Recovered P2V+ from water after hurricane

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I need your opinion on something. Earlier this week, my phantom vision+ compass went nuts and decided to go for a 45 degree dive in the ocean. It was lost for good until a guy called me today stating he had found the Phantom Vision+ near the beach following the recent passage of hurricane Arthur. He indeed recovered it (pictures attached below).

The unit essentially spent 4 days in cold salt water and is looking in pretty bad shape, even though I was expecting worse. The motors don't turn well, propellers are finished, and a bit of corrosion has settled-in.

I am wondering if there is any hope in hell to do anything with this. If I wanted to repair it, would it cost me as much for parts than buying a brand new one? Are there any parts in this case that can be salvaged and potentially be used to fix any issues I would have on the replacement unit I just ordered.

Let me know what you think.
 

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Looks like that one is toast bro... salt and electronics don't get along at all.

I would strip it all down and save the shell... buy a new one and get some good flight time with it... take some time and give the old shell a good sand down and paint job for a swap out later on that will give your plus a whole new look :ugeek:
 
Thanks, that's what I figured, but was hoping something can be recovered.

Also, the last footage of the crash is still on the memory card. I was able to transfer the file but it is corrupt as I wasn't able to stop the recording before the crash. I read from many sources that putting the card back into the phantom and turning it on will help recover the file. I however can't do this in my situation as the unit won't even power on.

Any suggestions? I'd love to see what the heck happened.
 
Which way did it tip into the water?
You have a missing prop in the photo? Was it in the direction of the missing prop?
Any chances that it could be related?
I know the chances of a self tightening prop coming off is minimal..
 
You could probably recover/salvage the landing gear. Other than that, mount the thing on your trophy wall!
Sorry for your loss.
Nice that you got it back though!
 
It dropped sideways into the water. I suspect the prop came off due to the harsh treatment of the waves/sand associated with the passage of a hurricane. However, if the prop did loosen prior to the crash, that would certainly explain a lot. I don't think this is likely though as the unit was flying fine right before the crash. Aside from some compass issues, everything was looking good.
 
Clean it up and put it on eBay as "gently used". ;)

Use this to repair your corrupted video file:
http://grauonline.de/cms2/?page_id=5

The trial version only saves half of the original file, and like a wise programmer he chose to save the first half - not the last half which most of the time has the interesting footage of the crash/drop/bang/boom. The price is not unreasonable - 5 repairs: 29 EUR or 99 EUR for unlimited.

When repairing, it will ask you for a reference movie. You need to chose a reference movie of the same resolution/FPS as the corrupted file. Also be sure to select "Enable AVC1 single mode" in the options before you run the repair.
 
pgaucher said:
Thanks, that's what I figured, but was hoping something can be recovered.

Also, the last footage of the crash is still on the memory card. I was able to transfer the file but it is corrupt as I wasn't able to stop the recording before the crash. I read from many sources that putting the card back into the phantom and turning it on will help recover the file. I however can't do this in my situation as the unit won't even power on.

Any suggestions? I'd love to see what the heck happened.

Find another Phantom and see if you can finalise the vid.
Chances that you cant because each pic and vid has an incremental file naming convention.
 
Ok the software worked. the key is 'enable AVC1 single mode'. However, the last 10-15 seconds are gone so we don't actually see the crash, we do however see major toilet bowl behaviour that was completely out of control. I am told some important compass issues exist with the Phantom and this could be even more present in areas closer to magnetic north (as opposed to Hong Kong where I live).

The footage can be seen here: http://youtu.be/ivnI8csyxdE

Would be curious to know what you think happened. The unit literally took a 45 degree dive into the water from where the video cuts off.
 
your video is marked as private :(
 
Sorry for your loss man. I had a loaded camera bag take a dip in saltwater a couple years ago. I feel your pain.
 
Sorry for your loss, Patrice. Your observations seem correct - major toilet bowl - the compass battling with the GPS. You say you had no control at the point where it was circling. Did it not respond at all to your stick movements?
 
It responded up to the point where the circling got bigger. At that point I raised the phantom about 30 feet higher (we can see that in the video) because I was afraid of hitting people on the pier. After that, bye bye birdie ... 45 degree dive to the right with no response (at least not apparent) from the controller.
 
I don't know if you altered your original video file but if you didn't... GOM Player will usually play the Phantom files (complete) even if they weren't properly "stopped" during the record process.

How much battery did you have left? I wonder if it could have been a complete power failure... bad wire or something? It's strange to me that the video stopped before the crash?! I've never had a corrupted Phantom file not play to the end.
 

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