Cold weather flights

Trawlerman · Dec 14, 2017

I got out today. 15 degrees f. I kept the batteries warm in the house. Although I didn't pay much attention, the batteries showed little difference in time from when I was flying with the temperatures in the 50s. The batteries showed the same steady decline I've experienced when it's warmer. A nice new 6 inch snow to look at.

pep56 · Dec 21, 2017

Wow, good information on cold weather flying. Thanks all.

Ianaic · Dec 29, 2017

My fiance got Me the p3se for Xmas. It's been around 10 degrees here I NJ and I notice I get little issues when it's real cold! When I flew in 30 degrees it was fine. But the gimbal will twitch ava I have problems turning off the distance limit. It will be off but still stops at 30m. It's frustrating when it does that. Now when I hover inside the gimbal works perfect. I looked up online if extreme cold has an effect on electronic and it does from what I read. Not just the battery . Also this is not my first drone and by no means am I a begginer. Can some one shed some light on This for me please? Thank you.

Chrislaf · Dec 29, 2017

The distance limit may not be related to the cold temps. Have you updated firmware recently? There are numerous threads about distance and height being restricted to 30m and 50m. I have even gotten them myself on my P3S. In most cases you will get an error message but you can still fly beyond the limits. Also, I think I read somewhere that if you log out then back in to your DJI account it gets rid of the limits. You might want to try that.

I have flown my P3S in cold temps without any problems - the coldest so far has been around -14ºC (7ºF). My gimbal has worked fine in all cases. The only time I had gimbal twitches was when I was flying in cold windy weather and my craft got blasted with a gust of wind and snow before take off. The craft and camera were coated in snow. After I brushed it off and took off I had gimbal twitches and a message to calibrate the IMU. I did and now everything is back to normal. The last time I flew before Christmas (Dec 21st) I had problems with signal loss close by within 30m. It was cold again and I was trying a new transmitter glove out that covers my transmitter, so I am thinking that the internal antenna was blocked and that's why I had the problems. I may go out today (-15ºC) and see if I have the same problems without the transmitter glove.

I also have a battery warmer which I use to keep my batteries warm before flight. I am still experimenting in cold weather but so far there have been few problems just as long as I keep my battery warm and keep a close eye on the battery voltage.

Chris

PhantomFlyer3SE · Dec 29, 2017

Ianaic said:
My fiance got Me the p3se for Xmas. It's been around 10 degrees here I NJ and I notice I get little issues when it's real cold! When I flew in 30 degrees it was fine. But the gimbal will twitch ava I have problems turning off the distance limit. It will be off but still stops at 30m. It's frustrating when it does that. Now when I hover inside the gimbal works perfect. I looked up online if extreme cold has an effect on electronic and it does from what I read. Not just the battery . Also this is not my first drone and by no means am I a begginer. Can some one shed some light on This for me please? Thank you.

Are you sure, that 30 m was the distance, and not the hight limit?
A had many time the experience that if I started with to cold battery I had an error message, and wasn't able to fly over 50 m distance and 30 m hight. But if I landed, restarted everyting, I was able to fly free again.
30 m distance limitation can be the beginner mode as well. Was it switched off?

Ianaic · Dec 29, 2017

Chrislaf said:
The distance limit may not be related to the cold temps. Have you updated firmware recently? There are numerous threads about distance and height being restricted to 30m and 50m. I have even gotten them myself on my P3S. In most cases you will get an error message but you can still fly beyond the limits. Also, I think I read somewhere that if you log out then back in to your DJI account it gets rid of the limits. You might want to try that.

I have flown my P3S in cold temps without any problems - the coldest so far has been around -14ºC (7ºF). My gimbal has worked fine in all cases. The only time I had gimbal twitches was when I was flying in cold windy weather and my craft got blasted with a gust of wind and snow before take off. The craft and camera were coated in snow. After I brushed it off and took off I had gimbal twitches and a message to calibrate the IMU. I did and now everything is back to normal. The last time I flew before Christmas (Dec 21st) I had problems with signal loss close by within 30m. It was cold again and I was trying a new transmitter glove out that covers my transmitter, so I am thinking that the internal antenna was blocked and that's why I had the problems. I may go out today (-15ºC) and see if I have the same problems without the transmitter glove.

I also have a battery warmer which I use to keep my batteries warm before flight. I am still experimenting in cold weather but so far there have been few problems just as long as I keep my battery warm and keep a close eye on the battery voltage.

Chris

Well the firmware says up to date can I still update it if is up to date? When it gets to 30 m the back green leds turn red n the app says height limit. And I have all the limits turned off. I calibrated the gimbal this morning before work but did not get a chance to test it out. I have gotten nice flights with it and had fpv the whole time. The app crashes some times on my samsung galaxy j7 but I just restart the app a f3 I'm fine. Im glad yours is doing good and yes we gotta Keep these batteries warm. I walk out of n my house to fly so it doesn't get cold. I did have

PhantomFlyer3SE said:
Are you sure, that 30 m was the distance, and not the hight limit?
A had many time the experience that if I started with to cold battery I had an error message, and wasn't able to fly over 50 m distance and 30 m hight. But if I landed, restarted everyting, I was able to fly free again.
30 m distance limitation can be the beginner mode as well. Was it switched off?

your exactly right!!! 30m height and I don't know the distance cuz I would come back to land to restart the drone. I took it for a flight 20 min ago and even though the beginner mode was of I turned it on n then off went for a nice flight cuz it was ok after that. I hope it stays that way. But hmmm if the battery is to cold witch it is where I am it might be doing the same as yours. I noticed b4 one flight the Battery temp was 17° so it sound like we have the same thing. Thanx you for your reply I appreciate it!

RunningWithScissors · Dec 30, 2017

Haven't had much time to fly with the holiday and all but, my last flight was just before Christmas. Air temp was in the upper 20's. I kept the flight short, a bit under 10 minutes. Distance out was 6600+ feet. Battery started with 97%, 67% on landing. Battery temp was 66 deg. to start, 86 deg. on landing.