Mavic in the desert heat

[Phlier]

Gents, I know that DJI states 104F as max operating temperature, but dang...

I've been doing 10 minute flights here when it's exactly 104F, and boy, does this thing get HOT! After each flight, I bring it in and allow it to run its fan for 10 minutes before powering it down.

I have yet to take any IR readings (on the list of things to do today), but the heatsink is so hot after a ten minute flight that touching/removing your finger immediately is very uncomfortable.

You guys that fly your Mavics in this type of heat... Are you doing full flights until battery exhaustion, or are you limiting flight times like I'm doing? Am I being overly cautious?

I'm also concerned that my phone is going to over-temp.

Hints, observations, suggestions, criticisms welcome. I'd really like to fly, but not so much that I end up ruining my Mavic or shortening its life.

 

[BuzzyOne]

Too hot to touch = too hot to be flying.

 

[Robbyg]

You can seriously shorten the life of any capacitors on the circuit boards in the Mavic and also shorten the batteries life span. If you do not need to fly in that kind of heat do not do it.

Rob

 

[Phlier]

Thanks for the posts, gents, I kinda figured as much. We'll still be averaging 100+ temps for the next three weeks or so. I do a lot of FPV flying with 2 and 3 inch quads. They average around 3 minutes each. Think I'll try doing really short flights like this with the Mavic, but if that's still too much for it, I'll shelve it til we finally cool off. The desert is a wonderful place to live 8 months of the year, but man, we pay for it for four months.

The winters here are unbelievably nice. Once nice thing about living in the desert: we don't have to shovel sunshine.

 

[mavicn00b]

Flew mine in the Vegas heat and it flew OK. No sports mode just gentle cruising up some canyons and battery hit about 55C which wasn't too bad. Flew without the globe for max airflow and didn't let it hover in a spot.

Each flight was given a half hour rest break under air-conditioning in the car and flew about 4 batteries in total.

Not something I'd do all the time but mavic held up well.

 

[AlanTheBeast]

If it's that hot at the heat sink I'd stop flying it altogether. As Rob points out it's very hard on the battery, which is itself a heat source. You could consider a reflective white skin to reduce sun load, but it may not be enough.

 

[wayy510]

I fly my Mavic with 4 batteries constantly on the hottest days in Vegas. I also never fly in regular mode; always in sport mode.

My Mavic has never done anything out of the norm even after 4 batteries one after another. Sometimes my depleted batteries are hot as Hell but run at least 17 to 20 mins.

The only error I get is reached max motor speed once in a while when I'm moving forward and upwards at full speed.

I'm far past the point of being overly cautious or baby my Mavic and it performs as it always has.

I even flew it in a bit of heavy rain last week when I flew 3 miles out in the desert and it started a heavy rain on the way back. It was in the rain for at least 2-3 minutes.

 

[Robbyg]

I fly my Mavic with 4 batteries constantly on the hottest days in Vegas. I also never fly in regular mode; always in sport mode.

My Mavic has never done anything out of the norm even after 4 batteries one after another. Sometimes my depleted batteries are hot as **** but run at least 17 to 20 mins.

The only error I get is reached max motor speed once in a while when I'm moving forward and upwards at full speed.

I'm far past the point of being overly cautious or baby my Mavic and it performs as it always has.

I even flew it in a bit of heavy rain last week when I flew 3 miles out in the desert and it started a heavy rain on the way back. It was in the rain for at least 2-3 minutes.

I seriously doubt you will ever experience a sudden problem when flying in moderately hot weather.
What you will experience is that your battery packs will hold less and less charge and they will then die prematurely. Also as I stated the electrolytic capacitors will dry out much faster and that may cause the drone to exhibit unusual behavior or die completely much faster than one flown in normal temperatures.

Rob

 

[wayy510]

I seriously doubt you will ever experience a sudden problem when flying in hot weather.
What you will experience is that your battery packs will hold less and less charge and they will then die prematurely. Also as I stated the electrolytic capacitors will dry out much faster and that may cause the drone to exhibit unusual behavior or die completely much faster than one flown in normal temperatures.

Rob

You're right about that. I notice my batteries last longer when cooler but it may be my "upgrades" that drain faster too.

 

[Phlier]

Well, shoot... Hate having a brand new toy that I've been excited to get for a year sit on the shelf. :/ But I also don't want to cause damage that either shows up immediately, or as shortened life on components down the road.

Ah well, I have a bunch of other FPV drones I can fly while I wait for the desert to cool off a bit.

The FPV drones are great when you're looking for adrenaline while flying, but it's sure nice to take the Mavic up and just look around without having to spend all of your brain power keeping the thing out of the dirt.

 

[RavenStorm]

Flew mine in the Vegas heat and it flew OK. No sports mode just gentle cruising up some canyons and battery hit about 55C which wasn't too bad. Flew without the globe for max airflow and didn't let it hover in a spot.

Each flight was given a half hour rest break under air-conditioning in the car and flew about 4 batteries in total.

Not something I'd do all the time but mavic held up well.

Do you normally fly with the globe on??? if so why? ..
1 it will distort the image a little
2, It Massively reduces the air flow into the main vents which allows cooling.

If you don't then disregard this comment

 

[mavicn00b]

Do you normally fly with the globe on??? if so why?

Used to until I got the sunshade attachment to provide some protection to the gimbal incase of a crash

 

[Nightowl702]

I never fly mine in the middle of the day here in the Vegas heat. But when I do I usually bring in inside after im done and let it hover for a couple of minutes in the AC before putting it away. It really brings the temps down

 

[maxfaxdude]

I live in Las Vegas too. I've flown in 115+ degree temps in "enhanced" sport mode. The batteries and heat sink get very hot quickly. I once burnt my palm mildly after briefly touching the heat sink immediately after a long flight. The batteries will not last quite as long and yes it's hard on the electronics. But, I've had no heat related failures.

 

[collins]

I have used my Mavic in almost exclusively hot places - I live in Thailand, have used it in China, Indonesia, Myanmar and India. I havent had any 'out of the ordinary' problems (apart from condensation). But then again I take it out once or thrice a week for a couple of hours.

When I was in the Thar Desert (India, one of the hottest places on the earth) I came across a camp that was using DJI drones everyday up to 6 hours a day. They said the drones lasted on average about 3 months before problems caused by sand, heat and overuse rendered them pretty much useless. Seems to me that isnt at all bad all things considered. 99.9% of users are not going to subject their drones constantly to these sort of conditions.

 

[mlash]

I live out in the desert as well and in the summer I fly mine in the early morning before it gets to 104f. Usually it doesn't hit 100f until around 10am and I'm done for the day well before that! My opinion, if they say that the max is 104f, they are being conservative. However, to be safe I don't fly mine once it hits 100f.