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system overheating on landing

macca

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has anybody came across system overheating issue after landing the drone? only been flying for around 20-30 seconds and after landing warning appears on screen and drone shuts down. any ideas on why this happens or any fixes for this issue would be appriciated!
 
If you keep the drone sitting after landing here it will overheat.

It needs the prop's airflow to cool the processors. My Tellos sit on a little cooling fan when I'm testing some video functions.
 
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unsure I run 4 batteries before it overheats
Hey Aussie, I was just about to post about that very issue because I picked up a fourth battery today. Are you saying that you get four full duty cycles, then the Tello overheats? Or does it overheat in the middle of the fourth duty cycle?

Thanks for sharing!
 
Since I disassembled both Tellos I now know why they overheat so fast. You have three chips at the bottom, all of them are inside a metal casing (to shield from interference). The lid of these casings has dents on top of the chips. On top of that is a metal heatsink. And on top of that is the bottom plastic cover with those ventilation slits. And there is thermal paste between then chips and the lid and between the lid and the heatsink. So far so good.

The problem is that the clearance between chip and lid as well as between lid and heatsink is too big. Ideally it should be zero and thermal paste is used to just fill the microscopic dents and gabs of the metal surface. However, here the paste is used to close a approx. 1 - 2 mm gap. Thermal paste as well as soldering techniques start to isolate once a given thickness is reached.

Modding this however is very easy. First, remove the battery! You need a small screwdriver (Cross / Phillips head) to release four screws. Remove the bottom plastic cover. Now you need a tiny screwdriver (slot head) to remove two lids (be very gentle). The chips are now exposed. Get some cottom swabs and isopropanol (aka. isopropyl alcohol) and clean off all the blue thermal paste. Apply whatever you think works better and re-assemble the drone.

I'll do some measurements the next days and depending on the gap I'll either use some high-end thermal paste OR appropriate thermal pads and test if that helps.
 
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Hey Aussie, I was just about to post about that very issue because I picked up a fourth battery today. Are you saying that you get four full duty cycles, then the Tello overheats? Or does it overheat in the middle of the fourth duty cycle?

Thanks for sharing!
I fly more than 4 batteries and my Tello won't overheat as long as it's in the air. I did see a guy burn one of his motors after 12 consecutive batteries.
 
Since I disassembled both Tellos I now know why they overheat so fast. You have three chips at the bottom, all of them are inside a metal casing (to shield from interference). The lid of these casings has dents on top of the chips. On top of that is a metal heatsink. And on top of that is the bottom plastic cover with those ventilation slits. And there is thermal paste between then chips and the lid and between the lid and the heatsink. So far so good.

The problem is that the clearance between chip and lid as well as between lid and heatsink is too big. Ideally it should be zero and thermal paste is used to just fill the microscopic dents and gabs of the metal surface. However, here the paste is used to close a approx. 1 - 2 mm gap. Thermal paste as well as soldering techniques start to isolate once a given thickness is reached.

Modding this however is very easy. First, remove the battery! You need a small screwdriver (Cross / Phillips head) to release four screws. Remove the bottom plastic cover. Now you need a tiny screwdriver (slot head) to remove two lids (be very gentle). The chips are now exposed. Get some cottom swabs and isopropanol (aka. isopropyl alcohol) and clean off all the blue thermal paste. Apply whatever you think works better and re-assemble the drone.

I'll do some measurements the next days and depending on the gap I'll either use some high-end thermal paste OR appropriate thermal pads and test if that helps.
Any chance you can make a video of this? It would be very helpful. I was thinking of using an arctic mx4 as thermal paste. Would that work?
 
a photo showing the component part and the thermal paste.
I have yet to make this change to the drone but I'm sure there is a small improvement.
Although I never had overheating problems.
 

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a photo showing the component part and the thermal paste.
I have yet to make this change to the drone but I'm sure there is a small improvement.
Although I never had overheating problems.
Thanks a lot for your quick reply! I don't have any heating problems while flying, but as soon as I land, almost immediately I get overheating warning. So I thought of doing this.
But I can see the gap is quiet large. I'm not sure normal thermal pastes would work. Would need to do further research on this before proceeding.
 
Even after having landed, I have never seen this warning ... I only know that if Tello remains still and turned on, it will go out shortly afterwards!

Instead of pasta, you should try with thermal pads of the right size and thickness.
 
Even after having landed, I have never seen this warning ... I only know that if Tello remains still and turned on, it will go out shortly afterwards!

Instead of pasta, you should try with thermal pads of the right size and thickness.
Sure! Will try. Thanks a ton!
 
Today I made this change to my Tello ...
I replaced the pasta with the 1,04 mm thick thermal pads.
It can be seen that originally the two components in the lower part did not come into contact with the metal plate, the paste on the two was not "crushed" by the metal plate (photo 3) while the contact is made on the chip in the upper part.
On the finned heat sink, I used thermal paste over the entire contact surface.
I hope it can be useful for those who want to make this change.
 

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Last edited:
I took off the bottom part of my tello
And just Cut off the section of the Air vent Plastic
I reconnected it back
Helps allot
To Heating Blades platform are direct out in the air
 
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Today I made this change to my Tello ...
I replaced the pasta with the 1,04 mm thick thermal pads.
It can be seen that originally the two components in the lower part did not come into contact with the metal plate, the paste on the two was not "crushed" by the metal plate (photo 3) while the contact is made on the chip in the upper part.
On the finned heat sink, I used thermal paste over the entire contact surface.
I hope it can be useful for those who want to make this change.
Thanks for the suggestion and photos. Well done! I completed the operation on my Tello today. Hopefully, the next firmware update won't cause an overheating shutdown, as it did during its last update.
 
Good afternoon to the owners of the drone, tell me I want to order a thermal pad for the processor. But I do not know its thickness, can someone measure how many mm from the chip to the top screen I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart while I’m on the way, I shake hands with everyone who helped in advance
 
Good afternoon to the owners of the drone, tell me I want to order a thermal pad for the processor. But I do not know its thickness, can someone measure how many mm from the chip to the top screen I’m grateful from the bottom of my heart while I’m on the way, I shake hands with everyone who helped in advance
 

man, I think you just need to put thermal pads and double-check everything how it will work, look above there, a man put a photo and even how it turns out he gave the thickness of these same pads)))
 
man, I think you just need to put thermal pads and double-check everything how it will work, look above there, a man put a photo and even how it turns out he gave the thickness of these same pads)))
In my post mentioned above I put the thickness measurement I used on my modification, (1.04 mm.)
 

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