Flying with the dome?

[ThisIsCusel]

Anyone fly with the dome on?

I thought of a couple scenarios that would make sense.

1st being a flight to set up way points. Presumably you would be using video from the upcoming way point mission, so it would be safer for the gimbal assembly to be protected especially if you were trying to get close to obstacles and made a mistake.

2nd would be for fpv goggles.

Any other thoughts, ideas, or experiences?

 

[John Shaw]

Much discussed topic. There is a large air intake just behind the gimbal and behind it is a large fan. DJI engineers would not put that on the Mavic if they didn't need cooling air to control the temperature of the electronics. Heat effects the life of electronics - fact. I wouldn't fly with the clear bubble which blocks that cooling air - but some do.

 

[HumanShield]

My advice would be to only use it when you feel that you are at a higher risk to crash. I personally no longer fly with mine on for the ventilation reason. I have gotten used to flying in Sport Mode and she gets pretty hot so I don't want to jeopardize the electronics inside.
Sorry that I don't have anything more scientific than this to offer...

 

[Graphite]

It helped me in lower temperatures. (-5 C) Kept the gimbal rubber warm. Without it I had jello issues. Above +5C I don't need it, and it is not recommended like mentioned above.

 

[AyeYo]

It helped me in lower temperatures. (-5 C) Kept the gimbal rubber warm. Without it I had jello issues. Above +5C I don't need it, and it is not recommended like mentioned above.

I've thought of doing this. What's the picture quality like?

 

[German Di Manzo]

I have read about not flying with the dome because of the air intake and I don't mostly because of picture quality but... have you notice most of DJIs marketing materials and website shows the mavic flying with the dome on?


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[Graphite]

I've thought of doing this. What's the picture quality like?

Quality was very good, but if there is sunshine then it produces strange effects sometimes.
Eventually the only time I flew with the bubble is was to rule out the jello issues I was having.

 

[Forrest]

The dome has an opening to admit air.

 

[ThisIsCusel]

The manual says not to record in sport mode, could this be due to the increased processing and heat generation?

The manual also says to remove the dome "when necessary" (pretty vague)

So it would seem the engineers aren't too worried about the dome, but are somewhat concerned with sport mode.

Thoughts?

 

[Grey Wolf]

Anyone fly with the dome on?

I thought of a couple scenarios that would make sense.

1st being a flight to set up way points. Presumably you would be using video from the upcoming way point mission, so it would be safer for the gimbal assembly to be protected especially if you were trying to get close to obstacles and made a mistake.

2nd would be for fpv goggles.

Any other thoughts, ideas, or experiences?

Never ever fly with the dome on.
You have an expensive camera with high quality lens and you want to film through a five cent quality plastic cover?
Enough said!

 

[dewster]

I fly with on in cold temps to maintain internal heat for the battery. The craft is designed to fly with or without but sometimes you'll hear the fan kick in when it starts to get hot.

The heat sink on the bottom of the craft has opening towards the front. You can feel air movement which let me know that the gimbal cover doesn't block all of the air flow.


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[John Shaw]

The dome has an opening to admit air.

The grill behind the gimbal is about 900 sq mm. The slot in the cover is about 40 sq mm. If 40 sq mm was adequate then they would have made the grill that size. One thing we can all agree on... DJI engineering should weigh in on this issue, one way or the other. I fear we will only hear from them when, in the future, they realize the electronic failure rate is much higher than expected and the users are upset... then we will be told. I do agree that this is not as big an issue in cold weather. Wait till the hot days of summer. (I am not down under)

 

[Kestrel]

I would only use it if it was really cold out, Below freezing I think then the cold air outside would cool the internals enough so that you could use the bubble without any worry of over heating.

 

[Robert Granata]

The manual says not to record in sport mode, could this be due to the increased processing and heat generation?



Thoughts?

The manual says to "only shoot video when flying in p-mode" on page 53 as a suggestion for better videos. I think they would have mentioned this in the sports mode section if it was critical to operation.

 

[flyNfrank]

The grill behind the gimbal is about 900 sq mm. The slot in the cover is about 40 sq mm. If 40 sq mm was adequate then they would have made the grill that size. One thing we can all agree on... DJI engineering should weigh in on this issue, one way or the other. I fear we will only hear from them when, in the future, they realize the electronic failure rate is much higher than expected and the users are upset... then we will be told. I do agree that this is not as big an issue in cold weather. Wait till the hot days of summer. (I am not down under)

It appears to have a larger air intake area then air outtake area, would you agree? If so, it would be likely to not get proper circulation either.

 

[stratos]

Video / camera wise.

It appears to have a larger air intake area then air outtake area, would you agree? If so, it would be likely to not get proper circulation either.

Well I think that is up to debate. Even if the intake on the dome is smaller there is still "air" inside the sphere which is available for the internal fan to suck in. So I am not really sure that this will impact on the internals running hotter. The heat sink on the bottom is air cooled while flying so this will help to dissipate the heat. I think that heat might not be a concern, but again I might be completely wrong.

I have flown a couple of times with the dome and my only concern were some weird reflections, upon landing the Mavic was as warm as without it, but yeah I didnt measured it

I bought a black "shade" which is a dome with the camera opening, this would potentially help on not capturing any weird reflections and hopefully providing some "Protection".

 

[Rigging65]

I modified my dome by cutting out the camera opening as has been discussed here on a couple threads. I fly with it on all the time. It gives lots of extra air flow, provides some level of protection, and acts as a lens hood. I need to trim up the top end of mine just the littlest bit, as it shows up in the frame when flying forward fast in sport mode. Other than that, I've been really happy with the mod!

 

[voongnz]

As an antipodian flying in the mid summer sun in New Zealand, I would never fly with the dome on even with the inlet vent slot. The heat sink gets almost too hot to touch. I would rather risk the gimble with no protection than fry the electronics. I wouldn't use it in winter either, just don't want to degrade the image and it never gets anywhere below freezing.

If you want as much protection as possible without sacrificing image quality, you can get those injection moulded lens hoods off amazon/ebay/aliexpress. You won't notice any difference in reduction of lens flare though. They just don't work on the mavic, they would have to extend out much more to be effective but thats another issue.