XAircraft SurperX & cold weather.

[jfro]

Temperature rating for cold weather is -10C which is 14F on Xaircraft SuperX.

I just got my X8 put back together. Flew 2 quick flights yesterday and all appears good. Now would like to upgrade firmware and put my gimbal on and do some more test flights.


Right now it's 12F degrees (with clear blue sky) and cold weather is here for a while although we will maybe see 20 today. Very cold through the weekend.
The SuperX FC is on top 8.25" plate with a small plate above it that has my gps antenna. Then there is a plastic dome over the 8.25 main plate & gps that is raised 1" above the plate so there is a little airflow. ESC's are under the plate that the fc is on.

Has anybody tested the lower temp limit?

For real cold weather, I could seal off the 1" space above the 8.25 inch plate & dome to kill almost all airflow and then maybe get a little heat coming up from the ESC's. Is this a realistic idea?

I'm not going to flying at high speed and nor high altitude, so I'm assuming flying around 15 degrees shouldn't be to risky?

Any advice on cold weather flying will be and is appreciated...

 

[octocine]

Almost all electronics are rated very conservatively for cold, but most seem to work fine in the cold, including cameras. I haven't tried this flight controller in cold, but others work fine down to -15F. I just put warm batteries wrapped in thin insulation and it's fine. The batteries generate quite a bit of heat while discharging, so they come off warm after a flight.

Please post how SuperX works in the cold...

 

[SleepyC]

I just did a flight in 14 deg F. with my SuperX on my 530mm Quad. no issues at all.
5 mph winds...View attachment 15090

 

[jfro]

I just did my first 1.08 flight in about 16-18 degrees with a brisk wind., best guess 15 mph or so. Seemed to fly fine, got the battery buzzer to go off after hard climb, but assuming that is the cold weather. Only flew for 5 minutes. Should have come in after doing the calibration as I went out without gloves. Dumb dumb dumb.... turned into numb numb numb on my fingers.

Xaircraft did just fine.

Going to mount my new DIY gimbal and try a couple quick flights, but first need to go find some thin gloves....

 

[SleepyC]

I just flew again in the 10 deg weather.. and yea.. SuperX was fine, my Alexmos board seemed to be weird though, it put the horizon to +10deg...
And I forgot gloves as well... hands are NUMB...

Wait a minute.... numb hands, wife is out.....
I kid I kid!!!

 

[jfro]

SleepyC, are you using ferrite rings on your Alexmos controllers?

I never have, but I've been fighting vibrations since late august that I can't seem to get rid of. One dealer has this to say about

Aerial Pixels says "If you have gimbal shaking in flight, it’s an EMI noise problem. Fit a ferrite ring around the motors outputs on the board and the I2C cable still right out of the board. Also, use a LC filter (Power Noise Filter) if you feed the gimbal right out from the main lipos.".

I get it when powered from main lipos or a stand alone battery. I have 2 Alexmos controllers and they both do the same thing. What's frustrating is I had them dialed in perfectly until I made a few changes last summer. Biggest change was going from 30-40 amp ESC's.

Flying today without gimbal I thought my x8 was flying very smoothly. Put gimbal on and to my dismay, still getting some vibrations.

Going to throw some ferrite rings on and see if it helps.

 

[SleepyC]

I have ferrite rings on my 3 axis rig and it seems pretty good. I do not on my 2 axis rig and it seems ok, it just keeps going to a 10 deg horizon offset. I come in, re-calibrate the IMU, fire it up a few times inside and it’s flawless, go outside and it rolls 5 - 10 deg as soon as it gets cold. Pretty weird.

 

[jfro]

We are in heavy snow right now and lake effect snow through the weekend as well as very cold weather for the next 7 days. Hopefully I can get a couple flights in.
If the ferrite rings work, you will probably be able to hear me scream for joy in Ohio.

How soon before we see your octo review with those new Tiger jumbo motors?

 

[octocine]

I've had similar problems with the Martinez board that I think is caused by slight movement when the power is connected. It operates fine, but doesn't seem to know what is level. It has to be completely still while it initializes. I was hoping the Alexmos works better.

 

[Electro 2]

I think is caused by slight movement when the power is connected. It operates fine, but doesn't seem to know what is level. It has to be completely still while it initializes.

Yep, no mysteries here. The gimbal is controlled by the rate gyros in the gimbal controller's IMU package. The MEMS gyros used in these things (and MR flight controllers) drift some and must be calibrated at every boot. It's very important that the gimbal remain absolutely still during the boot-cal cycle. And yes, there is also a marked temperature coefficient, as well. Generally not an issue here in Florida, LOL. Ohio ? You're on your own.