Drone minimum operating temperatures and ‘feels like’ temperatures

[Mrktn]

Hi.

So most DJI drones according to specs are not recommended to operate below 0 degrees.

If the ambient temperature is say 7 degrees but due to a strong wind, weather apps or apps like Dronecast state it feels like minus 3 degrees and the drone is used, will this damage the drone ie. With condensation?

Looking forward to your thoughts

 

[MavicAir2Marc]

Wind chill only effects human beings (or animals). It's not a factor in machinery. That being said, you will get much shorter battery life near the minimum operating temperature. Keep the batteries warm in a coat pocket or such, it will help get the drone off the ground and the drone itself will warm the batteries as it discharges.
For the condensation problem, put the drone in a plastic bag before bringing it indoors and allow it to get to room temperature.

 

[Mrktn]

Thanks, fog, mist and rain aside, would a ‘feels like’ temperature below zero likely cause internal moisture in the drone?

 

[Chrislaf]

For most of the current drones, the minimum operating temperature in the specs is -10C. That being said, I fly all of my drones regularly in temperatures below that minimum without any problems.

The only drone that pops up errors is my NEO. I get ‘Preparing for Takeoff: IMU warming up’ errors on screen and in the log if I fly in temperatures below -10C. The errors occur after the drone has been launched and has been in the air for a minute or so. I suspect it is because of the exposed battery. Regardless, it flies normal and the battery temperature actually goes up during the flight.

Make sure you keep your battery warm and only put it in the drone when you are ready to start up. I have never put my drones in plastic bags but I keep them in their case and wait for them to warm up to room temperature before I open the case to get the mSD card out.

Chris

 

[Mrktn]

Thanks Chris,

I’m far from new at flying drones but I baby everything that costs me a lot of money.

Obviously if I had a Matrice that is made to withstand the elements then that’s different lol.

Mark

 

[slup]

... I get ‘Preparing for Takeoff: IMU warming up’ errors on screen

That message is usually due to a big temp. difference between the temp you had when you made the last IMU calibration & the temp you're flying in.

Try to do a IMU calibration in those -10C & see if the message stops coming up.

 

[Chrislaf]

That message is usually due to a big temp. difference between the temp you had when you made the last IMU calibration & the temp you're flying in.

Try to do a IMU calibration in those -10C & see if the message stops coming up.

I have to do that with my Phantom 3 Standard but have never had to do it with any of my newer drones. I’ll give it a try and see if it helps. Thanks for the tip.

Chris

 

[Mt-Ed]

Thanks, fog, mist and rain aside, would a ‘feels like’ temperature below zero likely cause internal moisture in the drone?

Where I live, the relative humidity goes down as the temps do. I would think that going from a warmer to colder environment would "freeze" any moisture surrounding the battery. If you are concerned, and I would be, of condensation forming, I think it would occur when you go from sub zero to warmer (ergo higher humidity) areas, and the way to offset that would be to just remove the battery and let the compartment open. Just my $.02

 

[akdrone]

Hi.

So most DJI drones according to specs are not recommended to operate below 0 degrees.

If the ambient temperature is say 7 degrees but due to a strong wind, weather apps or apps like Dronecast state it feels like minus 3 degrees and the drone is used, will this damage the drone ie. With condensation?

Looking forward to your thoughts

this comes up often. I don't even think of temp (with my Mavic drones) till it's -20F and I've flown at -30F with no issues and not even too much battery life lost. Smaller drones, particularly those with exposed batteries like the Avata do have issues at -20F but at 0 it's not a huge deal with any of them. We're talking Fahrenheit here...

 

[Bad Santa]

"Feels like" temperatures are just the rate of cooling, never more than that. Until you add humidity (which goes to just about zero at a few degrees below freezing). If the drone isn't wicking moisture, the "feels like" temperature (to a drone) is just the ambient temperature.

 

[Zbip57]

"Feels like" temperatures are just the rate of cooling, never more than that.

Exactly.
The outside temperature is reported to be 7°, but feels like -3° because of the wind. That only means your drone will cool down more quickly than if there was no wind, but it'll never cool to less than the ambient 7°.

 

[Zbip57]

Wind chill only effects human beings (or animals). It's not a factor in machinery.

Wind chill affects the rate at which objects cool down when subjected to lower temperatures.

It's the same for animals and machinery and everything else. It's why we blow on a spoonful of too hot soup. You could just hold the spoon and wait patiently for the soup to cool all by itself, or you can blow over it to cool it more quickly.

Either way, animals, humans, machinery, or soup, will never cool to less than the ambient temperature.

 

[Tofino]

There was a thread on year a while back about what temps people flew their drones in. I have the original Mavic Pro and still fly it. The coldest temp I flew in was -20 C which is -4 F. The windchill was around -27. The drone flew as normal but my hands did not. Only lastest about 10 minutes.

 

[Tofino]

The thread is called Monitoring Battery Temperatures from Jan 30 2019. I don’t know how to post a link to it.

 

[Eko]

There was a thread on year a while back about what temps people flew their drones in. I have the original Mavic Pro and still fly it. The coldest temp I flew in was -20 C which is -4 F. The windchill was around -27. The drone flew as normal but my hands did not. Only lastest about 10 minutes.

So, I wonder why do the software like UAV Forecast suggests not to fly at or below certain temperatures, with its default settings?

 

[Rchawks]

With the UAV there are default setting that can be changed.

 

[Eko]

With the UAV there are default setting that can be changed.

I know that it can be changed. Thank you.
The question is in fact: Why default settings of those software are set at/or around freezing point for the minimum allowed degrees, even if we can fly below zero centigrades?

 

[Rchawks]

I don't know. I no longer use the app. First few years I used it every single time for checking conditions. There were many times the app said it wasn't good to fly but it seemed like the accuracy of the timeline was off a bit sometimes by several hours. Now I just concern myself with what the max wind will be a few hours down the road so not to be caught by surprised with strong wind gusts or precipitation amounts. It wasn't my intention to be rude in any way with the comment about settings. That was something I changed a lot while using that app.

 

[Eko]

Further to the discussion, I noticed this in the flight safety training video for M4P. I do not know why I have scribed the minimum flight temperature as the freezing point. This image shows even lower is allowed. (I obtained this image at 2:28 minutes of the flight safety video. I do not know if these limits apply to other drones as well.)