As part of living in a place that's snowy half the year I spend a good amount of time flying in the cold/snow. Snow being conductive is definitely a thing, and conformal coating helps keep the conductive snow from touching important parts of the electronics. I don't know if this is scientifically sound but I also found boards that are coated last longer if you only coat the feet of the chips & solder/pin pads and not douse the entire board with it. Snow is water and radio waves don't travel through water well so when your antenna is submerged in snow expect that component not to communicate. Cold and lipos don't mix well, good to keep your lipos in heated storage until you get to your flight spot, and then wrap your battery with an insulator so it loses heat slower during the flight. Once it gets cold props & pvc turn to glass, also really hard to put rebar in frozen ground, so most racing moves indoors, definitely get a tinywhoop or 10 if you live somewhere it gets cold and you want to race year round
Have crashed in deep snow lots and they keep flying. Motors packed and more. I just usually try to dry things out with a hair dryer if it gets really packed with really wet snow .
Nice.. I've conformal coated some of my kwads, and plan to do so for others as well I'm flying.. as sometimes it's super wet snow and if you submerge there BTW, what exact model of stick-ends are you using? Thanks for sharing
When your esc is warm, the snow turns into water instantly on contact. I have a couple of NBD boards and an Emax that are dead from prolonged snowplay. Corrosion-X or conformal coating for your winter quad is the way to go. It is always the ESC or the VTX that gets smoked.
Flying in storms, snow and rain for multiple years. I can tell you that untreated boards will be perfectly fine for some time, but eventually have a catastrophic and unrepairable failure from the corrosion buildup. Same as motor bearings rusting. But I flush my motors with grease regularly, so that part it’s a non issue for me. Second, more short term… you will most likely break VTX/voltage regulator ICs as they run hot, like 200F, and the thermal shock from water/snow will cause an immediate failure, if conditions are just right. Or eventual failure if you are super lucky. This can be very easily mitigated completely by just adding an 1/8” of epoxy on the ICs that get hot. Another overlooked thing is sealing the camera PCB to camera body connection, in addition to the lens thread that most know about. This prevents fogging and the eventual catastrophic failure from corrosion, and also keeps dust out of your camera in the summer months. I use liquid electrical tape or RTV silicone, whatever I have more handy, but liquid tape cures faster, if you’ll be putting it in service within an hour. Also ceramic coat the lens if you are flying in rain… you’ll actually be able to see well. Also a heated battery bag and some form of battery insulation while you are flying will keep the performance the same as in the summer, as opposed to terrible. Neoprene works extremely well and is super light, but literally an old sock will make a noticeable difference to improving your flight performance. That’s off the top of my head, I’m sure there is more. TLDR Just because it’s fine now, doesn’t mean it will run in a month. I have been doing this for quite some years, all around the world.
I don’t have a tiny trainer, I think they look like they protect the components really well! My first drone wasn’t so protected. I landed well crashed in grass with dew on it and it fried the board. Well I guess it was the 3 legged 5v regulator. So it could be repaired but not an easy job. I always conformal coat my boards now. I’ve crashed in my creek , let it dry over night and it worked. I’ve crashed in snow and lost video. Not sure if it was the camera or vtx. I let it dry out overnight, it started working again the next day. I tried to coat a vtx, it suffocated the board from the heat and never worked again.
H@ll yes drones can survive snow!!!! There is snow on the ground for 7 months per year here in central Alaska, I might as not fly drones if they were killed by snow. conformal was my go to waterproofing product but I've found that an extra thick coat of worry free (that Australian silicon based stuff) is the way to go. Flying at temps as low as -30 can kill your drone but the worry free also adds thermal protection. It might overheat a drone in Texas but up here it's mandatory. I crashed an x class drone in three feet and didn't even find it til spring. The battery was dead but I didn't even break a prop. Buzzers can't be heard in three feet of pow even if you are 3 feet away so waste of time there
@@headsupfpv you've seen Nurk fly right through fountains with the same stuff. A thin coat will suffice for just water but paint it on FC/ESCs thick for super cold and snow
I fly in deep snow and the only thing that has saved me, especially in powder. Is heaving a very bright/laser LED on the top and bottom pointing up and down. Red works well and blue is okay. When I'm flying more covert and in the dark I use the IR laser LEDs, and can easily see it in 5' deep powder with night vision. Like you said buzzers are absolutely useless even if its not covered.
how fresh is this build? If you haven't gotten the circuitry dirty from previous crashes, then mostly pure water won't do anything. Its the dirt and debris that add the salts/ions necessary to conduct electricity
Man I dumped 2 in the snow Saturday and that's 2 5 inch with the walksnail moonlight kit I'm them and still works today I went and flown a couple of packs just to make sure it still worked 💪 💯
Yeah i raced my 5" with a stack saver on a drizzly, rainy day and it worked all day until moisture got behind my camera lens. That was all that happened
How entertaining! When snow turns to water, thats when the problems happen. I beat the drone on a tsble to get the snow off and dry if all off. I have killed 1 hdzero vtx from rain (flying at midnight 2022 IO when it was pooring rain at champs track). Please try a conformal coat to be safe. Keep this stuff far away from the mipi socket though
I just crashed my tiny whoop into the snow today, motors seemed not to be working for a while. I unplugged the motors, dried the cables a bit and they worked.
I've flown in the snow. Usually my 85mm whoop flying around the yard. Crashed numerous times in the snow. It sometimes acts wonky until I dried it out. But never actually killed it. Can be fun trying to find in deep, soft snow. Looking for whoop shaped hole. 😁
I tried to fly in the snow last weekend and my 5 broke on takeoff when snow sprayed on stack and my 3 broke after take off when snow sprayed on vtx. Luckly it all dried outwith hot air gun but was a bit disapointing at the time cos there was perfect lighting:(
Crashed my mark5 geprc in 50 cm deep snow, took me 2 - 3 min to find it. Outside temperature froze everything completely, ice everywhere but I just let it dry on it own for days after it flies like normal
Within the last week I’ve crashed in the snow and a creek 😅 somehow its still flying after i just clean it with isopropyl alcohol! Fpv gear is amazing!
I've had nothing but good luck with hakrc, but i honestly think this is not a good video to be sharing to people because what you haven't told them is that most water contain other contaminants that can cause corrosion in under the chips that can fail months later out of the blue, meaning that drone could fall out of the air at any second which is a serious safety issue!
I don't think you need to worry about it too much. Fpv drones can fall out of the air any second even without the snow or water. All this crashes and professional soldering 😁 Can you be sure about your drones 100%? I doubt it
@@headsupfpv OMG im chatting with Headsup fpv your a legend sir im not worthy... anyway bro the x30 spray is no mess and so easy it dries in literal 2 mins and ive submerged a quad with no ill affects i also live in the uk.
@headsupfpv yessir I've actually posted a video of me crashing a Tinytrainer in the snow running on a 4s 1300mah and carrying a gopro 😆 Turtled and took off again
Wow thanks! This was one of the best sudden random test videos. Loved how you just went for it!
Haha I appreciate it Thanks for watching!!
As part of living in a place that's snowy half the year I spend a good amount of time flying in the cold/snow. Snow being conductive is definitely a thing, and conformal coating helps keep the conductive snow from touching important parts of the electronics. I don't know if this is scientifically sound but I also found boards that are coated last longer if you only coat the feet of the chips & solder/pin pads and not douse the entire board with it. Snow is water and radio waves don't travel through water well so when your antenna is submerged in snow expect that component not to communicate.
Cold and lipos don't mix well, good to keep your lipos in heated storage until you get to your flight spot, and then wrap your battery with an insulator so it loses heat slower during the flight.
Once it gets cold props & pvc turn to glass, also really hard to put rebar in frozen ground, so most racing moves indoors, definitely get a tinywhoop or 10 if you live somewhere it gets cold and you want to race year round
Have crashed in deep snow lots and they keep flying. Motors packed and more. I just usually try to dry things out with a hair dryer if it gets really packed with really wet snow .
When i started last new years, I crashed in the snow and before it could melt, id blow it out with an air compressor and never fried anything.
Nice tip
Damn bro your spittin out the videos!! I look forward to your vids not going to lie...
This means the world, thanks for the support !
youre turning into the bardwell of racing. keep em comin. need a catch phrase
I have a longggg way to go until then, but I’m trying! Thanks for the kind words
Landed in snow a few times pure water does not conduct very well. It is the minerals that are in the water that do the conduction.
Absolutely right
Nice.. I've conformal coated some of my kwads, and plan to do so for others as well I'm flying.. as sometimes it's super wet snow and if you submerge there BTW, what exact model of stick-ends are you using? Thanks for sharing
These were the five33 Omni sticks, flat top model!
When your esc is warm, the snow turns into water instantly on contact. I have a couple of NBD boards and an Emax that are dead from prolonged snowplay. Corrosion-X or conformal coating for your winter quad is the way to go. It is always the ESC or the VTX that gets smoked.
Interesting! This is fantastic input
Snow is water when it melts. The same happened to me with Emax drone.
Might have to fly my tiny trainers outside! Feel more confident about it after watching this
Be careful, but worth a shot!
Flying in storms, snow and rain for multiple years. I can tell you that untreated boards will be perfectly fine for some time, but eventually have a catastrophic and unrepairable failure from the corrosion buildup. Same as motor bearings rusting. But I flush my motors with grease regularly, so that part it’s a non issue for me.
Second, more short term… you will most likely break VTX/voltage regulator ICs as they run hot, like 200F, and the thermal shock from water/snow will cause an immediate failure, if conditions are just right. Or eventual failure if you are super lucky. This can be very easily mitigated completely by just adding an 1/8” of epoxy on the ICs that get hot.
Another overlooked thing is sealing the camera PCB to camera body connection, in addition to the lens thread that most know about. This prevents fogging and the eventual catastrophic failure from corrosion, and also keeps dust out of your camera in the summer months. I use liquid electrical tape or RTV silicone, whatever I have more handy, but liquid tape cures faster, if you’ll be putting it in service within an hour. Also ceramic coat the lens if you are flying in rain… you’ll actually be able to see well.
Also a heated battery bag and some form of battery insulation while you are flying will keep the performance the same as in the summer, as opposed to terrible. Neoprene works extremely well and is super light, but literally an old sock will make a noticeable difference to improving your flight performance.
That’s off the top of my head, I’m sure there is more.
TLDR
Just because it’s fine now, doesn’t mean it will run in a month. I have been doing this for quite some years, all around the world.
Been flying in the snow a little here in Michigan. Been worried a bit ,but i dry mine off and set them by the heater to dry before running again.
this is probably the smartest move.
I don’t have a tiny trainer, I think they look like they protect the components really well! My first drone wasn’t so protected. I landed well crashed in grass with dew on it and it fried the board. Well I guess it was the 3 legged 5v regulator. So it could be repaired but not an easy job. I always conformal coat my boards now. I’ve crashed in my creek , let it dry over night and it worked. I’ve crashed in snow and lost video. Not sure if it was the camera or vtx. I let it dry out overnight, it started working again the next day. I tried to coat a vtx, it suffocated the board from the heat and never worked again.
The irony is real! Haha.
Good Test! Also what cable is that for the hdz goggles?
Thanks ! I'll get a link for ya
flyfive33.com/products/syk-dongle-kable-red-white-blue?_pos=1&_sid=a75d23a51&_ss=r
Great video, what's the antennas and power lead you are using on the HDZero goggles
Thanks for watching!
These are the TrueRC core antennas and the SYK power cable
@@headsupfpv Thank you, and loving all the new content too!
H@ll yes drones can survive snow!!!! There is snow on the ground for 7 months per year here in central Alaska, I might as not fly drones if they were killed by snow. conformal was my go to waterproofing product but I've found that an extra thick coat of worry free (that Australian silicon based stuff) is the way to go. Flying at temps as low as -30 can kill your drone but the worry free also adds thermal protection. It might overheat a drone in Texas but up here it's mandatory. I crashed an x class drone in three feet and didn't even find it til spring. The battery was dead but I didn't even break a prop. Buzzers can't be heard in three feet of pow even if you are 3 feet away so waste of time there
Wowwww I really need to try that stuff!
@@headsupfpv you've seen Nurk fly right through fountains with the same stuff. A thin coat will suffice for just water but paint it on FC/ESCs thick for super cold and snow
I fly in deep snow and the only thing that has saved me, especially in powder. Is heaving a very bright/laser LED on the top and bottom pointing up and down. Red works well and blue is okay. When I'm flying more covert and in the dark I use the IR laser LEDs, and can easily see it in 5' deep powder with night vision. Like you said buzzers are absolutely useless even if its not covered.
Lets go Evan . great video .
Thanks for the support bro !
how fresh is this build? If you haven't gotten the circuitry dirty from previous crashes, then mostly pure water won't do anything. Its the dirt and debris that add the salts/ions necessary to conduct electricity
this is a great take, this build is a couple months old and definitely taken some abuse. But, I think you are absolutely right
@@headsupfpv also residue left from soldering. which I am very guilty of not cleaning off.
you are absurdly good
Lol, Thank you !
Man I dumped 2 in the snow Saturday and that's 2 5 inch with the walksnail moonlight kit I'm them and still works today I went and flown a couple of packs just to make sure it still worked 💪 💯
Glad it’s all still good!
Yeah i raced my 5" with a stack saver on a drizzly, rainy day and it worked all day until moisture got behind my camera lens. That was all that happened
This seems like the biggest risk as long as people can figure out how to seal the lens they would be in business!
Can you run the latest betaflight on f411 boards? I thought they were dropped?
This is on BF 4.5 and seems to work fine for the most part!
@ that is good news… I’m going to try flashing some boards now.
How entertaining! When snow turns to water, thats when the problems happen. I beat the drone on a tsble to get the snow off and dry if all off. I have killed 1 hdzero vtx from rain (flying at midnight 2022 IO when it was pooring rain at champs track). Please try a conformal coat to be safe. Keep this stuff far away from the mipi socket though
Good tip! I was most impressed by the HDzero vtx surviving with zero protection
You should torture test the black series motor by Turing off the filters so you can let it freak out
You… are a genius. I’m buying a FLIR gun so I can know the temps of everything I think that will make videos like this super cool
Your going to get me 💸 flying in the snow 🌨️ now
Hope it works out!
I just crashed my tiny whoop into the snow today, motors seemed not to be working for a while. I unplugged the motors, dried the cables a bit and they worked.
Glad it dried out and worked !
@headsupfpv thanks man! The topic is on point by the way 😁
I've flown in the snow. Usually my 85mm whoop flying around the yard. Crashed numerous times in the snow. It sometimes acts wonky until I dried it out. But never actually killed it.
Can be fun trying to find in deep, soft snow. Looking for whoop shaped hole. 😁
cool to hear that it keeps on going!
Doing all the test. Most can get wet. But man watch your hands. Especially when pulling back in after being wet
I tried that aio. As soon as I turned on leds it disabled my motors lmao.
This is a great point, I’ll be more careful next time!
Let's power cycle to see if it comes back.... Or catches on fire 🔥
Haha ya never know in the snow
I tried to fly in the snow last weekend and my 5 broke on takeoff when snow sprayed on stack and my 3 broke after take off when snow sprayed on vtx. Luckly it all dried outwith hot air gun but was a bit disapointing at the time cos there was perfect lighting:(
So they all worked again after drying out ?
I’ve got a walksnail mini VTX not working after landing in snow 😅😢
bummer :/
@ well I’ve burned many walksnail mini… in this one I’m gonna blame the snow 😂
I’m guessing your area does not get much snow often. lol
You are absolutely correct hahahaha
Crashed my mark5 geprc in 50 cm deep snow, took me 2 - 3 min to find it. Outside temperature froze everything completely, ice everywhere but I just let it dry on it own for days after it flies like normal
Glad to hear it survived!
Gyros die a weak later. Random over current in other electronics in the following months
I’ll keep an eye out for this!
Within the last week I’ve crashed in the snow and a creek 😅 somehow its still flying after i just clean it with isopropyl alcohol! Fpv gear is amazing!
Danggg glad it's still working !
I've had nothing but good luck with hakrc, but i honestly think this is not a good video to be sharing to people because what you haven't told them is that most water contain other contaminants that can cause corrosion in under the chips that can fail months later out of the blue, meaning that drone could fall out of the air at any second which is a serious safety issue!
Totally fair !
I don't think you need to worry about it too much. Fpv drones can fall out of the air any second even without the snow or water. All this crashes and professional soldering 😁 Can you be sure about your drones 100%? I doubt it
FLYWOO X30 FOR THE WIN. IVE KILLED A QUAD IN SNOW ITS WET WHEN IT MELTS LOL.
I need to test this stuff !
@@headsupfpv OMG im chatting with Headsup fpv your a legend sir im not worthy... anyway bro the x30 spray is no mess and so easy it dries in literal 2 mins and ive submerged a quad with no ill affects i also live in the uk.
Just ordered some sticks but had an issue hopefully your team will sort me out soon. cheers legend.
I have flow my pavo20 crashed1 time very mildly in the snow and one of the escs immediately died.
noooo, did you attempt to let it dry?
🤘🤘🥶🤘🤘
I have killed my faire share because of snow
What was the most common thing that died ?
😉👊
I crash into snow many times every year. Only lost 1vtx so far.
Super interesting ! not surprised after this test
@headsupfpv yessir I've actually posted a video of me crashing a Tinytrainer in the snow running on a 4s 1300mah and carrying a gopro 😆
Turtled and took off again