Official Mavic Pro Range Leaderboard!

[MacIak]

I saw this youtube video where a guy made this fantastic long run range test and a level2 forced landing kicked in. He did a great job guiding it in, but had to run 10 yards from home point to catch it as it fell from the sky. Does this count as a full round trip??

Id say: nice job but...no!
Gotta draw a line somewhere.

 

[beanbubba]

Id say: nice job but...no!
Gotta draw a line somewhere.

I agree, but it can't be inches. GPS on a good day is 10 feet out of whack and we use the aircraft logs to verify this. I would propose we make it within 7 yards??

 

[MacIak]

I agree, but it can't be inches. GPS on a good day is 10 feet out of whack and we use the aircraft logs to verify this. I would propose we make it within 7 yards??

Haha!! We should consult @JakeMaxxUAV
He started this!

 

[beanbubba]

Lol, I would count it. As for myself, I fly over water, so it's going for a swim. Got a case of the red mist chasing a cruise ship today. Fought a head wind all the way back, but she made it with plenty to spare, lolol

Hey Armyav8tor, cool run. Just curious, how close to you dare to get to the ship? I have not heard of any guidelines or etiquette for this particular scenario.

 

[beanbubba]

Lol, I would count it. As for myself, I fly over water, so it's going for a swim. Got a case of the red mist chasing a cruise ship today. Fought a head wind all the way back, but she made it with plenty to spare, lolol

Hey Armyav8tor, cool run. Just curious, how close to you dare to get to the ship? I have not heard of any guidelines or etiquette for this particular scenario.

 

[armyav8tor]

Hey Armyav8tor, cool run. Just curious, how close to you dare to get to the ship? I have not heard of any guidelines or etiquette for this particular scenario.

That was as close as I got in the picture. There were boats following closer than I was flying. Honestly, it was just a target of opportunity. Don't usually go chasing after ships, lol.

 

[beanbubba]

I was getting ready for another range run and noticed my battery clip still attached to the mavic. I thought, what the hell, let's strap another battery on its back along with the side car units.

@JakeMaxxUAV I believe this puts me at #7 on the leaderboard at 6+ miles.

Battery Bypass Mod + Battery Clip Mod
35:15 flight time
Distance 31,880 feet (new personal best)
Landing Battery 9%
Dual 1500 3s poly (on battery bypass)
11.0 volts each at end of flight
Single 4000 3s poly (on battery clip)
11.1 volts each at end of flight
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

**This flight I did not use sport mode on the return as winds were relatively calm both ways.

 

[CyberNate]

I was getting ready for another range run and noticed my battery clip still attached to the mavic. I thought, what the ****, let's strap another battery on its back along with the side car units.

@JakeMaxxUAV I believe this puts me at #7 on the leaderboard at 6+ miles.

Battery Bypass Mod + Battery Clip Mod
35:15 flight time
Distance 31,880 feet (new personal best)
Landing Battery 9%
Dual 1500 3s poly (on battery bypass)
11.0 volts each at end of flight
Single 4000 3s poly (on battery clip)
11.1 volts each at end of flight
Airdata UAV - Flight Data Analysis for Drones

**This flight I did not use sport mode on the return as winds were relatively calm both ways.

View attachment 16257

Nice flight! Be careful about putting too much strain on rear motors. The top battery is a bit too far to the rear. You might see "max motor speed reached" as a result of rear motors hitting max rpm. They will also be much hotter than front of you check them after the flight. Additionally, the GPS module is at the rear, so try to avoid blocking or it will cut down on GPS sensitivity. You're getting there! Once you get those 4000s you are going to see some big numbers!

 

[beanbubba]

Nice flight! Be careful about putting too much strain on rear motors. The top battery is a bit too far to the rear. You might see "max motor speed reached" as a result of rear motors hitting max rpm. They will also be much hotter than front of you check them after the flight. Additionally, the GPS module is at the rear, so try to avoid blocking or it will cut down on GPS sensitivity. You're getting there! Once you get those 4000s you are going to see some big numbers!

Hey Cybernate,

I had no idea what I was doing during this flight and I kept seeing the max rotor speed warnings, now obvious of the front-back weight imbalance you pointed out. I honestly had no intention of doing a full range test but it started out so well I could not stop. I fell back on my knowledge and wisdom from the pro's on this forum and remembered what you said to always keep rpm's below 85% at all costs. As you can see from the attached google earth KML, I went into hyper manual stick operator mode to keep under 85% (it's not easy). You can validate this seeing the smooth flight line versus the usual stair step pattern. This would have taken me months on end to figure out without your guys support. Thanks again.

BTW - I did do a hand touch of all the motors right after the flight and I could not tell a difference from feel. This is not scientific, but just an FYI. Also, I normally get 19 sat's in this location, but this run was only 13 (due to the battery blockage that you pointed out).

 

[CyberNate]

Hey Cybernate,

I had no idea what I was doing during this flight and I kept seeing the max rotor speed warnings, now obvious of the front-back weight imbalance you pointed out. I honestly had no intention of doing a full range test but it started out so well I could not stop. I fell back on my knowledge and wisdom from the pro's on this forum and remembered what you said to always keep rpm's below 85% at all costs. As you can see from the attached google earth KML, I went into hyper manual stick operator mode to keep under 85% (it's not easy). You can validate this seeing the smooth flight line versus the usual stair step pattern. This would have taken me months on end to figure out without your guys support. Thanks again.

BTW - I did do a hand touch of all the motors right after the flight and I could not tell a difference from feel. This is not scientific, but just an FYI. Also, I normally get 19 sat's in this location, but this run was only 13 (due to the battery blockage that you pointed out).

View attachment 16270

Well that's odd that you didn't feel temperature difference, but I assure you that the rear motors are running much harder than the front. This is already true BEFORE you added external batteries that set the COG further toward the rear. With forward flight the rear must spin faster than front to get forward lean. There's more than 30% difference in motor speed. Now you shift your COG back and it's even worse. You were probably limited on your speed due to the rear motors hitting max rpm and bouncing off the limit. This is not efficient. You don't want those max motor speed messages. Move the COG further forward to help with that. It'll be better when you have the dual 4000s, although it is tricky to fly those in any kind of wind. Any cross wind over 7 mph and you'll start seeing "Max Motor Speed" messages. This setup is only for long range and on good days. The dual 3000s are more forgiving for general flying and still good for well over 44k ft.

 

[beanbubba]

Hey guys, in one of the other threads I made some observations about antenna polarization that might be useful when you are experimenting with external antennas.

Mavic pro battery & antenna mod!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dirtybum]

good job on your personal best BB!
I was looking at your flight/flight time and scratching my head wondering why you didn't do a lot better on distance, the wind was so calm. Then it hit me. 1500 foot altitude! I can't imagine the damage you could do if you had any area to fly were you could only have to climb 200 foot. I'm shocked you could even maintain such a good signal score aiming that high. Nice

 

[beanbubba]

good job on your personal best BB!
I was looking at your flight/flight time and scratching my head wondering why you didn't do a lot better on distance, the wind was so calm. Then it hit me. 1500 foot altitude! I can't imagine the damage you could do if you had any area to fly were you could only have to climb 200 foot. I'm shocked you could even maintain such a good signal score aiming that high. Nice

I have to find a new place to range test or install a 60' tower. I have a line of trees 45' tall and to get the distance needed, I have to increase altitude the entire run. That run is the limit of my current setup out of my shop.

 

[beanbubba]

Well that's odd that you didn't feel temperature difference, but I assure you that the rear motors are running much harder than the front. This is already true BEFORE you added external batteries that set the COG further toward the rear. With forward flight the rear must spin faster than front to get forward lean. There's more than 30% difference in motor speed. Now you shift your COG back and it's even worse. You were probably limited on your speed due to the rear motors hitting max rpm and bouncing off the limit. This is not efficient. You don't want those max motor speed messages. Move the COG further forward to help with that. It'll be better when you have the dual 4000s, although it is tricky to fly those in any kind of wind. Any cross wind over 7 mph and you'll start seeing "Max Motor Speed" messages. This setup is only for long range and on good days. The dual 3000s are more forgiving for general flying and still good for well over 44k ft.

Hey Cybernate,

I experimented today with center of gravity and swung too far to the other end of the spectrum. See attached pictures, from eyeballing it the CoG appears to be too far to the rear. But after a test flight, the front rotors were smoking hot and the rear rotors were barely warm.

Have you determined the ideal CoG? I am guessing it is around a half inch to the rear of whats depicted in this picture.

 

[CyberNate]

Hey Cybernate,

I experimented today with center of gravity and swung too far to the other end of the spectrum. See attached pictures, from eyeballing it the CoG appears to be too far to the rear. But after a test flight, the front rotors were smoking hot and the rear rotors were barely warm.

Have you determined the ideal CoG? I am guessing it is around a half inch to the rear of whats depicted in this picture.

View attachment 16429 View attachment 16430

I would center the COG or move it just slightly forward of center. I don't have enough test data to verify if moving forward of center is really helping, but you definitely don't want COG biased toward the rear. If you download the DAT files off Mavic and convert to CSV, you will see the ESC current for each motor as well as motor speeds. You'll be surprised how much more power and motor speed is used by the rear motors.

 

[beanbubba]

I would center the COG or move it just slightly forward of center. I don't have enough test data to verify if moving forward of center is really helping, but you definitely don't want COG biased toward the rear. If you download the DAT files off Mavic and convert to CSV, you will see the ESC current for each motor as well as motor speeds. You'll be surprised how much more power and motor speed is used by the rear motors.

I get it and followed your lead from the last thread. But rotor temps don't lie! I moved everything forward as shown in the picture and the front rotors were on fire. I have never downloaded the DAT files, let me try that and see if they support the theory and report back my findings. Thx again for the tips as I continue my apprenticeship.

 

[CyberNate]

I get it and followed your lead from the last thread. But rotor temps don't lie! I moved everything forward as shown in the picture and the front rotors were on fire. I have never downloaded the DAT files, let me try that and see if they support the theory and report back my findings. Thx again for the tips as I continue my apprenticeship.

Temperature is a good indicator. If the front motors are hotter, then they must be working harder than the rear motors. That's odd that you see different behavior. Well, you should try to balance the COG to a point where you get even motor temps and I would check the DAT files for your flights. You can get the DATCON and CSV VIEWER tools that @BudWalker of this forum developed. Very useful!

Edit: I assume you are doing your tests with forward flight, not hovering.

One more thing, you might want to change your 3M Dual Lock tape. That low profile Dual Lock is not that strong, especially when it gets hot and slightly worn. I was using that as well in the past and switched after some concerns. I'm using this one:

3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener SJ3560 250 Clear

 

[beanbubba]

Temperature is a good indicator. If the front motors are hotter, then they must be working harder than the rear motors. That's odd that you see different behavior. Well, you should try to balance the COG to a point where you get even motor temps and I would check the DAT files for your flights. You can get the DATCON and CSV VIEWER tools that @BudWalker of this forum developed. Very useful!

Edit: I assume you are doing your tests with forward flight, not hovering.

One more thing, you might want to change your 3M Dual Lock tape. That low profile Dual Lock is not that strong, especially when it gets hot and slightly worn. I was using that as well in the past and switched after some concerns. I'm using this one:

3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener SJ3560 250 Clear

I am not using the dual lock tape, I am using the old school standard industrial Velcro. It has never let me down, but I am always up to try something new. I will order some now and try it out.

 

[sprtbkrydr]

I have a line of trees 45' tall and to get the distance needed, I have to increase altitude the entire run.

I have the same problem here where I'm at. So many tall trees that I have to climb so high to keep signal.

 

[BudWalker]

Temperature is a good indicator. If the front motors are hotter, then they must be working harder than the rear motors. That's odd that you see different behavior. Well, you should try to balance the COG to a point where you get even motor temps and I would check the DAT files for your flights. You can get the DATCON and CSV VIEWER tools that @BudWalker of this forum developed. Very useful!

Edit: I assume you are doing your tests with forward flight, not hovering.

One more thing, you might want to change your 3M Dual Lock tape. That low profile Dual Lock is not that strong, especially when it gets hot and slightly worn. I was using that as well in the past and switched after some concerns. I'm using this one:

3M Dual Lock Reclosable Fastener SJ3560 250 Clear

Actually, I suspect the motorEscTemp is the temp of the ESC circuitry and not the motor itself. The motor doesn't have enough wires for there to be a temp sensor on the motor.