CRASH!!! DUNK!!

[usnooz]

Well i just crashed my quad for the first time. Stright in the water fully submerged.
I've got know idea why it crashed

Anyone else had a submerged quad before and recomend the best course of action drying everything out?

It was submerged for a couple of minutes with the bat still connected the leds where still lit up underwater which amazed me.

I have it on vid so i'll upload it later

[icedfusion]

The only thing you can do is to either use compressed air to dry it out or put it into the air cupboard. The one place I have found moisture is hard to remove from is under the plastic covering the ESC.

I have submerged my quad also and I just burnt out an ESC as a result - everything else was fine - luckily!

ice.

[usnooz]

Thanks how long did you leave it before powering back up?

[Gaza07]

Oh not good sorry to hear you crashed, I used to fly water planes a lot and often saw radio gear get fully submerged, you need to remove any casings or heat shrink covering to let the air get to the boards they will dry out and probably will still work just don't turn them back on until dry, the motors will be unaffected as they can run under water, as ice suggested a warm airing cupboard might be the best place, might help if you have some of those anti moisture bags you get with certain products silica jell or some thing like that, might help to suck up some of the moisture. was the go pro on all the time  as that would have continued recording even when submerged,
Iv'e seen guys at the water plane events with rx's dripping with water strip then out of the cases and place them on the car roof in the sun and then an hour or so later put them back together and carry on flying. 

[usnooz]

yes my gopro is in the waterproof casing so i have some underwater footage. I'm wondering if the extra weight of the floats had reduce my flight time and that was the cause of the problem. I'm going to put my first pack back on charge to see how much is put back in (it was my second flight that had the problem. I'm tried to dry all the bits out and its saying in my airing cupboard for the week. hopfully i wont loose the expensive stuff like the naza.

Thanks for the help

[Gaza07]

Is it possible to remove the naza case ? it would help to dry it out properly

[johnrs]

get all your electronics in rice for a few days and that should help get any moister out of it

Video should be interesting

[shyfx003]

Oooh no,I think the above posts cover it..phil you should pm kloner..i think he tried drowning one of his quads!!

[usnooz]

heres the vid


http://youtu.be/Pla6doepC0I

[Balders]

oops :)

[johnrs]

How lucky was that it didn't decide to head into the lake or decide to come down over the lake. 

[Longnail]

Bugger,,, that was a lucky/unlucky fall mate, hope you can get it dried out enough,
Den

[teslahed]

get all your electronics in rice for a few days and that should help get any moister out of it

Video should be interesting

The more expensive cat litters are based on silica gel (the same stuff you get in those 'do not eat' packets with electronics) and can be used to help dry out damp electronics.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&sugexp=les%3B&tok=kP54soKzfJNOGG73beO-4w&cp=12&gs_id=7y&xhr=t&q=silica+gel+cat+litter&biw=1184&bih=567&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=jtBeUOP8GIeu0QW3h4HYCg

[Longnail]

Cracking tip Chris,

Anybody got a spare cat??? ::)

Den

[usnooz]

I'll give that a go.

Just to make me feel a little worse i slowed the crash down

The crash Slowed

[BYOD]

Sorry to hear you had a crash, not good at all!

I agree on the Rc system (Radio motors esc's), these can be dried out and reused I have done this a number of times when I have had water planes deciding to become sub's!!

However, the Naza, I don't think I would now trust my kit with that part, the Baro has taken on water, no water ever drys without leaving a deposit, and that water looked a little dirty.... The question you have to ask is would you be happy using the Naza to control your kit moving forward? I would not, I would always be concerned that it was going to fail and then not land somewhere so soft next time around, the cost could be even higher if it failed than a replacement Naza....

The crash looks very much like you had run out of power, all motors seemed to be running, however not enough lift was being produced to keep it up, I have seen this before when I had run out of battery power at a lower level flight while doing testing for an issue, customer had not set up the low warning correctly, it fluttered down under power.

What size battery were you using? Was there much left in the battery?

[usnooz]

Yes i think i ran out of battery. I have 3000ma packs and usually use 2200. when i recharged my first pack it filled up 2800.
I think the additional weight of the floats i added before my water flight zapped the battery more than normal.
i dont think it was the weight so much but now i think about it the floats extend under the front blades and i think its been fighting this.

As for the naza i've heard from others that its been ok. i'll have to do some testing when if it powers up. the thing is the naza is the most expensive bit of kit on my quad so if i can save it i will.

I'll give it a couple more days drying out then start powering stuff up and cross my fingers.

[usnooz]

Shes Alive!!!!

Just plugged everything back in and everything seems to be functioning correctly on the bench.
Its looking like i havn't lost anything which i'm shocked about. I just need to do a couple of los test flights to make sure shes behaving herself.

Thanks for all the tips. i went down the cat litter in route in the end and i'm over the moon right now 

[Balders]

yey!  Good news.

[Gaza07]

+1 Excellent news let us know how the test flight goes 

[sausageroll]

Phil this means your coming on our group flying day week after next?


Pete.

[usnooz]

Phil this means your coming on our group flying day week after next?


Pete.

Yes i hope to make it this time. :)

[sausageroll]

Great. RSVP in the official thread!!

[Gav]

nice video and what a shot to land in the water!  Glad it dried out ok.