I've noticed on several videos on YouTube that even when the mini 3 Pro says 0% on it's battery it seems to, in average conditions last another couple of minutes. As expected...the system, not unlike a car and it's fuel tank seems to have a failsafe reserve to try and limit disasters. Now I know it is not best to rely on this mystical range at 0%, but I like to push the limits and know the limits of my drone. I have also seen...that during automatic landing which I think begins around 10% (someone correct me), that you can push up on the left stick to stop it occurring. Say if you where over water etc.

Has anyone else noticed these things?

If interested watch this. I was on the edge of my seat.

https://youtu.be/Xda70P3ZtlM

This is a protection so that your drone does not crash. Batteries degrade over time.

You cant push up to save it on the Mini 3, others you can though...

Bashy Posted at 11-29 07:10
You cant push up to save it on the Mini 3, others you can though...

You cant what? If you mean you cannot block a forced landing well clearly you can. The video i linked to he does just that.

Drone.Hunter Posted at 11-29 06:55
This is a protection so that your drone does not crash. Batteries degrade over time.

I am aware...i wasnt asking for an explaination of what it is just simply how far people have pushed it.

It's not healthy for the battery to run it to 0%.

Drey. I Posted at 11-29 08:45
It's not healthy for the battery to run it to 0%.

Yes, you should definitely avoid that!

primeshooter Posted at 11-29 07:42
I am aware...i wasnt asking for an explaination of what it is just simply how far people have pushed it.

for anyone who wants to see the video, i've posted it inline.  flyer is using the extended battery.

Primeshooter, a quick and easy lesson, if you consistently push the limits of a battery .... at some point you WILL lose. If you are lucky there will be consequences for only you, if others are unlucky then there could be consequences for them and possibly serious consequences for you.

Who is to say the flight was flown in "average conditions"?
1) there appears to be very little wind, I would suspect that that is rare in most places ...... including the UK. I doubt I see more than a dozen windless days a year where I live.
2 ) how new is the battery and how new is the 'average battery'.
I am not a "be home at 20%+er" but I would certainly aim to be over or very, very close to over the homepoint by 10%, I would say it is risky to do otherwise. I must admit I was surprised that forward speed only dropped into the 7m/s range, I am fairly sure I have seen some videos and or logs where the max speed dropped to 1-2m/s.
It's your drone and your potential loss but I would think carefully before frequently pushing battery limits.



It is interesting to note that for the maximum flight times DJI flew at the drone at 21.6 kph or 6m/s and, for "range", 43.2kph or 12m/s.

The Saint Posted at 11-29 10:36
for anyone who wants to see the video, i've posted it inline.  flyer is using the extended battery.

https://youtu.be/Xda70P3ZtlM

Of course, sometimes he isn't too. But the point is all batteries in the mini 3 pro at 0 aren't really at 0.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-29 11:57
Primeshooter, a quick and easy lesson, if you consistently push the limits of a battery .... at some point you WILL lose. If you are lucky there will be consequences for only you, if others are unlucky then there could be consequences for them and possibly serious consequences for you.

Who is to say the flight was flown in "average conditions"?

And if you are prepaired to loose, it's part of the fun / game. I do understand, As I said, just pushing the limits because it is in my nature. I also did imply I wasn't going to do this everytime, this is about knowing the limit so you can push to it, when required, and if required.

primeshooter Posted at 11-29 12:21
And if you are prepaired to loose, it's part of the fun / game. I do understand, As I said, just pushing the limits because it is in my nature. I also did imply I wasn't going to do this everytime, this is about knowing the limit so you can push to it, when required, and if required.

Great, with that attitude then perhaps you would, in a safe place well away for people and the property of others, care to see if you can do a mid air motor stop and restart with a Mini 3? It should be an exciting test.

If so please screen record it and record video on the drone's memory card.

If you are so inclined, be sure to release the sticks between the CSC that stops the motors and the CSC that tries to restart the motors. If you do not do that I suspect the drone will consider the continuous CSC as just the motor stopping CSC continued and it will crash.
Be warned, if the drone tumbles it may not restart the motors, there may be a limited range of tilts within which the drone WILL restart its motors.

With that in mind I would suggest sending the drone up to around 350 to 400ft and switching it to cine / tripod mode ( cine mode will produce the slowest horizontal speeds and yaw rate and the slowest initial descent and thereby possibly reduce the chance of the drone tumbling).

As soon as the motors stop release the sticks then wait a second and start the second CSC. Don't leave it much longer than that, you may need as much height as possible to a) restart the motors and b) halt the fall. I suspect the freefall speed will be in the mid teens m/s. (40 - 60 fps)

It is possible the drone will fall in a spin and IF the motors restart you should immediately see the  drone stabilise. (That's what I saw with a Phantom 3, over the sea.) However it may restart the motors at idle. IF the motors do restart and restart at idle give the drone throttle halt the fall, I gave the P3 full throttle.
Someone recently tried it with either a Mavic Mini or a Mini 2 and the motors did restart (they may have been lucky) but the drone was too low to halt the fall. I think they started the test quite low.

Drey. I Posted at 11-29 08:45
It's not healthy for the battery to run it to 0%.

Yeah i know that...but not the point of the thread.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-29 13:12
Great, with that attitude then perhaps you would, in a safe place well away for people and the property of others, care to see if you can do a mid air motor stop and restart with a Mini 3? It should be an exciting test.

If so please screen record it and record video on the drone's memory card.

Ha...i am not thay daring.

another example

primeshooter Posted at 11-29 07:41
You cant what? If you mean you cannot block a forced landing well clearly you can. The video i linked to he does just that.

Is this something new because i have seen posts saying that they couldn't ascend during forced landing

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-29 13:12
Great, with that attitude then perhaps you would, in a safe place well away for people and the property of others, care to see if you can do a mid air motor stop and restart with a Mini 3? It should be an exciting test.

If so please screen record it and record video on the drone's memory card.

There is definitely an angle were the drone will not start and its not steep at all, i think just holding the drone flat give the warning and will not start, ya see, holding it flat isn't the correct position as its sits lower on its backend when on the ground., i found that out a few times before i realised, you have to tiltl it back slightly when hand launching.

Bashy Posted at 11-29 18:11
There is definitely an angle were the drone will not start and its not steep at all, i think just holding the drone flat give the warning and will not start, ya see, holding it flat isn't the correct position as its sits lower on its backend when on the ground., i found that out a few times before i realised, you have to tiltl it back slightly when hand launching.

Jeepers that's a bit 'tight', I have just tried hand held motor starts with a Mini 2 and was getting motor starts near ± 45° in pitch and roll. It seemed to say something like " IMU error attitude " when they were too steep.

As expected...the system, not unlike a car and it's fuel tank seems to have a failsafe reserve to try and limit disasters. Now I know it is not best to rely on this mystical range at 0%, but I like to push the limits
It's not like your car's fuel tank at all.
The last 10% is not the same as the first 10% because the battery cell voltages are dropping throughout the flight.
If you try to push hard when the cell voltages are very low, you'll find the firmware well limit performance to preserve the drone, rather than have it fall out of the sky because you turned on the tap too hard and let all the electrons run out.

Instead of pushing the limits, it makes more sense to think like you are inside the drone flying it.
If you were flying a real plane, you wouldn't aim to come in to land with the fuel at 0%.
You need to keep a comfortable safety margin to allow for unexpected issues.
Keep pushing the limits and one day you'll probably come home with one drne less than you went out with.

Bashy Posted at 11-29 18:06
Is this something new because i have seen posts saying that they couldn't ascend during forced landing

did a test once on all my drones, all drones into low batt forcedlanding did ascend with RC stick UP.

JJB* Posted at 11-30 01:15
did a test once on all my drones, all drones into low batt forcedlanding did ascend with RC stick UP.

I am sure that there is point where the Mini 3 Pro will not allow you to push stick to ascend, oh, it might be  when the drone is too hot, is that it?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 11-29 20:17
Jeepers that's a bit 'tight', I have just tried hand held motor starts with a Mini 2 and was getting motor starts near ± 45° in pitch and roll. It seemed to say something like " IMU error attitude " when they were too steep.

I had it again this morning, i forgot and held the drone level and it wouldnt start and threw up the error/warning about the angle. Level, that is very tight ain't it lol

Bashy Posted at 11-30 01:44
I am sure that there is point where the Mini 3 Pro will not allow you to push stick to ascend, oh, it might be  when the drone is too hot, is that it?

i have no experience with 'hot' drones, guess that bc i live near a windy coast  ;-)

JJB* Posted at 11-30 02:01
i have no experience with 'hot' drones, guess that bc i live near a windy coast  ;-)

Yeah, same here, i think it happens when the outside temp is over 30C+ and no wind, and they hover for a while. I am 99% sure now that the guy said he had no up stick, actually i am fairly sure there was no lateral movement at all too. Post is on here somewheree

Labroides Posted at 11-29 23:57
As expected...the system, not unlike a car and it's fuel tank seems to have a failsafe reserve to try and limit disasters. Now I know it is not best to rely on this mystical range at 0%, but I like to push the limits
It's not like your car's fuel tank at all.
The last 10% is not the same as the first 10% because the battery cell voltages are dropping throughout the flight.

Again, I did not say i was going to drain the battery to 0 on every flight...i have been very clear on that. As I allude too...perfectly willing to loose the drone one day. If ive had 800 quids worth of fun out of it...i am good with that. Dont worry; be happy.

Ps the fuel tank analogy still works for what i am explaining. I didnt say it would perform "fast" or wouldnt be put into "limp" mode but the point is most of the time zero is not zero and its good to know...for emergency purposes etc. Pushing limits is how some of us learn equipment. We fully get we might loose the drone.

JJB* Posted at 11-30 01:15
did a test once on all my drones, all drones into low batt forcedlanding did ascend with RC stick UP.

Good to know...

primeshooter Posted at 11-30 07:10
Again, I did not say i was going to drain the battery to 0 on every flight...i have been very clear on that. As I allude too...perfectly willing to loose the drone one day. If ive had 800 quids worth of fun out of it...i am good with that. Dont worry; be happy.

Ps the fuel tank analogy still works for what i am explaining. I didnt say it would perform "fast" or wouldnt be put into "limp" mode but the point is most of the time zero is not zero and its good to know...for emergency purposes etc. Pushing limits is how some of us learn equipment. We fully get we might loose the drone.

Sounds like you are intending to run out of fuel one day.

We fully get we might loose the drone.
What you don't get is that you can't choose where or how you run out of fuel and crash.

Labroides Posted at 11-30 09:27
Sounds like you are intending to run out of fuel one day.

One day, we will all run out of 'fuel'. I do not worry about such matters. I find limits, then I pull back from those limits, but know in an emergency etc, what I am able to pull off. Some people don't like that concept and it's fine, but it's my way.

Over time, limits change as resources wear out...

Drone.Hunter Posted at 11-30 10:29
Over time, limits change as resources wear out...

Yes...of course

Labroides Posted at 11-30 09:27
Sounds like you are intending to run out of fuel one day.

We fully get we might loose the drone.

I do get it, I am aware of that...Over water if flying over water, over a field if I am flying over a field. I don't fly over people, even although I can with a 249g drone in the UK.

darn it forgot to press reply

Instead of asking about it, go do it. Go to an open field and fly until you get the low battery RTH, then fly until you get the forced landing. This is your safety margin.

The Saint Posted at 11-29 16:33
another example

There is a lesson evident in that video right from 18 seconds onwards as soon as the attitude indicator appears, look at the drone's pitch vs its ground speed, virtually no tilt for full speed in N mode. That would be screaming "HIGH WIND" at me and the drone's only 18m high. He then sends the drone up gradually to 110+m, all the time flying down wind and doesn't reduce the drone height until he is in deep doo doo.

thanks for information

JJB* Posted at 11-30 02:01
i have no experience with 'hot' drones, guess that bc i live near a windy coast  ;-)

I found that post in question, the guy said he had no stick input during forced landing

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D776%26typeid%3D776

Mobilehomer Posted at 11-30 16:22
Instead of asking about it, go do it. Go to an open field and fly until you get the low battery RTH, then fly until you get the forced landing. This is your safety margin.

I would only my drone is currently being repaired for a 2nd time after first lens fogging fixed...now it is buzzing. So as you can see...asking here.