Repairing a Water Damaged DJI Mavic Mini

This is a time-lapse of repairing a water damaged Mavic Mini. I got my hands on it several weeks after the crash and so the corrosion was pretty bad (as you'll see at 3:00). I chose to use an ultrasonic cleaner from SRA along with their PCB cleaning fluid as a simple rinse/brush probably wouldn't do it. It's on the pricey side but I considered it an investment for similar electronics repairs. Cheaper versions of ultrasonic cleaners are available and will probably work. I also found a torn ribbon cable which I replaced.
TOOLS USED
Ribbon Cable
Ultra Sonic Cleaner
PCB Cleaning Fluid
99.9% IPA
Deionized Water
Liquid Electrical Tape
Heat Gun
Weller Soldering Iron
Tweezers
Precision Screwdriver Set
MUSIC CREDITS
Danger Around The Corner by Darren-Curtis | / desperate-measurez
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[@andriusanryy5165]

Thanks for the detailed video guide. You help alot. My drone fell into the sea in Mallorca, I still managed to fly to the shore, but everything got lost and the electronics disconnected and it hit the rocks of the shore. I broke two rights arms and top case. Buy spare parts from donor and folow your video. Now it flies again, only a little reluctance to turn on gimbal. God bless you

[@Jim-cy]

Amazing skills! Bravo!

[@damo690]

If I don't have one of those ultrasonic cleaners what can I use to clean these boards? Did you know if the boards were damaged or not before your test flight?

[@anyonecananything485]

99.9% isopropyl alcohol or PCB cleaning fluid and a gentle bush can help, but you always need to be careful not to knock off any of the SMD components. This is what I do at 4:30 because I didn't want to damage the camera in the ultrasonic cleaner. You can safely soak most electronics in these fluids without the worry of damaging anything and, if you do it quick enough after it gets water on it, this can help displace the water from areas that are difficult to dry. There was some damage on the camera PCB (similar to the closeups at 3:00) and the brush approach worked. The great thing about ultrasonic cleaners, though, is they can reach areas that a brush can't, for example if water gets under an IC causing corrosion between pins.

[@luisfematt370]

I wish I had that amount of knowledge and skill, great job!

[@anyonecananything485]

Thanks! Less about skill and more about persistence for me. You can do it, too

[@bubbawatson1852]

Just watching, went in ocean, only about 2 seconds. I told my friend, I'm gonna do this, I do tinting, art, mind over matter even will amaze you, when you do that. Even though I know this ain't no easy task for 1st timers, I get back to Kentucky, my work bench, It's on fan at hotel, I'm at. Myrtle beach, I got a gusty wind, low flying, wind came new angle, hit pier., I was under 15 ft away, it hit and dropped, I ran, soon as it hit, I was already grabbing it, to shut off, it stopped propellers, but light was on.

[@Panos835]

Had recently crushed my mini2 (idiotically) and need to repair my gimbal... 😑

[@Nakedeyetech]

my Mavic mini 2 cant connect with gps error 300008 and can't fly above 5 miter

[@Markus-iq4sm]

Does not seem to be that damaged (no rust or oxidation), the guy - I will disassemble it to molecules 😆. Although great professional work, maybe just too much thermal paste...

[@jonnykrivan6840]

This is epic

[@roadrunner1095]

That is cleaning, not repairing 😆 Lucky you, nothing got burned aparently..

[@charlescharles9625]

Show removal and replacement of upper gimble bracket in slow motion.

[@jersondenava7797]

Great job..my mini was crash in the river..may i barrow your tools....?😄

[@Markus-iq4sm]

Yes, sensors are very unstable above water surfaces, high chance of falling

[@mehmetakturk7672]

Thanks for video. Did you change any part during repairing ? Were all of them original ?

[@kokojokel]

I have mavic mini crash broken arm, droop in the water. I want to repair

[@shivamdigitals7696]

sir same problem to my drone do have any solution sir.

[@alx.visuals]

Congrats, really good tutorial 👏

[@dandixon4034]

Useless to anyone that needs information

[@md.golamfaruque1288]

This is the best repairing video, ever I have seen.

[@kelvinkxxx3802]

Tries to repair water damaged drone … puts drone in water

[@musadroneshow8527]

Nice wark

[@aaronamerica968]

At least it kept filming. I just uploaded a vid of my 3rd flight, and in to the drink it goes.

[@runningintohistory]

My mini went into a river and was returned to me 6mths later and the card actually recorded under water for 15min. Had to post that video on KZbin lol but the card still works great in my phone.

[@murx2095]

Hi, what about seawater, meaning salt water. I dropped mine into the sea, cleared it with normal water, dried it one night in rice. Battery is dead, but drone at least is doing self check. But GPS and something else does not work. Do you think your procedure could save mine as well?

[@TraderTeknikalTV]

Hey, tell me abt the update on your drone, mine just crashed to sea water oo

[@ludviglindh4398]

Thank you so much for the video, it's first one I've found that doesn't just replace the motherboard. Do you perhaps know were to get or have schematics for the mavic mini? I have a broken mavic mini with a bit worse water damaged than what yours were and I am going to need to replace a couple of smd components, just don't know what components they are.

[@anyonecananything485]

I also tried to find these schematics and didn't have any luck. A lot of the Chinese built stuff can be a pain to reverse because they often use custom ICs and unmarked parts, something that seems to be more common in China where many of the fabs are. If you come across them, please drop a link in the comments.

[@Markus-iq4sm]

Have you thought about covering the PCBs with some glue or similar so that water does not do that big damage?

[@jigsnep]

What was the led indication on your drone before you repaired it? Mine was 2 leds on.

[@NishanthGM]

I recently crashed mine into water, the indication is also 2 leds on the drone. No1 and No4 leds on and No 2 and 3 are off.

[@paulb8186]

Just a bit fast if you want knowledge of how to strip down the drone, tabs, clips etc.

[@anyonecananything485]

Thanks for the feedback. I had intended for this to be a temporary post until I could make a step-by-step guide with narration but I haven't invested the time. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, as they say.

[@DIY-xd5bx]

Did your camera also not work in the first place? My gimbal is not moving at all…

[@aro4bubbly]

Excellent bro. My mini 2 get sea-water damage & crashed in shore. The local service guy said gimble not working, new gimble needed & it's not connection to phone/ remote. 😞

[@nitindelhiful]

Superb. It would have been helpful to see what error you’re getting before beginning repair

[@havefaithtarot]

Mine decided it needed to make an emergency landing in the lake. I used to fix phones for a living so I decided I was gonna try to do the same thing I would with a water damaged phone but got a little confused by the blue goo in the drone when I was tearing it apart so here I am. I don’t have a microscope to check out the motherboard but as far as I can see with my naked eye I believe I got all the corrosion. Time to put it all back together now, don’t have any blue goo so idk how essential that is..

[@paxjo302]

I have the same problem, after cleaning same what you did. Only 5 meters to fly and the drone will be disconnected.

[@manofmayo1533]

Hey would you consider fixing my mini2?

[@ScouserStreamz]

What fluid did you use to clean? Did you use isopropyl?

[@JAHDFILMS]

Wow bro! Great Repair! Good job!

[@tenzsvlog2360]

Wow it's amazing 👍

[@ushuaiaaventurasargentina2024]

It was really wet the camera.?

[@rollandbernard4888]

Essaye la prochaine fois d’accélérer 3 fois plus vite les séquences pour mieux nous faire comprendre

[@anyonecananything485]

You're suggesting speeding it more?

[@-hastatus-]

😲😲😲😲😲

[@BoboMsubscribe]

I'm kind of confused 😜 You fixed the drone by disassembly ? That's all ? Wtf

[@anyonecananything485]

Water damage caused corrosion which you can see about halfway through the video. This can cause a lot of unpredictable problems depending on how bad it is. The ultrasonic cleaner and the PCB cleaning fluid creates cavitation that removes biproducts from PCB corrosion. As long as the corrosion isn't so bad that it completely ate away parts of the PCB, or no permanent damage was caused to any components when it first got wet, then this does a pretty good job at bringing water damaged electronics back to life.