Wet electronics recovery

slowbike

I've generalised the title because it should work for most things ...

I had a little accident with my GoPro over the weekend ... I misjudged a pass and the unit, in it's waterproof housing hit a concrete wall, broke the housing clip, housing came open and camera came free, then the lot ended up in sea water ...
Fortunately I was able to grab the camera straight away and get the battery and memory card out. Memory card was absolutely fine and I didn't loose any of the video shot. I washed the camera & battery under the cold tap for 5-10 minutes then dried them under the hand drier.
I did try the battery in the camera, but no joy - too early really but had to give it a go ...
On returning home I got the rice out of the cupboard and sealed the camera with 3 scoops of rice and left it to dry out completely .. so it sat there since Sat afternoon to this morning ...

Tried it with a fresh battery this morning and it's powered up fine ... it's now back in the rice bag and I'll try it with a card this evening ...

So - soak your electronics then put in a bag of rice ...

meanredspider

Impressed that you saved it. It makes me really angry about how easily the (old?) GoPro case comes open. Mine got wrecked when the GoPro mount just broke and it fell off my bike onto the road. The case just popped open - wrecking everything inside. I lost my memory card. I see the new GoPro has a catch to try to keep it locked.

slowbike

I use a tether on the camera housing - doesn't help when you've detached the lot from the boat to transfer the unit to land ...

It was quite good for swimming out for my nieces first capsize

meanredspider

Yes - I'd tether now - though, on a bike, you need to be careful where the tether will take it should the mount fail

rubertoe

Its all about the bags of rice...

Something that is absorbent like a paella or a risotto works best.

slowbike

rubertoe wrote:

Its all about the bags of rice...

Something that is absorbent like a paella or a risotto works best.

Just don't cook it first! ...

veronese68

My son went for a 20 minutes swim with his iPod in his pocket. Stuck it in a bag of rice and left it in a (very) hot car for 3 days and it came back to life, although it seems to sap the life out of the boy.
I was amazed at how well it worked.

neal1984

I took my GoPro Scuba diving last month. First time I've used it underwater. At a depth of 4 meters the thing just flooded even though I checked and cleaned the seal before closing. I wish I'd known this info at the time as the saltwater really messed up the electronics. Luckily and after several emails back and forth GoPro agreed to asses the camera and they replaced it under warrenty. Next time I go diving either the camera is not coming with me (although this is one of the applications I bought it for) or I'll take the housing minus the camera down first to give me some level of confidence that it won't drown again.

slowbike

Whilst swimming (before I bust the clip) I let go of the camera and it dangled on the tether around my wrist - it was only around 1m depth - survived that ok.

It's supposed to go to 60m ... so 4m is rubbish - although if you read their warranty statement they do say they don't cover flooding as you might not seal the housing properly.

Anyone any idea where to get a black clip for the GoPro Hero 3 from ? I can only find the full housing ...

neal1984

Yeh that's basically what they said. I told them I understand how sealing systems work and the effects of contamination etc due to my job (Automotive Manufaturing Engineer) and then said I'd be forced to speak to trading standards if they did not resolve as it is sold as waterproof to 60m. It was then they agreed they would asses the housing and camera.

meanredspider

I had no end of arguments with GoPro about mine after the mount failed. They told me I'd tightened it too tightly - so, being an engineer myself, I asked them for the torque spec. There isn't one of course :roll: I did say that it was then pretty difficult to show that I'd tightened it too tightly...

I did also find some marketing spiel about the case surviving bouncing down the road. I pointed out that mine didn't. They eventually gave me 40% off a new camera but redeeming that was almost as hard as arguing my case in the first place.

I think the GoPro cameras are good (though I think the image specs are getting a little bit silly - 4k?) but the peripherals (the mounts in particular) are nasty. The customer service is truly terrible.

slowbike

meanredspider wrote:

I did also find some marketing spiel about the case surviving bouncing down the road. I pointed out that mine didn't. They eventually gave me 40% off a new camera but redeeming that was almost as hard as arguing my case in the first place.

I have no intention of testing that one!

meanredspider wrote:

I think the GoPro cameras are good (though I think the image specs are getting a little bit silly - 4k?) but the peripherals (the mounts in particular) are nasty. The customer service is truly terrible.

I like the specs - 4k may seem high now, but it won't be soon. I'd prefer to be able to select a slower frame rate for the lower resolutions too.
Mounts - so-so - I have a K-Edge bar mount - but rely on the GoPro extensions & casing.
The casing seems to amplify the rattling (I assume it's the gopro housing).
The suction mount seems ok and I have the tripod mount to attach to anyothermethod. I did use the helmet strap last winter and that was ok too (in -30°c)
I've yet to encounter customer services ... perhaps I'll give that a miss!

neal1984

meanredspider wrote:

I had no end of arguments with GoPro about mine after the mount failed. They told me I'd tightened it too tightly - so, being an engineer myself, I asked them for the torque spec. There isn't one of course :roll: I did say that it was then pretty difficult to show that I'd tightened it too tightly...

Haha i would have loved to have seen their reply when you pointed that out!

meanredspider wrote:

I did also find some marketing spiel about the case surviving bouncing down the road. I pointed out that mine didn't. They eventually gave me 40% off a new camera but redeeming that was almost as hard as arguing my case in the first place.

I think the GoPro cameras are good (though I think the image specs are getting a little bit silly - 4k?) but the peripherals (the mounts in particular) are nasty. The customer service is truly terrible.

Yeah I agree here. I researched the bike mounts before I put mine on the bike and see literally hundreds of reviews slating the GoPro mount (mainly for failing). I opted for the vastly overpriced but superior K-Edge out front mount and it has been perfect! At £45 it's a absolute rip off thou.

jonnyboy77

My youngest son (1.5) dropped my wife's iPhone 4 into the toilet (thankfully it was recently cleaned/flushed!) and with a combination of rice in a sealed bag, followed by 24 hours sat on top of the toasty Sky HD+ box, it came back to life and has been fine since (4 months and counting).

One of the key things seems to be remove the power source ASAP once wet, although in my wife's case she tried to switch it on/off a couple of times before I passed that info onto her! Still the phone lived on ...

- Jon

meanredspider

Slowbike wrote:

I like the specs - 4k may seem high now, but it won't be soon. I'd prefer to be able to select a slower frame rate for the lower resolutions too.

I'm less sure. How long do you expect your GoPro to last? The files it produces are already ridiculously large (a 20 minute race with the crap a either end in 720p is already split into 3 files) - processing them is a PITA unless you have something like the newest waste bin Mac Pro and then uploading to YouTube takes all night. Sure, there are a few 4k TVs about but, short of professional use, I can't see too many people using 4K for quite a while - you'd need to be really close to it to see the difference.

slowbike

meanredspider wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

I like the specs - 4k may seem high now, but it won't be soon. I'd prefer to be able to select a slower frame rate for the lower resolutions too.

I'm less sure. How long do you expect your GoPro to last? The files it produces are already ridiculously large (a 20 minute race with the crap a either end in 720p is already split into 3 files) - processing them is a PITA unless you have something like the newest waste bin Mac Pro and then uploading to YouTube takes all night. Sure, there are a few 4k TVs about but, short of professional use, I can't see too many people using 4K for quite a while - you'd need to be really close to it to see the difference.

I process on a Mac Mini - 2.5Ghz i5 processor with 4Gb ram - so not the fastest machine available - it doesn't take that long (although I do remote control it with another machine so I can leave it doing stuff whilst I carry on with life) ...
and my little bro is a moving image designer pro ... so 4k is quite handy if you want to crop down and only take a section of the screen ... not that I've tried that yet ...

meanredspider

Slowbike wrote:

I process on a Mac Mini - 2.5Ghz i5 processor with 4Gb ram - so not the fastest machine available - it doesn't take that long (although I do remote control it with another machine so I can leave it doing stuff whilst I carry on with life) ...
and my little bro is a moving image designer pro ... so 4k is quite handy if you want to crop down and only take a section of the screen ... not that I've tried that yet ...

I do mine on an iMac (don't remember the exact spec but pretty good and only 2 years old or less) and I just get bored with waiting for the thing to process. Especially as, inevitably, I have to import all 3 GoPro files even though I might only want a minute or two from either end (but I can hardly upload a race without the start or finish).

My daughter is just starting a Film and TV degree so maybe we'll end up with a "waste bin" Mac yet