OK, so about a month ago I was flying my Phantom 4 near a local bridge trying to get a shot of it passing through an empty pedestrian tunnel that ran underneath (In ATTI mode do to the narrow tunnel interfering with the collision avoidance) (my plan was to edit that footage togethor with a shot of it swooping in to make it appear as one dramatic seamless shot) when I started to experience an odd problem with the drone drifting sideways into a wall, rubbing against it (but not crashing, just scraping), it was not responding to commands to move away from it (I was standing directly behind it not 5 feet away to monitor it and ensure no one inadvertently entered the tunnel), the shot was ruined so I decided to try again so I landed, picked it up and exited the tunnel. I placed the drone on the ground and ordered it to take off and it immediately slid sideways like it was on ice, it then collided with a dock pole before I could react, flipped sideways and spun into the river.
In my panicked attempt to retrieve it before it sank to the bottom I also ended up in the water. My attempt to retrieve it was entirely unsuccessful and even worse, I was stuck, the river had no banks, just a vertical corrogated metal wall (it was a marina) and both the sidewalk and docks were too high to reach and there were no ladders. To make it even worse the water was only 39 degrees. Long story short I had to get fished out of the water by the fire department, by that I mean they had to lower a ladder into the water so I could climb out. In other news, hypothermia sucks, a lot.
Fast forward a month, my drone is still on the bottom of the river but I was able to get a SCUBA diver to retrieve it for me, here is the damage:
One propeller completely destroyed, tip broken off another, covered in heavy silt, water logged, covered in mussels, battery bulged and corroded.
The diver found the battery separate from the drone and the inside of the battery bay was filled with silt (see picture) so it appears the battery must have ejected on impact, hopefully that means it was powered off when it hit the water. All motors turn freely by hand with no apparent resistance or grit, the gimbal likewise seems to move completely freely.
The irony is that in about a week (from the time of the crash), after I used it for a college presentation I had to make, I was going to send it back to DJI under warranty as the gimbal was bad (I posted a thread on that as I recall), I was also experiencing some compass problems, which I assume are the cause of its odd behavior prior to the crash. This was also my first and only crash.
It had things that needed to be fixed/it needed to be replaced under the warranty, and I had DJI care, is there anything DJI will do to help?
Also, do you think this can be fixed? And how do I go about cleaning it? My plan is to rinse it off with distilled water and maybe take it apart to rinse the insides then put the whole thing in a tub of dry rice for about a week to dry it off, is that a good plan? Also will doing any of that void whatever help DJI might be willing to give me (I have done nothing so far)? My other problem is that I had only the one battery (which appears to be trashed now) is there anyway to test it without it? Or do I need to get ahold of another battery somehow?
In my panicked attempt to retrieve it before it sank to the bottom I also ended up in the water. My attempt to retrieve it was entirely unsuccessful and even worse, I was stuck, the river had no banks, just a vertical corrogated metal wall (it was a marina) and both the sidewalk and docks were too high to reach and there were no ladders. To make it even worse the water was only 39 degrees. Long story short I had to get fished out of the water by the fire department, by that I mean they had to lower a ladder into the water so I could climb out. In other news, hypothermia sucks, a lot.
Fast forward a month, my drone is still on the bottom of the river but I was able to get a SCUBA diver to retrieve it for me, here is the damage:
One propeller completely destroyed, tip broken off another, covered in heavy silt, water logged, covered in mussels, battery bulged and corroded.
The diver found the battery separate from the drone and the inside of the battery bay was filled with silt (see picture) so it appears the battery must have ejected on impact, hopefully that means it was powered off when it hit the water. All motors turn freely by hand with no apparent resistance or grit, the gimbal likewise seems to move completely freely.
The irony is that in about a week (from the time of the crash), after I used it for a college presentation I had to make, I was going to send it back to DJI under warranty as the gimbal was bad (I posted a thread on that as I recall), I was also experiencing some compass problems, which I assume are the cause of its odd behavior prior to the crash. This was also my first and only crash.
It had things that needed to be fixed/it needed to be replaced under the warranty, and I had DJI care, is there anything DJI will do to help?
Also, do you think this can be fixed? And how do I go about cleaning it? My plan is to rinse it off with distilled water and maybe take it apart to rinse the insides then put the whole thing in a tub of dry rice for about a week to dry it off, is that a good plan? Also will doing any of that void whatever help DJI might be willing to give me (I have done nothing so far)? My other problem is that I had only the one battery (which appears to be trashed now) is there anyway to test it without it? Or do I need to get ahold of another battery somehow?
