Mavic Pro resurrection after 8 mo. in wilderness

Pandalus · Jan 9, 2021

Hi Mavi Pros,

After a 2km flyaway and 8 MONTHS in the Canadian wilderness my Mavid Pro was found. Landed in a tree and eventually hit the ground on the back right arm which dug into the ground and rusted out the RR motor, which I replaced with a spare. Video card recorded entire flight. only other casuality appears to be the camera lens which is fogged up but otherwise working. No damage to gimbal. Any advice as to how to unfog the camera would be appreciated - the rice bath I gave it after it was returned didn't help. BTW I replaced the RR motor with a spare LR and wondered if I had to switch wires at the ESC to change the spin. I left the attachment alone and found the that motor spun correctly i.e. the spin direction is controlled by the ESC or other software, so motors can be repaced with those from any arm with no need to worry about spin direction - thought I'd mention this as one thread on motor replacement and spin gave erroneous advice on what to do. will try to find and post there as well.

Conservative Nihilist · Jan 9, 2021

This story is testimony to the rugged design of the Mavic Pro. Eight months out in the Canadian weather would be enough to reduce lesser drones to rusted carcasses. Good to hear that spare motors can go on any arm without the need to change wiring polarity.

Deleted member 103366 · Jan 9, 2021

Uum one point, is the prop attachment handed?
Glad it works?

old man mavic · Jan 9, 2021

@PhiliusFoggg the prop attachment is handed so the correct prop will not fit ,unless the prop fitting has been removed from the old motor,and used on the new motor

Pandalus · Jan 9, 2021

PhiliusFoggg said:
Uum one point, is the prop attachment handed?
Glad it works?

yes it is, so you have to change that, which is easy, just 3 screws

Pandalus · Jan 9, 2021

old man mavic said:
@PhiliusFoggg the prop attachment is handed so the correct prop will not fit ,unless the prop fitting has been removed from the old motor,and used on the new motor

correct. thanks for clarifying. very simple swap

Pandalus · Jan 9, 2021

PhiliusFoggg said:
Uum one point, is the prop attachment handed?
Glad it works?

it is handed, as poined out below. Simple switch of attachment plate. It works and now I have an Air 2 to keep it company, bought after I'd given up all hope of recovery. Near miracle I'd say, good engineering and one of the driest summers on record in this area

Gkinghrn · Jan 10, 2021

I would put it in a warm place for s few days for the fogging but I also think there must be a to lot of dampness and water damage internally with rusting in progress.

I would suggest a full strip down and careful examination to remove potential rusting that could lead to future in air failure .. if you haven't already done that of course

Palliz · Jan 10, 2021

Pandalus said:
Hi Mavi Pros,

After a 2km flyaway and 8 MONTHS in the Canadian wilderness my Mavid Pro was found. Landed in a tree and eventually hit the ground on the back right arm which dug into the ground and rusted out the RR motor, which I replaced with a spare. Video card recorded entire flight. only other casuality appears to be the camera lens which is fogged up but otherwise working. No damage to gimbal. Any advice as to how to unfog the camera would be appreciated - the rice bath I gave it after it was returned didn't help. BTW I replaced the RR motor with a spare LR and wondered if I had to switch wires at the ESC to change the spin. I left the attachment alone and found the that motor spun correctly i.e. the spin direction is controlled by the ESC or other software, so motors can be repaced with those from any arm with no need to worry about spin direction - thought I'd mention this as one thread on motor replacement and spin gave erroneous advice on what to do. will try to find and post there as well.

OK so with regard your camera fogging this is my solution! Order this.......

https://www.amazon.com/Eva-Dry-Wireless-Mini-Dehumidifier-White/dp/B000H0XFCS/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?ie=UTF8&aaxitk=u3hettAm3BKEW3AkWA3MEg&hsa_cr_id=8429017720701&pd_rd_plhdr=t&pd_rd_r=b5e3ea9f-7cac-4f9f-b4da-cf8b44311458&pd_rd_w=1dG0h&pd_rd_wg=3UjeG&ref_=sbx_be_s_sparkle_mcd_asin_2_img.

Then take the camera apart VERY simple just a few screws then GENTLY separate the lens from the body of the camera ( loadsa you tube vids on how to do this ) Get a ziplock bag & put the Eva-Dry & camera in there leave for a few overnights - check the silica gel is dry (blue color) then..............PRESTO good as new!
Good luck

kidroc · Jan 10, 2021

Just out of curiosity did you ever upload the logs of that flight would be nice to see if it flew away or some other malfunction occurred before you decide to fly it again.

wordzenpix · Jan 10, 2021

Pandalus said:
Hi Mavi Pros,

After a 2km flyaway and 8 MONTHS in the Canadian wilderness my Mavid Pro was found. Landed in a tree and eventually hit the ground on the back right arm which dug into the ground and rusted out the RR motor, which I replaced with a spare. Video card recorded entire flight. only other casuality appears to be the camera lens which is fogged up but otherwise working. No damage to gimbal. Any advice as to how to unfog the camera would be appreciated - the rice bath I gave it after it was returned didn't help. BTW I replaced the RR motor with a spare LR and wondered if I had to switch wires at the ESC to change the spin. I left the attachment alone and found the that motor spun correctly i.e. the spin direction is controlled by the ESC or other software, so motors can be repaced with those from any arm with no need to worry about spin direction - thought I'd mention this as one thread on motor replacement and spin gave erroneous advice on what to do. will try to find and post there as well.

My flyaway Spark spent about the same amount of time about 60 feet up in a red cedar in a forest adjacent to Puget Sound over a damp, chilly winter. As luck would have it a person in my small community discovered it on the forest floor while she was out for a walk and identified me by video on the card. There was a good closeup when I had to jump out of the way of the Spark when its OA sensor failed. I got it back and was surprised it charged and passed a self-diagnostic check when powered up. The gimbal is screwed, shows overload and jumps around ending up cockeyed. As I mentioned in another post, I did careful checks on a tether. First two short hops behaved. On the third it tried to fly away again, tether stopped it, and it DID respond to a land command which it didn't do on the flyaway.

Ron Caballero CAP · Jan 10, 2021

I have not had any motor problems, BUT it is nice to learn about such things should any such problem(s) arise.

dave canada · Jan 10, 2021

ahh thats good you found it i,m searching almost to give up but you got me going again

Tiger64 · Jan 10, 2021

Do DJI use a conformal coating on the electrics?

LmLphx · Jan 10, 2021

Pandalus said:
Hi Mavi Pros,

After a 2km flyaway and 8 MONTHS in the Canadian wilderness my Mavid Pro was found. Landed in a tree and eventually hit the ground on the back right arm which dug into the ground and rusted out the RR motor, which I replaced with a spare. Video card recorded entire flight. only other casuality appears to be the camera lens which is fogged up but otherwise working. No damage to gimbal. Any advice as to how to unfog the camera would be appreciated - the rice bath I gave it after it was returned didn't help. BTW I replaced the RR motor with a spare LR and wondered if I had to switch wires at the ESC to change the spin. I left the attachment alone and found the that motor spun correctly i.e. the spin direction is controlled by the ESC or other software, so motors can be repaced with those from any arm with no need to worry about spin direction - thought I'd mention this as one thread on motor replacement and spin gave erroneous advice on what to do. will try to find and post there as well.

Regarding the fogging issue… Do you have a filter currently on the lens?… For about six months I thought I had an internal fogging problem when I finally discovered that I had a scratched filter that was not visible to the eye but at certain angles to the sun, gave a foggy appearance to the images, only in one corner of the image. I discover this by flying without a UV filter and all my images were perfect, but looked foggy when I would put the lens back on. I'm very close inspection was finally able to find a scratch on the filter.

Pandalus · Jan 14, 2021

LmLphx said:
Regarding the fogging issue… Do you have a filter currently on the lens?… For about six months I thought I had an internal fogging problem when I finally discovered that I had a scratched filter that was not visible to the eye but at certain angles to the sun, gave a foggy appearance to the images, only in one corner of the image. I discover this by flying without a UV filter and all my images were perfect, but looked foggy when I would put the lens back on. I'm very close inspection was finally able to find a scratch on the filter.

no filter. i looked at the inside (round) lense with a magnifier and found that it looked segmented (cracked or scored) which didn't make sense as case and lense cover not cracked. Perhaps some temperature change effect on the lense coating, which caused very blurred picture. Anyway, replaced the lense and picture is fine

Pandalus · Jan 14, 2021

dave canada said:
ahh thats good you found it i,m searching almost to give up but you got me going again

my two flyaways were both found by someone else. I have all my numbers marked on the drone and that's what saved them.

Pandalus · Jan 14, 2021

kidroc said:
Just out of curiosity did you ever upload the logs of that flight would be nice to see if it flew away or some other malfunction occurred before you decide to fly it again.

Yes, looked at the flight data on the phone and i was able to attribut the flyaway to 1. pilot error 2. wind shear and 3 battery depletion. 2 and 3 are self evident and 1. I am too ashamed to post. Still trying to look at the uploaded .DAT file from the drone but can't find the DJIextract progtam that is supposed to convert it to txt

Pandalus · Jan 14, 2021

Gkinghrn said:
I would put it in a warm place for s few days for the fogging but I also think there must be a to lot of dampness and water damage internally with rusting in progress.

I would suggest a full strip down and careful examination to remove potential rusting that could lead to future in air failure .. if you haven't already done that of course

The lense (round glass) inside had a very curious white pattern of lines that wasn't cracking as the housing was all intact. Suspecting a change in lense coating caused by environment e.g. temperature changes

Pandalus · Jan 14, 2021

Gkinghrn said:
I would put it in a warm place for s few days for the fogging but I also think there must be a to lot of dampness and water damage internally with rusting in progress.

I would suggest a full strip down and careful examination to remove potential rusting that could lead to future in air failure .. if you haven't already done that of course

done. only rust was in th screw heads. amazing, but we had a very dry summer

Mavic Pro resurrection after 8 mo. in wilderness

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