P2V found in river in Virginia, USA by redditor

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http://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/29 ... ver_today/

ipTVS76.jpg
 
WOW that thing looks like it took a good hit and sat there for awhile. It would be super interesting to see whats on the sd card.

Tho probably not any thing I could not recover and get going again after a good wash in deionized water then a nice bath in anhydrous alcohol and some contact cleaner on all the connections. Then a nice session in a vacuum chamber or my drying oven for a few hours. Tho the battery would be shot for sure. But luckily on them the battery is most likely to be the first spot to get wet shorted out and would keep the rest from shorting out and getting fried in a splash down.
 
The F2V that I bought was a "teabagger" with no battery problems at all. (very lucky). I know it wasn't submerged as long as yours and the advice posted is spot on for a possible, successful restoration. I have had to replace three ESCs due to the fact that the bird was powered up when it splashed. Still not done with my restoration as it is a "test as you go" proposition.
 
Luckly I never had any of my phantoms water crashed. But I have my fc40 lost and laying on its back for 3 days of pouring rain befor I found it. But was lucky it sat for a day befor it got wet so the battery was drained to nothing and no power before it got filled with water. But I have recovered things more sensitve to water then the phantom that are usually said to not be savable But were.

were the escs that burned out the original esc's? Because if they were the factory ones they should of been coated even the solder connections all seem to have some kind of varnish on them that makes them hard to even get a volt meter reading on them with out scratching threw the surface first and the stuff from the factory also seems to have a uv dye in it. That can be seen with a black light or even out in bright sun light. It glows purple. which I think its there to tell if any ones ever tried to do a self repair so DJI can void the warranty. I noticed the re[lacment parts dont seem to have the uv dye marker on it tho.
 
On my second flight, I flew in winds gusty enough to overcome the autopilot and send my P2V head on into a 12m palm tree. We managed to knock it down with some ladders and long sticks, but a battery was stuck up there and near impossible to reach. Days later someone who lived nearby spotted council workers with a cherry picker and they got it down for me. It'd rained moderately since and the battery was fine!

In case anyone is wondering / might know the owner, I'm not the original creator of this content. I'm in Australia. You can probably PM the poster on reddit to get their details. They seem willing to return it.
 
I would think that if who ever lost it was able to be found. That would be an great crash/fly away recover story.
 
With regard to "original" ESCs; I'm sure they were the original ones, but due to the fact that the bird was powered up when it hit the water, there were probably 3-phase impulse spikes that compromised the circuitry; probably similar to hard crashes when powered up. I'm not an electronics guru, but I'm sure there are a few out there that can demystify 3-phase complexities. After inspecting EVERY electrical component, (including disassembling all circuit boards in the camera), I have to conclude that the electrical components in the Phantom copters DO have some sort of protective coating, (albeit very thin), otherwise they wouldn't be so forgiving in recovering full function from FRESH water crashes. Saltwater is another issue.
 
on thing I did think of being a lot esc's do tend to fry on some when they have a bath is the ends of the wires in the motors are probably bare and can short. and goes back in to the esc.
 

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