Connection Loss

[skofoid]

Hello,
Looking for some suggestions. We had a flight where the UAS was about 3,000 feet away, about 175 feet upinspire 2 with a x4S. The aircraft flashed weak signal several times over an 18 minute flight. Returned it, swapped batteries, back to same spot and after about 5 minutes, lost connect and both cameras went down. We were able to fly it back. Restarted it and it had inconsistent firmware. Prior to flight, UAS, controller and APP were all up to date. After the restart, it flew fine, but again flashed a warning about a weak signal. We were flying over a large flooded, park area. One set of power lines in the area, but a long distance from the aircraft.

Suggestions, thought.

Much appreciated.

 

[mmarian]

Hello,
Looking for some suggestions. We had a flight where the UAS was about 3,000 feet away, about 175 feet upinspire 2 with a x4S. The aircraft flashed weak signal several times over an 18 minute flight. Returned it, swapped batteries, back to same spot and after about 5 minutes, lost connect and both cameras went down. We were able to fly it back. Restarted it and it had inconsistent firmware. Prior to flight, UAS, controller and APP were all up to date. After the restart, it flew fine, but again flashed a warning about a weak signal. We were flying over a large flooded, park area. One set of power lines in the area, but a long distance from the aircraft.

Suggestions, thought.

Much appreciated.

Standard Controller or Cendence with patch or sticks??

 

[Cat Eyes]

May be a silly question but just a thought. How did you have your antennas set up?

On that thought, has anyone used the add=ons that are suppose to improve signal strength and do they work?

 

[skofoid]

We were just using the standard controller with the two antennas up in standard position.

 

[mmarian]

We were just using the standard controller with the two antennas up in standard position.

How old is the controller? One possibility, is that the connecting wire from the RF PC board to the antenna broke loose from the antenna. It is not the greatest and most robust design and the way it is done could lead to that happening over time. Not sure how handy you are and if you would be able to open the controller and check that. Otherwise the only other option for you, if the issue is permanent, is to send the controller and the I2 in for repair. They should be able to test the system, including the strenght of the emitted RF signal and hopefully able to isolate the problem and fix it.

 

[Cat Eyes]

How old is the controller? One possibility, is that the connecting wire from the RF PC board to the antenna broke loose from the antenna. It is not the greatest and most robust design and the way it is done could lead to that happening over time. Not sure how handy you are and if you would be able to open the controller and check that. Otherwise the only other option for you, if the issue is permanent, is to send the controller and the I2 in for repair. They should be able to test the system, including the strenght of the emitted RF signal and hopefully able to isolate the problem and fix it.

I think he would have this problem all the time every time if that were the case. Good thought though.

 

[mmarian]

I think he would have this problem all the time every time if that were the case. Good thought though.

Not necesserily. The way it is done, the wire could broke loose but hanging there close to the antenna port and intermittently touching the port based on position of the antenna itself and also relative position of the controller. It could become an intermittent issue until the wire moves further away from the port due to shaking or gravity or whatever. This is of course just one possible reason for the issue. There could be many other possible reasons causing the issue. But this one is probable and relatively easy to check and fix at home.

 

[Cat Eyes]

Well I'm not an electrical engineer so I'm going to respectfully disagree with you. Not saying you're wrong but my interpretation of what he said is happening I don't think connects to what you're saying.

 

[skofoid]

what options are there to increase the signal strength on this controller? Different antennas or what is the most reasonable thing to do first? I may send it in to see if they could test how strong the signal is as well.