Optimum Tello flying conditions?

M-m-my Tellodrone · Sep 21, 2020

Q1) What do you pilots consider 'optimum' flying conditions for the Tello?

* What temperatures and wind speeds can it handle?

* Has anyone ever flown in the rain?

* Is it possible with/without attaching a flashlight to the Trello to have a proper night flight?

* Has anyone ever flown successfully above a body of water - e.g pool, pond, river, or ocean for more than a few seconds?

Q2) When I have my Tello very close to the ground (within 1 - 3.5m I think) I struggle to control it and although it maintains its altitude, it loses all speed and starts drifting away even if it's in sports mode with a full battery.

When I raise it above that height it instantly goes back to normal and will fly to me full speed no worries.

What do you think is causing this? Is it due to ground WiFi interference, or is the wind much stronger closer to the ground, or is it something else?

Fari · Sep 22, 2020

I am NoOb -- Folks around here will give you better, more precise answers but I think my recent experience of taking the hand over Tellos (at a fanatic pace) may be of some use. And I wanna try and do some critic stuff.

> * What temperatures and wind speeds can it handle?
Tello don't like heat -- make it fly so it does not overheat. The colder the better. Heat management is one of the few weakpoint of a Tello.
Wind : Tello can handle a LOT of wind as long as you are in sport mode. Camera stabilization thing + 80g weight + wind = catastrophe.

> * Has anyone ever flown in the rain?
Yup. You wanna see video ? ;p

>* Is it possible with/without attaching a flashlight to the Trello
Yes. Altough I havn't done it yet nothing is impossible and my own proofs of concepts shown that Tellos can carry and/or pull stuff.

>* to have a proper night flight?
I doubt it will be so simple. See Q2 answer.

>* Has anyone ever flown successfully above a body of water - e.g pool, pond, river, or ocean for more than a few seconds?
Yup. See Q2 answer.

>>>Q2) When I have my Tello very close to the ground (within 1 - 3.5m I think) I struggle to control it and although it maintains its altitude, it loses all speed and starts drifting away even if it's in sports mode with a full battery.

One word answer : VPS.
Tello's got a camera on the belly dedicated to detect what kind of ground he's hovering over. This one gets confused over a lot of surfaces. My experience is that the confusion level is getting in the way of the control when hovering very low. It can get very scary when Tello start drifting because he's "lost".

The solution for me had been to get used to that phenomenon and to deal with it (this is probably a cause of so much Tello's death worldwide

).
I'm dealing with it mostly by being aware it can happen and by taking altitude when needed to avoid losing it.

I can say I am quite confortable with this sensor's "limits"as of now. I've been flying for two months.

-------
Advice I wish I'd knew before I started but I enjoyed my experience like hell anyway so who care :

--> (Get Tello FPV app if not already done) RTFM. Read the Manual. Volatello did the incredible job of centralizing high quality information about Tello's mechanics in a PDF delivered with the app.

reschlund · Sep 22, 2020

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volate!lo · Sep 22, 2020

For Q2:
The reason is Ryze wanted Tello this way. I suppose it is an ill conceived safety feature.

If Tello is below around ~1.5m it reduces attitude angles. Which means it becomes sluggish, slow and unable to fight wind. The lower the slower it is
The reason for this is two things I guess: 1) less risk of injury when flying low enough to hit someone and 2) no / slow horizontal speed when landing

The bad side: Tello can't fight _any_ wind when flying low.
Even worse: this altitude is based on IR sensor input! Say you fly happily in 3m altitude in some winds but then you fly over a 2m high van or SUV. Now tello senses the car's roof as the new ground, so it thinks its 1m high and becomes sluggish and is blown away. Happens quite often if people fly too close to their house roof.