Do you fly in rain?

Red_Raven · Apr 8, 2017

I flied my phantom 3 in quite amount of rain if I had to. But Ive not done it on mavic yet.

Do you fly it when raining?

Egika · Apr 8, 2017

tmoerel · Apr 8, 2017

The props suck down a lot of air towards the motors. The motors are OPEN ad they need the airflow to cool. When it rains this causes the raindrops to be sucked THROUGH your motors.

I hope you know that Electricity + Water + Heat leads to electric shorts. And when a motor shorts out and stops spinning well..... your drone will start spinning.... usually in a fast downwards spiral. This might result in what is called a RUD in the rocket world.

RUD = Rapid Unschedule Disassembly

So you might have had some luck flying in the rain.....but you are not improving your odds!

Red_Raven · Apr 8, 2017

tmoerel said:
The props suck down a lot of air towards the motors. The motors are OPEN ad they need the airflow to cool. When it rains this causes the raindrops to be sucked THROUGH your motors.!

Shouldn't this also apply to dirt/dust? That would be a problem, right?

tmoerel · Apr 8, 2017

svavar said:
Shouldn't this also apply to dirt/dust? That would be a problem, right?

Dirt and dust are not ideal either but most particles will blow through the motor without doing damage. Cleaning your motors with an air blower at regular intervals can clean most of the settled dust out. Avoiding to take off from dusty areas is another good tip. Use a take-off/landing pad to keep things clean.

Also keep in mind that dust particles are much much much smaller than raindrops.

mpa · Apr 8, 2017

tmoerel said:
The props suck down a lot of air towards the motors. The motors are OPEN ad they need the airflow to cool. When it rains this causes the raindrops to be sucked THROUGH your motors.

I hope you know that Electricity + Water + Heat leads to electric shorts. And when a motor shorts out and stops spinning well..... your drone will start spinning.... usually in a fast downwards spiral. This might result in what is called a RUD in the rocket world.

RUD = Rapid Unschedule Disassembly

So you might have had some luck flying in the rain.....but you are not improving your odds!

Im 100 % certain the motors will run if fully submerged in water. the winding are insulated otherwise the thing wouldn't work as a motor, same with dust and all other foreign matter that for certain enter the motor daily. The only issue i see is rust that will seize up your motor bearings.

Egika · Apr 8, 2017

Of course the windings are insulated - but not the contacts. While it can withstand a few drops for sure, this whole toy don't have any IP rating for water.
Luckily rain water usually is pretty pure and hardly conducting at all (depending on the amount of pollution in the air).
Anyway - I just would not risk burning this expensive toy from water damage...

mpa · Apr 8, 2017

Egika said:
Of course the windings are insulated - but not the contacts. While it can withstand a few drops for sure, this whole toy don't have any IP rating for water.
Luckily rain water usually is pretty pure and hardly conducting at all (depending on the amount of pollution in the air).
Anyway - I just would not risk burning this expensive toy from water damage...

The motors are the least of your worries, i think the sensors and circuit boards are more at risk from rain. in ether case i wouldnt get anywhere near rain with my mavic

Johnmcl7 · Apr 8, 2017

No, definitely not - I get the Mavic down straight away if there's any hint of rain. I've read some articles that claim the Mavic is pretty durable to moisture but there's also internal moisture sensors I believe, whatever way it's not worth the risk.

John

Lapeer20m · Apr 8, 2017

Watching the torture test mavic videos, they pretty much couldn't kill it with anything except water.

Trauma, fire, impact, damaged unbalanced props, partially folded arms....none of these caused it to fail.

Water killed the circuitry it in short order.

rydfree · Apr 8, 2017

If moisture gets on the vision or OA sensors it could cause immediate issues with flight so I would at least turn those off . The one time it started to sprinkle on my Mavic I performed a immediate tactical landing . It looked something like this .....

Cyberpower678 · Apr 8, 2017

Egika said:
Of course the windings are insulated - but not the contacts. While it can withstand a few drops for sure, this whole toy don't have any IP rating for water.
Luckily rain water usually is pretty pure and hardly conducting at all (depending on the amount of pollution in the air).
Anyway - I just would not risk burning this expensive toy from water damage...

No they are not insulated. These are inductive coils whose sole purpose is to generate a magnetic field that will make the motors spin. They work underwater too, to an extent though they will draw mute current since there will be current going through ionized water. Pure water however will not affect the motors much.

kidroc · May 25, 2018

lrsn · May 26, 2018

It looked like a normal landing for a MD500D Helicopter unless you were a very low time helicopter pilot. I've owned quite a few HU360/MD500 Series Helicopters and have got tens of thousands of landings in those helicopters. By the way. I've never heard of a MD400 Helicopter.

lrsn · May 26, 2018

Deleted

Huge Bama Fan · May 28, 2018

I never ever ever fly in the rain or fog. I do fly around water a lot so I keep a desiccant pack in my case with the drone.

wytnyt · May 28, 2018

mpa said:
Im 100 % certain the motors will run if fully submerged in water. the winding are insulated otherwise the thing wouldn't work as a motor, same with dust and all other foreign matter that for certain enter the motor daily. The only issue i see is rust that will seize up your motor bearings.

rydfree · Jun 3, 2018

lrsn said:
It looked like a normal landing for a MD500D Helicopter unless you were a very low time helicopter pilot. I've owned quite a few HU360/MD500 Series Helicopters and have got tens of thousands of landings in those helicopters. By the way. I've never heard of a MD400 Helicopter.

Yeah maybe the person that uploaded the video owned one of the scale MD RC helis in the .400 size . I have one of those and it is listed as a MD400 ,LOL . I've rarely witnessed a civilian heli land that quick but I saw many such military pilots do so when I lived near Fort Rucker back in the day . Most civilian pilots I see loiter a bit to check for power line clearance etc before touching down .

On another note since this thread showed up again . I have flown the Mavic in the rain several times since this thread with no ill effects . This video was shortly after I posted here in fact . The gaps around the battery and the power button are the weakest points to let in water so if you plan to stay up for any length of time I would at least tape those .

Huge Bama Fan · Jun 3, 2018

rydfree said:
Yeah maybe the person that uploaded the video owned one of the scale MD RC helis in the .400 size . I have one of those and it is listed as a MD400 ,LOL . I've rarely witnessed a civilian heli land that quick but I saw many such military pilots do so when I lived near Fort Rucker back in the day . Most civilian pilots I see loiter a bit to check for power line clearance etc before touching down .

On another note since this thread showed up again . I have flown the Mavic in the rain several times since this thread with no ill effects . This video was shortly after I posted here in fact . The gaps around the battery and the power button are the weakest points to let in water so if you plan to stay up for any length of time I would at least tape those .

I would be concerned about the rain going in the front where the fan pulls in air behind the gimbal