Newbie stepping up

[Drone Hick]

Hello, I am new to the site. I have had a few toy drones over the past 2 years and most ended up broken after the slightest wind blew them into trees or caused major damage due to hard landings. I really liked the sport but it was frustrating although I tried to take it slow. Had some good runs but most of the time I found myself working so hard just to not crash or having it blow 200 feet in one direction because of a sudden slight wind...that it became more work than fun.

I decided to step it up and get something that would hopefully be a little more controllable. After some research, I got an Autel EVO. Have only had it a few days and trying to learn as much as possible about setting the controls before taking my first flight (set in beginners mode) maybe this weekend depending on weather.

Getting to my question, I notice that when the battery is on, the quad has a fan ( I am guessing it to be a cooling fan) internally. I know the flight time for this quad will be about 25 mins in normal conditions. The kit I bought has 3 batteries. Could I (in theory) land when the battery is low, change it out and put in a new battery and continue this cycle until all batteries are expended or do these types of drones new a good cooling off period between flights?

PS I have already registered it and paid for the FAA# so I believe I am good to go. I do not have any no fly ones anywhere near me at this time.

 

[wafflejock]

Hiya and welcome. I've been flying hobby grade diy stuff for about 3-4 years now I think I jumped quickly from the small toy grade into a 3d printed frame (believe from "painless360") and have seen a lot of quads looking at BNF and PNP options out there for friends (and own curiousity) but can't say I've seen active cooling (a fan, rather have seen just small heatsinks). The ESCs typically have a thin metal plate over them that I believe helps dissipate heat from MOSFET packages that control the current flow to the motors, with individual ESCs they are typically mounted to the arms and so the quadcopter blades act as cooling fans for them as well, if your quad has a 4 in 1 ESC (no chips/boards on the arms just motor wires straight from motor into the body) then active cooling may make sense. Regarding flight time I have very high doubts about getting 25 minutes but I fly aggressively and don't have super large props or anything else that helps with efficiency. I imagine the small fan is probably 5V 2A or about 10W whereas the motors run at full batt voltage or around 16V and can draw up to say 20A (more or less depending on ESC and motor combo) so say about 320W per motor so still only a small percent of power would go into an active cooling fan but it is another part to break and more weight so a bit of a surprise... Would like to see some pics if you have a chance... unfortunately site is dumb and have to resize the images before upload... They ought to just increase max upload size on the server here and do the image resize on the server (I'm a web dev so this bugs me)

 

[RENOV8R]

You don't need any cooling off time on the EVO. Change out the battery and send it!

 

[Drone Hick]

Hello, I have now had a few days using the EVO. There is definitely a cooling fan type noise inside both the quad and the remote. I can even feel the slight airflow from the air passing through.

Each of my 4 batteries have been fully used 4 times and after seems to have given me more flight time after the 2nd charge..not much just maybe 2 extra mins.

With all active radars and sonor ect always on, I am consistantly getting 26 to 27 minutes with RTH activating at 25 mins but still letting me hover or fly near my home landing site a few more minutes. I have about 5% battery when I finish the landing.

These numbers above was keeping it set at the 11mph limit. My best time was 30.58 minutes but that was turning off nav lights and anything else I could turn off and had the EVO set at 5.9mph max speed and no camera or video or gimble usage.

I have to say that I am very happy with the EVO for my first non toy drone.

Have not been able to get photos to upload.

I ordered some upgrades online and put them on yesterday. Most were for the remote but the EVO i added the leg extensions which raise it about 1.5 inches. I did not notice any difference in flight test with the new legs but i like the extra height to keep camera further off the ground. The other mods were for the remote...an ipad holder and some protectors to keep from accidental button presses for 2 buttons badly located under the controller.

 

[Drone Hick]

I was able to downsize the photos.

 

[holtneil]

Welcome to the forum Nice looking quad can't wait to see some flight footage