Solo fountain crash! Is my drone salvageable?

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Hello all. I'm new to drones, flying, and forums for that matter.
I've been doing pretty good with the 3DR so far - but today i crashed it into a fountain..!

I retrieved it within 5 minutes, and to my surprise, the battery and GoPro were still turned on.
I removed the battery, the rotors, and the GoPro.

The Battery may be dead - I am letting it dry. An expensive lesson, but i have a spare.
The GoPro - I'm on that too.

The Solo however - it seems ok, i have not tried to start it.
I imagine it may be unharmed.
I can find NOTHING online in the way of advice.
Anybody?

Much appreciated.
/CC
 
Anything water related is risky. I would put the gopro in a bag of rice. You should draw out any moisture for a few days. As far as the copter... maybe its a good idea to open it up and have a look around for any corrosion on solder joints now. Use a can of air and blow out any moisture left. Was the Crash your piloting fault or flyway on the quads part? 3DR states if its their fault they will replace the whole shittery if that's the case.
 
Thanks for the reply CanadianSolo. Yeah - risky i know - it was a small fountain so the risk was almost nil. Still, mea culpa. The air is a good idea. Unfortunately I am in a hotel in Sweden at the moment and will not be home to tools and such until friday. I have been using the hair dryer a bit - though i get worried as it warms up.
 
so long as it was fresh water and it is not allowed to stand your chances are better than you might imagine
get it dried off as quickly as you can, and do NOT power anything on for at least 24 hours after you think everything is dry
 
LOL LOL. Is there a cool function on the Hair dryer? haha. Moving air across it is a good idea. Yeah your battery might be done. Since its a smart battery, there are charger circuitry built into the battery. Its probably toast. Keep an eye on the battery if it starts to puff out or anything, LiPos are like little bombs, it could ignite. Do the lights on the battery come on when yo press the status button? Can you turn ON the battery out of the quad copter? Just some other trouble shooting steps to try i guess?
 
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so long as it was fresh water and it is not allowed to stand your chances are better than you might imagine
get it dried off as quickly as you can, and do NOT power anything on for at least 24 hours after you think everything is dry

Sounds good! This is my present action. Thanks for the confidence :)
 
LOL LOL. Is there a cool function on the Hair dryer? haha. Moving air across it is a good idea. Yeah your battery might be done. Since its a smart battery, there are charger circuitry built into the battery. Its probably toast. Keep an eye on the battery if it starts to puff out or anything, LiPos are like little bombs, it could ignite. Do the lights on the battery come on when yo press the status button? Can you turn ON the battery out of the quad copter? Just some other trouble shooting steps to try i guess?

The lights actually never went off. After removal, all 8 white dots were lit - i tried turning it off to no avail. I assumed this was due to the water being a constant conductor within the battery. Now, 3 hours later, there is still 1 single white dot lit. Pressing on/off is ineffectual. Thanks for the heads-up on the behaviour of smart batteries - i would never have known.
 
rice the wonder trick, use rice to draw out any water left, but strip the solo down and then put into a bag of rice and wait,
 
Just dont try to turn it on!!!! Most people get curious a couple hours later to see if their electronic is ruined or not and they turn it on to check. BAD!!!! let it dry, someone said 24 hrs. I typically will let a device dry out for a week. Water can get trapped under components and flow out later.
 
When you put the GoPro in a bag of rice, I'd expose the bag to some sun too. Make sure the camera is covered in rice so it's not in direct sun.

My son's smartphone got dropped into a fish tank, where it sat for about 72 hours before being noticed. I opened it up, put it in a bag of rice and for 3 days and put the bag on the porch in the sun. The inside of the bag would become covered in condensation, I'd open it up and let the air take out the humidity, and then close it again. Repeated with new rice each day and managed to get all the moisture from behind/between the screen/touch element out. Amazingly, the phone turned back on and still works perfectly.

Rice will absorb moisture, but some heat also helps to draw it out of little nooks and crannies.
 
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Thanks for all the help. The light in the battery is finally off. I've written it off but we'll see when i try to charge it in a few days. Luckily I got the late-gimbal-free-extra-battery deal.

Camera and drone drying nicely - will rice the GoPro tomorrow, but not the drone i guess? It would take like ALOT of rice and a rather large bag, right? No intent to turn them on before Saturday (but I so want to try).
 
Wouldn't think you'd need to rice-bag the entire Solo, like you say, it'd take an awful lot of rice. Might want to open it up though, seems easy enough from the videos I watched about various mods.

I doused my son's phone circuit boards with isopropyl alcohol, which readily combines with water and evaporates pretty quickly and thoroughly. But it had been in the water for almost 3 days. If your Solo was only submerged for a few minutes and is relatively dry now, I probably wouldn't wet it again.

I also dropped an iPhone in a toilet years ago... and also managed to get it working again after thoroughly drying it. I haven't received my Solo yet, but I have plenty of experience rescuing electronics from water. Hopefully that doesn't portend the future! ;)
 
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Hello again everybody!
Here is an update about the fountain crash you all helped me with:

Everything survived. The GoPro is fine, the Solo is fine, and amazingly, the battery is also fine. I feel like I got away with murder.

I basically let everything sit and dry for 5 days.
I also unscrewed the battery tray where i did actually find a tiny bit of condensation. The GoPro survived as well, and the battery too.

I have been out flying 4 times since the accident with no apparent problems.

I am a happy camper.
 
Hello again everybody!
Here is an update about the fountain crash you all helped me with:

Everything survived. The GoPro is fine, the Solo is fine, and amazingly, the battery is also fine. I feel like I got away with murder.

I basically let everything sit and dry for 5 days.
I also unscrewed the battery tray where i did actually find a tiny bit of condensation. The GoPro survived as well, and the battery too.

I have been out flying 4 times since the accident with no apparent problems.

I am a happy camper.
I think your very lucky for sure..congratulation !
It's nice to hear happy endings
 
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Just dont try to turn it on!!!! Most people get curious a couple hours later to see if their electronic is ruined or not and they turn it on to check. BAD!!!! let it dry, someone said 24 hrs. I typically will let a device dry out for a week. Water can get trapped under components and flow out later.

Agreed... I crashed my hexacopter in a lake... I was able to get to it within about a minute. The power was still on (good sign) I shut it down immediately, pulled all batteries and brought it home. Once there, I took everything apart and let it sit for about 7-10 days before I put it all back together. This was about 4 years ago and I'm still using this hex to this day. Id say if you got to it and it was still powered on and you let it dry out you should be fine.
 
This just happened to me :( drone crashed into a statue and fell in the fountain. Reading all the tips on here has been very helpful, but I foolishly attempted to start my drone back up again a few times before stumbling on here. It made a short bleep and died every time. Did I damage it even more?
 
Quite possibly. If solo gets wet, best thing to do is immediately disconnect the battery to cut all power. Then open the solo up and thoroughly dry out with moving warm air when you get home or whatever.
 
I had a crash into a pool 4 days ago. Put GoPro in rice and that is doing fine. Battery for solo is a goner. Took battery tray off and gps compartment apart and air dried. After three days, tried solo with new battery. Lights came on on the battery, but solo would not turn on. Any ideas?
 

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