Master Airscrew Mavic Air Props now available
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FoxhallGH
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If you are going to change 'Gain' settings, please understand that you have to do this by small increments and very carefully. What you are adjusting is the feedback cuircuitry that keeps the drone stable. The MA prop's are a bit stiffer than the DJI stock prop's- and therefore MAY introduce some oscillation due to them slightly over-compensating when bringing the drone back into steady-state. The following video is a good explanation of what is happening with this issue (even tho' it's featuring a Mav' Pro!). I'd suggest you watch this through before making adjustments to Gain ... also make sure that you record the settings that are there, before making any changes ...
Seanjo
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Update. Did a flight a few days ago... Went out a distance of around 7,684ft and back. Total flight was just under 19,000 ft. No issue. No motor current errors. Fly same route all the time, and noticed a difference in battery drain. It appears as if flight time is better. Will continue to do more test. Haven't tried sport mode as yet with them though. Don't really use sport mode unless there is a major wind issue.
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
I bought these props yesterday and I think the impact to the Motor.
I really happy tha you did not foind any Motor current issue.
I'll stay tuned.
Regards!
I flew with the MAS props yesterday and my Mavic Air flew perfectly and with a much more tolerable sound level.
Love the new props, but I have noticed a bit of movement when stationary and quickly moving the aircraft in a direction and letting go. It just seems like the air is overcorrecting then under correcting and back and forth until it settles on stable. Do I need to just adjust the gains of the drone to keep it from overcorrecting?
Other than this issue, they are great.
Other than this issue, they are great.
Rnl
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a response from support on the reviews page re: the motor current issue:
We do appreciate your feedback. Some Mavic Air units updated to the latest V01.00.0560 or V01.00.0500 firmware experience such motor current error. Downgrading to V01.00.0400 eliminates this issue. This is caused because the Mavic Air STEALTH propellers have much better efficiency compared to the stock props. The power draw is lower than what the drone controller is expecting, triggering preventative alarm to check propellers.
We do appreciate your feedback. Some Mavic Air units updated to the latest V01.00.0560 or V01.00.0500 firmware experience such motor current error. Downgrading to V01.00.0400 eliminates this issue. This is caused because the Mavic Air STEALTH propellers have much better efficiency compared to the stock props. The power draw is lower than what the drone controller is expecting, triggering preventative alarm to check propellers.
Okay, but I don't really like the idea of downgrading the FW. That last upgrade affected the batteries, as well as the bird, and it MAY have fixed an important issue with the batteries immediately going dead from 50%. Rolling back that FW will require rolling back the batteries, as well, I believe.
I already have a set of MAS props, but have not yet tried them out. I would much rather try adjusting the gains, rather than rolling back, if I wind up seeing this issue. Kinda surprised MAS didn't support that possible "fix".
I finally had a chance to test this first thing this morning. Two flights for about 30 minutes total.
As everyone else has said, they are definitely quieter, and lower pitched. The lower pitch was a little disconcerting at first because I know what my Air is “supposed” to sound like and it almost sounds like there’s something wrong, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that and this will sound normal eventually.
As far as how much quieter, very noticeably. The park where I fly has apartments somewhat close and I’ve always been a little nervous of someone being annoyed enough to complain about it. With these, I really didn’t have that concern at all, because it’s so quiet and frankly a little less “menacing” sounding (than the normal MA noise before these props). At just under 300 feet up (the limit of my clearance) I could only just barely hear it; it was mostly covered by the early morning ambient birds and some traffic. With the stock props, it was easily able to be heard, as a curious guy pointed out a couple of weeks ago when he was surprised how loud it was even at 300’ (he wasn’t complaining, just curious, and given his interest I suspect he has one now).
No stability issues that I noticed, and it seemed to fly pretty identically to the stock props.
I only have a limited sample of flights to compare, but I didn’t notice that battery life was improved. After flying around a bit I brought it down at 15 minutes on the last flight and hovered a few feet away to see how much time I could get. I got 19 minutes, my longest time ever by 1 minute, but I was also trying to stretch it as long as I could until it landed due to critically low power, which I never do. Comparing stock-prop flight logs, I didn’t notice much difference in flight time at 50% battery left (actually, stock props had a slight edge). But I was also doing a little flying in sport mode to see if I got that current error, so that probably affected things. Will need to test this more.
Finally, yes, I did get the motor current error in sport mode. I kept adjusting the gain down (starting at 96, down to 92) and it always showed up, although at 92 it only seemed to come up after I’d covered 100 feet or so. I was also adjusting all axes, which may be unnecessary or even counterproductive; I need to do more research on this, and didn’t feel comfortable going below 92 without better understanding what I was doing.
Anyway, overall, yes, these are well worth the money for the noise reduction, but the motor current error continues to cause some concerns for those who use S-mode regularly. Since I do not, I’m happy with them.
As everyone else has said, they are definitely quieter, and lower pitched. The lower pitch was a little disconcerting at first because I know what my Air is “supposed” to sound like and it almost sounds like there’s something wrong, but I’m sure I’ll get used to that and this will sound normal eventually.
As far as how much quieter, very noticeably. The park where I fly has apartments somewhat close and I’ve always been a little nervous of someone being annoyed enough to complain about it. With these, I really didn’t have that concern at all, because it’s so quiet and frankly a little less “menacing” sounding (than the normal MA noise before these props). At just under 300 feet up (the limit of my clearance) I could only just barely hear it; it was mostly covered by the early morning ambient birds and some traffic. With the stock props, it was easily able to be heard, as a curious guy pointed out a couple of weeks ago when he was surprised how loud it was even at 300’ (he wasn’t complaining, just curious, and given his interest I suspect he has one now).
No stability issues that I noticed, and it seemed to fly pretty identically to the stock props.
I only have a limited sample of flights to compare, but I didn’t notice that battery life was improved. After flying around a bit I brought it down at 15 minutes on the last flight and hovered a few feet away to see how much time I could get. I got 19 minutes, my longest time ever by 1 minute, but I was also trying to stretch it as long as I could until it landed due to critically low power, which I never do. Comparing stock-prop flight logs, I didn’t notice much difference in flight time at 50% battery left (actually, stock props had a slight edge). But I was also doing a little flying in sport mode to see if I got that current error, so that probably affected things. Will need to test this more.
Finally, yes, I did get the motor current error in sport mode. I kept adjusting the gain down (starting at 96, down to 92) and it always showed up, although at 92 it only seemed to come up after I’d covered 100 feet or so. I was also adjusting all axes, which may be unnecessary or even counterproductive; I need to do more research on this, and didn’t feel comfortable going below 92 without better understanding what I was doing.
Anyway, overall, yes, these are well worth the money for the noise reduction, but the motor current error continues to cause some concerns for those who use S-mode regularly. Since I do not, I’m happy with them.
Maybe that’s my problem - I tried 92-96, and the lower ones seemed to be better, but I still had the problem about half the time I was running in sport mode (always around the end of a several second straight-line “run”). I’ll try 99 and lower next time.
TheFoxSaysRingADingDing
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Reading all these posts on how to fix this makes me feel as confused as an Amish electrician....
x11freak
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Something to try.. thanks! I'm also experiencing the motor current error and gave up on them. Switched back to the orginal props. Difference in sound was amazing though!
Kupe
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Have flown with my MAS props for a couple weeks, but yesterday for first time got the "Motor Current Error. Check your propellers and fly with caution."
The mission was solely to survey the mast and spreader rigging on our sailboat, so this consisted almost entirely of hovering around 50 feet for photos. I was operating with Visual Obstacle Avoidance turned off since I was maneuvering within inches of the mast, shrouds, and spreaders. For the same reason, I had the propeller guards installed. I had not previously flown my MA with both the MAS props and the propeller guards, so this may be a relevant data point. Wind was essentially nil, and no Sport mode (needless to say for this precision mission.)
Prior to getting the Current Error message, I did receive the “Prop guards or extra payload detected. Fly with caution”. But that is something I've seen with the stock DJI props from time to time as well.
I am running the latest V01.00.0560 firmware. I agree with others that downgrading the FW could reintroduce some older issues and I really don't want to go there.
FWIW, I did also see some of the oscillation during hover that others have described with the MAS props. I may simply not have noticed it before since I had never before been trying to station-keep within fractions of an inch. It's possible too that the oscillation is attributable to the combination of the MAS props and the propeller guards.
I ran out of time to do any comparison testing, and of course would like now to compare all combinations of props and prop guards and even gain, but won't have time for that before next week at the earliest.
I love the MAS props as the sound is subjectively much quieter and lower pitched than the stock DJI props. But right now I think I am going to switch back to the stock DJI props until more informations is available.
The mission was solely to survey the mast and spreader rigging on our sailboat, so this consisted almost entirely of hovering around 50 feet for photos. I was operating with Visual Obstacle Avoidance turned off since I was maneuvering within inches of the mast, shrouds, and spreaders. For the same reason, I had the propeller guards installed. I had not previously flown my MA with both the MAS props and the propeller guards, so this may be a relevant data point. Wind was essentially nil, and no Sport mode (needless to say for this precision mission.)
Prior to getting the Current Error message, I did receive the “Prop guards or extra payload detected. Fly with caution”. But that is something I've seen with the stock DJI props from time to time as well.
I am running the latest V01.00.0560 firmware. I agree with others that downgrading the FW could reintroduce some older issues and I really don't want to go there.
FWIW, I did also see some of the oscillation during hover that others have described with the MAS props. I may simply not have noticed it before since I had never before been trying to station-keep within fractions of an inch. It's possible too that the oscillation is attributable to the combination of the MAS props and the propeller guards.
I ran out of time to do any comparison testing, and of course would like now to compare all combinations of props and prop guards and even gain, but won't have time for that before next week at the earliest.
I love the MAS props as the sound is subjectively much quieter and lower pitched than the stock DJI props. But right now I think I am going to switch back to the stock DJI props until more informations is available.
In addition to the response that has been posted, I saw another one from MAS on their site (in response to a review) that said as follows:
"There are two possible solutions we can propose immediately. - downgrading to V01.00.0400 or earlier would eliminate the issue. - slight adjustment on the gain settings to 80 units We are also working on a permanent solution compatible with the latest software updates from DJI. Hope to have more information on that soon."
So aside from downgrading firmware, they suggest lowering the gain to 80, it appears. This is a lot lower than I'd seen suggested here. Anyone tried this, or have any idea how this might affect the aircraft?
"There are two possible solutions we can propose immediately. - downgrading to V01.00.0400 or earlier would eliminate the issue. - slight adjustment on the gain settings to 80 units We are also working on a permanent solution compatible with the latest software updates from DJI. Hope to have more information on that soon."
So aside from downgrading firmware, they suggest lowering the gain to 80, it appears. This is a lot lower than I'd seen suggested here. Anyone tried this, or have any idea how this might affect the aircraft?
Kupe
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I see that reply on the MAS site as well. I almost wonder if they mis-spoke. Gain of 80 is the absolute minimum- it won't go any lower. (The range is 80% to 120%)
FoxhallGH
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That does seem an excessive Gain adjust! All info I've seen about changing Gain (the video in post #102 above is the best), cautions not to change it too far, and in small increments with test-flights afterward.
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