Hi all
With pretty chilly weather in the UK and super-cold weather in the US midwest, I thought a quick reminder on flying in cold weather would be good.  Especially as I got such great footage this morning!  


Cheers,
Ian in London

Thanks Ian , one thing I would say make sure to display battery voltage on telemetry screen, with M2 you can display the lowest voltage cell so you will be able to keep an eye on what is the lowest cell voltage on your battery this will give you an indication as to how your battery is preforming, it’s a tiny box displayed in top right of your screen and it take up very little real estate on your screen. You will need to allow this in app.

It's not just the batteries. The silicon chips themselves have an operating range.  DJI are using consumer grade parts.  

There is an airflow through the craft for cooling the PCB/MCU etc. So whilst the battery is in the airframe, insulated a bit and heating up there is still cooling to the PCB.  
It is not just the main MCU but other silicon chips and componants that will be getting cold and could become unreliable.  At which point you could loose control in a somewhat random way

Hi, thanks for sharing this video. We would recommend flying your drone in moderate weather conditions with temperatures between -10° to 40° C to avoid the incident. Thank you for understanding and you may have a safe flight always!

Nice video and cool footage!

DJI Tony Posted at 1-31 10:47
Hi, thanks for sharing this video. We would recommend flying your drone in moderate weather conditions with temperatures between -10° to 40° C to avoid the incident. Thank you for understanding and you may have a safe flight always!

For us Americans that's 14-104 degrees.

Ex Machina Posted at 1-31 11:01
For us Americans that's 14-104 degrees.

Aw come on :   I said 15 - 100 degrees... wasn't a bad conversion!

Wellsi Posted at 1-31 11:05
Aw come on :   I said 15 - 100 degrees... wasn't a bad conversion!

Heh, sorry, figured not everyone would end up watching the video but might see DJI Tony's response.

Since you have already taken the video, I will say that those trees in the beginning should be in a painting in a museum, really nice.  Thanks for sharing.

JAgraphics Posted at 1-31 09:49
It's not just the batteries. The silicon chips themselves have an operating range.  DJI are using consumer grade parts.  

There is an airflow through the craft for cooling the PCB/MCU etc. So whilst the battery is in the airframe, insulated a bit and heating up there is still cooling to the PCB.  

Huh, this is surprise to me. I always though, electronics "likes" cold... like becoming more conductive.... maybe even superconductive when temperature is low enough like some cryo chambers or something.
Battery would be the only part that does not like cold. But, obviously i was wrong.

Ex Machina Posted at 1-31 11:14
Heh, sorry, figured not everyone would end up watching the video but might see DJI Tony's response.

Ha! I hadn't seen his response   Fair Play

HH1 Posted at 1-31 11:43
Since you have already taken the video, I will say that those trees in the beginning should be in a painting in a museum, really nice.  Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for that!  Was pretty happy with the pictures and footage I got today.... Cheers, ian

hallmark007 Posted at 1-31 09:17
Thanks Ian , one thing I would say make sure to display battery voltage on telemetry screen, with M2 you can display the lowest voltage cell so you will be able to keep an eye on what is the lowest cell voltage on your battery this will give you an indication as to how your battery is preforming, it’s a tiny box displayed in top right of your screen and it take up very little real estate on your screen. You will need to allow this in app.
[view_image]

Thanks for this! Had no idea... I'll check that out tomorrow and get that enabled.  
Cheers, Ian

JAgraphics Posted at 1-31 09:49
It's not just the batteries. The silicon chips themselves have an operating range.  DJI are using consumer grade parts.  

There is an airflow through the craft for cooling the PCB/MCU etc. So whilst the battery is in the airframe, insulated a bit and heating up there is still cooling to the PCB.  

I did wonder about this, but the cooling fans kick in so quickly on a normal day, I figured you'd really have to be going for a long flight in insanely cold conditions before the PCB starts suffering...  Anyway, hopefully the unit is good for the spec'd temp range, and if you're flying colder than -10'c or 14'f, then keep it short.

Cheers
Ian

Wellsi Posted at 1-31 12:27
Thanks for this! Had no idea... I'll check that out tomorrow and get that enabled.  
Cheers, Ian

No problem after take off on 100% batt voltage should be 4.20 if it goes below 3.70 you need to be landing NOW.

Sometimes batteries will read 100% but the best indicator it’s a 100% is it shows once you take off (not on the ground) it should show 4.20. As far as I know you can also set one of your buttons to show all voltages when turning off and on, this is good practice, but I have found checking the low indicator is sufficient .

I wouldn’t worry about flying in extrem cold as long as battery is happy and the props aren’t freezing.  I would say if flying in temps lower than -10F you will suffer more than the drone.  

  Some parts of the us are experiencing -56F I’m sure that low even the enterprise batteries with their heaters couldn’t keep up.  But I’m sure you would suffer entire flight as well.

eYeSkYeYe Posted at 1-31 12:22
Huh, this is surprise to me. I always though, electronics "likes" cold... like becoming more conductive.... maybe even superconductive when temperature is low enough like some cryo chambers or something.
Battery would be the only part that does not like cold. But, obviously i was wrong.

No electronics don't like the cold.  They operate in a very narrow  temperature range.  There are consumer, industrial and military and Rad hardened  spec temperature ranges.   The get more expensive as you go.   Most electronics uses consumer grade with a -10 to +40 range.   

Super conductive computers use VERY specialised chips  and are VERY expensive.

It is not just the chips but things like electrolytic capacitors.  Also resistors can be affected by temperature.

So flying inthe cold can affect more than the batteries.  Actually the dJI batteries do have some temperature control so whilst the will have a shorter cycle they will porbabley be the lest affected item.

Nicely done - thanks again for sharing!

Great video! Thanks for sharing!

davidmartingraf Posted at 2-1 02:56
Nicely done - thanks again for sharing!

Thanks David