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Sparky went for a swim

Stever68

Member
Join
Jan 14, 2019
Messages
13
Age
55
Loc
Orlando, Florida
Well it finally happened. I went flying with a friend last week and ended up hitting a cypress tree and my spark fell into a lake. Fortunately it was close to shore and I was able to wade out and get him back. It was submerged for maybe a minute. I pulled the battery right away and took it home and placed it into a bag of rice hoping that would help draw any moisture out. I finally powered it back on today after removing all the rice. It seems to power up okay and everything acts normal, except I now have a battery signal error. So while it powers up just fine it will not fly. It also will not charge any batteries. I have three including the one that went swimming and I get the same results with all three.

Has anyone out there done something similar? Any clues on a fix or am I out of luck?

Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, or well wishes. LOL
 
How long was it in the rice? When a very similar accident happened to my Spark, I placed it in a food dehydrator. After 24 hours, upon the first power up, I had several errors. Back into the dehydrator it went for 48 hours. After that it powered up fine and I’ve had no issues for the last year of flight.
 
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How long was it in the rice? When a very similar accident happened to my Spark, I placed it in a food dehydrator. After 24 hours, upon the first power up, I had several errors. Back into the dehydrator it went for 48 hours. After that it powered up fine and I’ve had no issues for the last year of flight.
I left it in the rice for 7 days. Crash was last Saturday
 
Sorry for your troubles Stever68. Have you tried cleaning the battery contacts on the Spark and check to be sure none are bent? Also be sure there is no small amount of debris where the battery slides in preventing the battery from being firmly seated. A poorly seated battery can still power up the drone but not have a good connection on the data pins.
 
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Mine did the same trick a few weeks ago. I left it in the ziploc bag full of rice, and put a 100 watt bulb over it about a foot away, and left it on all week. So far, it's as good as new.
 
Try using dessicant vs. rice. Dessicant is made for absorbing moisture. Else, put in a very, very, VERY low temp. oven. That will bake out any moisture.
 
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Pearson is absolutely correct, putting it in rice is worthless. Desiccant is the way to go.
 

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