Is cold weather jello due to temperature change as opposed to temperature?

[kodiak1120]

I, like other Mavic owners, have experienced jello lately, as the temperatures have dropped. I've seen other references to this phenomena, but also people indicating that their Mavics fly perfectly fine in colder weather.

Some people have speculated that the problem is not the temperature, but the change in temperature immediately before the flight. For example, getting out of your car and flying right away, without having the Mavic acclimate to the cold for a few minutes before flying. That could explain why some of us experience it and some don't.

I posted this poll question to try to assess whether this is a possible cause. I guess jello in cold weather could be a hardware problem that would necessitate an RMA, but I just don't understand why it would only affect some units and not all units.

 

[Frits]

Other than cold weather, do you have snow?

 

[WolfgangStiller]

I have flown down to 8 deg Fahrenheit with no jello effect on the Mavic but the Mavic has had several hours to be close to outside temperature. I do think that's best for the camera and lens. I follow the same procedure with my cameras. When I don't follow this I have had fogging issues and sometimes odd distortion effects that go away after things equilbrate for a while

 

[kodiak1120]

I have flown down to 8 deg Fahrenheit with no jello effect on the Mavic but the Mavic has had several hours to be close to outside temperature. I do think that's best for the camera and lens. I follow the same procedure with my cameras. When I don't follow this I have had fogging issues and sometimes odd distortion effects that go away after things equilbrate for a while

Thanks... I saw your video (I think it was yours) in another thread and I was wondering if you had allowed the Mavic to acclimate. Sounds like you did, so that's a good thing for the rest of us. I just fly mine yesterday, right out of a warm car, and the jello was bad.

 

[kodiak1120]

Other than cold weather, do you have snow?

Yes, I've flown with snow on the ground and I get jello. In fact, the first time I noticed the jello was right after it snowed.

 

[Frits]

Yes, I've flown with snow on the ground and I get jello. In fact, the first time I noticed the jello was right after it snowed.

OK, here is my take on this:
In my opinion cold has nothing to do with this.
I had flown the Mavic in the cold with excellent results, then all of a sudden - big-time Jello!
As it had gotten colder some, I also attributed it to the cold.
But after reading up on the "rolling shutter", I observed that the Jello came on just after the ground became snow covered. Flew some more in snow-covered (= largely white) conditions: Jello, all the time.
Checked it out in darker conditions (early dawn) and...no more Jello, rock solid and that with even colder temperatures than before (down to -9 deg. C)!

So: In largely white-out conditions the shutter speed adjusts to the point that the camera's rolling shutter cannot keep up and you will get the Jello effect.
To counter this, put an ND filter in front of the lens in order to simulate a "darker" environment. I ordered some and will be able to shoot beautiful winter scenery during daytime when they arrive!

I scrapped all my Jello movies shot in snow conditions. Here is a movie I shot at early dawn yesterday to validate the point (not a work of art, just testing to prove the point). Windy and COLD (-9 deg. C, -15 with windchill).

 

[kodiak1120]

OK, here is my take on this:
In my opinion cold has nothing to do with this.
I had flown the Mavic in the cold with excellent results, then all of a sudden - big-time Jello!
As it had gotten colder some, I also attributed it to the cold.
But after reading up on the "rolling shutter", I observed that the Jello came on just after the ground became snow covered. Flew some more in snow-covered (= largely white) conditions: Jello, all the time.
Checked it out in darker conditions (early dawn) and...no more Jello, rock solid and that with even colder temperatures than before (down to -9 deg. C)!

So: In largely white-out conditions the shutter speed adjusts to the point that the camera's rolling shutter cannot keep up and you will get the Jello effect.
To counter this, put an ND filter in front of the lens in order to simulate a "darker" environment. I ordered some and will be able to shoot beautiful winter scenery during daytime when they arrive!

I scrapped all my Jello movies shot in snow conditions. Here is a movie I shot at early dawn yesterday to validate the point (not a work of art, just testing to prove the point). Windy and COLD (-9 deg. C, -15 with windchill).

Well I've had jello in only cold weather, with no snow on the ground. Also, there is some jello in your video when flying over the lake. I think it's a combination of cold weather, high winds, and bright lighting.

 

[Frits]

Well I've had jello in only cold weather, with no snow on the ground. Also, there is some jello in your video when flying over the lake. I think it's a combination of cold weather, high winds, and bright lighting.

Thanks, I'll check that but nothing like what I had before (was really doing the Hula-Hoop!). Mayne a combination like you said, I'll be testing some more when the ND filters arrive.

 

[Kilrah]

I've had jello once in the cold but it was on the 2nd flight of the session, so one flight where the Mavic may not have been at ambient temp yet was fine, and the next where it definitely was had jello.

The most likely reason I would think is was that on that second flight I was so eager to fly again (due to conditions...) that I powered it up while I was going with it to the landing pad, so it may have been moved while initializing the gimbal. It's the only time I've ever done that, normally I put the aircraft down in place then power it up, and it happens it's also the only time I've had jello.

 

[WolfgangStiller]

Thanks... I saw your video (I think it was yours) in another thread and I was wondering if you had allowed the Mavic to acclimate. Sounds like you did, so that's a good thing for the rest of us. I just fly mine yesterday, right out of a warm car, and the jello was bad.

Well I didn't specifically do anything to acclimate the Mavic but it took several hours in my backpack to hike in so by that time the temperature was pretty close to the outside air. That said, I took steps to keep the battery warm. It's the lens you want to very gradually get used to the outside temperature.

 

[Robert Mitchell]

OK, here is my take on this:
In my opinion cold has nothing to do with this.
I had flown the Mavic in the cold with excellent results, then all of a sudden - big-time Jello!
As it had gotten colder some, I also attributed it to the cold.
But after reading up on the "rolling shutter", I observed that the Jello came on just after the ground became snow covered. Flew some more in snow-covered (= largely white) conditions: Jello, all the time.
Checked it out in darker conditions (early dawn) and...no more Jello, rock solid and that with even colder temperatures than before (down to -9 deg. C)!

So: In largely white-out conditions the shutter speed adjusts to the point that the camera's rolling shutter cannot keep up and you will get the Jello effect.
To counter this, put an ND filter in front of the lens in order to simulate a "darker" environment. I ordered some and will be able to shoot beautiful winter scenery during daytime when they arrive!

I scrapped all my Jello movies shot in snow conditions. Here is a movie I shot at early dawn yesterday to validate the point (not a work of art, just testing to prove the point). Windy and COLD (-9 deg. C, -15 with windchill).

There is validity in what you say. I don't have my Mavic yet, but have experienced the exact same phenom you describe in snow scenes, using a TA Matrix carrying a Gopro.

 

[Jorge Szabo]

I struggled with this with my Phantoms 2 (with a gopro) and 3 pro. I did some reading on how rolling shutters work and how the jello effect comes about.

I agree with the comment above on high brightness conditions resulting in jello effect in the video. Sun on snow produces a high glare and the rolling shutter kicks into the really high speeds, causing the skew effect. If you have flown in cold weather with no jello issue it is likely a brightness issue that can be alleviated with the use of ND filters that would allow the shutter to slow down and mask jello with some blurriness.

Cold weather would also tend to stiffen rubber, so the gimbal itself might be receiving vibration from the motors under these conditions.

Lastly, several users have reported that the gimbal on the Mavic could get dislodged from the anti-drop brackets causing it to vibrate. DJI has already released a video on the pre-flight checklist tutorial on how to check for this.

If none of the above works, could be an unbalanced prop or motor that is simply causing too much vibration. The prop is replaceable the motor would require DJI repair.