My Phantom 4 decided to Land in the Pacific Ocean

[With The Birds]

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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If we were dealing with fresh water immmersion your suggested approach would likely prove adequate. Unfortunately the salt water exposure provides that simply drying the PcB's will leave salt residue which will continue to attract moisture and promote corrosion. Only solution with a hope of success is to thoroughly clean everything.

 

[Erised]

Anyways, a salty splashdown would suck big time, I could never trust it again and hope it doesn't happen to any of us. Even after saving it and only flying over water, what if some electronics screws up and decides to take off in town and crash, I would be flying thinking this all the time....nope I would get another one all call it a *@^&*! $1000.00 lesson.

 

[kennedye]

Anyways, a salty splashdown would suck big time, I could never trust it again and hope it doesn't happen to any of us. Even after saving it and only flying over water, what if some electronics screws up and decides to take off in town and crash, I would be flying thinking this all the time....nope I would get another one all call it a *@^&*! $1000.00 lesson.

Agreed. Can you ever really trust it 100% to not do something screwy because of a tiny bit of corrosion you missed?

 

[RémyHeli]

Find more details in extension of nice inputs from all of you ;

Electronics Water Damage



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[Fallguy]

Find more details in extension of nice inputs from all of you ;

Electronics Water Damage



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pH of common fluids
A number less than 7 indicates an acid solution, while a number above 7 indicates an alkaline solution. Both cases are bad for electronic components. Knowing the pH of the fluid can help give you an idea of how severe the damage is.

• Pure water neutral pH = 7.0
• Blood = 7.4
• Gastric Juice = 0.7
• Urine = 6.0

I can see it now , someone drops their P4 in the ocean and takes it out and immediately starts peeing on it.

 

[L3thalB3ard]

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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I spent part of my life as a cellphone "data recovery specialist" my worst success rate involved saltwater. With that said, I still have my equipment and I wouldn't mind giving it a shot... if you're desperate and want to ship it to me I can give it a shot.


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[brothers]

Fresh water per se will not damage electronics. I remember a visit to the GRI Computer facility (an early DEC wannabe) in the 70s when their president, Sam Ochlis (recently deceased), showed off the final stage of their QC process: they ran all of their circuit boards through ordinary dishwashers (minus the soap) and essentially all of them passed.

The problem is what's dissolved in the water and is left behind when the water evaporates. Salt water, really hard water, gonna leave a lot of crap behind. Best thing to do after an immersion is flush the whole thing with distilled water, available in gallon jugs from your local drugstore.

 

[WetDog]

The key for recovery is speed. Immediately remove and discard the battery. Rinse in as fresh a water as you can as soon as you can. Rinse in as much volume as you can. Then fresh water, preferably deionized* along with a small amount of alcohol (any kind **). Pull the top cover. Then air dry / dry over silica / rice or whatever you have. Until completely dry.

I would go further and disassemble the camera as much as is possible. You will probably lose the entire AC but it seems that anywhere between 20 and 50% of the time you can get something back. Worth a try, of course.

* distilled water is fine, typically more expensive than deionized but may be more available.

** isopropryl alcohol, methanol, ethanol are perfectly fine alcohols. Ethanol would be a bit of a waste, but it will work fine.