Excessive High Altitude Warnings on Mini 3 Pro

[Hermey]

I took a trip to the High Sierras region in California a few months ago, and flew both a DJI Mini 3 Pro and a DJI Mavic 3 at high altitudes, eg over 8000 or over 9000 feet elevation above sea level. With the Mavic 3, I got no "high altitude" warnings at all, but when I later looked at the flight records for the Mini 3, I saw that for these high altitude flights, each flight had MANY duplicate high altitude warnings, in a couple cases over 200 such warnings on one flight. On other flights, 56 or 78 high altitude warnings. I didn't see all these show up during the flight. I only saw the enormous list of warnings later on when looking at the flight record.

Doesn't this seem pointless? Wouldn't it make much more sense to just show one high altitude warning when the drone launches at a certain elevation over sea level, whatever high altitude is deemed to be, 6000 ft or 7000 ft, 8000 ft etc.

Does anyone know why there are so many high altitude warnings showing up?

 

[old man mavic]

@Hermey ,basically you are comparing to totally different drones ,with regards to their flying capabilities,with regards to height above sea level
those are based on the power the batteries can deliver ,and the thrust that the props can provide in the thinner air at altitude,to enable the drone to fly
it may seem like over kill, but the warnings are just that,advisory warnings, and are generated according to how the IMU, and ESC ,extrapolate the info being fed to them
this is not just a one off process, it is constantly happening during the entire flight, so every time the flight limits that have been programned into the flight controller ,are deemed to be outside of the parameters for what the drone is rated at,then the message will be displayed

 

[Hermey]

@Hermey ,basically you are comparing to totally different drones ,with regards to their flying capabilities,with regards to height above sea level
those are based on the power the batteries can deliver ,and the thrust that the props can provide in the thinner air at altitude,to enable the drone to fly
it may seem like over kill, but the warnings are just that,advisory warnings, and are generated according to how the IMU, and ESC ,extrapolate the info being fed to them
this is not just a one off process, it is constantly happening during the entire flight, so every time the flight limits that have been programned into the flight controller ,are deemed to be outside of the parameters for what the drone is rated at,then the message will be displayed

Thanks, it does make sense that the heavier drone would be able to handle higher altitudes more easily.

So you're saying that this is normal and to be expected, and it's not really a problem that all these warnings show up for the Mini 3? It wasn't actually a problem for me during the flight because I didn't see all these dozens of warnings.

I suppose there would be some level of "high altitude" at which even the most robust drone, such as a Mavic 3 or better, would have the same issue...maybe not at 9000 ft but maybe at 15,000 ft or 19,000 ft above sea level...say if someone flew at Everest Base Camp...

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

it does make sense that the heavier drone would be able to handle higher altitudes more easily.

Sorry but I would say "it doesn't" a heavier drone requires more thrust to sustain its weight.
I would bet the difference in the number of warnings lies in their AMSL ceilings, as specified in their manuals. At a guess this comes down to the design of the props, the power system and possibly the motors.

For the Mini 3 Pro that is
Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level
With Intelligent Flight Battery: 4,000 m (13,123 ft)
With Intelligent Flight Battery Plus: 3,000 m (9,843 ft)
With Intelligent Flight Battery and propeller guard: 1,500 m (4,921 ft).

For the Mavic 3
Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level 6,000m.

 

[old man mavic]

@Hermey its not really just about the drone being heavier ,when it comes to altitude ,thats more to do with its ability to fly in windy conditions
as i said in my first post #2 above its more to do with the power that a 4c battery can deliver to a more powerful motor with larger props ,compared to a 2c battery ,and less powerful motors turning smaller props ,that govern how well they fly at altitude ,because the props have to spin faster, as the air density drops the higher you go to acheive the same lifting force ,then there comes a point where they can no longer give enough lift to overcome gravity, and at some point the drone will just become unstable, and control will be lost,
so DJI have put warnings in place, that tell you when those conditions are near to being met ,and because they want the drone to continue flying ,then the warnings are very conservative in their presentation ,to give the pilot time, to decide whether or not, to heed the warnings ,and take the appropriate action

 

[WanderLost]

I took a trip to the High Sierras region in California a few months ago, and flew both a DJI Mini 3 Pro and a DJI Mavic 3 at high altitudes, eg over 8000 or over 9000 feet elevation above sea level. With the Mavic 3, I got no "high altitude" warnings at all, but when I later looked at the flight records for the Mini 3, I saw that for these high altitude flights, each flight had MANY duplicate high altitude warnings, in a couple cases over 200 such warnings on one flight. On other flights, 56 or 78 high altitude warnings. I didn't see all these show up during the flight. I only saw the enormous list of warnings later on when looking at the flight record.

Doesn't this seem pointless? Wouldn't it make much more sense to just show one high altitude warning when the drone launches at a certain elevation over sea level, whatever high altitude is deemed to be, 6000 ft or 7000 ft, 8000 ft etc.

Does anyone know why there are so many high altitude warnings showing up?

Maximum altitude limits are based on available power, air pressure and the maximum speed of the motors.
It's likely that the drone sets a warning when the motors reach maximum speed in the thinner air. If you are at the height limit, I could see the drone sending multiple warnings as the motors RPMs repeatedly hit the RPM limit.

 

[Hermey]

Maximum altitude limits are based on available power, air pressure and the maximum speed of the motors.
It's likely that the drone sets a warning when the motors reach maximum speed in the thinner air. If you are at the height limit, I could see the drone sending multiple warnings as the motors RPMs repeatedly hit the RPM limit.

Thanks... based on what Yorkshire Pud posted about the Mini 3 Pro height limit, I was generally not over 9000 ft elevation, but at one time during the trip, I was at around 9800 to 9900 feet elevation, so I suppose if I had the "intelligent flight battery plus" installed, instead of the standard battery, this might have put me close to the height limit, stated as 9846 ft.

I hadn't realized there was a significant difference in height limit based on the type of battery used. That is good to know.

 

[Hermey]

Sorry but I would say "it doesn't" a heavier drone requires more thrust to sustain its weight.
I would bet the difference lies in their AMSL ceilings, as specified in their manuals. At a guess this comes down to the design of the props, the power system and possibly the motors.

For the Mini 3 Pro that is
Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level
With Intelligent Flight Battery: 4,000 m (13,123 ft)
With Intelligent Flight Battery Plus: 3,000 m (9,843 ft)
With Intelligent Flight Battery and propeller guard: 1,500 m (4,921 ft).

For the Mavic 3
Max Service Ceiling Above Sea Level 6,000m.

It's really helpful to know the max heights over sea level for the 2 types of batteries. Thanks! I wouldn't have guessed the difference in height ceiling when using the 2 types of batteries would have been so great. I do at times get up to 9000 or even quite occasionally to 11,000 feet on hikes, but very rarely higher than 12,000. So it's good to know this info...

Wow propeller guards really dramatically lower the height ceiling.

 

[Yorkshire_Pud]

Wow propeller guards really dramatically lower the height ceiling.

Indeed, I am curious about the shape of the graph of AMSL ceiling against weight for the Mini 3? Lol.