Anafi goes for swim!

[Skydreamer]

I am going to start this story with old saying thats used to describe a person and it goes like this:”More luck than brains”,a perfect way to describe me and what happened to me today.I decided to drive to town of Royalston,small place approx 1.15 hour from where I live.Royalston is known for 3 waterfalls and my plan was to visit all 3 today and take some videos with my Anafi.Nice morning,sunny,I get to first place,park my car,get out and start my 20 min walk down the hill trough the forest.Five minutes down the hill it starts to rain and I mean pouring,for whole five minutes.So I get to waterfall and guess what,it’s dry season,there is barely any water coming down from that rock......so here is few technical issues I have with parrot drones in general,had this 4 years ago with my first bebop and have same issue with Anafi now...parrot drones suck if there is no gps signal,they bob,nod,move sideways on its own,they will do all kinds of stuff that can cause to the drone..example,flying parrot with vertical camera and sonar only in dark ,not enough light areas,flying low over water etc...one of the things all my drones did at some point is going forward and not stoping when I release or pull back stick,it still goes for a second or two before stoping,like its need bit longer to process command coming from controller.I knew from my previous visits to this particular waterfall that there is no gps or any kinds of signal in that area,no mobile,nothing and I expected Anafi to do some weird movements. I made short video by the waterfall,moved Anafi back towards me to approx . 1meter distance,released stick but it still moved past me and got caught in small tree right behind me...got motor error message that cleared after reset...I actually have screenshot of my “wtf” face when Anafi flew past me......so I moved 100 meters back to next stop,took another short video,lots of bobbing,no other issues,moved another 100 meters and flew Anafi over small pond where again Anafi “refused “ to obey command and continued to go forward where it hit small tree and dropped in water...at any other time of year there is at least few feet/50cm of water but today it was only 5-6 inches with some grass and tiny branches in water preventing Anafi from going below water.It took me 5 minutes and some acrobatics to get to Anafi and pull it out of water. First thing I saw was battery blinking single red light,took the Anafi out,removed battery,checked battery and got 3 green light and took long walk up the hill to my car with Anafi in my hand. I thought if I am gonna sweat hiking up the hill I might shake Anafi as I walk and hopefully get it bit dry. In a car I placed Anafi on the hot dashboard and battery next to it and took ride back home...by the time I got home Anafi was completely dry,I took it apart and there was no water in it all,well 1 small droplet on top of gps antenna....one more thing,approx. 5 street down from my house I took sharp left turn and Anafi slid from dashboard and smacked into passenger side window,I am sure that helped with shaking the water out of Anafi more than all that sitting on hot dashboard ?...well the story has happy end or at least I hope it will,time will tell...after playing with unresponsive gimbal ,few resets and installing new battery,my Anafi came back to life,I took it for a spin around the house,no issues at this time...still working on the battery,there seems to be still some moisture,it seems to be fine but than later It acts weird and then goes back to normal...need further testing,probably going to trash...
here is last few second,at that time I was already pulling back controller stick,I was filming in film mode,very slow but it felt like it speeded up that last few second

 

[Illirijus89]

Maybe to try with wire contact spray anyway, and i would left drone in rice after that for couple of days... The rest thing probably somebody say something more about that situation...

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

Maybe to try with for qire contact spray anyway, and i would left drone in rice after that for couple of days... The rest thing probably somebody say somethinf more about that situation...

I am going to start this story with old saying thats used to describe a person and it goes like this:”More luck than brains”,a perfect way to describe me and what happened to me today.I decided to drive to town of Royalston,small place approx 1.15 hour from where I live.Royalston is known for 3 waterfalls and my plan was to visit all 3 today and take some videos with my Anafi.Nice morning,sunny,I get to first place,park my car,get out and start my 20 min walk down the hill trough the forest.Five minutes down the hill it starts to rain and I mean pouring,for whole five minutes.So I get to waterfall and guess what,it’s dry season,there is barely any water coming down from that rock......so here is few technical issues I have with parrot drones in general,had this 4 years ago with my first bebop and have same issue with Anafi now...parrot drones suck if there is no gps signal,they bob,nod,move sideways on its own,they will do all kinds of stuff that can cause to the drone..example,flying parrot with vertical camera and sonar only in dark ,not enough light areas,flying low over water etc...one of the things all my drones did at some point is going forward and not stoping when I release or pull back stick,it still goes for a second or two before stoping,like its need bit longer to process command coming from controller.I knew from my previous visits to this particular waterfall that there is no gps or any kinds of signal in that area,no mobile,nothing and I expected Anafi to do some weird movements. I made short video by the waterfall,moved Anafi back towards me to approx . 1meter distance,released stick but it still moved past me and got caught in small tree right behind me...got motor error message that cleared after reset...I actually have screenshot of my “wtf” face when Anafi flew past me......so I moved 100 meters back to next stop,took another short video,lots of bobbing,no other issues,moved another 100 meters and flew Anafi over small pond where again Anafi “refused “ to obey command and continued to go forward where it hit small tree and dropped in water...at any other time of year there is at least few feet/50cm of water but today it was only 5-6 inches with some grass and tiny branches in water preventing Anafi from going below water.It took me 5 minutes and some acrobatics to get to Anafi and pull it out of water. First thing I saw was battery blinking single red light,took the Anafi out,removed battery,checked battery and got 3 green light and took long walk up the hill to my car with Anafi in my hand. I thought if I am gonna sweat hiking up the hill I might shake Anafi as I walk and hopefully get it bit dry. In a car I placed Anafi on the hot dashboard and battery next to it and took ride back home...by the time I got home Anafi was completely dry,I took it apart and there was no water in it all,well 1 small droplet on top of gps antenna....one more thing,approx. 5 street down from my house I took sharp left turn and Anafi slid from dashboard and smacked into passenger side window,I am sure that helped with shaking the water out of Anafi more than all that sitting on hot dashboard ?...well the story has happy end or at least I hope it will,time will tell...after playing with unresponsive gimbal ,few resets and installing new battery,my Anafi came back to life,I took it for a spin around the house,no issues at this time...still working on the battery,there seems to be still some moisture,it seems to be fine but than later It acts weird and then goes back to normal...need further testing,probably going to trash...
here is last few second,at that time I was already pulling back controller stick,I was filming in film mode,very slow but it felt like it speeded up that last few second

I'm sorry about your drone, I hope it works. That’s why I never fly in a forest (that’s where I use a DJI Osmo pocket). Above the sky, the lack of a GPS signal and such an accident can be avoided. Learn from your own fault.

 

[dashSolo]

I'm sorry about your drone, I hope it works. That’s why I never fly in a forest (that’s where I use a DJI Osmo pocket). Above the sky, the lack of a GPS signal and such an accident can be avoided. Learn from your own fault.

true that. It's a risk reward situation. I got the shots but... After thousands of flights I too had a dunker the same day as skydreamer. It was a very tight area of two waterfalls and small pools. No GPS so the Anafi was drifting. Looked away for a second after taking more than a 100 shots and heard the props scaping the cliff and looked over in time to see it fall into a pool about 4 feet deep, blue light flashing. I was able to maneuver to the crash site in a few minutes to retrieve, lights still flashing. Took battery off shook out the water and wrapped in a microfiber towel. Photo shoot over. After the 3 hour hike back to the car I put the Anafi and battery on the dashboard for the 2 hour trip home. Once home, blew both out with air and submerged them in rice. Next day, about 18 hours later I pulled them from the rice and blew them out with air. Attached new battery and powered up. Recalibrated compass and gimbal. Good to go, went airborne and flew 18 minutes at 250 ft overhead and maneuvered around trees at 20 ft and landed. Water battery had charged to 87%, attached and powered up and hovered at 3 ft for 15 minutes in case battery would just die and would fall without damage. Go to go? Lets see what the future holds.

Note: Anafi was submerged about 5 minutes in glacier feed water, very pure.
So pure, dock builders here have used electric tools while standing in the water. I choose not to do this. Lesson learned? Nah, I would do it again. Too many shots from this ANAFI to be taken.

 

[AnafiPilot]

Great stories...thanks for posting!

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Yup they can be saved most times if its fresh water. Anything falling into the ocean is pretty much toast unless you get it right away and rinse it with distilled water several times. Even then over time the salt water has a way of eating up the electronics.
My first Anafi survived from the middle of Dec to late March of the following year through our Canadian winters so they are tough birds for sure.

 

[DaveN]

I love it when I hear stories where the author mixes metric and imperial measurements. It reminds me of my college engineering days when you would get a problem with imperial measurements, convert it to metric, do the calculations, and convert the answer back to imperial.

Good luck with the drone. Mine took a swim and while I have the body, I was unable fully repair it. Parrot was no help even when I filled out the repair estimate option on their web site. Just keep receiving "Out of warranty. Tough luck."

 

[Skydreamer]

true that. It's a risk reward situation. I got the shots but... After thousands of flights I too had a dunker the same day as skydreamer. It was a very tight area of two waterfalls and small pools. No GPS so the Anafi was drifting. Looked away for a second after taking more than a 100 shots and heard the props scaping the cliff and looked over in time to see it fall into a pool about 4 feet deep, blue light flashing. I was able to maneuver to the crash site in a few minutes to retrieve, lights still flashing. Took battery off shook out the water and wrapped in a microfiber towel. Photo shoot over. After the 3 hour hike back to the car I put the Anafi and battery on the dashboard for the 2 hour trip home. Once home, blew both out with air and submerged them in rice. Next day, about 18 hours later I pulled them from the rice and blew them out with air. Attached new battery and powered up. Recalibrated compass and gimbal. Good to go, went airborne and flew 18 minutes at 250 ft overhead and maneuvered around trees at 20 ft and landed. Water battery had charged to 87%, attached and powered up and hovered at 3 ft for 15 minutes in case battery would just die and would fall without damage. Go to go? Lets see what the future holds.

Note: Anafi was submerged about 5 minutes in glacier feed water, very pure.
So pure, dock builders here have used electric tools while standing in the water. I choose not to do this. Lesson learned? Nah, I would do it again. Too many shots from this ANAFI to be taken.

My anafi seems to be fine,checked battery today in freeflight6,it would always show max battery capacity of 96%,after dunk in water it is showing max capacity of 100% ?.......i should do this more offten......tomorrow ill fly anafi with this battery and see what happens

 

[Jagerbomb52]

My anafi seems to be fine,checked battery today in freeflight6,it would always show max battery capacity of 96%,after dunk in water it is showing max capacity of 100% ?.......i should do this more offten......tomorrow ill fly anafi with this battery and see what happens

Ya the battery that was on mine will read 96% some days and other days it will read 100%. It has a broken clip from the crash that holds it in place so I just use elastic bands to hold it place. Duct tape works wonders. What I have found if I don't use it for some time it will just keep discharging. All my other batteries will stop at 2 bars but this one I have to monitor and top it off about once a week or I am afraid it might discharge to far to even bring it back to life. As for flight time it still gets 18-20 minutes before forced landing.

 

[Skydreamer]

I love it when I hear stories where the author mixes metric and imperial measurements. It reminds me of my college engineering days when you would get a problem with imperial measurements, convert it to metric, do the calculations, and convert the answer back to imperial.

Good luck with the drone. Mine took a swim and while I have the body, I was unable fully repair it. Parrot was no help even when I filled out the repair estimate option on their web site. Just keep receiving "Out of warranty. Tough luck."

? I don’t have problems with miles and yards,it is “feet” that confuse heck out of me...I go nuts every time I am watching range test video on YouTube and guy is screaming into the camera :Guys!!! This is amazing!!!12769 feet!!!!.....12848 feet!!!,,12888 feet...”....and I am like whaaaat,where is my calculator. ?

 

[DaveN]

? I don’t have problems with miles and yards,it is “feet” that confuse heck out of me...I go nuts every time I am watching range test video on YouTube and guy is screaming into the camera :Guys!!! This is amazing!!!12769 feet!!!!.....12848 feet!!!,,12888 feet...”....and I am like whaaaat,where is my calculator. ?

?Temperature is fine for me when doing science but I just can't get accustomed to it for weather. Winter is fine with zero being freezing but in the 20's for the summer?

 

[AnafiPilot1]

? I don’t have problems with miles and yards,it is “feet” that confuse heck out of me...I go nuts every time I am watching range test video on YouTube and guy is screaming into the camera :Guys!!! This is amazing!!!12769 feet!!!!.....12848 feet!!!,,12888 feet...”....and I am like whaaaat,where is my calculator. ?

I am a metrics guy but feet I find the easiest to convert in my head from imperial to metric ( 3 & 1/3 feet is 1 metre, so 10 feet is 3 meters).

 

[Dani]

Just like in Star Trek TOS they use both metric and imperial measurements . It's a bit strange: metric seems to be lawfully accepted in the US in 74 or so, and almost 50years after people still struggle to use it. Butthen again: I've never been to the US, so I cannot judge this.

 

[AliasFlyer]

true that. It's a risk reward situation. I got the shots but... After thousands of flights I too had a dunker the same day as skydreamer. It was a very tight area of two waterfalls and small pools. No GPS so the Anafi was drifting. Looked away for a second after taking more than a 100 shots and heard the props scaping the cliff and looked over in time to see it fall into a pool about 4 feet deep, blue light flashing. I was able to maneuver to the crash site in a few minutes to retrieve, lights still flashing. Took battery off shook out the water and wrapped in a microfiber towel. Photo shoot over. After the 3 hour hike back to the car I put the Anafi and battery on the dashboard for the 2 hour trip home. Once home, blew both out with air and submerged them in rice. Next day, about 18 hours later I pulled them from the rice and blew them out with air. Attached new battery and powered up. Recalibrated compass and gimbal. Good to go, went airborne and flew 18 minutes at 250 ft overhead and maneuvered around trees at 20 ft and landed. Water battery had charged to 87%, attached and powered up and hovered at 3 ft for 15 minutes in case battery would just die and would fall without damage. Go to go? Lets see what the future holds.

Note: Anafi was submerged about 5 minutes in glacier feed water, very pure.
So pure, dock builders here have used electric tools while standing in the water. I choose not to do this. Lesson learned? Nah, I would do it again. Too many shots from this ANAFI to be taken.

I'm sorry, I know it's is an old post and my question is off topic, but my curiosity has the best of me. You mentioned that the water was so pure that dock builders would use electric tools while standing in the water.

What does that mean? Why does the clean water make it safer for electric tools. Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something.

 

[dashSolo]

I'm sorry, I know it's is an old post and my question is off topic, but my curiosity has the best of me. You mentioned that the water was so pure that dock builders would use electric tools while standing in the water.

What does that mean? Why does the clean water make it safer for electric tools. Sorry if I'm misunderstanding something.

Ya...I'm unsure of the science behind the statement. An oldtimer dock builder many years ago (before battery tools) would stand waist deep in the water and plugged into 120v outlet for his power tools and work on docks. Somebody asked this worker if he was worried (or should be) about electrocution, he replied to say "this glacier fed lake is so pure electricity won't conduct through it".
He lived through the completion of the work.

 

[AliasFlyer]

Ya...I'm unsure of the science behind the statement. An oldtimer dock builder many years ago (before battery tools) would stand waist deep in the water and plugged into 120v outlet for his power tools and work on docks. Somebody asked this worker if he was worried (or should be) about electrocution, he replied to say "this glacier fed lake is so pure electricity won't conduct through it".
He lived through the completion of the work.

Man, I'm glad he never had the opportunity to test out that theory. Then again, maybe because he was in a large grounded body of water, maybe that makes a difference, not sure. I wouldn't want to test it!

 

[Gipsz Jakab]

The conductivity of water is caused by the minerals and impurities it contains. Removing them will eliminate the conductivity of the water!
Salt water conducts electricity best.