Hot weather testing

Cube Autopilot
1

Hi,
I’m flying a octocopter in some pretty hot and dusty conditions (105 - 115 deg F, 40 - 46 deg C). Does anyone else have experience with flying the cube in hot conditions and things to be aware of? I have the cube black and also a here2 GPS. I’m only using the compass on the here2.

Some things I’m being cautious of:

  • solar loading (keeping it in the shade when not flying)
  • blowing dust out of motors, etc.

Thanks,
Jason

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2

I have flown 1500sqkm survey mission with Cube on fixed wing aircraft at 45 to 50°C at Rajasthan, India without any issue.

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3

I thought Arizona, USA was hot. Wow. What GPS do you use?

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4

You don’t want to be going much over 60C external temp on the cube casing, Some of the mag sensors really do not like excess heat and can fail. It can cope upto 80 internal but that’s the extreme and far from advisable.

If you have high internal temps in your airframe some indirect air moving over the Cube can help.

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5

That is good to know. What about the Here2? I’m actually more concerned about it since the cube is shielded from direct solar loading, although the helmet (i.e. the cover I have over the cube and other electronics) is black and so absorbs the sunlight readily

6

As it gets air rep temps should self regulate but again the same stands with the mag. But this would affect pretty much every craft and sensors out there and issues are extremely rare.

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7

If it overheats, does it recover when it cools or is it irreparably damaged?

8

Here2 for navigation. We have PPK for image trigger and position.