NEVER, NEVER, NEVER again over water!!! UPDATE!!!

[Andy9]

I plan on flying my Spark over water when spawning season gets here for bream. Probably in May. There are generally close to the bank and you can see them good from the air. I figured I would locate them with the drone. I could take off and land from the boat. I could pull up to the bank and fly from there. Wonder how high I should keep the Spark while flying. Any suggestions.

How high. Why? Don't know why is the height relevant. To see the fish or not to disturb them as they might go away.
I think a few m would be just right, depends on how big territory you want to catch into the shot. About the noise - don't know how the sound of a drone spreads through the water but generally speaking water diminish any sound. And Spark is quieter than Phantom so this should not be a problem.
Maybe it would be better to turn off the VP sensor although if you fly more than 4 m from the surface it won't be a problem.
For photos of such kind it is almost necessary to use a CP photo filter to eliminate any reflex from the water surface.

 

[bullerman1946]

I would think to see a bream bed I could fly 30 or 40 feet above the water. They make a very distinct bed in shallow water. I think I could see it well from 40 feet. If I can do it that would be a great help. I could scout in a few minutes what it would take me a while to fish. Just a thought. Don't know if I will be brave enough to do it or not.

 

[Andy9]

Nothing to worry about. It'll be just fine.

 

[bullerman1946]

Thanks Andy. I have a small pond right behind my house. I might experiment with it. Just fly over the edge of it and see how it goes. I was flying my P4 yesterday and a guy was talking to me about it. I was telling him about the RTH. I had taken off manually from the short grass. I was on a golf course on the tee box. In RTH it wouldn't land on the grass. It just hovered. I didn't know it would do that. I guess over water is different. Thanks for the information.

 

[roosta]

At least you've learned one good lesson; as the other isn't really a lesson.

Warning signs from reading your post:

1. It took you 4 attempts, for some reason, to get flight battery hooked up correct to charger w/o errors (why? did you investigate the cause of problem?)
2. Not remembering launch sequence for DJI F550 after it having been a while (You really should know or familiarise before taking off)
3. Didn't check battery voltage when over the middle of a reservoir of water
4. Screen; generally when DJI loses signal its a greyed out screen (sometimes black on external displays)
5. Using your face/mouth to disconnect battery cable

DJI AC's generally have operating temperatures and I know from experience very low temperates can have derimental effects and reduce flight times of the AC.

Water was not your problem here, as you made a decision to jump in a seemingly ice cold lake to go in after it. The positive news from your end is you managed to salvage the AC which requires replacement parts (or can be used as replacements parts). At least your most recent post confirms the battery's inability to hold a charge. Try and keep your batteries in a dry place; preferably where the temperature can be controlled as this will effect the lifecycle of them.

RoOSTA

 

[hammrr]

I’m with you !!
Long story short I’m looking for a replacement p4pro
I was on Georgian bay a large body of water off of Lake Huron
About 10 miles out on my buddies new boat
So I took off manually with fulll batteries took a great video
Was about to bring it back on deck when the alarm went off and so did the drone!
I guess it was trying to return to home
But home was 10 miles from where we started
Still don’t understand since I was on manual

NEVER AGAIN ?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

Still don’t understand since I was on manual

Manual ... what?

 

[hammrr]

Manual ... what?

When u use auto takeoff I thought it logged “home “
So if you hit rth it would
Guess I was wrong

 

[Meta4]

When u use auto takeoff I thought it logged “home “
So if you hit rth it would
Guess I was wrong

Your drone records it's power-on location as a homepoint.
If you watched the distance showing on your screen, you'd have seen that increase as you moved further away from where you launched.
That distance was the distance to the homepoint and the homepoint is where the drone will RTH to.
.... unless you reset the homepoint location during the flight.

In the situation you describe, your Phantom initiated Low Battery RTH because the battery level was approaching the minimum to get back to the homepoint.
You should have cancelled the RTH and reset the homepoint to prevent the drone trying to RTH to where it was launched.
Then you could have brought the drone to wherever you wanted.

 

[hammrr]

Your drone records it's power-on location as a homepoint.
If you watched the distance showing on your screen, you'd have seen that increase as you moved further away from where you launched.
That distance was the distance to the homepoint and the homepoint is where the drone will RTH to.
.... unless you reset the homepoint location during the flight.

In the situation you describe, your Phantom initiated Low Battery RTH because the battery level was approaching the minimum to get back to the homepoint.
You should have cancelled the RTH and reset the homepoint to prevent the drone trying to RTH to where it was launched.
Then you could have brought the drone to wherever you wanted.

Wish you had been there

 

[Steve Lawrence]

As an electronics guy with decades of experience:
a - rice will never work.
b - the best way to treat a water dousing is with Isopropyl alcohol.
IA will absorb many times its volume in water.
Get a few bottles of the stuff and drench your electronics and such in it. Let soak. Agitate. Soak. Drain. Repeat as many times as you think necessary.
You can dry with a hairdryer since alcohol evaporates readily.

De-ionized water!

 

[farnandez]

Much thanks to you. gb whatsapp

This is abundantly valued and I will forward to anybody considering or as of late bought an automaton

Usually the best pictures and video are over or around the water so it would be a pity not to fly over.

 

[Andy9]

I must agree with the previous post. It is pitty not to film overwater scenes if there is any. And of course other mentioned reasons to fly over water are omportant too. No high obstacles, no people and streets on the ground, etc.
Of course always is some propabillity to something go wrong. But this can go everywhere. And falling down on a solid ground will damage the drone more than falling into the water. Sometimes the drone even survives fall into water if it's not salt water while the drone crashed down on the solid ground will never survive.