drugs. lol there is a source of over the counter lab grade dry isotropy alc. most ever one knows it and used it as a product called DRY gas or gas line anti freeze. perticulery a brand called HEAT in the red bottles. tho even most no name brands are just as good. But some are methyl alc which will work almost as good but not as good as isopropyl

Go get your self a bottle of that If you live in a cold climate its probably for sale by the bottle at any gas station right now.
If not you can get it at wallmart in the auto sections. and is still used even in warmer climate to keep water out of your gas.



If you can get your self a bottle of the dry gas. and take a glass and fully submerge the camera in it. for a few seconds and take it out and try to shake out any of the alc that you can and then dunk it again. SO you can be sure you got it in all the tiny nicks and cranys that there might be any water hiding in. The alcohol will suck up the water and you will be able to rinse any water out. and heres the other cool part about using alc. To clean wet electronics It does not conduct electric and it will short short any thing out. and it also drys and evaporates at a much lower temperature then water does an does not leave any residue or crud behind when it drys like water can. So after you rinsed out the camera with it. Try to shake out as much as you can from the camera and you can also blow it out some threw the usb or the sd card slot. Then when you have as much out as you can get out. Put it in a warm oven at about 100f degrees. What ever is left inside will completely evaporate in about and hour or two. even from the tight stops inside and the low 100f of the oven is higher then the boiling point of the alc but way below the melting point of any thing in side the camera and will not cause any damage.
when its dry take it out and let it cool and then try to see if it powers on and if so plug in the usb and see if that works.
You may still get some blurry video if there is still any alc left in the lens BUT if so and every thing else still seems to work and you saved it then pop it back in the oven for another hour. to dry it some more.

an HOPEFULLY you did not fry the camera already and if not There is a high chance you can save it this way.

I once lost my fc40 and the camera and found it after it had been laying out in pouring rain for a few days and was filled with water. I had it all cleaned and all dried and back ready to fly in 3 hours. instead of days or weeks to dry with rice.
 
James thank you for your reply. I tried Iso alcohol which I have and it worked!!! really hard to disassemble the camera but in the end it gave in.
THANK YOU!!!!
 
Cool beans glad to hear it. Did you just use plain old rubbing alc Most rubbing alcohol has 30% water in it and dont dry out water to well. Or did you just happen to have some plain straight up isopropyl?
 
J.James said:
Cool beans glad to hear it. Did you just use plain old rubbing alc Most rubbing alcohol has 30% water in it and dont dry out water to well. Or did you just happen to have some plain straight up isopropyl?

plain straight Isopropyl out of the can
 
ahhhh Ya then thats the good stuff and just like whats in the yellow bottles of heat dry gas.
 

Recent Posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,352
Members
104,933
Latest member
mactechnic