Flying over deep water

timzee · Sep 20, 2015

Having one "mishap" in the past which found me jumping in a small pond to retrieve my Phantom 2 (dried out with no issues) I have to say it makes me nervous watching all you brave flyers zooming around over rivers, lakes, and oceans. In my case the pond was only about 4 feet deep but if the Solo were to come down over a deep body of water-- kiss it's bad-ass black body goodbye!

You guys putting together all those cool videos over water just have nerves of steel?

Seems there might be a way-- if it doesn't exist already-- for some kind of emergency flotation add-on gizmo that could at least provide a way to retrieve a drowning Solo. Not the floating landing pads I've seen mentioned but something you could manually deploy in that kind of emergency?

DodgeP · Sep 20, 2015

I'm about to go fly my Solo over the Delaware River in about an hr!

timzee · Sep 20, 2015

DodgeP said:
I'm about to go fly my Solo over the Delaware River in about an hr!

Good luck!

Post some video of what you come up with!

Maddog · Sep 20, 2015

timzee said:
Having one "mishap" in the past which found me jumping in a small pond to retrieve my Phantom 2 (dried out with no issues) I have to say it makes me nervous watching all you brave flyers zooming around over rivers, lakes, and oceans. In my case the pond was only about 4 feet deep but if the Solo were to come down over a deep body of water-- kiss it's bad-ass black body goodbye!

You guys putting together all those cool videos over water just have nerves of steel?

Seems there might be a way-- if it doesn't exist already-- for some kind of emergency flotation add-on gizmo that could at least provide a way to retrieve a drowning Solo. Not the floating landing pads I've seen mentioned but something you could manually deploy in that kind of emergency?

Sounds like a potential money maker! Would take some work to develop the "remote deployment" aspect.

Lou Mannatti · Sep 20, 2015

Maddog said:
Sounds like a potential money maker! Would take some work to develop the "remote deployment" aspect.

Deployment could be triggered by a sudden change in elevation , power failure , or OS crash I would buy it.

timzee · Sep 20, 2015

Lou Mannatti said:
Deployment could be triggered by a sudden change in elevation , power failure , or OS crash I would buy it.

I wonder how buoyant the Solo is (or isn't). IOW, how much flotation would be needed-- not to offer a safe water landing but simply to keep it from sinking and allowing it to float long enough to be retrieved on the surface of the water? Perhaps attaching some kind of very lightweight foam device prior to flying over water that wouldn't impact flight characteristics that much but could provide a margin of safety in the event of a water crash.

DodgeP · Sep 20, 2015

timzee said:
Good luck!
Post some video of what you come up with!

Successful flights but the videos look like dog do, compared to the video I get from my I1 straight from the card. I'm going to have to tweak the gopro settings as FLAT is just way too uneventful and I'm not interested in having to color correct every single video. I may take the time to post something later tonight. If I do.. I'll put it here.

Earldgrayjr · Sep 20, 2015

timzee said:
Having one "mishap" in the past which found me jumping in a small pond to retrieve my Phantom 2 (dried out with no issues) I have to say it makes me nervous watching all you brave flyers zooming around over rivers, lakes, and oceans. In my case the pond was only about 4 feet deep but if the Solo were to come down over a deep body of water-- kiss it's bad-ass black body goodbye!

You guys putting together all those cool videos over water just have nerves of steel?

Seems there might be a way-- if it doesn't exist already-- for some kind of emergency flotation add-on gizmo that could at least provide a way to retrieve a drowning Solo. Not the floating landing pads I've seen mentioned but something you could manually deploy in that kind of emergency?

I thought this would be a great add on for Solo and it has been at least discussed on the Solo Mod group.

The idea woukd be a variation of the ballistic parachute already being designed, but would deploy an inflating bouy rather than a parachute

That said, someone posted this up a while back.

Waterbuoy - Miniature Floatation Device

Based on the weight of Solo, you may need two though

Another idea is a small bouy attached to a fishing line with a disolvable fuse/link. The idea is that the link would disolve in water over time and the small bouy would float up, not bring up the Solo, but showing you where it is, and giving you a chance to pull it up. Such as this

Getterback

Depending on how deep it goes, this may also work.

Another problem is the water itself. It can obviously short things out, but depending on the dissolved contents, can cause other problems if the water is just evaporated leaving solids behind. Once recovered, blowing it out with compressed air is always a good start. There are also systems that use negative pressure and low humidty for rent that get rid of water.

There is debate about using rice (though I personally swear by it) though most also agree that silica gel granuals are the best.

1 Gallon Jar of Replacement Desiccant Orange Indicating Cobalt Chloride Free!

Salt water is a killer, though many also swear by coatings (in advance) for all the electronics that help p[rotect from water, but also corrosive salts, such as these

Waterproofing Electronics

Hope it helps

Del · Sep 20, 2015

Solo drone floats prototype | 3D Robotics Drone Forum

BladeImages · Sep 20, 2015

In the last newsletter from 3DR they mentioned somebody is working on a ballistic parachute. A ballistic "raft" should be pretty easy to do.

SYOTR · Sep 24, 2015

Earldgrayjr said:
I thought this would be a great add on for Solo and it has been at least discussed on the Solo Mod group.

The idea woukd be a variation of the ballistic parachute already being designed, but would deploy an inflating bouy rather than a parachute

That said, someone posted this up a while back.

Waterbuoy - Miniature Floatation Device

Based on the weight of Solo, you may need two though

Another idea is a small bouy attached to a fishing line with a disolvable fuse/link. The idea is that the link would disolve in water over time and the small bouy would float up, not bring up the Solo, but showing you where it is, and giving you a chance to pull it up. Such as this

Getterback

Depending on how deep it goes, this may also work.

Another problem is the water itself. It can obviously short things out, but depending on the dissolved contents, can cause other problems if the water is just evaporated leaving solids behind. Once recovered, blowing it out with compressed air is always a good start. There are also systems that use negative pressure and low humidty for rent that get rid of water.

There is debate about using rice (though I personally swear by it) though most also agree that silica gel granuals are the best.

1 Gallon Jar of Replacement Desiccant Orange Indicating Cobalt Chloride Free!

Salt water is a killer, though many also swear by coatings (in advance) for all the electronics that help p[rotect from water, but also corrosive salts, such as these

Waterproofing Electronics

Hope it helps

The Waterbuoy has been shown to fail if it sinks quickly to deeper water. The water pressure will not allow the balloon to inflate. The getterback may have the same problem. Best to never let it sink.
Here is my solution (not a Solo)

Marich · Sep 24, 2015

Ah... next thing will be a submersible quad.
Johhnie Quest would be proud!

IceFyre13th · Sep 24, 2015

Marich said:
Ah... next thing will be a submersible quad.
Johhnie Quest would be proud!

Already here..... Waterproof Multirotors. Fly in the rain or over water with the QuadH2o and HexH2o

Earldgrayjr · Sep 24, 2015

SYOTR said:
The Waterbuoy has been shown to fail if it sinks quickly to deeper water. The water pressure will not allow the balloon to inflate. The getterback may have the same problem. Best to never let it sink.
Here is my solution (not a Solo)

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Unfortunately, when they land in water it is typically because something went wrong, that means often they are sideways or upsiide down.

The Getterback gets pretty good reviews. It also just deploys a bobber and doesn't actually inflate anything or lift the UAV. It is good for a depth of 100 feet. Good price also

Rich · Sep 24, 2015

getterback seems best to me, but there is a review that says he had two that didn't deploy.

Others need to get their recovery 'balloon' to inflate, and they may not be able to inflate if the drone went too deep (this has been demonstrated as someone else has said).

But I'm not sure on the spec's of the getterback. Does it need a minimum depth to deploy?

Earldgrayjr · Sep 24, 2015

Rich said:
getterback seems best to me, but there is a review that says he had two that didn't deploy.

Others need to get their recovery 'balloon' to inflate, and they may not be able to inflate if the drone went too deep (this has been demonstrated as someone else has said).

But I'm not sure on the spec's of the getterback. Does it need a minimum depth to deploy?

Don't know, but I thought I saw somewhere it was a dissolvable link....

lee · Sep 26, 2015

timzee said:
Having one "mishap" in the past which found me jumping in a small pond to retrieve my Phantom 2 (dried out with no issues) I have to say it makes me nervous watching all you brave flyers zooming around over rivers, lakes, and oceans. In my case the pond was only about 4 feet deep but if the Solo were to come down over a deep body of water-- kiss it's bad-ass black body goodbye!

You guys putting together all those cool videos over water just have nerves of steel?

Seems there might be a way-- if it doesn't exist already-- for some kind of emergency flotation add-on gizmo that could at least provide a way to retrieve a drowning Solo. Not the floating landing pads I've seen mentioned but something you could manually deploy in that kind of emergency?

their is a depth released airbag unit that you could fix to the drone

NJA · Sep 26, 2015

timzee said:
Having one "mishap" in the past which found me jumping in a small pond to retrieve my Phantom 2 (dried out with no issues) I have to say it makes me nervous watching all you brave flyers zooming around over rivers, lakes, and oceans. In my case the pond was only about 4 feet deep but if the Solo were to come down over a deep body of water-- kiss it's bad-ass black body goodbye!

You guys putting together all those cool videos over water just have nerves of steel?

Seems there might be a way-- if it doesn't exist already-- for some kind of emergency flotation add-on gizmo that could at least provide a way to retrieve a drowning Solo. Not the floating landing pads I've seen mentioned but something you could manually deploy in that kind of emergency?

User Name · Sep 26, 2015

It should be fairly easy to trigger a release with a sensor that detects water. SCUBA dive computers typically have two small contact patches that, once submerged, turn the computer on. A buddy of mine has an older computer that all he needs to do is lick his finger and bridge two metal points, probably just passes a small current across the points. Wouldn't even need to tie into the on-board computer - as soon it's set off, just trigger a CO2 cartridge to inflate a bag.

NJA · Sep 26, 2015

timzee said:
Having one "mishap" in the past which found me jumping in a small pond to retrieve my Phantom 2 (dried out with no issues) I have to say it makes me nervous watching all you brave flyers zooming around over rivers, lakes, and oceans. In my case the pond was only about 4 feet deep but if the Solo were to come down over a deep body of water-- kiss it's bad-ass black body goodbye!

You guys putting together all those cool videos over water just have nerves of steel?

Seems there might be a way-- if it doesn't exist already-- for some kind of emergency flotation add-on gizmo that could at least provide a way to retrieve a drowning Solo. Not the floating landing pads I've seen mentioned but something you could manually deploy in that kind of emergency?

No nerves of steel here. I was shaking.
Here's the YouTube link.