26°F is a drone killer?

[DuaneM]

I have been out flying my little toy quadcopter (WLtoys V686G) almost twice a day since I got it back in the latter part of November 2016. I have been lucky with temperatures only going down to the lowest of 40°F during my flights, I have had to stop due to wind throwing this little toy into the woods next to the soccer field I fly on.

Here's my dilemma, around here, Winter has shown it's ugly face and dropped the temperatures down below the freezing mark every day and night for the past week. It hasn't stopped me from going out, but it has started to affect my toy quadcopter.

Does the outside temperature affect the motors performance, power levels, speed of the propellers and such? I know the cold effects the batteries (I keep them warm), but what about the parts like bearings, plastics, wiring and other fun things needed to control it all?

It was working yesterday quite well for 20 or more minutes at 26° before a motor died and I had to replace it. I went out again and it worked for about 15 minutes before it started to lose power even with several fresh batteries having been changed out. The motor I changed is working fine and keeping up with the others even through this problem.

I went out again this morning after testing it in our nice warm house and it just doesn't have enough power to lift itself up more than a few inches. I would try it again in the house as I'm typing this, but I don't trust it crashing into the wonderful chaos I call a home office (now also a drone work shop).

Could it just be as simple as replacing the motors?

 

[Wildwelder]

Well metal does contract and expand with temp changes maybe the bearings in the motors dont agree with the cold. Do the props seem tight when your out there?the plastic parts will also get quite brittle, making them break easier. As you said, batteries will not last as long either. Ive flown out in 20f before without any problems but every quad is different.

 

[Freeflyer]

Not really a killer I would say but battery life will be shortened substantially and as Wildwelder said, the plastic parts are more brittle and likely to break or be damaged. I have flown my helicopters and driven my rc cars in a lot of below freezing weather. Moisture, as in snow or rain is always a negative but many times, a good drying out and things are okay.

 

[DuaneM]

Being it's just a little plastic toy I expect it to be loose and a bit wobbly, but that said, the props and bearings turned freely and not any differently than when it's warm. I tested this idea last night with it sitting on the porch for about 2 hours, checked the feel of it out there, then brought it back in the house to warm up for 2 hours. It didn't feel any different or even sound different when I hand spun the props, cold or warm.

As for brittle, got that lesson in spades when I crashed it awhile back, breaking the top cover in several places. I solved that issue be not crashing anymore, I hope this fix works.

After all the testing and reading what was said here, I just replaced the final 3 motors (already did one earlier). It worked.

Here's a video I did after finally learning to control it better with the new motors. Focus is messed up from an earlier crash or two.

 

[Wildwelder]

Pretty steady video for what it is. So its all fixed? Just had some bad motors? Kinda weird but im not surprised. Nothing surprises me when qiads are involced. Well im glad youre back in the air! Enjoy

 

[Freeflyer]

I like your video. You are looking good with wind and snow. Just got to remember that moisture in any form(rain, snow, heavy dew, ponds, etc.) is not going to be beneficial to our machines. Glad you are back up and flying.

 

[DuaneM]

Thank you and it's all due to the miracles of editing video!

I have been looking into some waterproofing and taping off some of the vent holes (winter ok, summer not). But all in all, it is a toy, so doing all this is just going to be practice for the real thing.

It had one bad motor then some kind of power thing going on. It wouldn't go up more than 3 feet and just sort leaned over slowly and "landed" softly every time. I've never gotten the hang of landing, so it was kinda nice to see it do it all by itself. I went ahead and replaced the last three motors and she acted like brand new!

I did find and fix, a problem with the transmitter not working on 100%. One of the button switches didn't work and since trimming this toy is useless, I took one of those button switches and switched them out. It's been super windy around here the past few days, so I haven't been able to get out flying and test it using the 100%. It will probably be the day I lose it forever ... LOL!

Using a toy to learn all the insides and outs of multirotor flying and repairing, is the best thing ever thought up by anyone anywhere! I'm so glad I checked into this forum and others to learn what I could before buying one.