Cold Weather ADVICE

[B Coleman]

I'm still very much a novice trying very hard to make this all work.
This weekend I have tried to do a mapping mission with less than wonderful results. DroneDeploy App crashing several times, loss of connection to drone (one time for almost 5 minutes. RTH was not responding, then finally did.) Magnetic interference.
Among the most frustrating problems I have experienced so far has been my phone and controller acting sluggish to respond because of the cold - 34 degrees.
It was suggested that I try working from inside my car to keep these warm. I tried this once and experienced a brief signal loss, but I also experienced this away from the car so I'm not sure if that's related to the problem.
Advice?

Thanks!

 

[Aerial Edge]

There may be others with more experience with cold weather then I have, but I do have some experience. Cold will bring out the gremlins on most anything. We were flying the other day doing a training flight in 37 degree temps with wind blowing 10-15 mph. We really did not have much problems besides doing complex maneuvers and practicing ATTI mode recovery after loss of GPS and video signal. This was on a Matrice 200v2. I was flying later that day and ran into problems with my Inspire 1 pro due to cold batteries.

On consumer drones I try to keep my tablet under my jacket or in my pocket until it is time to launch. Also keep the batteries in your pocket will help to keep them warm. I also let it sit for a minute or 2 before launching the motors to help warm the batteries ups, and give it a little more idle time on the ground. I have also used the zippo hand warmers on my electronics to help keep them warm and my hands at the same time.

Magnetic interference is a tough one, lots of things can cause that. The higher end the craft the better they deal with it. On the power lines we often have cell phone repeaters on the top. Even with the high end equipment we try to avoid being in the beam width of the patch antenna when imaging the towers.

Sometimes repositioning your location can help with some interference. Hope that helps some.

 

[B Coleman]

Thanks! I appreciate knowing it was not totally my lack of experience causing these glitches.
Sunny and 54 today so I tried it again. I still had DroneDeploy app crashes and another lost connection/near flyaway. Guess it was more than just the cold.

 

[clolsonus]

A couple thoughts. Last year at this time I was having odd troubles with drone deploy on our ipad which was theoretically < 1 year since purchase. Apparently it was too old to properly support drone deploy's new features they were rolling out. We were having terrible trouble with lost connections to the drone, sluggish app behavior ... even to the point of the app going minutes without updating. Even though I liked the features and flow of the drone deploy mapping app, we ended up switching to the pix4d app (which also isn't perfect) but got a lot more reliable results ... especially in areas with no internet connection (drone deploy pretty much needed a solid internet connection to actually work.) It can be hard to separate out the causes of issues when they stack up, but it's just worth keeping in mind that some of that could be the drone deploy app itself.

For cold weather ops, the coldest I've flown in was +5 F with a P4P. Things got steadily worse over time and almost lost the drone at the end when the proximity sensors started lying and it wouldn't land, and then would only move one direction (towards trees.) Thankfully managed to get it down somehow safely.

We have flown long days (12 batteries) in 20-ish F weather. For us it is important to keep your spare batteries warm before you use them. I would stuff batteries into my armpits and inside pockets of my coat. I also discovered it's important to keep the hand controller from getting too cold as well (it has batteries and electronics too.) We used a traditional "RC" model airplane transmitter glove which worked pretty ok. Also you have to keep yourself warm if you are standing out in the cold for several hours ... (we had to hike in a 1/2 mile from our car so we couldn't cheat ...)

Cold is definitely a challenge, but doable to some degree ...

Edit: For DJI being the best of the best ... I've seen a whole lot of weird stuff in our P4P and our Mavic and the mapping apps. You end up with a bunch of subconscious knowledge built up of various things you almost don't think about because there isn't any apparently reason, but if you don't do the weird things in the particular ways, the stuff doesn't work. It's weird, but I don't think I've yet had a day where I've gone out and flown through all our batteries without some weird issue of something happening, sometimes even getting the ding dang thing to arm and take off is a challenge. Last time out I had problems getting stuck at a mapping waypoint and just hovering indefinitely until I called it home. That's always fun when you've driven 3 hours and have just enough batteries for the mission and have to waste 3/4 of a flight on that sort of nonsense. Just complaining!

 

[WVDronePilot]

Only speaking to the cold...
Some drones (Inspire 2) have self-heating batteries which makes a ton of difference in the drone's operation in cold weather. But the tablet/phone and controller (and fingers) suffer from this cold more than the drone itself.
I have lots of experience flying in sub-freezing temperatures. Our SOP was to keep everything in the heated vehicle until necessary. Having multiple devices to rotate in/out also helps. Try to keep mission times short and even with mapping, you can map sections at a time or pause mission then resume. It's much easier to run a auto controlled mission in the cold vs a freehand flight.

Regarding the magnetic interference...
Keep in mind there is rebar in cement depending on what it is, high voltage lines sometimes cause it as well, even vehicles or metal structures can whack it out. In some cases even sun spots can cause an issue (so I'm told).

Can't speak on DD, I've only used it a couple of times.

You are not alone in your frustrations, just mitigate the risk and manage your heat.

Good luck.

 

[Norstar]

Only replying to cold weather ops. I’ve flown in -31 C (that’s real cold by the way for all you from the USA) and I had to snowmobile to the flight area about 30 minutes away from my vehicle. I was flying a phantom 4 pro, using maps made easy app.
Just a few tips, most already mentioned.
1. Have more batteries than you need. (I carried 12 for a four battery flight, I used 5 batteries).
2. Warm your batteries under your arm pits. (There was no other place, so I pre-warmed my next batteries while flying).
3. Have a stylus for your iPad, or electronic device. (My cold fingers wouldn’t work on the touch screen, and my screen sensitive gloves were too cold to wear).
4. Use hand warmers and put your electronic device in a water proof bag together. (I put the warmer pad under my iPad to keep the battery warm).
5. I usually warm the motors about 10 seconds before beginning flight.
6. Return home a bit sooner (I experienced faster battery drain when the battery was nearing the end).
Oh yea..Dress way warmer than you need to (Automated flights have a lot of idle standing time)
.Having said all that, the drone flew lawless, and I even think my flight times were a bit longer than when it is warm (I got times near 24 minutes on most flights to 30%).
Hope this helps.

 

[dougcjohn]

Some great suggestions here!
-31C converts to -24F and that is cold flying!
Op indicated -34... and wasn’t sure if that was C or F, or not a negative.

@Norstar indicates warming motors, enclosing RC, Armpit Batteries, warmer on back of iPad. All valid points, great ideas! More impressive is that the drone even operates correctly; all the warming efforts on drone disappear in 1-2 minutes in-flight with those low Temps, which is way below the operating specs.

I fly construction site at 14F with 12-20mph.
I'm a Midwestern (USA) normally not bothered much in cold, but highly agree standing idle with fingers on sticks is cold! I've looked for a method to place RC and Hands inside a warm bag with a opening for tablet or include tablet with a see through top... nothing I've seen yet really hits the mark.

Keeping everything warm inside vehicle before flight is great! But if Temps are low, bringing back inside a warm environment between flights I don't perform due to fogging / moisture on camera payloads and concern for moisture on electronics or sensors. Even when day's operation is done, I'll place payload into case or if not removable, insure drone is closed in case prior to warm environment to insulate & slow the warm up period to prevent moisture. Similar practice for photography in sub-cold to prevent moisture inside of lenses and camera body. Getting home, I'll not open case inside until time has allowed Temps to slowly warm up.

 

[MapMaker53]

Old thread, but I'll add to it. I finally got my cold weather wings on Sunday in 25 degree F temps just hours before a blizzard hit the northeast. Was out in the cold for 3 hours but wearing a lot of layers and a pair of thin gloves (which were supposed to be screen touch gloves, but didn't work) kept me comfortable. I decided to keep my 5 batteries warm by placing them into a small insulated cooler with a large jug of hot water. I also put the the batteries into a plastic bag before closing the cooler on the off chance the jug could spring a leak. As a result, I saw no decrease in my usual flying time. Just thought I'd share.