Does turning off lights increase flight time?

[Oglo]

I'm doing some very remote Australian outback flying on a 100,000+ acre sheep station. We're looking for where the sheep are before sending out bikes & dogs to herd them back in. So I'm trying to get absolute maximum flight times.
Anyone have any accurate figures (not opinions) on with/without lights on?
Cheers

 

[Meta4]

I'm doing some very remote Australian outback flying on a 100,000+ acre sheep station. We're looking for where the sheep are before sending out bikes & dogs to herd them back in. So I'm trying to get absolute maximum flight times.
Anyone have any accurate figures (not opinions) on with/without lights on?

A couple of tiny LEDs against 4 high current motors? It wouldn't make enough difference to be able to measure.

 

[WithTheBirds]

The consideration here is not unlike what chance you may have of measuring any change in fuel milage with vs without your head lights turned on. As to actual figures? Unable to measure absent laboratory test conditions.

Your efforts may be better applied to ascertaining the optimum flight speed for maximum distance on a battery charge. You will find it is pretty much bang on 50km/hr (Mavic 2). Not theory- actual DJI quoted specifications.

Where are you? The biggest property I have ever been on is in Toompine and I know there are many bigger. Multiple homesteads and shearing sheds- would take days to explore. They need helicopters and light aeroplanes to find their stock.

 

[Phantomrain.org]

I'm doing some very remote Australian outback flying on a 100,000+ acre sheep station. We're looking for where the sheep are before sending out bikes & dogs to herd them back in. So I'm trying to get absolute maximum flight times.
Anyone have any accurate figures (not opinions) on with/without lights on?
Cheers

Two things to consider: Most important finding some Remote Landing Spots, Critical in this type of creative event and understanding that the changing of the wind is going to be your biggest threat , thus finding the Remote Landing spots should be of some focus as well as some of the more obvious notes mentioned.


Phantomrain.org
Cutting edge gear for your Mavic
Coal

 

[RayOZ]

I think your biggest issue would be wind. It does cut down on flight time when it's windy.
As Phantomrain mentioned, maybe place some landing spots a couple of kms apart, close to tracks that you can land just in case. A flat block of wood or something, that you can quickly get to.

 

[ZX14-R]

More the Temp and Wind conditions would affect flight time then LED lights.

 

[Karl D]

I read somewhere you will save about 3 seconds turning the lights off.

 

[GB1Yorkshire1]

I would approach the problem from a different angle.... Sheep flock together so place a GPS locator on one and you have your flock. You can use the drone to verify A usable device is already available for hunting dogs!

 

[Dan C]

I read somewhere you will save about 3 seconds turning the lights off.

On the other hand...

Going into options and turning off all sensors -- anything you don't need. GPS has to stay on I reckon, but turn off everything else.

OP could run a test by setting up an Orbit around his house, and fly the drone to forced RTH.

Do it a few times with, and without stuff turned on, and he'd have his answer.

 

[Meta4]

Going into options and turning off all sensors -- anything you don't need. GPS has to stay on I reckon, but turn off everything else.

It still wouldn't make any measurable difference, the sensors and LEDs run on milliamps and the motors draw actual amps.
The motors are what's really burning the battery.

 

[TineT]

For absolute longest flight times you'll benefit most from keeping the battery warm. Yes, that's right... 40-45 deg Centigrade is where you want to keep it in order to extract most energy from the battery itself. To do that it's best to charge-up just before flying and/or warm up the batt itself to approx 38 degC just before taking off.

 

[dave canada]

glad to hear someone out there doing similar work with a drone , we are a;ways going to have issues with distance and batteries as far as i can see good hunting !!!

 

[WithTheBirds]

I would approach the problem from a different angle.... Sheep flock together so place a GPS locator on one and you have your flock. You can use the drone to verify A usable device is already available for hunting dogs!

So if you had your own sheep station you wouldn’t use your drone?

Your thinking outside the wrong box.

Your idea is next to useless for the OP- he won’t have reliable cellular connection for the GPS locators to work- assuming they could be reliably attached to a sheep.

 

[GB1Yorkshire1]

I believe that you misread my suggestion, it wasn’t don’t use the drone but use the GPS to locate one, then fly the drone to confirm that the flock is together. If you fly randomly over a large area you will get random results.
Another thought is that the lightweight cell chargers may be able to provide additional power if plugged into the input of the drone (just a thought and I haven’t tried it)

 

[Dan C]

Pilots,

I'm going to revisit my suggestion about turning off sensors etcetera.

The response I got was that the motors are the primary energy hog, and everything else is insignificant in comparison.

I'm going to challenge that argument. While doing something as simple as a firmware update, my Mavic Air gets quite warm, even hot, and consumes a rather significant amount of battery. The motors never start (beyond a little twitching, as they do), let alone fly.

That heat generation is a clear indication of substantial power consumption. The LED lights may be insignificant, but the sensors, especially the downward sensors which are, I believe, radiating a signal, plus the electronic load in doing all the crunching to figure out if something is too close...

I'm not saying he's going to double his range, but the gains aren't nothing either.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Pilots,

I'm going to revisit my suggestion about turning off sensors etcetera.

The response I got was that the motors are the primary energy hog, and everything else is insignificant in comparison.

I'm going to challenge that argument. While doing something as simple as a firmware update, my Mavic Air gets quite warm, even hot, and consumes a rather significant amount of battery. The motors never start (beyond a little twitching, as they do), let alone fly.

That heat generation is a clear indication of substantial power consumption. The LED lights may be insignificant, but the sensors, especially the downward sensors which are, I believe, radiating a signal, plus the electronic load in doing all the crunching to figure out if something is too close...

I'm not saying he's going to double his range, but the gains aren't nothing either.

The propulsion system obviously presents the highest load to the battery- it seems you dispute that fact.

It is hard to understand your argument that sitting idle the Mavic is drawing significant power- irrelevant given it is something that the user has no control over.

Turning off the sensors will have a negligible effect- if it might not even be measurable in real world conditions. The movidius myriad 2 consumes 500mw. Factor that into total load for propulsion and see where you end up. Small ultrasonic transdu

 

[Meta4]

That heat generation is a clear indication of substantial power consumption. The LED lights may be insignificant, but the sensors, especially the downward sensors which are, I believe, radiating a signal, plus the electronic load in doing all the crunching to figure out if something is too close...

I'm not saying he's going to double his range, but the gains aren't nothing either.

You'll find the drone heats up just the same whether sensors are on or off.
The sensors don't draw enough current to make a diffference to battery life but they will affect maximum distance able to be flown as the top speed is reduced below optimum for distance flying when flying with sensors enabled.

If you think there are gains to be made do some testing and find out.
It would be a simple matter to set up a Litchi mission to fly several times around a rectangular course and compare battery levels after a set number of laps for with/without sensors and/or LEDs.

 

[GadgetGuy]

You'll find the drone heats up just the same whether sensors are on or off.
The sensors don't draw enough current to make a diffference to battery life but they will affect maximum distance able to be flown as the top speed is reduced below optimum for distance flying when flying with sensors enabled.

If you think there are gains to be made do some testing and find out.
It would be a simple matter to set up a Litchi mission to fly several times around a rectangular course and compare battery levels after a set number of laps for with/without sensors and/or LEDs.

I agree! Just to clarify, though, the most efficient speed for long distance flight to maximize the distance flown on a single battery is roughly 31mph, which coincides with the maximum speed with OA turned on. So turning OA on will actually result in the maximum distance flown at full throttle, aside from any negligible current draw from OA being on. Slightly longer flight times may be achieved by flying slower, but the maximum distance covered requires roughly 31mph.

 

[GB1Yorkshire1]

So if you had your own sheep station you wouldn’t use your drone?

Your thinking outside the wrong box.

Your idea is next to useless for the OP- he won’t have reliable cellular connection for the GPS locators to work- assuming they could be reliably attached to a sheep.

GPS locators are not dependent on a local cell phone system, but send an intermittent signal back to a satellite.
How do you think they track sharks, wildlife etc. ATT just won’t work!

 

[Oglo]

What a wonderful selection of replies. Thanks a million to all of you who offered your insights.
Wind has been the biggest limiting factor. I've been using 5 batteries so keeping the RC charged has been as big a limiting factor, as running out of AC batteries.
We had reasonably good results, considering the vastness, peculiarity and "jumpiness" of scattered sheep and attempting to get them to go in a controlled direction.
Part of this approach is to reduce the wear and tear on the station(ranch) hands. They get bashed around after long hours, day after day on motor bikes and quad bikes. It may look romantic but it is very wearing on the body.
There are no cell towers to use cell trackers, and I use a RF tracker mounted to the MP. This came in handy after I was dive bombed by a crazy flock of Galahs(parrot relative) which crashed me into shrubs when I was 4km away.
The farm is between Balranald & Lake Mungo and is rigi-didge dry dusty outback. The distance to the closest highway from the farm house is 17km......