The "Cold", she can kill you and your devices!!!

[LoudThunder]

The "Cold", she can kill you and your devices!!!

OK, we all know it's winter, well it is if you are in the Northern Hemisphere… And if you live up "here" it can get really cold…

I was tempted to fly but didn't...

Instead, I'm driving 360mi over the Alaska Range to the deep south (Anchorage). Driving with the wife and dog so probably little or no flying along the way but I do want to toss up one of the drones at -40F to see how things go but probably won't do a range test! (maybe just a hover test?? LOL).

mavicpilots.com

AkDrone was tempted and thought better… Besides frostbite, you might lose your drone because the batteries ran down so fast that you could not get it home and it's out there somewhere making "snow drones" (a droney version of a snow angel…).

But there is another death that your equipment might suffer. Your phone or tablet probably has a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and unless it's an "extreme temp" variety, it will freeze when the temperature gets below 32 degrees (and I'm not talking Latitude…).

Oh it will not happen all at once, the phone was probably in your pocket and just using it, it puts out a bit of heat, but not enough to overcome the bitter cold during a 30-minute flight and even if it did, did you disconnect the device and warm it while you were changing batteries, probably not…

And if you are flying FPV to catch all that beautiful Winter Wonderland and your device freezes up (Literally!), the screen goes black and it's not coming back no matter how many times you reboot. And at this point, you had better hope you set your RTH altitude high enough to pass over all those beautiful snow covered trees…

Besides risking the loss of your drone, when the screen freezes up it can cause permanent damage to your device and you may have to have your screen replaced.

And the bad news is not over yet, if you are flying out in the cold winter air and your screen does not freeze up, you are not necessarily out of the woods yet… When you get back in the house, the device is still cold and humidity can form condensation on your device and on its inner working and that cold also cause an internal short. So, if you were flying out in the cold, it's best to turn your device off when you go inside and give it time to warm up again…

I'm sure there are plenty of "war-stories" of folks flying their drones in the Artic and even on Mount Everest without difficulty, I just want to remind you that you should take precautions not to get Frozen out…

 

[AZDave]

Good points, but just as an addendum, most modern electronics aren't actually completely off when you turn them off. Condensation can still wreak havoc even if you think your phone or controller is "off". Even taking the batteries out still leaves the battery charge/discharge and intelligent control circuitry active. On top of that, internal condensation takes a lot longer to go away than it does to get created, so merely waiting for it to get warm again may not be enough.

 

[lensimages]

The "Cold", she can kill you and your devices!!!

OK, we all know it's winter, well it is if you are in the Northern Hemisphere… And if you live up "here" it can get really cold…

I was tempted to fly but didn't...

Instead, I'm driving 360mi over the Alaska Range to the deep south (Anchorage). Driving with the wife and dog so probably little or no flying along the way but I do want to toss up one of the drones at -40F to see how things go but probably won't do a range test! (maybe just a hover test?? LOL).

mavicpilots.com

AkDrone was tempted and thought better… Besides frostbite, you might lose your drone because the batteries ran down so fast that you could not get it home and it's out there somewhere making "snow drones" (a droney version of a snow angel…).

But there is another death that your equipment might suffer. Your phone or tablet probably has a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and unless it's an "extreme temp" variety, it will freeze when the temperature gets below 32 degrees (and I'm not talking Latitude…).

Oh it will not happen all at once, the phone was probably in your pocket and just using it, it puts out a bit of heat, but not enough to overcome the bitter cold during a 30-minute flight and even if it did, did you disconnect the device and warm it while you were changing batteries, probably not…

And if you are flying FPV to catch all that beautiful Winter Wonderland and your device freezes up (Literally!), the screen goes black and it's not coming back no matter how many times you reboot. And at this point, you had better hope you set your RTH altitude high enough to pass over all those beautiful snow covered trees…

Besides risking the loss of your drone, when the screen freezes up it can cause permanent damage to your device and you may have to have your screen replaced.

And the bad news is not over yet, if you are flying out in the cold winter air and your screen does not freeze up, you are not necessarily out of the woods yet… When you get back in the house, the device is still cold and humidity can form condensation on your device and on its inner working and that cold also cause an internal short. So, if you were flying out in the cold, it's best to turn your device off when you go inside and give it time to warm up again…

I'm sure there are plenty of "war-stories" of folks flying their drones in the Artic and even on Mount Everest without difficulty, I just want to remind you that you should take precautions not to get Frozen out…

Am I glad that I don’t live in a country where the winter cold gets that bad. Hope you take care of firstly your drone then yourself, Merry Christmas , cheers Len

 

[Ralph thompson]

A technique used by photographers is, before u come indoors, put yr equipment into a sealed plastic bag(s). This will prevent condensation on the electronics and fragile lens mechanisms. Leave them in the plastic bag for a few hours to warm up then all will be fine. Take the memory card out outside in the cold, leave the bag completly sealed indoors

 

[SmilingOgre]

Not only that but you could end up in the FAA Hoosgow! There is no way I could convince anybody I was having fun when it's that cold out.

 

[PhotoDB]

Just a thought for my anticipated sub-freezing winter flying, which only works in certain situations, but after launching, I'm going to take my controller and hop back into my warm SUV and fly from there. I can see everything I need to shoot from the heated interior and keep my other batteries warm while they await their turn.
I had a flyaway last year in the frigid cold, and don't plan to do that again.

 

[retiredNH]

Another bit of fear mongering? For what purpose?

I suspect folks who fly in very cold weather actually have experience in cold weather activities, so the OP is preaching to the choir, so to speak. For example, I've been doing winter photography for years, but not at temps below zero F, too hard on the body. Well aware of the limitations of our devices.

Decades ago, SLR cameras had issues with sticky mechanical parts in cold weather. Serious winter photographers would have a camera shop (yes, they existed back then...) lube the camera with a low temp lubricant. Meters, due to battery issues, might not work. As cameras became more electronic, battery issues became dominant, with various ways to compensate.

LCD issues? Hardly. We were much more concerned about battery, stiff film (and static) in the day, and frostbite...

 

[karlblessing]

That was one of the deciding factors to my tablet , the Samsung active3 can operate (touch and screen and all) at -40C , now while I wouldn't fly my drone at -40C let alone stand in it, I know that conditions I do fly in, the tablet can handle more than the drone or the controller can (I think it's -10C officially for the rc-n1).

 

[karlblessing]

LCD issues? Hardly. We were much more concerned about battery, stiff film (and static) in the day, and frostbite...

lightning bolts on all the frames

I remember bringing in a Mamiya RB67 into the cabin when it was sub zero temps outside. My dumbass didn't remember to put it in the camera bag first then bring it in. Thing iced up half an inch thick within a minute of bringing it inside.

 

[LoudThunder]

A technique used by photographers is, before u come indoors, put yr equipment into a sealed plastic bag(s). This will prevent condensation on the electronics and fragile lens mechanisms. Leave them in the plastic bag for a few hours to warm up then all will be fine.

Thank you for your addendum to the Topic, I had not thought of that aspect of prevention.

 

[LoudThunder]

I'm going to take my controller and hop back into my warm SUV and fly from there.

I agree that is a way to avoid or mitigate the issue of a cold, frozen display, but I do not do this, nor recommend it as (let's be honest here...) you are flying FPV and I'm not going to advocate that...

Now, I'm gong to bare a bit of my soul; if you noticed in my signature block, I am a 30-year Vet. So, when I say this and if you do not understand it, I can't explain it as you would never understand it…

I never asked my personnel to do anything I was not willing to do, there is a special bond that is established with "shared sweat" and the motivational factors of seeing the "Chief" out there with you getting wet, getting dirty and getting cold with you will inspire your personnel onto greater effort.

I'm retired now, over 20-years, but I still live by this creed and I'm not going to ask my drone to do something I'm not willing to do… So, I will stand in the cold. Yes, I've even named my drone…

 

[Chrislaf]

I fly in cold weather just as much as in the warm weather, the only difference is that I take precautions like using hand warmers, keeping batteries warm until flight, flying within VLOS and landing sooner. I also do not push my drone to its limits in very cold weather. I never fly from inside a vehicle as I can’t have good situational awareness from inside a vehicle. The coldest, I have been out has been around -25C with varying degrees of wind chill.

Chris

 

[PHZ]

Lots of good points and suggestions. I fly an Inspire 2 frequently during cold weather (down to O F), with a co-pilot on the second controller. Both of us have iPads. Some of these mapping flights take four to six sets of batteries, so we are out in the cold a while. To avoid/delay the crashing of the iPad, we take a pair of chemical hand warmers, tape them to the back of the iPad, then slip the top of a small insulted bag over the entire unit. Works great.

 

[karlblessing]

Thank you for your addendum to the Topic, I had not thought of that aspect of prevention.

Same I've done that for years as a photographer. I'd put all the cards into my pocket and bag everything else up. That way I could start working on the footage soon as I got home while everything else thawed.

 

[BroomRider]

The big cold front came through my location ~12:noon yesterday; despite the snow in the screen grab, it didn't stick.

Neither did the temperature… during the ~15 minutes that I was outside, it went from 41'F to 31'F & my fingertips were freezing & starting to feel numb from the wind chill @ >21 knots & gusting much higher.

I took off when the temperature was within the specified limits of my M3P, but quickly dropped below that. I had 1 freshly-charged battery in the drone & the 2nd 1 keeping warm between my… I mean, on my chest.

(with that pleasant vision, I'll now continue)

Within ~1-1/2 minutes, I noticed that the camera view was getting foggy/misty, & sometime during the flight, I think that the optical sensors were affected too, as I noticed that their indicator had turned from white to red. I attributed that to the camera/sensors either picking up the frozen precip, or melting it, on the surface leaving drops of moisture. Perhaps condensation…?

I was always keeping VLOS, never taking it much >300', so if I ever lost the camera view, I could still fly it manually back down. In this instance, Auto RTH was not an option!

Next time, I'm wearing gloves! (Not sure if I wouldn't lose the fine sense of control, though)

Wishing everyone a joyous Solstice (yes, I know, that's belated) & happy Yule!

 

[LoudThunder]

Next time, I'm wearing gloves!

Thank you for the report. Pick up some "Touch Sensitive Gloves" they are sold in all thicknesses, from light weight driving gloves to heavier winter wear thickness. I use a pair ($9.00 at Costco -- US Market...) and they work great.

The one draw back is that you do not have the most sensitive nor accurate touch (you probably cannot text as the little letters are probably too close, but you should have no problem with the menu in the Fly App...

 

[Bob in Savannah]

Another bit of fear mongering? For what purpose?

Not even close.

Considering the deepest freeze my part of the country has seen in 30+ years blew thru 24 hours ago, I don't think you could be more oblivious. lol

This is decent and responsible information considering what the southern half of the country is seeing. Maybe you Yankies up north see this crap every year but the other half the country does NOT.

 

[Jamesz]

Lots of good points and suggestions. I fly an Inspire 2 frequently during cold weather (down to O F), with a co-pilot on the second controller. Both of us have iPads. Some of these mapping flights take four to six sets of batteries, so we are out in the cold a while. To avoid/delay the crashing of the iPad, we take a pair of chemical hand warmers, tape them to the back of the iPad, then slip the top of a small insulted bag over the entire unit. Works great.

Do you have a particular curse that works when insulting the bag!

 

[BroomRider]

Not even close.

Considering the deepest freeze my part of the country has seen in 30+ years blew thru 24 hours ago, I don't think you could be more oblivious. lol

This is decent and responsible information considering what the southern half of the country is seeing. Maybe you Yankies up north see this crap every year but the other half the country does NOT.

Not that I'm trying to belittle the impact of the recent weather, but I thought that a wee bit of humor might help…

 

[LoudThunder]

I thought that a wee bit of humor might help…

Oh, It did help... and how true, I grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and our snow fall was seldom measured in inches, but rather in feet. I now live in the Tidewater Area of Virginia (North of Norfolk) and they even shut the schools down if there is even the hint of this much "southern snow…" Thank you for a good laugh!