Low battery which should I use Tripod or S ?

[Van Shteffy]

My Amish friends love to fly my Zoom. When the battery is 10% should I use T or S to get home ?
Thanks. Lovin it.

 

[Thomas B]

First comment is that if you aren’t almost home on a landing approach at 10% battery you’ll eventually crash or have forced landing done by your drone in a less than optimal location.

In the situation you base your question on I would stay in standard mode to optimize power. Also recommend that the way to home should be downwind.

 

[Meta4]

My Amish friends love to fly my Zoom. When the battery is 10% should I use T or S to get home ?

You should already be on the ground before 10%.
But in a low battery situation, Sport and Tripod modes are not good choices.
Just like driving your car at 90 mph will give very poor miles/gallon, Sport Mode is not good for distance/battery.
And the drone uses battery just staying up in tha air, stay up longer (flying slower) and you also waste battery.
In a low battery returning flight, you need to find the sweet spot between burning battery fast and flying too slow.
You'll get the most miles/battery at a tiny bit less than full speed in P-GPS mode.
It's so close to full speed that you may as well use that.

 

[charliesRig]

"Sports Mode" should always be used sparingly
.
Never Fly with less then 20% battery........that is all
.
.Lipo's get unstable @ low power/Voltage

Please don't let your next post be
"My battery is swollen"
or
"My mavic crashed because ...."
.
Low voltage = you maybe can get away with it Once, Maybe twice,
But when it Happens and you don't know why
you will have to owne it even if your "Amish friend" is flying when it happens
.
I have personal experence I had 18% battery and mavic seemed fine all the while gave me the Middle finger and Headed for the trees
afterwards I asked why .?......but i knew why.!
I flew below 20%
.

......cR
.
.

 

[brett8883]

My Amish friends love to fly my Zoom. When the battery is 10% should I use T or S to get home ?
Thanks. Lovin it.

Of those two options sport mode would be better.

 

[WithTheBirds]

Maybe you need a G mode.

What does the fact they might be Amish have to do with anything?

As pointed out by Meta4 above close to flat stick I'm P mode will give you the best chance of making it home with a preparedness to apply throttle if auto land is initiated.

 

[old man mavic]

you should not really be flying your batteries down to 10% in the first place, you are just shortening the time that your batteries will last once the lipo reaches 20% the charge drops off much quicker and you will not have enough power to get back home,you do not say what distance the drone is from home but you have to remember that you need a certain amount of reserve power in case the landing spot is compromised to allow you time to find an alternative spot ,of course if you dont care that much about your drone then carry on doing what you are doing good luck

 

[ScottM2Zoom1]

Unless you are shooting in VERY close proximity (under 300 ft) and you value your bird..... There is no known logical reason to ever fly without minimum setting low battery RTH. If the bird is in T or S mode switch to P during warning and let the DJI math bring it home safely. This will happen between 18-22% battery unless you are way out. If you choose to bypass this process you WILL crash. Period. 10%? Thats at critical low warning. When the RC chick tells you that .... you are already in serious trouble or about to be. Don't make her say it....you can hear the panic in her voice for a reason ?

 

[Van Shteffy]

Thank you your much needed advice is valuable.

 

[johnmeyer]

This has been covered in many posts. Sport mode, most definitely, is NOT what you want because wind resistance goes up as the square of the speed, and you waste power fighting that resistance when you go really, really fast.

I researched this for my Mavic 2 Pro which, aerodynamically should be the same as the Mavic 2 Zoom, and found that 31 mph is the speed which uses the least battery per mile. The way to find out for your bird is to research this forum for the distance records for your model (where people attempt to set records for the maximum out & back distance flown). Look at the flight logs posted and note the aircraft speed.

My conclusion: if you are low on battery, keep it in "P" mode and fly at the maximum speed allowed in that mode which, for my Pro2, is 31 mph.

Oh yes, as others have said, you are crazy to let the battery go down to 10% while still in the air.

 

[Van Shteffy]

This has been covered in many posts. Sport mode, most definitely, is NOT what you want because wind resistance goes up as the square of the speed, and you waste power fighting that resistance when you go really, really fast.

I researched this for my Mavic 2 Pro which, aerodynamically should be the same as the Mavic 2 Zoom, and found that 31 mph is the speed which uses the least battery per mile. The way to find out for your bird is to research this forum for the distance records for your model (where people attempt to set records for the maximum out & back distance flown). Look at the flight logs posted and note the aircraft speed.

My concluson: if you are low on battery, keep it in "P" mode and fly at the maximum speed allowed in that mode which, for my Pro2, is 31 mph.

Oh yes, as others have said, you are crazy to let the battery go down to 10% while still in the air.

 

[Van Shteffy]

Thank you for your advice.

 

[GadgetGuy]

P mode at full speed is best. By the time you get to 10%, you need to already have enough elevation above your home point to clear all obstacles (I use 75-100 feet), as under 10%, you will be fighting Autoland, with limited ability to ascend. You will need to add sufficient left stick to maintain that elevation until you make eye contact with the aircraft to fly it in on glide path, letting it descend, or even adding full descent power to maintain the glide path. You can continue to fight the Autoland even after you reach 0%, until one of the battery cells drops below 3.0V, which gives you roughly two more minutes of flight time, after reaching 0%, while flying forward at the maximum speed available in P mode. Ideally, you'll be landing between 5 and 10%. However, if needed, you can still push it 2 minutes past 0%, and still continue thereafter, as long as you have previously gained enough altitude to accept the now uncancelable Autoland descent without running into the ground before reaching your launch point. Since uncancelable Autoland can be set in parameter settings to as low as 2.5V, it is likely that the battery will continue to sustain flight to as low as 2.5V on the lowest cell. Anything below 0% potentially risks the battery's ability to recover after landing, but I have had no issues taking them down to 0% and slightly below. 0% is actually still 3.45V, and 10% is 3.65V on the lowest cells. Better to damage a battery and save the aircraft than to lose both, if flying back over saltwater in an emergency!

 

[brett8883]

In reality 10% battery is still plenty battery. It’s not something you want to do regularly but I talk to battery nuts who are getting down below 3.0v before the Mavic actually turns off

 

[GadgetGuy]

In reality 10% battery is still plenty battery. It’s not something you want to do regularly but I talk to battery nuts who are getting down below 3.0v before the Mavic actually turns off

Indeed! DJI's current 10% battery settings on the M2 are really very conservative, leaving plenty of fuel still in the tank, and opting for forced landing rather than battery shutoff at critical values! Not like the old days, where, when it reached 0%, it meant it was at 3.0V and would shut off in mid-flight immediately thereafter, dropping like a rock, destroying drone and battery, in a failed effort to protect the battery!

 

[Van Shteffy]

In reality 10% battery is still plenty battery. It’s not something you want to do regularly but I talk to battery nuts who are getting down below 3.0v before the Mavic actually turns off

 

[Van Shteffy]

Valuable information. Thank you very much.

 

[Drinu]

I read

This has been covered in many posts. Sport mode, most definitely, is NOT what you want because wind resistance goes up as the square of the speed, and you waste power fighting that resistance when you go really, really fast.

I researched this for my Mavic 2 Pro which, aerodynamically should be the same as the Mavic 2 Zoom, and found that 31 mph is the speed which uses the least battery per mile. The way to find out for your bird is to research this forum for the distance records for your model (where people attempt to set records for the maximum out & back distance flown). Look at the flight logs posted and note the aircraft speed.

My conclusion: if you are low on battery, keep it in "P" mode and fly at the maximum speed allowed in that mode which, for my Pro2, is 31 mph.

Oh yes, as others have said, you are crazy to let the battery go down to 10% while still in the air.

I read an article some time ago on aerodynamic flow showing that a drone moving horizontally up to a certain point was more efficient than hovering due to some fluid dynamics. Has anyone experienced this in real world situations?

 

[old man mavic]

when the mav is flying forwards there is going to be a point when some lift is provided by the drone itself and also the forwards motion will keep it cooler as well as air flows over and through the body hovering also uses more battery if its windy as the mav is constantly trying to stay in one spot

 

[HawkEye76]

Also keep in mind that the battery might be degraded and for that reason you want to add some safety margin. I recently was taking some "finished the flight, but hover around" photos and had my Mavic Pro fall out of the "sky" on 15%. Luckily I was 0.5m above ground and landing due to a "battery cell error" three seconds before. When looking back at my flightlogs at airdata I saw that this particular battery had struggled before with cell deviations. However since I normally land with 25-30% left I had not reached the lower voltage where one cell totally gave up and the drone shut off. Needless to say - this battery is now out of service.

Graphs here:


Moral is - keep an eye on the battery cell deviation history (if available) and it does not hurt do add a safety margin.