Dear all,
I have been using a DIY h-copter for supporting my social-ecological research in the Borneo. Just some days ago, due to my mistake on not checking the battery, the h-copter fell into the water and everything is wet. I try to unscrew everything and dry them all including my APM 2.6 and its GPS. I would like to know if anybody else has experienced the same and how to handle the APM? Will it be working again? Thanks so much for any advice and information.
Best regards,
Rai
Replies
I remember crashing my FPV250 quad run into the sea water near pier. All my electronics including APM 2.5 board, minimosd, Ublox, frsky and other fully soaked with sea water. I dismantled everything, soak them inside a bucket of clean tap of water, tooth brushed over them and leave it dry for 5 days. Installed everything back and taadaaa! it flew great....oh okay the baro sensor on 2.5 board was damaged but i use GPS to control the altitude instead. Works fine.
Exactly what I think.
All that is digitally should not damaged by short circuiting. A logical "one" where it would be a logical "zero" does not mean it explodes.
The exception is the ESC ... which by their nature can short-circuit the battery.
A power supply with a current limit of 100mA allowing you to test one at a time ... pretty sure. If you do not have it so maybe a 100 ohm resistor might work, or a 9V battery.
They're more waterproof than you think. The essential bit is to make sure it is bone dry before you even think about powering up, The APM has lots of electronical components which can trap water inside/underneath.
A few years ago my Mikrokopter took a dunk in the pool. I cleaned it with deionized water (if you can't get that, use distilled water or the purest water you can get.) And I set it on a blowing air vent for several days. Everything ended up being fine except one of the ESCs was fried and needed replacement.
I do recommend you pay special attention to the barometer and the altitude reading. Make sure the altitude reading on Mission Planner is accurate before you do any serious flying.
Also your battery is likely toast, depending on how badly it discharged. I know mine still worked but had a significantly shorter battery life.
Good luck!
I don't know for sure about all electronics, but I crashed an electric heli into my swimming pool and it kept right on trying to fly even after I hit throttle hold. It "swam" its way to the bottom of the deep end (wasn't pretty) then I scooped it out with the leaf net. It did a chicken dance on the deck until it got twisted up in its battery cable. I disconnected it, shook out the water, disassembled it as well as I could and let it dry out for a day. When I put it back together it flew just like before it went in the pool! Even the battery was still good. I thought it would never fly again but it 's still flying great a year later, with hundreds of flights since the dunking.
Check power pins and voltage regulators for oxidation. We had a plane crash into the sea last year. I think the only things we managed to salvage afterwards were battery, motor and camera.
Fresh water is definitely better than salt water, as long as there were no short circuits due to power being connected. When I manufactured circuit boards for the Predator drones in a past job, we used water to clean the solder flux off of the boards then ran them through an air dryer. It was a lot like a car wash but much more efficient. If the moister is removed as soon as possible to prevent corrosion it should be fine.
Marks method of packing it in rice is an excellent method to completely dry it out. This is also used in the cell phone industry to save phones which have also been droped into water.
For best chance of recovery, get some de-ionized water and completely rinse the electronics in it, as thoroughly as possible. Then use dry compressed air to blow it all out. Finally let the items dry either naturally or at slightly elevated temperature (no more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit).
Long ago I worked in a test equipment repair and calibration department and this is actually how we cleaned big old tube oscilloscopes. The only fatality we ever had was a power transformer that shorted, and we ascertained that the cause was not enough drying time.
Good luck!
Did yours come right ? I put mine into the water today for about 3/4 of an hour. I dunked it and the GPS unit into methylated spirits and put everything in rice. Plus Gopro etc etc. Hope it works again