warm weather... how does the dji fpv drone cope?

[thetechnobear]

I took the dji fpv drone out yesterday to do some tests.... and it was 35C (95f) , with a pretty strong (and hot!) wind...

when I checked the motors they were pretty hot, as in you could barely keep your fingers on them.


I didnt get any errors in the googles, and it was still flying fine.. (did 3 flights) , thought was pretty concerning.

I was in manual mode, but wasn't really pushing it, because of the strong wind, which perhaps contributed a little.

specs:

Operating Temperature. -10° to 40° C (14° to 104° F)

seems to me at 40C the motors are going to be on fire !

I also wonder if altitude plays a part, as Im at 1300m


whats your experience at warmer temperatures?

 

[Fast and Curious]

I wouldn't be too worried about overheating. If you are flying hard battery after battery on a hot day give it a chance to cool down. Electronics can comfortably operate at hundreds of degrees celsius and motors would have to be extremely hot to deform or something. To play it safe you can stop for a while between batteries if the motors are too hot to touch.

 

[dougcjohn]

We have mid-upper 90's, and humid. No issues of strong concern... agree it would take much higher Temps for electronics & motors. When not flying, keep in shade / out of direct Sun.

The batteries probably have the primary concern in higher Temps compared to craft. They have a suggested temp operating range of -10 to 40 C (104F). On a 90F degree day, left on a table in Sun can easily exceed that temp... keep them cool prior to use and wait 30 minutes prior to charging back up... internally they can be hot too.

If looking for a reason to justify a backup, pick up a 2nd FPV to cycle every 3 batteries on hot days. ?

 

[thetechnobear]

yeah, im not worries about electronics, and indeed batteries I already keep out the sun.

really only the motors concern me (a little bit) as they do get hot.
of course, I can stop to let them cool down, but i was just surprised how much warmer they were getting when the ambient air temp increased.

also, we did have a report here of a failure that was suspect to be due to high temps....

DJI FPV Crash and Airdata HD Flight Player Data

I'm posting this in case it has happened to others, with a little advice for finding my drone. My DJI FPV drone crashed the first time in April while flying in the Californias desert. I was cruising and videoing in 4K in Sport Mode at 50 mph at full throttle and around 90 degrees outside...

fpvdronepilots.com

also there are various tests of other dji drones which show high temps will cause problems,
admittedly these are all over the temp that DJI recommends, and of couse different drones will behave differently - so who knows if the dji fpv is better/worst.

so definitely wise to take some precautions.

 

[afreakofnature]

The goggles would be my only concern and they have a fan in them so probably no worries. The only reason I say that is because when I was flying my Mavic my iPad would always overheat in hot temperatures before the drone ever did. The processor on the ipad doesn’t have any way of cooling down.

 

[A.O.]

I think my only concern is me!! I always overheat before the drone does!! Been at mid to upper 90s, humidity in the 80s at about 500 ft above sea level.