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Poll: Gimbal cover: on or off?

Do you keep the gimble cover on during flight?


  • Total voters
    274

mpa

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2017
Messages
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124
Alrighty, there appears to still be much "controversy" about the use of the gimbal cover during flight.

I personally keep it on, these are some of the observations i have made:

1. First and foremost it provides mechanical protection for the fragile gimble and camera.

2. It proves a physical barrier to bugs, dirt debris. cleaning the bugs off on the body after every flights is bad enough.

3. There is no noticeable affect that i could see on the heat sinks/electronics. most electronics operate from -20degressC to 150degress C, none of the components get anywhere near these extremes. they sit around 70degressC cover on or off

4. The mavic cooling system is trigger by a temperature sensor, it only turns on the fan when the temps reach a predefined level. my observations are that most of the time the fans are off during flight even after 20 minutes, this leads me to believe the passive airflow over the heatsinks as the drone is moving through the air is sufficient to keep the drone cool. only real times i heard the fan running is when its sitting on my desk during a firmware upgrade or when its sitting around stationary for 5 minutes or so. therefore if the fans not on than there no heating issues.
note: these observations 3 and 4 were made throughout winter and summer (10degressC to 30 degress C) for people in an Alaskan winter or the Sahara your results might vary significantly

5. if DJI really wanted people to take the cover off because they believed it would reduce the life of the drone they would have made the cover non-transparent with a label saying remove before flight.

6. there are multiple threads on the official DJI forums where DJI themselves had said its ok to fly with it on : heres one i just googled Gimbal cover for protection in flight?, im sure the guy from DJI who is saying this would have been fired by now if he is spreading misinformation.

7. I've had more than 30 hours 600km of flight with gimble cover on with no issues.

8. If i one day do intend to use the footage professionally i will not hesitate take the cover off, but for just recreational flying ill keep it on.

9. Most of all just have fun flying, do whats best for you don't be convinced by someone else. we come from all over the world, whats best for you is sometimes not necessarily best for others. operating environments are different from all over the world. some people here are too passionate about the the cover being on or off and end up spreading rumors or misinformation, and end up hijacking threads about something completely different.


Everyones welcome to vote in the poll, im curious as to what the percentage is using the gimble cover. i suspect most dont use it because points 1 and 2 (above) arent too important to them (which is completly fine!),
Cheer everyone
 
Last edited:
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Alrighty, there appears to still be much "controversy" about the use of the gimble cover during flight.

I personally keep it on, these are some of the observations i have made:

1. First and foremost it provides mechanical protection for the fragile gimble and camera.

2. It proves a physical barrier to bugs, dirt debris. cleaning the bugs off on the body after every flights is bad enough.

3. There is no noticeable affect that i could see on the heat sinks/electronics. most electronics operate from -20degressC to 150degress C, none of the components get anywhere near these extremes. they sit around 70degressC cover on or off

4. The mavic cooling system is trigger by a temperature sensor, it only turns on the fan when the temps reach a predefined level. my observations are that most of the time the fans are off during flight even after 20 minutes, this leads me to believe the passive airflow over the heatsinks as the drone is moving through the air is sufficient to keep the drone cool. only real times i heard the fan running is when its sitting on my desk during a firmware upgrade or when its sitting around stationary for 5 minutes or so. therefore if the fans not on than there no heating issues.
note: these observations 3 and 4 were made throughout winter and summer (10degressC to 30 degress C) for people in an Alaskan winter or the Sahara your results might vary significantly

5. if DJI really wanted people to take the cover off because they believed it would reduce the life of the drone they would have made the cover non-transparent with a label saying remove before flight.

6. there are multiple threads on the official DJI forums where DJI themselves had said its ok to fly with it on : heres one i just googled Gimbal cover for protection in flight?, im sure the guy from DJI who is saying this would have been fired by now if he is spreading misinformation.

7. I've had more than 30 hours 600km of flight with gimble cover on with no issues.

8. If i one day do intend to use the footage professionally i will not hesitate take the cover off, but for just recreational flying ill keep it on.

9. Most of all just have fun flying, do whats best for you don't be convinced by someone else. we come from all over the world, whats best for you is sometimes not necessarily best for others. operating environments are different from all over the world. some people here are too passionate about the the cover being on or off and end up spreading rumors or misinformation, and end up hijacking threads about something completely different.


Everyones welcome to vote in the poll, im curious as to what the percentage is using the gimble cover. i suspect most dont use it because points 1 and 2 (above) arent too important to them (which is completly fine!),
Cheer everyone
I presume your search returned no results due to the misspelling of "gimbal"
Search Results for Query: Gimbal cover | DJI Mavic Drone Forum
 
Keeping gimbal cover on.... Bro, do you even photography?

Actually, I just saw your video where you hit the powerline flying over a creek. I know this comment is aggressive but, seriously, you can SEE the effect it has on your shots, why in the world would you do this? Seriously, if people ask WTF is that crap in all your shots, maybe that should clue you in to something
 
Last edited:
Keeping gimbal cover on.... Bro, do you even photography?

Actually, I just saw your video where you hit the powerline flying over a creek. I know this comment is aggressive but, seriously, you can SEE the effect it has on your shots, why in the world would you do this? Seriously, if people ask WTF is that crap in all your shots, maybe that should clue you in to something

Because its my drone and i will do whatever i like to it. I get the feeling your not understanding the spirit of my post
 
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Because its my drone and i will do whatever i like to it. I get the feeling your not understanding the spirit of my post
No, no I get that. But you asked for a poll/opinion, the sentiment of my vote is stated in quoted post. If you're just flying around for giggles then OK, but you posted your near fatal incident as "4k", implying "Amazing photo/cinema qualities". If that's what one is going for, then.. well you know what, it doesn't even matter, fly with the thing on and have fun.
 
No, no I get that. But you asked for a poll/opinion, the sentiment of my vote is stated in quoted post. If you're just flying around for giggles then OK, but you posted your near fatal incident as "4k", implying "Amazing photo/cinema qualities". If that's what one is going for, then.. well you know what, it doesn't even matter, fly with the thing on and have fun.

But you can see the crap in 4K!
 
But you can see the crap in 4K!
then unsee it. no ones asking u to view the footage

to please the naysayers on this forum and remove cover, or to protect my 1600$ drone?. ill choose the latter, your just gonna have to suck it up with the flare.
 
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then unsee it. no ones asking u to view the footage

to please the naysayers on this forum and remove cover, or to protect my 1600$ drone?. ill choose the latter, your just gonna have to suck it up with the flare.

I bet you still have the stickers that came on your TV to remember all the great features it has.

As far as sucking it up.. I think I'll just look at the great clear footage from my Mavic, that always soothes the soul...
 
only real times i heard the fan running is when its sitting on my desk during a firmware upgrade or when its sitting around stationary for 5 minutes or so. therefore if the fans not on than there no heating issues.
I was curious about just how often the fan needs to come on during flight, I wonder if there is such info in the flight data? I could see using the protection in sport mode, and with the gimbal clamp too, so I could torque the thing in extreme moves. Hopefully the computer is smart enough to not try to move the camera when it detects the clamp is on?

Also a friendly forum tip. Whenever someone addresses you as 'bro', it might make sense to stop reading that post. It has been my experience that the term is a passive aggressive fire starter. Honestly if I ran the forum, the use of the word 'bro' would supersede words like **** and ********** and even ******** in regards to instant permban. :)
 
Maybe if I will try to to check how far would my mp reach (to lessen the drag ) but normally it Is off :)
 
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