DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

DJI Mini 3 Pro is very hot!

Thanks to everyone for the many replies. I'd like your posts but I don't know how!

It is good to know the heating 'issue' is not just mine.
Cheers "ianmeg" - Yes, your initial comment provoked some good comments and points, but unfortunately the heat problem will still be there.
 
'When downloading software updates etc and the drone isn’t flying, I hold the drone and move it back and forth thru the air. I find this movement minimises the heat buildup.
 
I bought my Mini 3 Pro with an understanding about how hot it gets when sitting on a table, but it still surprises me. It seems to me that when it's sitting idle with the motors off and not recording video there shouldn't be all that much current drain. None of my cameras get noticeably warm while sitting around turned on, so it's puzzling to me why the Mini 3 Pro gets so hot that it shuts itself off.

I still love it, though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MS Coast
@EssenYVR in reply to your post #29 above
i would have thought it was pretty obvious why the Mini 3 pro gets really hot when its not flying,
the first main reason is the lack of any internal fan to remove heat ,the second reason is the size of the drone, which reduces the surface area to dissipate heat
any component that has a processor in it will get warm, when the processor is working ,and the processor in the Mini 3 pro is working the moment the drone is switched on ,
regardless of whether or not the motors are running
once in flight then a combination of movement and the props turning are what reduces the heat build up
there is an upside to the internal heat ,and that comes in winter conditions ,when it helps to keep the battery temps in a good place as there performance suffers in very cold environments
 
No cooling fan to dissipate heat. It was eliminated to help keep the weight below 250 grams.
@EssenYVRi would have thought it was pretty obvious why the Mini 3 pro gets really hot when its not flying,
the first main reason is the lack of any internal fan to remove heat ,the second reason is the size of the drone, which reduces the surface area to dissipate heat
My point is that when the drone is not flying and it's not recording then it's not doing any more work than the fanless cameras I have that are smaller and record the same spec of video without overheating. So it's a bit of a mystery to me why it gets so hot just sitting there.

Flying or recording - sure, I get it. At rest? Not so much.

It's not enough of a mystery to do anything about it - but, to me, a curiosity nonetheless.

Maybe it's just be that the camera doesn't have the same weight limitations and so it's able to use metal heat sinks to more efficiently conduct heat away from the processing chip(s) to the outer skin of the camera where it can be dissipated.
 
Maybe it's just be that the camera doesn't have the same weight limitations and so it's able to use metal heat sinks to more efficiently conduct heat away from the processing chip(s) to the outer skin of the camera where it can be dissipated.

That and the fact that there's more processor power in the drone - similar requirements for photography with all the flight and communications functions, too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Torque
That and the fact that there's more processor power in the drone - similar requirements for photography with all the flight and communications functions, too.
Sure, but all that processing power isn't being utilized when the drone is just sitting there. Case in point: all those fans on the fancy high-powered GPU in your desktop computer are idle until you start doing something that actually utilizes it. A chip doesn't heat up unless it's doing work.

My cameras get warm when they're recording, which requires them to encode full resolution video in real time - not when they're just sitting there displaying what's in front of them on the low resolution LCD monitor.

I just don't buy the argument that potential processing power and the ability to fly have anything to do with the amount of power the drone is consuming when it's idle.

Mind you, there must be some video encoding going on in order to stream the low-resolution view to the controller, so there's that, I guess. But it's got to be a small fraction of the work needed to encode and write the full-resolution stream to the memory card while simultaneously performing all the work needed to run the motors and use sensor feedback to maintain stable flight.
 
Sure, but all that processing power isn't being utilized when the drone is just sitting there. Case in point: all those fans on the fancy high-powered GPU in your desktop computer are idle until you start doing something that actually utilizes it. A chip doesn't heat up unless it's doing work.

My cameras get warm when they're recording, which requires them to encode full resolution video in real time - not when they're just sitting there displaying what's in front of them on the low resolution LCD monitor.

I just don't buy the argument that potential processing power and the ability to fly have anything to do with the amount of power the drone is consuming when it's idle.
Hmm. The drone is definitely encoding and transmitting video to the controller while just sitting there. That's different from a camera. Perhaps that's enough to account for the apparently greater heat generation compared to the camera.

Regarding flight ability, there are flight-associated components in the drone that are powered on even if the motors aren't active. Another small? difference.

Is the drone also encoding full resolution video while idle and just not recording it? Or does the hi-res encoding begin only when the record control is activated?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Torque
Hmm. The drone is definitely encoding and transmitting video to the controller while just sitting there. That's different from a camera. Perhaps that's enough to account for the apparently greater heat generation compared to the camera.
^^This.

Keep in mind that 100% of all processing turns into heat. Capturing, compressing, and encoding video is compute intensive.

Also, don't forget the drone is continuously transmitting RF, and the output stage is not 100% efficient. At 26dBm, that's gonna throw off a few kcal too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: EssenYVR
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,594
Messages
1,554,211
Members
159,599
Latest member
jordy