I haven't been into multirotors for very long, maybe a year. In that time I've built three of them. My first hexacopter was built on an F550 frame, with a Naza M V2. On Sunday, August 31st, I was out at my lake house, standing on my deck and flying it over the cove. It's not far to the other side, maybe 100 yards. I had a fresh battery, I took it up to about 200' and was just cruising along the shoreline. I got to the other side and it started feeling sluggish, slow to respond. So I pointed it toward home and gave it full speed to come back. It made it about 2/3 of the way before it stopped responding to inputs. It was still headed toward the shore, but it began losing altitude. I flipped it to full manual, still no control. I hit the return to home seconds before it crashed in ~20' of water.
I spent the next several hours diving for it, but I had been wearing FPV goggles at the time, so I didn't see exactly where it went in and visibility was less than a foot. I never found it. I was a little sad, but it could have been so much worse. I had forgotten to bring memory cards for my GoPro, so I had taken it off the gimbal. And honestly, it's not like I had a lot of high dollar equipment on there anyway. It sucked to lose, but I took it pretty well. Started building a new one with a SuperX on an AGL frame. That one is a BEAST.
Anyway, back to the story.
They drain most of the water from my lake in the winter time, and I made a trip out today to finish staining my deck before winter. I saw something in the water, about 30' off the end of my dock. It was just a tiny bit sticking up, about 20' from shore. I waded out, and it was my hexacopter. The tip of one prop was all that was sticking out.
Here's what it looked like when it came out of the water.
That arm on the left is white!
Oddly, the only thing that seems broken is the homebrew landing gear I was testing out. Looks like I need to re-evaluate that design.
It's a mess. Covered up in mud and moss. It stinks of fish. But I threw it in the truck and brought it home.
Most of the moss and mud had dried by the time I got home.
Here's the prop tip that was the only thing sticking out of the water.
The battery was still connected. The plug is remarkably clean on the inside, but I don't think it's probably a good idea to put it on a charger...
All of the screws on the top plate are packed with munk. (Munk is a hybrid of mud and gunk. I just made that up, I'm going to use it heavily.)
Another example of munk, this time on my FPV camera:
It took a bit, but I got them all cleaned up and started removing pieces. The screws weren't as rusted as I expected them to be.
It's a horror show under that top plate.
I decided at this point to see if any of it could be brought back to life. I realize that it is beyond being a long shot, but I'm curious to see which components will and which won't take this. I'm operating under the assumption that it is a total loss. It spent 47 days at the bottom of a lake. Nothing should ever work again. But like the guy at the beginning of Diry Harry, "I just gotta know!"
I started removing components and cleaning them up using toothbrushes and distilled water. Then I ran pressurized water into anything that had clearly been filled with mud, dried them off as best I could and put them in rice, which is supposed to draw out the moisture from inside sealed electronics. I figure we'll start there. I'll continue to post updates over the next few weeks if there's any interest. One way or another, I will make it fly again. And it will forever be known as the F550 from the Black Lagoon.
I spent the next several hours diving for it, but I had been wearing FPV goggles at the time, so I didn't see exactly where it went in and visibility was less than a foot. I never found it. I was a little sad, but it could have been so much worse. I had forgotten to bring memory cards for my GoPro, so I had taken it off the gimbal. And honestly, it's not like I had a lot of high dollar equipment on there anyway. It sucked to lose, but I took it pretty well. Started building a new one with a SuperX on an AGL frame. That one is a BEAST.
Anyway, back to the story.
They drain most of the water from my lake in the winter time, and I made a trip out today to finish staining my deck before winter. I saw something in the water, about 30' off the end of my dock. It was just a tiny bit sticking up, about 20' from shore. I waded out, and it was my hexacopter. The tip of one prop was all that was sticking out.
Here's what it looked like when it came out of the water.
That arm on the left is white!
Oddly, the only thing that seems broken is the homebrew landing gear I was testing out. Looks like I need to re-evaluate that design.
It's a mess. Covered up in mud and moss. It stinks of fish. But I threw it in the truck and brought it home.
Most of the moss and mud had dried by the time I got home.
Here's the prop tip that was the only thing sticking out of the water.
The battery was still connected. The plug is remarkably clean on the inside, but I don't think it's probably a good idea to put it on a charger...
All of the screws on the top plate are packed with munk. (Munk is a hybrid of mud and gunk. I just made that up, I'm going to use it heavily.)
Another example of munk, this time on my FPV camera:
It took a bit, but I got them all cleaned up and started removing pieces. The screws weren't as rusted as I expected them to be.
It's a horror show under that top plate.
I decided at this point to see if any of it could be brought back to life. I realize that it is beyond being a long shot, but I'm curious to see which components will and which won't take this. I'm operating under the assumption that it is a total loss. It spent 47 days at the bottom of a lake. Nothing should ever work again. But like the guy at the beginning of Diry Harry, "I just gotta know!"
I started removing components and cleaning them up using toothbrushes and distilled water. Then I ran pressurized water into anything that had clearly been filled with mud, dried them off as best I could and put them in rice, which is supposed to draw out the moisture from inside sealed electronics. I figure we'll start there. I'll continue to post updates over the next few weeks if there's any interest. One way or another, I will make it fly again. And it will forever be known as the F550 from the Black Lagoon.
