Neo in the snow

[Smily77]

First snow in Switzerland!

Cool to take a FPV flight in the backyard. But I had to observe that the Neo had difficulties to keep the position. The hight was stabile (1.5m) but even in Pause mode, it had a strong drift backwards.
BTW: GPS had only few satellites as I was starting out of the window

 

[GFields]

Greetings from Birmingham Alabama USA, welcome to the forum! We look forward to hearing from you!

 

[sarahb]

Welcome!

 

[NEO 317]

Hello from the Crossroads of America Smily77.

First snow in Switzerlan d!

First snow here in the Midwest as well.

It was pretty but it melted.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the NEO and the snow.


Welcome to the NEO Forum.

 

[Chrislaf]

Welcome! We are getting our first snow today as well.

My main concerns with flying the NEO over snow is if I have spotty GPS, will the VPS have trouble and make control a challenge. Also with the buttons for the quick shots and power on top, will this cause a failure if they get wet from falling snow.

Chris

 

[Erk1024]

Welcome! We are getting our first snow today as well.

My main concerns with flying the NEO over snow is if I have spotty GPS, will the VPS have trouble and make control a challenge. Also with the buttons for the quick shots and power on top, will this cause a failure if they get wet from falling snow.

Chris

I agree. The NEO, cute as it is, doesn't have as many sensors to rely on for the usual camera drone controls. A white patch of white snow is probably pretty hard for the downward sensors to figure out.

 

[Chrislaf]

I agree. The NEO, cute as it is, doesn't have as many sensors to rely on for the usual camera drone controls. A white patch of white snow is probably pretty hard for the downward sensors to figure out.

Yesterday I flew my NEO in wet falling snow to see how it would perform. I walked down a trail while the NEO followed me in Active Track. I had no problems even though GPS was spotty. The trail was covered with a mixture of slush, mud and patches of snow. The NEO seemed to move to the side a couple of times (@48 and 58s in video below) when it was flying over patches of snow so I am wondering if this is how it behaves when it looses VPS and GPS is spotty. Once we get more snow and the ground is completely covered I will test some more but am a bit worried since the NEO takes a long time to acquire GPS and looses it frequently.

Chris

 

[Droning on and on...]

Man, Chris, you sure gotta walk a long way to get a gallon of milk up there in the Yukon. What do you do in the summer when the ice road melts?

 

[NeoNeo]

First snow in Switzerland!

Cool to take a FPV flight in the backyard. But I had to observe that the Neo had difficulties to keep the position. The hight was stabile (1.5m) but even in Pause mode, it had a strong drift backwards.
BTW: GPS had only few satellites as I was starting out of the window

Were you flying with either the MC3 or FPV RC3? Or autonomous (aka selfie) modes? I only fly the Neo with the FPV RC3 in Manual or Sport mode with the max speed settings in S modes set. No real issue with uncontrolled drifting. Slight drifting if trying to hover and not properly compensating with stick inputs with each gust of wind. In moderate wind (F4) my manual skills are lacking to keep things under control. But I was surprised that in S mode the Neo was more or less under good control. Every other Neo weight quad flown has been difficult to control under similar winds flying angle mode. The DJI stabilization system has me impressed. Just need to enjoy the tilted horizon view when dealing with cross winds. Also, you realize how underpowered the Neo is in absolute terms when heading hard upwind. Best to fly upwind of launch pad.

Regarding snow. In the past use to head out on the ice in the Spring when there was minimal wind and temps at least 0C. Use to spay a conformal coating (brand is CorrisionX) on anything electrical that doesn't like water. ESC, FC, battery connections.... Waterproofed the electronics. Never used a landing pad back then. Plus crashing was a common event. DJI Neo seem relatively well sealed up against light exposure to moisture. Noticed what might be cooling vents. Probably best to not expose the Neo to direct contact with snow.

Our first probably permanent snowfall arrived last night. With the changing climate couple weeks late. Last week I was harvesting cold tolerant veggies from the garden. +10C highs. 5-10C warmer than even our readjusted new "normal" temperatures. Probably no ice formation again on the Lake (Superior). None really for the past couple years. Miss flying those Spring days on the ice. No trees to hit. Just pressure ridges if skimming along the surface.

 

[NeoNeo]

Yesterday I flew my NEO in wet falling snow to see how it would perform. I walked down a trail while the NEO followed me in Active Track. I had no problems even though GPS was spotty. The trail was covered with a mixture of slush, mud and patches of snow. The NEO seemed to move to the side a couple of times (@48 and 58s in video below) when it was flying over patches of snow so I am wondering if this is how it behaves when it looses VPS and GPS is spotty. Once we get more snow and the ground is completely covered I will test some more but am a bit worried since the NEO takes a long time to acquire GPS and looses it frequently.

Chris

Must have been the cold Canadian air dropping South that brought us the first snow of the season last night.
At least we didn't have a major Lake Effect dump.


Will be interested in how well the Neo handles a solid covering of snow. If it has issues. Another reason why I wish DJI would have a manual engage ATTI mode option. Rather fly under control without stabilization/positioning v. sudden loss of control. For the selfie modes. Guessing no option. Just hope snow covered surfaces are not an issue.

Only fly two DJI models. The Neo and Avata2. The Neo is slow to acquire satellites. Launching from identical spot within minutes of each other. The absolute number is lower. Sometimes less than half. But what worries me the most is the huge fluctuations in number of satellites acquired. Flying Manual mode is satellite numbers are not an issue. But any mode requiring stabilization? Assuming at the Neo price point DJI went with a very low end GPS chip and/or antenna. And/or poorly positioned antenna in the Neo.

 

[Chrislaf]

Man, Chris, you sure gotta walk a long way to get a gallon of milk up there in the Yukon. What do you do in the summer when the ice road melts?

View attachment 1065

I used to live and work up in both Moosonee (7 yrs) and Kashechewan (6 yrs). Kashechewan is only accessible by plane and in winter by the winter (ice) road from Moosonee. Moosonee was only accessible by train and plane.

I snowmobiled from Moosonee to Kashechewan and back on the winter road (134km one way direct). I was providing computer support to the school in Kashechewan. On the way up the tide had come in and water that was about 0.61m (2ft) deep, had covered the ice near a pressure crack. There was no way around it because outside of the ice road there would have been thick slush which is next to impossible to snowmobile through without getting bogged down. Also, we were kilometres from our destination in the middle of nowhere. I was pulling a sled loaded down with gear and luckily I made it across the water by hydroplaning at speed to the other side. This was way before cell phones even existed so if we would have been bogged down, it could have been dangerous.

Here's a map of the area. Note the winter road was not a direct line like the map shows.



Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

Will be interested in how well the Neo handles a solid covering of snow. If it has issues. Another reason why I wish DJI would have a manual engage ATTI mode option. Rather fly under control without stabilization/positioning v. sudden loss of control. For the selfie modes. Guessing no option. Just hope snow covered surfaces are not an issue.

I suspect that it is going to have problems due to the VPS being not very good and the GPS having trouble maintaining a good lock in locations that are forested when flying around head height.

The thing that concerns me the most is how it behaves when it looses GPS and VPS. It seems to veer off at high speed similar to what you might expect with a compass error.

I posted about this in another thread Almost crashed/lost my NEO today.

Chris

 

[Droning on and on...]

Chris.

Respect, brother.

Never know the amazing truths poking a little fun can uncover.

 

[NeoNeo]

Man, Chris, you sure gotta walk a long way to get a gallon of milk up there in the Yukon. What do you do in the summer when the ice road melts?

View attachment 1065

Reminds me of the past. Back in the early 80's someone decided to move a small house on flat bed across the ice to the only island with permanent residents . Less than 5km crossing, but not on the ice road to the island. Ice gets thicker from having the snow plowed off of it. Everything ended up on the bottom. Maximum of $1500/day fine until debris is removed. Of course ice rapidly formed over the hole. The salvage barge was ice locked in the marina for the season. Last couple decades. Rare for enough ice to form for the ice road to open. Ferryboat year round.

I suspect that it is going to have problems due to the VPS being not very good and the GPS having trouble maintaining a good lock in locations that are forested when flying around head height.

The thing that concerns me the most is how it behaves when it looses GPS and VPS. It seems to veer off at high speed similar to what you might expect with a compass error.

I posted about this in another thread Almost crashed/lost my NEO today.

Chris

Similar to the issue that Neo experiences flying indoors into a deep shadow in either N or S mode using either the MC3 or FPV RC3. Personal experience using both controllers in N mode. Hard acceleration to what looked more or less straight ahead into an obstacle. No input from sticks or tilting the MC seemed to be accepted by the Neo. Watched a YTube video of the presenter covering the downward IR sensors with black tape. Went outdoors. Plenty of light. Satellite locked. Tried to take off in N or S mode. Neo went crazy. After that I retired the Neo for any indoors flying. Have an inexpensive 1s brushless motor ELRS/EdgeTx micro quad for use when I need an indoors stick fix.

 

[Chrislaf]

I sure am hoping the NEO is better than my Tello was over snow which was useless.

Chris

 

[Chrislaf]

Today I flew my NEO over ground that was fully covered with snow. I waited (a few minutes) for NEO to get enough satellites and then took off. I flew close to the ground in some tricky areas and the NEO held its position. There were numerous messages that the satellite positioning was weak and hovering was unstable but the NEO didn't seem to be affected. There was some detail in the snow so that must have helped. Here are some photos from today.

One of the reasons I bought the NEO was to fly in tight areas low to the ground and over streams in all seasons and so far it has performed great.

Chris