Most of the quadcopters are powered by lipo batteries, a low temperature environment will greatly decrease the performance of a lipo battery. When exposed to a temperature below 15°C, the chemically reactive substance in the battery obviously decreases as well as the discharging ability influenced by the increase of its internal resistance, and the voltage drop accelerated when the battery's discharging. There are two risks if the cell drops below 3.0V.
1. The power system for the aircraft cannot provide enough thrust to maintain its flight.
2. The battery will automatically shutdown to avoid over-discharging.
These risks are very common to see, however there is still no a perfect way to solve the problem. Intelligent devices like smart phones or tablet computers will also auto shun down when staying in a low temperature.
Then we have to talk about the flight theory of the lipo-based quadcopters. For the heavier quadcopter, they need stronger current to provide enough thrust. Battery will draw a continuous high current to boost the quadcopter to a maneuvering flight when flying in a full throttle. In a plateau region, the quadcopter calls for higher motor speed and a higher current of the battery to maintain a regular flight in the thin air and low air pressure. For all the situations mentioned, the battery voltage drop gets even worse because of a low temperature in winter. More seriously, the battery even auto shuts down result in a quadcopter crash because of a low battery voltage.
Therefore, Gens ace & Tattu suggested to take these steps for battery usage precaution in winter.
1.Make sure the battery is fully-charged and staying in a high voltage status before you fly with your quadcopter.
2. Preheat your battery over 25°C, which will decrease the internal resistance of the battery. A battery preheater is strongly recommended for preheating your battery.
3. Hovering the quadcopter for about 1 minute after taking off, this will also help the battery to get preheated and decrease the internal resistance.
We must pay more attention to a safety flight in winter for a higher risks of quadcopter crash. Getting your quadcopter crash will not only spend you a lot of money for a repair but even it may hurt the people.
