Water damage issues

[Trini2DBone]

Hey guys! First post to this forum....but I have been lurking around for a few days... I’m having an issue with my spark... was flying over a small creek, went in a bit low to get some footage skimming the water when I hit a small bit of shrubbery at the side of the creek and crashed into the water . It was submerged for about 10 secs in about 10 inches of water.
I pulled it out and immediately took the battery out and tried to shake it out and blew whatever water I could get to out of it. When I got home, I dried it off with paper towels and a hair drier and put it in a dish filled with rice. Didn’t realize I needed to use a sealed container. Anyway I left it there for a day, then I gave it some warm air again with the hair dryer... but I didn’t open up the drone. It starts up but does not connect to the controller / or the phone app. I didn’t get the refresh care when I bought it. I’m looking for some ideas on what I may try to get it to connect... tonight when I get home I will try to open it up and use a can of compressed air and maybe some electronic contact cleaner on it. I’m thinking maybe there is still moisture inside? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[rick]

I have forgotten the process but did you go through the process of trying to reconnect controller to the drone? It will be on this forum and might be in the manual.

 

[Trini2DBone]

I have forgotten the process but did you go through the process of trying to reconnect controller to the drone? It will be on this forum and might be in the manual.

Hi rick! Thanks for the response! I did try normal process of connecting the controller to the drone via the app. The controller connects to the phone, but the app does not see the drone like it used to with WiFi. I read last night that it may have switched frequency? 2.4 ghz vs 5.?ghz. ... I haven’t had a chance to look into that as yet but will try to do so tonight. Is there anyway to run a self check / diagnostic to show what isn’t functioning? I also tried connecting the drone to the app without the controller but also doesn’t work.

 

[jojodd]

What colors are blinking on the spark?

 

[Trini2DBone]

What colors are blinking on the spark?

Hey jojodd... one pair was flashing red and the other red/yellow...dont remember which pair was front or back however, I don’t have it in front of me now however, as I’m at work...

 

[Doc]

Same scenario. Same result. it seems like the water killed the wi-fi in the aircraft as it does not beep when I try to reconnect. Does yours Beep at least when you hold the function button down ?

 

[Trini2DBone]

Same scenario. Same result. it seems like the water killed the wi-fi in the aircraft as it does not beep when I try to reconnect. Does yours Beep at least when you hold the function button down ?

Hey Doc....no it does not.... no beeps....

 

[Doc]

I think that rather obviously means the spark's wi-fi is not going into "connecting" mode. I've had it for just over a month and really enjoyed it.
The incident happened only two days ago and I've spent hours reading about processing a replacement through DJI "Refresh' program that I paid for (which somewhere said it doesn't cover water damage and made me admit it was user error, and thus they would not do analytics) and they could only process it if I paid them about 50 bucks more and mandatorily joined Paypal who ripped me off a few years ago. No go for me there. Then I was going to submit it for a repair to DJI so I did some research on their customer service and the preponderance of evidence is that they engineer great products but CS is pretty bad. Then I sought third-party repair options only to find more of the same. Rather than deal with a quagmire of headaches, the shortest distance between two points may very well be to take the hit, shell out for a new one and never but NEVER fly near water!

 

[cappellen]

Did you try a direct connection between a pc and your drone with a usb cable using dji assistant 2 software?

 

[Doc]

cappellen

OMG, IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Picture this. There I was in bed at 4 am here in AZ, tossing and turning after a long day at work and trying to get s'more zzz's before I have to face the painful ignominy in 6 hrs. of going to the DJI store and laying out 400+ bucks based on my depressing decision stated above. Suddenly the phone alert sounds and instinctively I glance to find your message. Instantly curious and rather glad to find that I hadn't "tried everything" I stumble out of bed and carefully follow you elegant advice.
Lo and behold, (sorry for drama, but appropriate here), the assistant program, which already was on the pc from setup, auto started a firmware update!
Interestingly, when completed I saw that the version and date were the same as when I set up, which seemed to perhaps infer that a software problem occurred from the incident. Never the less, I proceed to see if my phone wi-fi would "see" the Spark SSID. Well when it did, I must have oinked like a proverbial "pig in xxxx er, mud!!
From there, seeing the beautiful blue "Start Flight" banner was not only music to my eyes, but I had to pinch myself because I thought for sure this is just a dream and I'm still in bed sleeping. After a simple compass calibration and fearful of a runaway, I nervously placed it on the kitchen floor, pressed the takeoff icon and with all due respect to the Bible, witnessed a resurrection of the dead!

So, a huge THANK YOU to you and others like you and forums like this who so generously are there to help newbies like me to enjoy the fun and fulfillment that comes from enjoying the fruits of modern technology. Certainly the coolest toy I ever had.

Again and again, Thanx!

 

[sailor2545]

Hey guys! First post to this forum....but I have been lurking around for a few days... I’m having an issue with my spark... was flying over a small creek, went in a bit low to get some footage skimming the water when I hit a small bit of shrubbery at the side of the creek and crashed into the water . It was submerged for about 10 secs in about 10 inches of water.
I pulled it out and immediately took the battery out and tried to shake it out and blew whatever water I could get to out of it. When I got home, I dried it off with paper towels and a hair drier and put it in a dish filled with rice. Didn’t realize I needed to use a sealed container. Anyway I left it there for a day, then I gave it some warm air again with the hair dryer... but I didn’t open up the drone. It starts up but does not connect to the controller / or the phone app. I didn’t get the refresh care when I bought it. I’m looking for some ideas on what I may try to get it to connect... tonight when I get home I will try to open it up and use a can of compressed air and maybe some electronic contact cleaner on it. I’m thinking maybe there is still moisture inside? Any help will be appreciated.

Same thing happened to me.I immediately went to the car and turned on the heater..ran it for about 10-15 minutes. All was fine after that..works fine and that was about 6 months ago..good luck.

 

[cappellen]

cappellen

OMG, IT WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Picture this. There I was in bed at 4 am here in AZ, tossing and turning after a long day at work and trying to get s'more zzz's before I have to face the painful ignominy in 6 hrs. of going to the DJI store and laying out 400+ bucks based on my depressing decision stated above. Suddenly the phone alert sounds and instinctively I glance to find your message. Instantly curious and rather glad to find that I hadn't "tried everything" I stumble out of bed and carefully follow you elegant advice.
Lo and behold, (sorry for drama, but appropriate here), the assistant program, which already was on the pc from setup, auto started a firmware update!
Interestingly, when completed I saw that the version and date were the same as when I set up, which seemed to perhaps infer that a software problem occurred from the incident. Never the less, I proceed to see if my phone wi-fi would "see" the Spark SSID. Well when it did, I must have oinked like a proverbial "pig in xxxx er, mud!!
From there, seeing the beautiful blue "Start Flight" banner was not only music to my eyes, but I had to pinch myself because I thought for sure this is just a dream and I'm still in bed sleeping. After a simple compass calibration and fearful of a runaway, I nervously placed it on the kitchen floor, pressed the takeoff icon and with all due respect to the Bible, witnessed a resurrection of the dead!

So, a huge THANK YOU to you and others like you and forums like this who so generously are there to help newbies like me to enjoy the fun and fulfillment that comes from enjoying the fruits of modern technology. Certainly the coolest toy I ever had.

Again and again, Thanx!

I'm glad it was a hint in the right direction. Good luck with your following drone adventures.

 

[sparkindia1990]

The best solution to fully drain the water would be the tuck in your drone in rice method mentioned first in the post...But you have to leave it atleast for a fortnight to work.

Alternatively fill in a bag with loads of silica bags (they are really cheap), and leave it for a week.

Give it time... Your spark may work initially, but water left over may seriously damage the circuit while you are mid air... Happy flying....

 

[Doc]

Thanx for your support cappellen, sparkindia, and sailor!