Recover after water damage.

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Hello everyone. I just wanted to share my experience and solution about saving the drone after dropping it in water.

First and foremost. If you drop it on water try to get it out as fast as you can (if safe to do so, please do not risk your life for a drone) and unplug the battery quickly. I was lucky enough to get it out in about 30 secs.

Next thing you want to do is take it apart. This is a most do (the rice trick wont do it, this is a myth). There are plenty of YouTube videos step-by-step on how to do it. A critical point, remove the Pixhawk. This is a little black box that is connected to the bottom of the mother board. Take the motherboard out and you will see it. You have to unscrew 4 little screws and pull it out. Because this is a close plastic cube with a usb port water will go in and it wont dry by itself, thus you must remove it from the mother board. Make sure you take everything apart. Gymbal as well.

After you have every piece disconnected, dry it with a paper towel or a dry cloth. For the Pixhawk, I just shaked it until all water came out. However, there will be some moisture left. I used a hair dryer to evaporate the little drops out. The top of the pixhwak is clear so you can see the water going away. Use the hair dryer gently, be patient, you dont want to put much heat otherwise you risk burning some circuit part. Hold it in your hand while you dry it. if you feel you are burning your fingers then you are applying too much heat. (I recommend not using a hair dryer, I did at the moment because I was desperate to get it back working. Please use the next step)

Get isopropyl alcohol 99%. It must be 99%. Soak every electronic part in it. Isopropyl alcohol is not conductive, thus it wont damage any electrics. Let it work its way through the components and then dry them out and let it sit so it evaporates. This step will ensure that no moisture is left in your circuits. (By the way this works for any electronics, if you ever drop you phone in water). I put my Gopro in isopropyl alcohol as well since the water made it to the inside of the lens.

After the alcohol has evaporated connect every component except the motors (please do not connect them) Now go ahead and turn it on. At this point it should be working (At least it did for me) and it should load just normal unless you happen to have some physical damage which would require further troubleshoot. When this happens, there might be a beep code that points at the problem. If you are getting a beeping other than the regular beep find the pixhawk beep codes on the pixhawk website and work your way from there.

If it is loading just normal and it picks up the satellites you can be relief. You just resurrected your drone.

Now test the motor pods ONE BY ONE AND DO NOT PUT THEM BACK IN. Connect them and leave it hanging, be ready to disconnect it after you turn on the power. The reason being is that if one of them is burnt it will catch on fire (it happened to me) thus you must be ready to pull one of the power cables. If this happens then you know you need a new motor pod. Another thing that can happen if the motor pod is damaged, it's that the drone will not load up. If the drone loads up without the motor but you connect one and it wont load up, then that motor pod needs to be replaced. (I lost two of my motors).

After that, just replace any motor pod that needs replacement and put everything back together. Now go for a test flight. I suggest you keep it at a low altitude and play around with it just to make sure everything works as supposed. IMG-20170403-WA0023.jpeg IMG-20170402-WA0011.jpeg IMG-20170402-WA0011.jpeg IMG-20170403-WA0023.jpeg IMG-20170403-WA0023.jpeg IMG-20170402-WA0011.jpeg
 
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Fresh or salt water?
Why did you dry the copter and then flush it with the alcohol? I would have just flushed it first and then dried it

As I said. I was desperate at the moment and didnt have the patience to wait for the alcohol (99% percent Isopropyl you can only find it online)
 
As I said. I was desperate at the moment and didnt have the patience to wait for the alcohol (99% percent Isopropyl you can only find it online)

By the way it was fresh water.

Salt water would probably cause further damage due to conductivity properties.
 
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