Definitive answer for cold weather jello?

[AyeYo]

Yes, I realize this has been brought up before, but each time without real resolution. My Mavic has fairly predicable jello when operated under 32F. Whether pre-warmed or pre-cooled makes no difference, so it's not a acclimatization issue. The jello itself is inconsistent - one video can be crystal clear and the next can be horrendous. I noticed it was suggest by one person in a couple threads (and largely ignored by everyone else) that it is not the cold, but rather the overwhelming light from the snow causing shutter issues and the fix is an ND filter. This same discovery seems to have been made accidentally over on rcgroups when someone's serious jello issue was unintentionally fixed by the install of an ND filter (though everyone there was focused on gimbal and the weight of the filter, rather than the effect on shutter speed).

So, months after most of those other threads full of speculation and probably pointless RMAs, is there a definitive solution or at least a known cause for the cold weather jello?

 

[DodgeP]

There are serious issues for some with the gimbal and jello video that may or may not have been caused by the cold without an ND filter that has be resolved by an RMA. I think the problem exists with a board controller in the mavic that needs to be replaced because it's faulty. My Mavic suffers from this shaky/jello video and I have not flown below any temperature lower than 45. Someone suggested that I should not expect a newly purchased item to work flawlessly and my response to that comment was very unfriendly.

It's unfortunate that some of us are experiencing this video killing defect - especially since the waiting time is so long. I'm awaiting an RMA for my Mavic and I told them I'm not sending it in for repair, refund my money and I'll order another. This cycle will happen until I get a mavic that functions perfectly right out of the box.

 

[AyeYo]

My Mavic suffers from this shaky/jello video and I have not flown below any temperature lower than 45.

I think that's likely an unrelated issue and probably does required an RMA. I'm specifically talking about cold weather (sub-freezing) jello. My Mavic does not experience any jello above 25F. Most Mavics (maybe even the majority?) experience jello below 25F, so it's more of a design defect or limitation rather than an one-off production defect - therefore won't be fixed by receiving a new unit.

I also realize that DJI's official limit is 32F and anything below would be operating out of spec'd range, but many of us live or recreate in the mountains and deal with sub-32F temps nine months out of the year. As long as it flies, I'm not leaving it home. And I've done plenty of flights or parts of flights without jello, so fixing it must be possible.

 

[Filmscum]

It has barely gotten above freezing here since the day I got my Mavic in late November. All of my flights have been between minus 15F to mid 30F and I have seen no difference in how it performs. I have only seen jello once for about 4 seconds on a windy day after a fresh snowfall, with no ND filters. I received my Taco ND set around Christmas and have not had one instance of jello since in temps regularly below 0F. I realize that putting on NDs is covering up the problem and in a perfect world we shouldn't have to, but I'm getting great results with them and unless I'm only taking stills always have them on my Mavic. I've just gotten used to dealing with rolling shutter and wearing NDs since the days of the Phantom 1 and GoPro and all of my DJI birds (Inspire 1, P3P, Mavic) have dedicated filters.

 

[AyeYo]

So in your opinion and experience, the jello is a product of excessive light?

I think I need to go back and review my videos and see if there's a pattern in the jello between darker (mostly pine trees) shots and lighter (mostly snow) shots.

 

[Filmscum]

DJI craft are notorious for rolling shutter. That's why you see Taco, Polar Pro, etc in business. Now I will admit this jello just looks different than the jello I would get on my other craft or with a GoPro, but it's an altogether different little machine! I would be willing to bet if you get some ND's and keep your shutter speed at twice your frame rate your jello will most likely go away. I for one don't believe it's temperature related at all. As you said in your original post some of the guys over on RCG think it's a gimbal tuning issue and the filters are merely balancing it out. This could be true but if history has anything to say about it it's a high shutter speed issue.

 

[Roamer105]

So in your opinion and experience, the jello is a product of excessive light?

I think I need to go back and review my videos and see if there's a pattern in the jello between darker (mostly pine trees) shots and lighter (mostly snow) shots.

The issue is faster shutter speeds with lots of light. Usin an ND filter allows you to select slower shutter speed effectively "hiding" whatever jello in what ultimately amounts to "motion blur".


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[Bivalve]

Hmm... I had severe jello on some early flights, but then on the advice of several people here I updated my firmware and did a compass alignment. I considered aligning the sensors, but the Go4 says they are all almost perfectly aligned.
Before I could fly again, I had to go to Texas for training. I just got back, and have done three flights. But the weather has changed. Now it's in the forties. On three flights in a row, at all sorts of different speeds, no jello. I downloaded the files and using my MacBook Air, I played it on a 40" flatscreen. Aside from an occasional focus issue, (user error) the video was spot on.

Other factors: I've started paying attention to shutter speed. It was way, way too fast before. Could that affect it somehow? Beats me. Anyway, I seem to have resolved the jello problem, some how. If it gets cold again, I'll see if it comes back.

If you consider that this is just a tiny, tiny camera suspended by little more than a few rubberbands, the performance is quite good. Just remember, it is not some monster DSLR. It won't perform like one.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

Jello is without a doubt a product of/exacerbated by, extremely high shutter speeds, produced by the high light levels coming from snow. I have confirmed this using other equipment over the years. In the Mavic's case, this might be combined with more high frequency vibrations being transmitted through the slightly stiffer components due to low temperature.

I say "might" because I am not sure if the rubber performance has been tested and published by DJI or anyone else for that matter, but it is a common reaction to cold for any type of rubber component to become stiffer with lower temperatures.

That said, the solution is ND filters because they slow the shutter significantly, thereby eliminating the vibration harmonic producing it, regardless of it's cause.

 

[Filmscum]

Hmm... I had severe jello on some early flights, but then on the advice of several people here I updated my firmware and did a compass alignment. I considered aligning the sensors, but the Go4 says they are all almost perfectly aligned.
Before I could fly again, I had to go to Texas for training. I just got back, and have done three flights. But the weather has changed. Now it's in the forties. On three flights in a row, at all sorts of different speeds, no jello. I downloaded the files and using my MacBook Air, I played it on a 40" flatscreen. Aside from an occasional focus issue, (user error) the video was spot on.

Other factors: I've started paying attention to shutter speed. It was way, way too fast before. Could that affect it somehow? Beats me. Anyway, I seem to have resolved the jello problem, some how. If it gets cold again, I'll see if it comes back.

If you consider that this is just a tiny, tiny camera suspended by little more than a few rubberbands, the performance is quite good. Just remember, it is not some monster DSLR. It won't perform like one.

You said it right there, SHUTTER SPEED. I'm not quite sure what the disconnect is here, we've been dealing with rolling shutter for years now on every single DJI craft. Best rule of thumb have your shutter speed be no more than twice your frame rate. Use ND filters to accomplish this. End of story.

 

[dsops]

I have always gimbal vibration under 5 Celsius when the propellers are on, even before flying, after under one minute after staring motors, and the vibrations stop one minute after stopping motors. This does not happen over 10 Celsius. Tested in the night also. For me it is clear the cold air drive by the propellers to the gimbal is my problem. Maybe there are other problems to different birds.

 

[Big Fil]

The whole gimbal is hanging from 4 little rubber bands which help isolate the assembly. It may be something as simple as the the elasticity of that rubber is changing at low temps which means less mechanical filtering of high frequency vibrations.

 

[dsops]

5 degrees celsius cannot be considered a very low temperature, but yes, it can be a logic explanation. If so, why there are a lot of mavic users flying to extreme low temperatures without problems? Different gimbal shock absorber lots? If yes, this is a serious issue.