Is hovering 'unhealthy' for the drone?

[Chips]

I've been reading about battery care and the advice usually given is that the battery should be run down to 20% or 30% and then removed and recharged. It's supposed to help keep the battery healthy and last longer. But I am posting to discuss that point but rather whether it is 'healthy' to run the battery down by just hovering.

Like a car engine, heat builds up when the car is not moving as there is no air blowing on the radiator or into the engine bay. Not good generally. The same would apply for the drone which also needs to be kept cool and that's when it is moving. So is it a good idea to hover for a while intentionally?

Chips

 

[Ken Nash]

I'm reasonably experience drone flyer and I've hovered for five to ten minutes but not had a problem but it would be prudent that after a while you either land or fly it so that it can cool down or fly to circulate air by moving. The last time I hovered for a long time a the girl I liked was asked out by another guy, so moral of the story is .......don't hover for too long.

 

[Former Member]

Like a car engine, heat builds up when the car is not moving as there is no air blowing on the radiator or into the engine bay.

Those were the old days when the "fan belt" drove the fan depending on engine RPM. Idling would reduce the fan speed, not allow ram air to cool the radiator, and reduce the water pumps RPM and circulating ability, and the car would get hotter. Thats why they invented ant-freeze/coolant. Coolant supported the cars cooling system by circulating glycol throughout the engine block to keep it from getting higher than the engineers wanted it to. It worked in most cases, until the fan belt broke, thermostat got stuck closed, or the coolant was past its expiration date. Also happened when one of the hoses broke, or when a person put water in the radiator instead of coolant. Thats when you saw a car on the side of the road with steam coming from under the hood.

These days, with many cars using transverse mounted engines, the belt driven fan is a thing of the past. The fan kicks on when the engine reaches a certain temperature. The electronic thermostat kicks the fan on to assist the coolant. Most times, the cooling fan is louder than the actual engine itself, with these small liter engines.

The Mavic has an electronic thermostat, and when the Mavics core processor exceeds 106°f, the fan kicks on to keep the internal components at 96°. The controller has one too. It will not harm your Mavic if you leave it sit for an hour idling, the system is not ram air dependent, and there is no coolant to circulate. The fan grill in the front is simply to allow the fan to suck air in. Not for ram air reasons. The fan is a single speed device, and is huge compared to the size of the boards inside. It would be like having a shop fan blowing on your Civics engine.

If you do let the Mavic sit idle on a table, you should extend the legs to get the bottom heat sink off the table. The fan blows hot air out the bottom of the heat sink at 76 mph, and if that vent gets blocked, the air will back up into the drone, and could raise temps above accepted.

 

[Ken Nash]

Your absolutely right of course. Good info.

 

[Chips]

[QUOTE="The Mavic has an electronic thermostat, and when the Mavics core processor exceeds 106°f, the fan kicks on to keep the internal components at 96°. The controller has one too. It will not harm your Mavic if you leave it sit for an hour idling, the system is not ram air dependent, and there is no coolant to circulate. The fan grill in the front is simply to allow the fan to suck air in. Not for ram air reasons. The fan is a single speed device, and is huge compared to the size of the boards inside. It would be like having a shop fan blowing on your Civics engine.

If you do let the Mavic sit idle on a table, you should extend the legs to get the bottom heat sink off the table. The fan blows hot air out the bottom of the heat sink at 76 mph, and if that vent gets blocked, the air will back up into the drone, and could raise temps above accepted.[/QUOTE]
Thanks very much for insights into the cooling system of the MP. Heat is an enemy of electronics and batteries so I am always concerned about this issue but since you say the MP has an internal cooling system with a fan, that's good to know. Raising the bottom of the table is no problem... I will even mount it on a stand so there's lots of space for air to circulate.

Chips

 

[Former Member]

The DJI Phantom 3 series had a tiny cooling fan in the gimbal and the gimbal PCB would fry even during a just firmware update. I had a portable desk fan always blowing on the gimbal when updating, but still bricked numerous older models that werent as tolerant of the heat. Thank goodness for the design and efficiency of the mavics cooling fan. I haven't bricked a single one due to overheating or updating the firmware.