My quad is no more. Gutted.

[robshaw]

So I went for a fly today in Epping forest. And it ended in tears.

It started off bad as was having problems arming the crius. Then when I got it in the air it was very twitchy. Had a little fly about which was erratic. At this point I should have packed up took it home for investigation. Unfortunately I didnt and I switched my fat sharks on.

1 min later I';d lost control, hit a tree and plunged into a flooded area/bog. Took me about 15 mins to find it after wading around in stinking water up to my knees. It was 100% submerged in water and I only noticed it because the orientation LEDs were still lit and glowing through the murky water.
I fished it out and disconnected the lipo.
I';ve now stripped it down and cut all the heat shrink off the components. They';re now all laid out on a tray next to water boiler in an attempt to dry out and salvage something.   



List of potentialy dead components make me feel a bit sick.

Fat shark 250mw vtx
Crius AIOP
3dr telemetry tx
30A ESCs.
Motors
FRsky 8 channel RX
UBEC
LED strips
FPV camera
Gimbal servo
VTX power supply filter
3000mah lipo

2x snapped landing legs
1x snapped gopro gimbal (luckily my gopro wasn';t fitted as I was a bit concerned about the erratic quad)

Can anybody point me in the direction of the heat shrink I need to re wrap any of the components I may be able to get up and running again. Also i will need some extra thick spongy double sided tape to mount the crius.  Thanks.

[robshaw]

Found the heat shrink. Search clear heat shrink on eBay. Good selection of sizes for less than £3/meter.

[pheasant_plucker]

Being submerged shouldnt cause any lasting damage as long as you dry it out thoroughly.

Gerry

[Rammylad]

Oh Dear Rob, you haven';t had much luck with your quad since buying it, I thought you said that it was far more stable since updating your firmware and params from P.King.
Sorry to hear of your misfortune at least the motors should be ok when they dry out, as for the rest of the electronics it';s in the lap of the gods.
Good luck Pal,
Tony

[robshaw]

Haha. I know. I had done a lot of playing around with it last weekend trying to get camera gimbal working properly including re flashing firmware and re loading params. I thought I had reloaded it as was but clearly I hadn';t.
Back to square one now. I think I';m gonna re build the basics first get it flying again perfectly and then add the extra bits (fpv gear, gimbal, 3dr) when Ive had some more consistent flying time. Seems I';m running before I can walk.
Oh well. At least I get to build whole thing from scratch which I didn';t do as bought the quad from Peter king. 
Good experience I guess.

[Jumpy07]

Gutted for you mate, as said already I think you will find that most things should be okay.. just give them time to dry out.. 


Sticking them in a bag with some plain  rice helps

[Biffa]

Gutted for you mate, as said already I think you will find that most things should be okay.. just give them time to dry out.. 


Sticking them in a bag with some plain  rice helps

Indeed rice works, or silica gel or one of these http://www.pedlars.co.uk/bheestie-bag.html?gclid=CJC4gtmhjrYCFfDJtAodnD4AaQ

[guest325]

Sad to here of your misfortune, I';ve done the same sort of thing myself with a Plane; things didn';t seem right but carried on anyway ended up a bin bag job! Saved all the electrics and used them on a new airframe.
The rebuild will be good experience, so try to be positive and move on - but don';t forget the lesson learned!

[robshaw]

Ha. Noted guys.  Thanks for the support. Much appreciated.

Been reading all the threads in the crius section of the forum for when I rebuild. Its gonna be much improved I hope. Haha.

Have ordered some 6mm sponge tape. Just got to measure all my devices and order heat shrink.

Had a couple of dodgy dji screws that the heads stripped getting them out. Would be nice to replace with the same. Anybody know where to get them from in the UK?

[Gaza07]

Sorry to hear about your mishap Rob chin up rebuild it better stronger faster   

[guest325]

Ha. Noted guys.  Thanks for the support. Much appreciated.

Been reading all the threads in the crius section of the forum for when I rebuild. Its gonna be much improved I hope. Haha.

Have ordered some 6mm sponge tape. Just got to measure all my devices and order heat shrink.

Had a couple of dodgy dji screws that the heads stripped getting them out. Would be nice to replace with the same. Anybody know where to get them from in the UK?

You can get all sorts of screws and such the like from Model fixings.

[robshaw]

Heat shrink ordered. Quite looking forward to getting stuck in now. Just hope all the components come back to life. Don';t fancy waiting for delivery of an ESC or something from hong Kong.

[robshaw]

Yeah they';re just m4 cap heads of which I';ve got plenty of but the dji ones have got a shallower head and a bit of a shoulder on them. Just being picky really. Will probs just stick the standard cap heads in.......or rape my f330 for the odd bolt or two. >

[guest325]

Yeah they';re just m4 cap heads of which I';ve got plenty of but the dji ones have got a shallower head and a bit of a shoulder on them. Just being picky really. Will probs just stick the standard cap heads in.......or rape my f330 for the odd bolt or two. >

Could be button heads, look nicer but plain cap heads are stronger any way - I always replace any button heads with cap heads, especially when they';re smaller than M4.

[robshaw]

Yeah they';re sort of a cross between a button head and a cap head and theyre in a sort of gun metal colour. I agree tho. Button heads are a pain. Im a robot commissioning engineer and my companies robots have all their covers held on with button heads. They';re forever rounding off. But because they look nice they won';t change the design.

[robshaw]

We have life....so far so good.....

[Rammylad]

Nice one Robin, get it back together now. 

[Gaza07]

Pleased to see there is life in there Rob load up the planner / gui see if the baro still reads its the only sensor with holes in it   

[robshaw]

And the rx is OK. Radio calibrated OK.



And I';m really happy about the fat shark vtx and £80 fpv cam are also working sweet....



How do I tell if the baro is working...? Is it the alt reading on the fight data page?

[guest325]

Yeah they';re sort of a cross between a button head and a cap head and theyre in a sort of gun metal colour. I agree tho. Button heads are a pain. Im a robot commissioning engineer and my companies robots have all their covers held on with button heads. They';re forever rounding off. But because they look nice they won';t change the design.

You have my sympathy there, I know what a pain in the a55 they can be - should get the designers out trying to do what you do, they would soon learn!
One of the things I';ve always done in my design work is to spend a couple of days working with the people who build the stuff I design - never have a problem that way and I always involve them in the meetings we have when going through the design concepts - it makes my job a lot easier!

[Gaza07]

If I remember right the baro reading should be moving about a bit its the top one in the quick sensor read out this might be different though if you have a sonar connected 

[robshaw]

I wish you worked for my company Darrell.  Its a constant issue at my place. Different departments don';t communicate properly.  A lot of time and money is wasted time and time again as a result. Its very frustrating.  I suppose the argument against it would be that there are so many parties involved in the process from design to handing over to the finished product to the customer, that the decision making and final concept would never happen due to the fact you could never please everybody.

[robshaw]

Its reporting that Im below sea level but its certainly flickering around so I can only assume its working mate..... 

[Gaza07]

Yea its prob working then  maybe its a bit water logged so thinks its below the sea 

[robshaw]

Haha. Oh dear.

[davethepitch]

I thought you said that it was far more stable since updating your firmware and params from P.King.

I had some new firmware and params via email from Peter the other day for my Crius AIOP but i have not had chance to install them yet. 

Peter updated my quad about a month ago at his house it is really stable so i am a bit reluctant to use the new firmware and settings that was sent at the moment.

I am pleased that your electrics are working for you again. 

Dave

[guest325]

I wish you worked for my company Darrell.  Its a constant issue at my place. Different departments don';t communicate properly.  A lot of time and money is wasted time and time again as a result. Its very frustrating.  I suppose the argument against it would be that there are so many parties involved in the process from design to handing over to the finished product to the customer, that the decision making and final concept would never happen due to the fact you could never please everybody.

You';re dead right there, 40+ years in design and development has taught me that you only get the important people involved, generally speaking that excludes most upper management. My policy is to get a brief from them at the start and hand over the finished article to them at the end - if they start nit picking they get deafed out...simples!
Oh btw, sorry for going off topic!

[Allanm]

Glad to see your quad is not that badly damaged Rob. Testament to the toughness of those electronics. Thats a good thing because I just ordered a quad off Mr King and hopefully it should be here next week.
When you were talking about your rebuild (#8) I got the impression you were going to make some improvements. Are there any improvements to the basic builds from Pete that I should be thinking about?
Heres me, running before I have even seen a 450 size quad!
Allan

[robshaw]

Hello Alan. Peters quads are good. I guess the only changes I';ll make to his basic build are things like shortening the cables and making it a bit neater.
Not that his aren';t neat. Just that obviously he makes a lot of them and so doesn';t spend hours finessing them.
Also since I got the basic copter off Peter I';ve added fpv, osd, an 8 channel receiver for head tracking gimbal control, 3dr telemetry etc. They';ve been like bolt ons.
Now I get to incorperate them properly from the start.
I contacted Peter today to ask if he had parts in stock in case any of mine didn';t fire up after the soaking. He said he had them all. Its handy to know as getting hold of say one ESC to match the other 3 would be difficult. Not to mention the wait as it would probs come from hong Kong. His prices are very reasonable too.

I think tho the drowning may have been a blessing in disguise as you can';t beat doing it yourself for getting to know how it all works.

I was toying with replacing the frame with a TBS discovery but have decided against it for the time being as need to stop spending. Have already soldered my escs and LEDs to the bottom power distribution plate.



The escs are the only thing that I haven';t been able to test. Working all weekend now so can';t continue with re build for a bit. :-(

[Allanm]

It';s good to know his quads are well thought of. It';s always difficult buying something unseen, especially from an independent supplier, but I read lots of good things about him, and the latest firmware looks impressive.
Anyway, good luck with the rebuild and keep away from water.
Allan