Cold Battery

[Jim Siebel]

Here in northern Illinois, it's been cold, but I wanted to try out my new Mavic.
After it had cooled down in the car for a couple hours, I took it for a POI flight around my house. I almost immediately got a critical warning message stating that my battery was too cold for flight. I think it said 15 deg c and to warm it to 25 deg c.
Does that mean I can only fly in summer?
My solution was to put the flymore case in a cooler with a hand warmer. Keeps everything toasty.

 

[Ghordun]

I believe the manual says to turn on the mavic and allow to warm up for 2 minutes before exposing to cold temperature. Can't remember the recommended temperature operating range off top of my head.


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[No1much]

@Jim Siebel,
I'm also in northern IL, and have gotten no such warning, probably because I've kept my Mavic inside the house or my backpack, which I bring inside with me, before flying it outside.

The battery presumably never gets the chance to cool down far enough for the temperature to become a problem. Healthydrones says the lowest my battery's ever gotten is 67F, even flying in light snow.

Also, keeping your battery in your pocket close to you might help- it's where I keep my secondary battery when flying with the first one. Maybe that's leeping it warm.

Regarding temperature range, I've never flown it below 20F that I know of, and the machine seems to function better in 40F range.

 

[Cyberpower678]

So I've flown the drone down to -10 C, and it flies fine, with the battery retaining a nice 27 C. If you keep the battery working, it will stay warm, but not if it's been cooled by the outside temperature.

 

[WolfgangStiller]

I have flown down to 8F with no issues but you do have to keep your battery warm in advance of the flight (and give the Mavic time to get used to the cold--at least for my Mavic--otherwise the I have video jitter/jello issues).

 

[thehey]

Here in northern Illinois, it's been cold, but I wanted to try out my new Mavic.
After it had cooled down in the car for a couple hours, I took it for a POI flight around my house. I almost immediately got a critical warning message stating that my battery was too cold for flight. I think it said 15 deg c and to warm it to 25 deg c.
Does that mean I can only fly in summer?
My solution was to put the flymore case in a cooler with a hand warmer. Keeps everything toasty.

You can definitely fly it in the winter, but the trick is to keep the battery warm, while allowing the mavic to cool (to avoid the video jitter/jello issues mentioned by WolfgangStiller). Simple solution is take the battery off the mavic and keep it warm in a pocket or inside until you're ready to fly. I've flown at -20˚C using this method and it works great.