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Does turning off lights increase flight time?

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

The light issue has been addressed. I recommend looking it mod kits to add 1 or 2 batteries to the Mavic.


Easy to do and you increase flight time by 6-8 min.
 
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Nice suggestions.
I already use a Marco Polo as we are nowhere near to cell towers.
Had to use it the other day to find the MP when an angry flock of vicious(sic) Galah's dive bombed the MP out of the sky km's away from me.
Fixed wing would work to locate the sheep, but would be useless to actually attempt to herd them in a set direction, the MP is ideal for this work - sort of like a quarter horse.
As I've mentioned in other posts, placing GPS trackers on sheep (tens of thousands of them) is slightly impractical.... but if you'd like to come over with a few thousand of them I can put you up in some really wonderful desert conditions (watch out for the friendly brown snakes) while you chase the sheep around with your glider trying to locate them... to put the GPS trackers on.
I must admit I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of all these wonderful suggestions.

Sorry to hear about your dive bombing Galahs problem, but let's focus on one problem at a time. It didn't occur to me that you were herding the sheep as I assumed that you just wanted to spy on them, perhaps to see if they were conspiring against you.

Apparently, this (better sheep herding) isn't a new problem. If you Google "automated sheepherder" you'll find lots of interesting articles including the following:

Cattle-herding robot Swagbot makes debut on Australian farms
They’re Using Drones to Herd Sheep
Drone Herding Is Taking Off

Here’s an interesting YouTube video about precision sheep herding using LED lights (and dogs).

Apparently, here in the USA we have sheep herding clubs where I can only assume that members pay to herd sheep! This may be a new, money-making opportunity for you to have others pay you to herd your sheep. To learn more, send me $20 (for shipping and handling) and a self-addressed stamped envelope and I’ll send you a “free,” information-filled booklet on how you too can start a sheep herding club in your own back yard! Quantities are limited, so act fast. On the other hand, maybe this only works in the US where we are dumb enough to elect really shady characters to high political office.

Seriously, maybe you should look into hybrid gas-electric drones when they get cheaper.
 
The M2 batteries have lots of extra juice in them even at 0% so you won't be damaging the batteries by taking them down under 10% to as low as 0%. 0% is still well over 3.5V per cell. Once the battery reaches 0%, you still have 2 minutes of flight time left before any cell drops below 3.0V, which then triggers a forced uncancellable Autoland where you cannot cancel the descent.

I would not recommend this. Once you get below ~3.53V voltage begins to drop at a quickly-increasing rate.
At 3.50V, you should be landing immediately. Any less-than-gentle maneuver has the potential to cause a catastrophic voltage drop.

You should never get to the forced autoland at 3.0V and it takes only about a minute to get there from 3.5V
If you get to 3V without falling out of the sky it is literally only a matter of seconds before you do.
 
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I would not recommend this. Once you get below ~3.53V voltage begins to drop at a quickly-increasing rate.
At 3.50V, you should be landing immediately. Any less-than-gentle maneuver has the potential to cause a catastrophic voltage drop.

You should never get to the forced autoland at 3.0V and it takes only about a minute to get there from 3.5V
If you get to 3V without falling out of the sky it is literally only a matter of seconds before you do.
We agree completely. I am certainly not recommending flying below 0%, which is 3.56V per cell, but your numbers are a little off, about what happens after reaching 0%. I know from personal experience (corroborated by an independent YouTube test to below 0% in a hover, until forced uncancellable landing), that you still have between 1.5 and 2.0 minutes, after reaching 0% battery, before a forced, uncancellable Autoland takes place, triggered by the lowest cell voltage drops below 3.0V. Flight is still possible during that period, and actually prolongs battery life over a mere hover, as expected.

Also, when you reach 3.0V, until you get to somewhere below 2.5V, the battery will still not shut off or fail, as the forced landing can be set to as low as 2.5V in the parameter settings. Don't try it, but it isn't instant death.

In summary, the only thing anyone should be attempting to do, if they haven't already landed by 0%, is to land. However, landing between 10% and 0% will not damage your M2 batteries, and is perfectly safe, as long as you have learned to fight the Autoland that accompanies it but it is not recommended for inexperienced pilots!
 

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