24-Dec-2017, 08:50 PM
Winter is here in Canada and that means if I want to fly I need a special setup. The main points I need to address are:
With this setup I still try to only run them to 65-70% of rated capacity since the cold reduces available capacity making it much easier to damage the batteries. This means slightly sedate flights with less flight time per battery, but it gets me out flying. So far I have about 3-4 min flights while testing.
All in all I'm pretty happy with this setup so far. I will need to see how more severe cold (-30 C) affects this setup ( I expect 1 min flight barring modifications ).
I have a video of the maiden test, with a pretty tight landing, and my 4th flight where I started to have a little confidence in the setup.
Happy Holidays!
- Being able to see at night. To accomplish this I used a runcam Night Eagle 2, with a 940nm IR LED for extreme darkness.
- Waterproof. I needed the quad to survive a dunk in the snow. Using conformal coating and 2 part epoxy my martian 3 is good to go.
- Warm/Insulated battery compartment. I use a rechargeable hand warmer in my battery bag to keep the batteries warm, then I use a dense foam wrap to insulate them in flight.
With this setup I still try to only run them to 65-70% of rated capacity since the cold reduces available capacity making it much easier to damage the batteries. This means slightly sedate flights with less flight time per battery, but it gets me out flying. So far I have about 3-4 min flights while testing.
All in all I'm pretty happy with this setup so far. I will need to see how more severe cold (-30 C) affects this setup ( I expect 1 min flight barring modifications ).
I have a video of the maiden test, with a pretty tight landing, and my 4th flight where I started to have a little confidence in the setup.
Happy Holidays!
Flying: Talon 6S 6" 2407s 381g no bat, Martian 3, 5" 2205s sooo heavy + gopro session 5 573g AUW, Aurora 5" 2205s 280g no bat, Druckbaer 3" 1404s 172g AUW 3S 550, BQE Megapixel 2.5" 1107s 139g AUW 3S 550, BabyHawk R 2.5" 164g AUW 3S 550 (stock except microeagle, CRSF, 2.5" arms) and maybe 3 more, for now...