Distance of the Phantom 4

So if I always have issues around 2,000 would u send it back to get checked?


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Only if you're getting that performance in an area devoid of any kind of obstructions such as trees buildings, and antenna structures, and RF interference such as residential areas paced with WIFI routers.

Personally I've never found a NEED to get much more than a mile 1 way out from the bird. I've hit just over a mile around my house where I have a school and neighbors and towers around me no doubt eating up the available spectrum and hampering my distance. I'm certain that my same bird in an area such as the desert or Siberian tundra etc would perform as well as most others running stock gear.
 
Poor range (often less than a mile) is common for P4. Almost everyone ends up putting on a better antenna, or getting a more powerful controller like me so you can go 2 to 3 miles. You read more about this here.
Not my experience at all 2 miles easy.. unassisted...I have windsurfers but have never used them. I had it out 3 on the weekend with no issues at all.

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So if I always have issues around 2,000 would u send it back to get checked?


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You need to become familiar with the channel selector. Access that by clicking the HD icon. Look at which channel is the least busy and select that as a custom channel. Usually ch22 is the best in my area, and most I have flown. AFTER you select the custom channel, you'll see a new setting bar called transmission quality. Set that to the lowest setting, 4mbps. Try flying that and see how it goes. Also, using a windsurfer can almost double your range, but beware that you must point the parabolic dishes at the drone to work efficiently.

Another trick is to install the 32ch hack and use channel 30, 31, or 32. Those channels always seem dead of traffic. Search on "32 channel hack" to learn how to do that.

With the stock P4 RC (GL300C), I would often have video drop outs at 3000ft and 4000ft with 4mbps, and in my book that's unacceptable. However that's what many folks are experiencing. There may not be anything wrong with your drone or RC, that's just the nature of the GL300C. An option is to buy a GL658 RC on ebay, which works way better with P4 craft, because that RC has 50% more transmit power than GL300C. You can read about it here.
 
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Not my experience at all 2 miles easy.. unassisted...I have windsurfers but have never used them. I had it out 3 on the weekend with no issues at all.

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Is that in a remote area or urban neighborhood
 
Not my experience at all 2 miles easy.. unassisted...I have windsurfers but have never used them. I had it out 3 on the weekend with no issues at all.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using PhantomPilots mobile app
You're very lucky. My P4 with stock GL300C has half the range of P3P in the same areas, same day. I exchanged my P4 for a new one from DJI, same range, however they only swapped the drone, not the RC. Hence I use a different RC now, and I'm quite happy with the range (2 to 3mi with Windsurfer)
 
I have a farm that has a 500 kv power transmission line running through a section and I usually fly from a distance of maybe 100 yd from the power lines.
Using a stock remote with windsurfers and channels on auto the most distance I've gone is 12,700 ft away from the power line. If I go over the lines and out the opposite direction the max distance drops severely to the 6,000 ft range before loosing the lightbridge video connection.


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So do these kind of antenna reflectors really work?


IMG_1109.jpg


Thanks!

Curt
 
Thanks for all the great answers! My battery had 70% left and I aimed the antenna towards drone location. I think having issues at 2,000 feet is not acceptable for a P4. I bought a pair of Windsurfers and will now they them out of report back.


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Make sure you set adequate RTH altitude, with some buffer but not exagerated otherwise craft might waste time and energy to reach altitude before return. Also make sure behavior is set as RTH and not Hover (that one being convenient i.e. if flying over water).

In GO app settings (info stored in P4 so change value when up and running)


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Thanks Curt. That's comforting. But I guess I don't understand the technology. How can it find the home base if it doesn't have a signal. I am new to drones.


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It takes the GPS coordinates for either the RC or the bird itself and stores that as the RTH point. Then on a loss of signal, based on your choice of RC or Aircraft startup position, returns to those coordinates automatically - IF that's your chosen loss of signal action. You can choose, hover, land, or RTH. It will climb to your set RTH altitude and then return home. If the bird is HIGHER than the RTH altitude it will go ahead and return at the current height. Also a point to note, if you are within a short distance ( < 60' / 20m??) of the bird and hit the RTH button, it will land where it is. Normally not a problem, but if it's hovering over water and close to its set RTH location when you hit that button.... SPLASH. The bird cannot tell the diff between water and land.
 
I got 11,187 ft with my P4 but used 18.00 slip on wind suffers LOL and that was on a very windy day. I could have got more but was chicken LOL
flight.JPG
 

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