Recovering Phantom 3 Footage without Drone (its at the bottom of a lake)

[RedHotPoker]

Some of the best shots and video come from flying over water. Besides, fall from 300' into hard ground and you might be replacing more parts than if you had splashed into water and recovered. The water I fly over..... It would never be recovered.

So true...
Yes, those are some beautiful shots you took. Thanks for sharing. You have a good eye.
I want to go down by the N.Saskatchewan River and do some flying and filming, but I'm so nervous? Why?
Scared to get harassed by the feds, and not into having a bunch of people, help me lose my concentration.
Not sure which area would be best. Capilano off 50st, or Story Land Valley Zoo area, near Valleyview Drive..
Or on the North side of the N S River. Perhaps head down to Riverdale. Or over by Whitemud, near the freeway, but below the bridge on Fox Drive near the riding accademy where we used to fish. Yes right at the junction, awesome spot where the White Mud creeks fresh water, runs into the dirty N S River running past. Fish are clean.
Reminds me to renew all my Fish & Game cards.


RedHotPoker

 

[acherman]

So true...
Yes, those are some beautiful shots you took. Thanks for sharing. You have a good eye.
I want to go down by the N.Saskatchewan River and do some flying and filming, but I'm so nervous? Why?
Scared to get harassed by the feds, and not into having a bunch of people, help me lose my concentration.
Not sure which area would be best. Capilano off 50st, or Story Land Valley Zoo area, near Valleyview Drive..
Or on the North side of the N S River. Perhaps head down to Riverdale. Or over by Whitemud, near the freeway, but below the bridge on Fox Drive near the riding accademy where we used to fish. Yes right at the junction, awesome spot where the White Mud creeks fresh water, runs into the dirty N S River running past. Fish are clean.
Reminds me to renew all my Fish & Game cards.


RedHotPoker

I want to fly around the new remand center all the time, just because it looks neat. Plus some towers. And some night shots of refinery row would be good. If you're flying down by the river I don't think anyone would get too upset. I try to find spots where people aren't likely to see me when I take off, and have someone with me (wife) to distract people. Would love some shots of the legislature, at night, and don't park close by. Haha

 

[Justin Namon]

I know it's a pain but I would remove the board completely. You need to clean the underside of the board. It's possible that solder points are corroded and could make contact with each other.

C0ps, appreciate the insight. fortunately I did not have to remove the board completely. I was able to sneak in through battery compartment and scrub most visible contact points. the only ones that concerned me were the front two contacts that were not accessible. I've already reassembled the top piece and have it baking in the sun (today's high 90). I plan on taking it by local RC shop tomorrow to determine if everything else looks good. again will keep all posted as I'd love to have the swamp thing come to life and fly again.

 

[Freebird1]

I would be using something like this. We use it in float planes etc. You can spray elect. motors servos esc's etc. Theres other brands too but this is what I use.

Let it sit in rice for week or 2 then spray it down with Inox or something similar. Put it together and put a battery in it. I bet it works as long as you havent powered it up already

http://www.inoxmx.com/inox-mx3-for-hobbies/

http://www.inoxmx.com/inox/mx-3-lubricant/

 

[RedHotPoker]

I want to fly around the new remand center all the time, just because it looks neat. Plus some towers. And some night shots of refinery row would be good. If you're flying down by the river I don't think anyone would get too upset. I try to find spots where people aren't likely to see me when I take off, and have someone with me (wife) to distract people. Would love some shots of the legislature, at night, and don't park close by. Haha

Sounds like you wish to visit the Remand centre... Eh? Hahaha
The new downtown ice arena area would be a great place to fly.
Yes, the LEG, I want some footage around there for sure. If we can't fly from within the grounds, we can certainly fly over them, take off, from just outside.
West Edmonton Mall as well. Flying inside would be cool too. Hahaha
(Back when they had the Tigers and other wild life.)
Refineries don't really interest me. Would be awesome for some night photography over there.

RedHotPoker

 

[GlennG]

Sorry for your loss, thats bad luck.

Hate it for you. Good luck with the diver

 

[Pacmanfever]

What may appear as corrosion could be soldering flux residue depending on the process they used when manufacturing the boards. You'll also see some boards sealed with a clear protectant that will fog with the application of other solvents. Those sealers will eventually clear back up when dried out, not always, but usually.

Glad you got it back, I think it will fly again with careful recovery of the electronics.

 

[Justgregg]

I have a buddy here in Denver that has a submersable that he uses it in search and rescue. Maybe he can help.

 

[atki]

I have a buddy here in Denver that has a submersable that he uses it in search and rescue. Maybe he can help.

Its already been retrieved days ago.

 

[Justin Namon]

What may appear as corrosion could be soldering flux residue depending on the process they used when manufacturing the boards. You'll also see some boards sealed with a clear protectant that will fog with the application of other solvents. Those sealers will eventually clear back up when dried out, not always, but usually.

Glad you got it back, I think it will fly again with careful recovery of the electronics.

Pacman, that was my concern when it's started "clouding up" with alcohol. I still decided to scrub it off let it dry about 60 hours and then sprayed CorrosionX on the whole board. my concern would be the sealer getting stuck between the contacts, but I also feel lubing it up with the CorrosionX helped bring back any of that issue. got my fingers crossed and my patience level at full capacity. so we'll talk in a couple days. cheers

 

[johnnyu]

Thank you very much! This should help greatly! Any chance of recovering stills from app or logs?

TAz gives good advice. I'll keep reading but did you get the drone dried out? I can almost say the battery certainly is toast though.

 

[Justin Namon]

UPDATE: drone is officially no more. I cannot get it past initial beeps and gimbal movement. simply turns off midway through. im starting to notice motor condition and seeing corrosion on all four of them. even if it did start up they would need replacing meaning more $$ and not worth repairing on a soaked drone. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I've listed the RC on eBay to hopefully get some cash towards my next purchase. in the meantime I will be flying my P2 blind with gopro since I sold my monitor and all osd cables with my last P2 to get this P3. hopefully will be avoiding nesting areas. see you all around.

 

[atki]

Sorry to hear this bro, it's a rare set of events that happened to you and very likely won't happen to you again. Hope you get some fpv for the p2 soon and get back out there. Thanks for letting us all know the unfortunate result.

 

[TAZ]

Sorry your drone wasn't functional after the recovery. Thanks for keeping us informed as to what you tried. Was hoping for a better outcome.

 

[Raja777m]

UPDATE: drone is officially no more. I cannot get it past initial beeps and gimbal movement. simply turns off midway through. im starting to notice motor condition and seeing corrosion on all four of them. even if it did start up they would need replacing meaning more $$ and not worth repairing on a soaked drone. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I've listed the RC on eBay to hopefully get some cash towards my next purchase. in the meantime I will be flying my P2 blind with gopro since I sold my monitor and all osd cables with my last P2 to get this P3. hopefully will be avoiding nesting areas. see you all around.

So, Sorry to hear your mishap, Justin.
BTW, that picture is gold, you got an eye for such scenery, hope this doesn't let you down on your future flights.
Good luck with the new one.

 

[RedHotPoker]

UPDATE: drone is officially no more. I cannot get it past initial beeps and gimbal movement. simply turns off midway through. im starting to notice motor condition and seeing corrosion on all four of them. even if it did start up they would need replacing meaning more $$ and not worth repairing on a soaked drone. I appreciate all the comments and suggestions. I've listed the RC on eBay to hopefully get some cash towards my next purchase. in the meantime I will be flying my P2 blind with gopro since I sold my monitor and all osd cables with my last P2 to get this P3. hopefully will be avoiding nesting areas. see you all around.

Sad to hear this. This wasn't the outcome I hoped to hear from you. As we all had so much faith, that it would dry out and return to full functionality. Boo!! Ok well, OK moving forward with chin held high and an ever positive attitude. ;-)
Time for things to go your way. Good luck selling it and recouping some valued gold.
Hope you can get back your enjoyment of flying and will also be looking forward to a future model.
Don't forget to list it right here too.
Classifieds

RedHotPoker

 

[Justin Namon]

Hey guys thanks for the wishes. Yea I resolved this a while back. Bought another one but with insurance that covers everything (even water). Also after a lot of analyzing stats I realized that a bird did not hit my drone at all. My back left prop flew off mid flight because brake setting was too high and I believe the plastic hub thread was stripped lightly. So change those props often to avoid this expensive problem with a cheap solution. Either way going strong now 8 months no incidents (yet...) because it's not a matter of if you'll crash, but when. Also I bought a racing drone and **** I bang that bad boy up and have a lot more fun. Gets my crazy flying out of my system. Cheers and happy flying y'all.

 

[HWCM]

Rice is used on Cell phones and other Electronics to pull moisture out.
Thought I would toss that at you... Terrible way to go.

This does not work. The damage comes from the corrosion of the dried out water and the water shorting out circuits.

 

[HWCM]

Got it, I'll save the $150 towards my next one. Such a shame. Also someone posted about carbon fiber props? Do you think they'd hold up an impact mid air? I'd say the saddest sound was the gyro trying to correct itself as it fell. :/

No, carbon props shatter. I have went through tons of them on my 250 racing quad.

 

[johnnyu]

I must say that is one awesome photo. I am a video expert (NASA retired) nd shouldnt be) but that another story, and I can tell you any fragmented files are recoverable if you take the data from the corrupted file and attach it to a known good file by inserting it into the good file, then cutting out footage that doesnt belong in your final product, and saving it. Its a bit involved and maybe one day I'll post a tutorial on this. Once you go through the expense of the data cutting and pasting tools (or maybe find the free ones) you won;t regret it. I've recovered a drone from salt/fresh water mailny fresh, to success, but it takes a lot of burturing to get it cleaned up and so on. The important thing is not to power it up too early. Two weeks in a rice bag after cleaning any muck out usually yileds good results. I'm not saying anything new here I dont think, but you can also put the card in a card reader and not another drone and go after the files.