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Crashed into water - reviving the craft - need HELP

Joined
Mar 3, 2017
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Hey,

I recently crashed my inspire to freshwater unfortunately (sunday, 19th). I hit a sail. It flipped 2-3 times than the video file ended. Fortunately I was able to retrieve it after 1.5 hours from 3m (10 feet) deep.
It was mainly pilot error but the craft tricked me so i panic.
After reconstruction of the SD card video

Battery board fried. I forgot that already. Disassembled and gave electrical tape all around.

Here is what I did with the craft and camera.
After rescue

let the aircraft and the camera dry under the sun for hours
gave a few minutes of hair dryer to them
1day after
Disassembled the whole craft. Put every PCB into distilled water and let the ultrasound machine work with a drop of alcohol. Let every PCB dry for 2 days. I did not disassemble the arm lever mechanism. aircraft stayed in fly mode.
3days after
Reassembled everything. I might ruined the antennas with the coax cable but I am not sure.
First start:
Aircraft did not give sound, all yellow lights except tail (blue) and front left LED is not showing up. (maybe the connector?)
Rebooted and now gives sound. It even connects to the remote. It sees GPS.

  • Now I am trying to calibrate IMU.
  1. tried normally - 1%-10% after 10 minutes
  2. put craft into the fridge (battery out) and now up to 94%
  3. still cannot calibrate
  • lowering arms not working, neither from the app nor from remote.
  • it says I reached max altitude. I am in my flat, steel reenforced concrete.
  • it says gimbal disconnected. Gimbal and camera was tested on OSMO. works. But not with the craft.

Could you please guys let me know if there is any chance to revive it fully. I do not want to lose the craft.
Any experience, ideas appreciated.

Thanks,
Cheers
 
Last edited:
Sorry to hear about your incident. Your Inspire appears to have quite a few issues, even if you did get it flyable on your own could you ever trust it? We suggest either sending it in to DJI, one of their repair facilities or selling it for parts. There are lots of used Inspire 1's out there at decent prices, we have some in stock. Let us know if we can help.
 
Sorry to hear about your incident. Your Inspire appears to have quite a few issues, even if you did get it flyable on your own could you ever trust it? We suggest either sending it in to DJI, one of their repair facilities or selling it for parts. There are lots of used Inspire 1's out there at decent prices, we have some in stock. Let us know if we can help.
thanks, before I take it apart and sell I want to give it a second chance.
 
I think some of those IC chips have holes in them to sense the pressure, etc. Water and an ultrasonic might not be a good mix and might do more damage.

If any dirt got into the lens it might be toast too. I noticed the repair for a sand damaged Olympus lens was about $50 less than a new one when I saw their quotes as I had to have mine worked on recently. I got the impression they don't want to try and guarantee their work should it rust out someplace down the line and they just put it into the "Beyond economical repair" category.

Fwiw, there is a $80,000 cinema drone in the San Francisco Bay someplace that some pro's lost. Insurance I hope!
 
I think some of those IC chips have holes in them to sense the pressure, etc. Water and an ultrasonic might not be a good mix and might do more damage.

If any dirt got into the lens it might be toast too. I noticed the repair for a sand damaged Olympus lens was about $50 less than a new one when I saw their quotes as I had to have mine worked on recently. I got the impression they don't want to try and guarantee their work should it rust out someplace down the line and they just put it into the "Beyond economical repair" category.

Fwiw, there is a $80,000 cinema drone in the San Francisco Bay someplace that some pro's lost. Insurance I hope!

I hope not, i give them fair amount of time (480 sec) in the device, and then dry them.. Compressed air was used to get rid of dirt. Not sure if worked.
Unfortunately neither DJI care nor insurance...
I think they have found the IMAX camera. Christopher Nolan Accidentally Sunk an IMAX Camera While Filming Dunkirk
 

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