Disappointing Range

crashburn · Jan 9, 2017

I have a better location where I could probably get more range, but my first test is disappointing

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Ftolino · Jan 9, 2017

Change your frequencies settings. Your probably on 5.8

pilotbcm20 · Jan 9, 2017

He tried both 5.8 and 2.4 2.4 seemed to be worse. Hopefully somebody can shed some light on this.

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Maverik · Jan 9, 2017

I am hoping that more people attempt the same test to for some comparisons.. I will, however have to wait for the snow to stop..

by the way.. what are you using to capture the screen image and sound of your DJI Go 4 app?

crashburn · Jan 10, 2017

Maverik said:
I am hoping that more people attempt the same test to for some comparisons.. I will, however have to wait for the snow to stop..

by the way.. what are you using to capture the screen image and sound of your DJI Go 4 app?

The native screen recorder, comes with the Nvidia Shield

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slim.slamma · Jan 10, 2017

crashburn said:
I have a better location where I could probably get more range, but my first test is disappointing

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Cool video
1.5 is not awesome. Hopefully you can get it figured out.
Seems like a good location to get max distance.

I'm bout ready to upgrade myself so appreciate you sharing.
Whats your flight time at 30%?
Back on topic, RC had full bars when video transmission dropped. Can you fly without the camera? Just for a distance test
I would've kept pushing with the RC signal being full strength.
Probably just a firmware issue

Mark Taylor · Jan 10, 2017

Does anyone understand the advice in the manual to vary the antenna angle between 5.8 and 2.4 ?

I would have though that regardless of which you use, the strongest signal is going to be when the flat face of the antenna is towards the aircraft and to avoid pointing the tip of the antenna directly at the aircraft...?

Feet Up · Jan 10, 2017

It seems like you are losing signal in the vicinity of that radio tower. Interference?

crashburn · Jan 10, 2017

Feet Up said:
It seems like you are losing signal in the vicinity of that radio tower. Interference?

No that tower doesn't cause any interference, at least on my other drones (I1, M100, P4, Mavic), flown all around it with no problems. It's a tower used by a rural volunteer fire department. I'm going to fly my Mavic, P4, and I2 under identical conditions and compare them to see if in fact the I2 has range issues.

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crashburn · Jan 10, 2017

Mark Taylor said:
Does anyone understand the advice in the manual to vary the antenna angle between 5.8 and 2.4 ?

I would have though that regardless of which you use, the strongest signal is going to be when the flat face of the antenna is towards the aircraft and to avoid pointing the tip of the antenna directly at the aircraft...?

Doesn't make sense to me. I tilted the controller, up/down, and it didn't seem to affect reception. Must be a reason though.

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KranMc · Jan 10, 2017

Gotta marvel at your guts. I think I might have lost my cookies with a $6k aircraft coming unhinged off the remote. Hope this gets figured out for you.

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crashburn · Jan 10, 2017

Mavic wins the range contest, of least in my part of the woods. Mavic got almost 11000 feet, I2 less than 8000 feet. I think I could fly over 16000 feet with I2, at the location where I flew the Mavic over 17200 feet. Anyways, 99% of the time I will be keeping my I2 close to home, but might have to mod the rc when antenna/amp kits come out, just for good signal in high interference locations.

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slim.slamma · Jan 10, 2017

Reaching for straws here but did you adjust the Image Control Rate.

Mark Taylor · Jan 11, 2017

crashburn said:
Mavic wins the range contest, of least in my part of the woods.

Are you still using the default transmission quality setting?

Under 'custom' in 'HD', for your range tests I'd have thought that turning it down from the default '10' to the minimum '4' might have some impact?

Also, unless you've got a lot of 2.4GHz traffic around there (unlikely?) you should get considerably better range on 2.4GHz rather than 5.8GHz. I did note that you tried that in your previous test, but not this most recent one.

The Editor · Jan 11, 2017

crashburn said:
Mavic wins the range contest, of least in my part of the woods. Mavic got almost 11000 feet, I2 less than 8000 feet. I think I could fly over 16000 feet with I2, at the location where I flew the Mavic over 17200 feet. Anyways, 99% of the time I will be keeping my I2 close to home, but might have to mod the rc when antenna/amp kits come out, just for good signal in high interference locations.

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That's precisely what auto spectrum hopping is for. It enables auto switching (if enabled) between 2.4 and 5.8ghz bands when higher levels of interference are detected.
As an aside, longer range is only possible when HD feed is set to 720 or less.

Mark Taylor · Jan 11, 2017

The Editor said:
As an aside, longer range is only possible when HD feed is set to 720 or less.

Pretty sure he has 720p selected, it was briefly visible in the first video when he change bands.

There isn't any 'less' option though is there? I only see 720p or 1080p as options.

F3honda4me · Jan 11, 2017

The phantom 4 pro can go 4 miles on either 5.8ghz or 2.4ghz. The inspire 2 should be able to do the same. The fact that you go from full bars for image AND TX to instant disconnect make me feel like something isn't right...

crashburn · Jan 11, 2017

Settings were at 720p, auto.

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Inspire1vision · Jan 11, 2017

I flew mine out to 6,000 ft and still had 5 bars RC and 5 bars live feed, and I'm in a wifi congested area. I don't remember which frequency band I used though...