Cleaning the camera, lidar, and radar sensors on the EAV J150 or J70, and how often to check them.

Important Note: Take a look at the sensors before every flight, and wipe them off every few flights. Checking takes seconds. A sensor that has been reading through a film of dried spray for half a day is not something you want to discover in the air.

The J150 has four surfaces that need to stay clean: the camera, the lidar, the top radar, and the rear radar. These are what the drone uses to see terrain and obstacles, and they sit in the worst possible place to stay clean—in the spray environment, collecting field dust and drift from every tank you put through the aircraft. The buildup is gradual, which is what makes it easy to miss. Nothing looks wrong until the drone starts responding to what it can no longer see clearly.

Clean them with water and a microfiber cloth. On the lidar and the camera, you can also use lens cleaner. Work gently and let the water do the lifting rather than pressure. 

Do not use anything abrasive. No paper towels, no shop rags, no scouring pads, no scraping at a spot with a fingernail. These surfaces scratch, and a scratched lens or radome is permanent damage that degrades sensing from then on. 

If something has dried on and will not come off with water, microfiber, and lens cleaner, stop there. Do not soak the sensor. Contact your dealer or ASD technical support and let them advise on removal. Soaking risks driving moisture past the seals into the sensor housing, which turns a cleaning problem into a replacement.

After cleaning, check the obstacle circle at the bottom middle of the screen to confirm the sensors are reading correctly before you fly. 

Build the check into your routine. Look at all four surfaces before every flight, and wipe them off every few flights or any time you can see buildup. Sensors that get a quick look every time never reach the point where something has baked on, and you are calling support about it.