is it possible for Dji to start selling bright-colored propellers soon as visibility is an issue in sky, this would help us to keep VLOS of our drones without upsetting the DJI care warranty . i have seen master airscrew blades which are really strong in color, could you not think of this in the future as I think it would be a sell-out around the world

If bright colours were the solution to visibility then colouring the drone would be better. My mini is covered in bright orange tape, B&Q 2" insulation tape, and disappears just as quickly as my naked, grey Mini 2.

https://soppec-inc.com/en/forest ... stry-marking-paints

Hi, leca63. Thank you for reaching out and sharing your experience. We'd like you to know that we appreciate your valuable suggestions. We will forward your concern to our related department. All significant suggestions will be implemented after the evaluation of our relevant team. Thank you for your understanding and support.

You can buy coloured blade on Ebay for as little as $10 Red, Blue, Red and Blue.. There is also an option for three blade rotor for the Mini 2...

Personally I would like to try the CF blades...

Burt37 Posted at 5-7 03:23
You can buy coloured blade on Ebay for as little as $10 Red, Blue, Red and Blue.. There is also an option for three blade rotor for the Mini 2...

Personally I would like to try the CF blades...

I already have master airscrew blades not fitted because of warranty care will be rendered void if used , mainly I'm just trying to convince DJI to come out with them I can anyways hope

leca63 Posted at 5-7 04:09
I already have master airscrew blades not fitted because of warranty care will be rendered void if used , mainly I'm just trying to convince DJI to come out with them I can anyways hope

I've used Master Air Screw props on all of my drones.  They are much better made and tend to last much longer than OEM.  I've looked in the logs and it doesn't show if you are using OEM or MAS props.  So how will DJI know what props are used unless you send in a crashed drone with the MAS props installed.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 5-7 04:29
I've used Master Air Screw props on all of my drones.  They are much better made and tend to last much longer than OEM.  I've looked in the logs and it doesn't show if you are using OEM or MAS props.  So how will DJI know what props are used unless you send in a crashed drone with the MAS props installed.

Your right ,did they put any strain on the motors , I have ask DJI direct by email if there was any possibility of using bright colours on their blades to help

leca63 Posted at 5-7 04:39
Your right ,did they put any strain on the motors , I have ask DJI direct by email if there was any possibility of using bright colours on their blades to help

Per the logs no strain on the motors using the MAS props.  Hopefully, for you and others, DJI will eventually manufacture colored props but I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting on them to do so.  

Burt37 Posted at 5-7 03:23
You can buy coloured blade on Ebay for as little as $10 Red, Blue, Red and Blue.. There is also an option for three blade rotor for the Mini 2...

Personally I would like to try the CF blades...

Be careful of bayed pattern/after-market props, I doubt they are well balanced.
In addition their quality maybe appalling. Some arrived with a mavic mini and they were tight on the supplied screws.

DowntownRDB Posted at 5-7 04:29
I've used Master Air Screw props on all of my drones.  They are much better made and tend to last much longer than OEM.  I've looked in the logs and it doesn't show if you are using OEM or MAS props.  So how will DJI know what props are used unless you send in a crashed drone with the MAS props installed.

It would be interesting to note whether or not the information in the DAT is sufficient, or perhaps accurate enough, to determine whether or not a particular prop was DJI or made by someone else.

Are your MAS props coloured? If so, do you think they aid visibility in actual flight?

Guys, I think you are taking the entire matter a bit too seriously... We are dealing with toys here, not equipment to cure cancer... Warranty, blade weight, quality, strain on the motor...

I'm glad we are not dealing with hospital equipment here...

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-7 07:26
Be careful of bayed pattern/after-market props, I doubt they are well balanced.
In addition their quality maybe appalling. Some arrived with a mavic mini and they were tight on the supplied screws.

Coming from flying helis for the past 27 years, I do have the scale and I do also check them for tracking as well...(not that really matter much on a fix pitch blade)  I'm using the OEM screws as Mini 3, Mini 2 and Mini are all different...

I also have CF and three blades rotors mounts on order...

Burt37 Posted at 5-7 11:51
Coming from flying helis for the past 27 years, I do have the scale and I do also check them for tracking as well...(not that really matter much on a fix pitch blade)  I'm using the OEM screws as Mini 3, Mini 2 and Mini are all different...

I also have CF and three blades rotors mounts on order...

The distribution of the weight also matters.
From memory Mini 3 props can exceed 10,000rpm and, if the tip of the blade is 6cm from the centre of the motor, at 10,000rpm the blade tip is experiencing  almost 170g i.e. a 1 gramme weight stuck on the blade tip would weigh 170 grammes in terms of the centrifugal force it exerts on the bearings.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-7 18:46
The distribution of the weight also matters.
From memory Mini 3 props can exceed 10,000rpm and, if the tip of the blade is 6cm from the centre of the motor, at 10,000rpm the blade tip is experiencing  almost 170g i.e. a 1 gramme weight stuck on the blade tip would weigh 170 grammes in terms of the centrifugal force it exerts on the bearings.

Once the blades are properly balanced and matched, the weight doesn't really matter... You can have 100kg at the end of each blade and it would be zero centrifugal force on the rotor bearings...

Burt37 Posted at 5-7 23:32
Once the blades are properly balanced and matched, the weight doesn't really matter... You can have 100kg at the end of each blade and it would be zero centrifugal force on the rotor bearings...

Agreed.
But you said earlier "I do have the scale" which I take to mean you weigh them.
I was and am pointing out that weight alone is not the sole consideration when dealing with rotating 'balanced' objects.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-7 07:32
It would be interesting to note whether or not the information in the DAT is sufficient, or perhaps accurate enough, to determine whether or not a particular prop was DJI or made by someone else.

Are your MAS props coloured? If so, do you think they aid visibility in actual flight?

All my MAS props are colored and I think they look better than OEM props when the drone is nearby.   However, they do not help to see the drone at a distance any better in my opinion.  I've tried various color skins and they help to a certain extent but not tremendously.  The red skin helped to see it best against a blue sky.  

I have a set of orange MAS props but haven't used them yet.

I also have a metallic bright orange skin on the aircraft.

Up to about 30 metres away you can see the skin colour, but beyond that not really.

What I noticed yesterday, though, was that the metallic finish of the skin actually does help the drone to glint in the sunlight. At one point I was flying with the drone visible, but as soon as I stopped and the drone pitch altered the aircraft disappeared. A slight tap on any stick in any direction, however, caused the drone to reflect the sun and be very easily spotted - this was at about 300m distance against broken cloudy sky.

So my conclusion is that colour on the aircraft helps when fairly close, props disappear when spinning anyway, but reflective skins do help with visibility even at a distance.

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-8 02:15
Agreed.
But you said earlier "I do have the scale" which I take to mean you weigh them.
I was and am pointing out that weight alone is not the sole consideration when dealing with rotating 'balanced' objects.

CORRECT. I weight them first. If they are of different weight, then I also need to balance them..

It is still only one job. They are not two separate. Balancing the blade without checking their weight first will not tell you how much weight to add or remove to balance the blade... If the blade have different weight, normally common on wooden blade, then you balance them... CF and plastic blade normally are pretty accurate and rarely need balancing (but you still need to check the weight to make a matching pair), and they may have tracking issues, especially the plastic small one, in which case a heat gun or an oven is your friend...

With the size of the Mini 3 blade, I don't really think this much, unless I'm getting harmonic distortion in the video...

Burt37 Posted at 5-8 12:01
CORRECT. I weight them first. If they are of different weight, then I also need to balance them..

It is still only one job. They are not two separate. Balancing the blade without checking their weight first will not tell you how much weight to add or remove to balance the blade... If the blade have different weight, normally common on wooden blade, then you balance them... CF and plastic blade normally are pretty accurate and rarely need balancing (but you still need to check the weight to make a matching pair), and they may have tracking issues, especially the plastic small one, in which case a heat gun or an oven is your friend...

What do you mean by "tracking"? For what would you use heat?

Sean-bumble-bee Posted at 5-8 12:17
What do you mean by "tracking"? For what would you use heat?

Tracking blades are blades that are rotating perfectly on the same plane. If they don't track on the same plane you are constantly adjusting the swashplate to compensate for the different lift...

Now you don't have a swashplate on the DJI but the harmonic distortion that two blade rotating not on the same track does create, it's the same. So you use heat to adjust the plastic blade (normally the lower one) to make it match the higher one.. In helicopert we have proper adjustments for this, but on a fix picth plastic blade you can use heat...

Again with these DJI toys is not really an issue worth considering, but if you want to learn more about configuring an heli or a drone to fly properly, there are plenty of books and also the biggest Heli forum...

https://www.helifreak.com/

This is a video about tracking the blades...



Like I said, the only time I would consider tracking the DJI blade is if I was getting the harmonic distortion in the video...

Yes, if your ceiling fan wobbles it's likely to be bad tracking.   

im going to agree with the "doesn't make much visible difference" crowd.  i have mas props for all of my out of warranty drones and while they look good on the ground, after the drone gets up and going you can't really tell any difference.  dji isn't going to do this because it isn't effective and nobody would buy them if they were more expensive.  not sure about uk/eu (i would expect it to be more stringent) but in the usa, your warranty is never automatically voided and it certainly cannot be void if props have nothing to do with your warranty claim.  the car dealership told me if i don't come back to them and get the oem expensive dunlop tires when these tires go bald, the warranty on my car would be void.  i laughed in their face.  you're not likely to crash because you are using mas props even though dji does not recommend them.