My Phantom 4 decided to Land in the Pacific Ocean

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I was in Big Sur a couple of days ago flying around the coast in the Spanish Bay area about 100 yards from were i took off. My Battery was at 12% and I was getting ready to bring it in when all of a sudden she started to land. I was only about 20 feet high. It first struck a rock on the side which caused it to flip and slide down the rock into the shallow water. I ran as fast as I could into the rocky area and then into the water. By the time I got there it laid submerged in the water. Total time in the water was no more than 10 seconds. I took the battery out and begain drying it off. Interesting enough, there was no outward physical damage. Not even a broken prop. My wife began to do a Google search and we came to the conclusion the best thing to do was to rinse the whole bird with fresh water. We did and we dried it again. So today i put in a new battery and fired it up. No joy. The Gimbal doesnt work, the SD card doesnt work, and it cannot detect a GPS signal. So it will not fly. So my question to you all, is this: what are my options? Any help would be appreciated.


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Sorry for your loss, but this is clearly pilot error. You should have seen battery warnings on your screen that would have prevented this. You should always try to land at 30% to avoid this scenario. I expect you realize that now, but a little late. :(

By the way, when the craft enables auto land at 10% battery, like happened to you, giving the craft FULL UP ascend command with the left stick will usually maintain present elevation for a little while, allowing you to move horizontally with the right stick to a dry and safe landing area.
 
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Yes, I totally know this is my error. I guess I felt a miss placed confidence in the fact I was so close and that it would only take seconds to bring it back. I just did not anticipate it would try to land.


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I think your cheapest option could be to have an electrician look at it, might just trace it to one item thats faulty (if your lucky), unsure if thay have protection diodes or such, sorry for your loss
 
I think your cheapest option could be to have an electrician look at it, might just trace it to one item thats faulty (if your lucky), unsure if thay have protection diodes or such, sorry for your loss
IMHO that's a waste of time and money. By now you can write that craft off. These craft are very sophisticated. Saltwater is brutal, sensors are usually toast when exposed to saltwater. I've heard of some people immediately soaking the craft in clean water, then encasing the craft in rice for days. Some have success, but it's a VERY low probably. I suggest he buy a used P3P until he logs a flight record of a year with no crashes. $1100 a pop is a lot of cash. Mike Holt (530) 277-5366 will sell used P3P's without controller for a lot less. He repairs DJI craft at home, good guy. P4 controllers (GL300C) are compatible with P3A/P3P.
 
I'd take the top off.

Next, I'd submerge it several days straight in fresh water. Swish it around daily.

Next, submerge it in a bag of rice for a week.

Then try it. Probably won't work but at least you tried...

Sorry for your loss
 
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I'd take the top off.

Next, I'd submerge it several days straight in fresh water. Swish it around daily.

Next, submerge it in a bag of rice for a week.

Then try it. Probably won't work but at least you tried...

Sorry for your loss

That's worth a try. Nothing to lose at this point.
 
I have good results sumerging any electronics that got wet in alcohol, ethanol, the one to clean stuff. Smartphones, radios even a laptop got saved. Not sure what saltwater would do with alcohol. Anyway alcohol pushes the water away(trying to explain in english, lol) But sure, it was booted up to early. You should disasemble it so any remains of alcohol can evaporate. Rice does a good job also in drying. If it boots up, and can't comunicate with it's internals, for sure the board is shortining out by the water making it impossible to talk to the gimbal, gps, etc

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Rice is a myth, it will never pull water from anything electronic, best bet is to remove batteries and get isopropyl alcohol in there fast, then get it to a tech to scrub the corrosion out of there, When I dropped a $1500 canon L grade lens in a river I was told to put it into a ziplock bag and keep it wet, took it the next day to the repair center and they were able to clean it, that was 5 years ago. Letting it dry would have made it worse.
 
Rice is a myth, it will never pull water from anything electronic, best bet is to remove batteries and get isopropyl alcohol in there fast, then get it to a tech to scrub the corrosion out of there, When I dropped a $1500 canon L grade lens in a river I was told to put it into a ziplock bag and keep it wet, took it the next day to the repair center and they were able to clean it, that was 5 years ago. Letting it dry would have made it worse.
Rice has worked with every teenager related iPhone//htc/Samsung toilet,swimming pool,festival (') liquid ingress that has occurred at Loomster Towers over the last 10 years or so.
 
Following salt water immersion your just throwing money away and wasting time. It's only a question of when it's going to fail (assuming it ever goes again). Rice does absorb some moisture but is largely useless, those little bags of "do not eat" that come in the packaging with new electronics work much better.
 
Pretty much about everything I know is what I read on this site. There have been countless posts over the past year from pilots who have lost their crafts in fresh water, allowed it to dry out in rice, and have been able to recover their AC successfully. There is no question that drying out with rice leads to success. Whether or not they would have recovered the AC with another method such as air-dry is unknown.

The problem is the salt water. I don't know of anybody on this site who has posted that they have successfully recovered from being submerged in salt water. Still - if you have the time, it might be worth a try...
 
Rice is a myth, it will never pull water from anything electronic, best bet is to remove batteries and get isopropyl alcohol in there fast, then get it to a tech to scrub the corrosion out of there, When I dropped a $1500 canon L grade lens in a river I was told to put it into a ziplock bag and keep it wet, took it the next day to the repair center and they were able to clean it, that was 5 years ago. Letting it dry would have made it worse.
Mermaids are a myth, rice absorbing water is physics.
 
There is no question. White uncooked rice does absorb moisture. Not as well as Silica gel, Cat litter, couscous, oatmeal and many other things most of all are available in nearly every household.

Placing the item in close proximity to the outlet of an AC unit is more effective. For salt water exposure disassembly followed by fresh water and isopropyl alcohol is the only way of having a chance of a happy ending.
 
I dropped my in river water, dismantled everything, was surprised how easy it was and left for 2 days, I have literally just tried it now and it works.[emoji106]


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this tech would disagree with you on what water does to eletronics - open it up and dry it out before it can corrode, generally a paper towel will work much faster and quicker than waiting for the rice to do something 'magical'
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Open up and use compressed air at every angle and component accessible, unplug every thing you can get to, blow air on them and reconnect, then leave open under a fan for a day or so. Complete submersion in fresh water again may clog the tiny openings on the barometer chip. If all fails, you have maybe some replacement parts for your next one, you will get another, right? (hooked like me)


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