Beautiful winter day here but wicked cold, 15 degrees F. I know I must keep the batteries warm until ready to go. What would be the coldest temp that would be OK to make a short 10 minute flight?
How cold is to cold
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my batteries are room temp (67F) when I pop em into my P3A in the house. I turn on the quad then go outside. After its warmup, I have flown 15F and didnt have an issue with the quad, no loss of power, no screen messages. I am running 1.6 firmware on the battery. The only problem I had was numb thumbs after 10 minutes of flight, landed with 54% battery left. Max bat temp from log was 80F during flight.
B
You could do some searches. Many people have reported flying in Alaska and near the arctic circle at temps below zero F with great success.
Flying a p2, but I have no problem burning 4 batteries at -20F, up here in Alaska. As long as I keep the batteries warm, usually in the car. Not sure about a p3 though.
"His cold" should read as "How cold". Strangest thing is that when I first posted this thread it read His even though I was pretty sure I typed How. It now reads as How. I did not edit it myself. Could an administrator of the site make the change? Either way it's correct now. Also, the replies so far give me the confidence to fly today. YES!!
I have heard that you can fly from inside your car too, but not as far,
But I have never tested it ...yet
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Here in Canada, it was 21 below zero C yesterday, or -6 F. I did the warm up inside and waited until the "safe to fly non GPS" message appeared then went outside to get the GPS" lock" to launch.
When it's that cold I do watch my voltage and I don't try to fly 23 minutes wide open throttle. I ascend less than wide open and I restrict my ground speed to around 30 mph just to keep from swinging the voltage draw during the cold flight.
I'd say from that, you'd be fine anywhere except the moon.
When it's that cold I do watch my voltage and I don't try to fly 23 minutes wide open throttle. I ascend less than wide open and I restrict my ground speed to around 30 mph just to keep from swinging the voltage draw during the cold flight.
I'd say from that, you'd be fine anywhere except the moon.
when you fly in such cold weather, do you notice the focus of the lense changing? I ask because DJI says that the lense can become out of focus if you operate outside of their stated operating temperature range.
No issues here in MN. Have flown many times in below zero F weather and will be doing it again this weekend. Battery life takes a hit but so far so good!
I'm sure like all products there is an "optimal" operating temperature for Phantom, Gimbal and Camera.
I can say that yesterday at 5pm it was -21 celcius in my area, which is -5.8 Fahrenheit. I took the drone out to film ice on the river and performed well. Although battery time was cut to 16 mins and GPS lock was a touch slow at first.
Have never had this occur on the Phantom 2 or 3 flying here in the cold Canadian winter. However, it does make sense since the camera case is made out of metal and the lens is actually screwed on internally to a circuit board. Temperature could have an effect on some cameras. Something to watch for.
Too cold, is when I spit, and it freezes before it hits the ground. ;-)
Not a good time to try your calligraphy in the snow, if you gotta go.
RedHotPoker
Not a good time to try your calligraphy in the snow, if you gotta go.
RedHotPoker
It is an infinite focus lense, cold causes things to contract and heat to expand so the materials the lense is mounted in will actually be smaller albeit by a very small amount but when you are talking about focusing a lense that very small amount matters.
Good thread to come across. I'm taking my new brand P3A on her maiden voyage today (other than briefly hovering in my house to test functionality) and the high is only supposed be about 32 F. Fairly cold for the the southeast US, glad to hear the bird can handle it.
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Flew last night in west Michigan. 15 degrees F(rigid) with gust to 19 mph. Hands got cold, drone fine. Battery drained quickly; would not recommend long distance flight in case you get a critical low voltage incident; definitely turn on drone inside to get the safe to fly signal.
Q to others in this cold: when you bring the drone in from the cold, do any of you put it in a plastic bag to allow condensation to form on bag and not on (or in) drone? This is an old camera preservation method I was taught years ago when shooting outside in the cold with my DSLR.
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Q to others in this cold: when you bring the drone in from the cold, do any of you put it in a plastic bag to allow condensation to form on bag and not on (or in) drone? This is an old camera preservation method I was taught years ago when shooting outside in the cold with my DSLR.
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
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