Haven't Been Able to Fly Further than 1,500ft

McNifficent · Jul 2, 2017

Hello!
I've had my P3P for about a week now, and I haven't been able to keep a live view after 1,500ft out. I've seen people get upwards of 23k ft and am so confused what is happening. Can anyone share some insight please?

Meta4 · Jul 2, 2017

McNifficent said:
Hello!
I've had my P3P for about a week now, and I haven't been able to keep a live view after 1,500ft out. I've seen people get upwards of 23k ft and am so confused what is happening. Can anyone share some insight please?

There are lots of variables that affect range.
The two bigest are
Interference in your flying area (over the sea or wilderness gets best range - urban areas less).
Antenna orientation - here are some tips for optimum antenna orientation

McNifficent · Jul 3, 2017

Meta4 said:
There are lots of variables that affect range.
The two bigest are
Interference in your flying area (over the sea or wilderness gets best range - urban areas less).
Antenna orientation - here are some tips for optimum antenna orientation

Thanks for your reply!
To give some reference, I'm currently about a half mile away from the beach in Rhode Island, which is a very unpopulated state with distance between each house and lots of empty land, so I don't know how my range could be effected this much by purely interference. All I want is to be able to fly it over the water from my house

bhartwell · Jul 3, 2017

In most cases and under most conditions, your realistic max distance on a P4 is about 1000ft. After that, the video feed gets choppy and usually fails. I've flown in wide open areas, over water, remote locations, etc., and have never gotten any further distance reliably. In populated areas, with lots of interference, your distances will be reduced.

Meta4 · Jul 3, 2017

bhartwell said:
In most cases and under most conditions, your realistic max distance on a P4 is about 1000ft. After that, the video feed gets choppy and usually fails. I've flown in wide open areas, over water, remote locations, etc., and have never gotten any further distance reliably.

The range shown in the specs is much greater than 1000 ft and over water or away from urban areas many users get the published range or even more.

McNifficent · Jul 3, 2017

Meta4 said:
The range shown in the specs is much greater than 1000 ft and over water or away from urban areas many users get the published range or even more.

So what can I do?

Richard R · Jul 4, 2017

McNifficent said:
So what can I do?

I routinely get out over 1500 meters with my P3A in a sparse urban environment. If you have set up your antennas correctly as in the video posted by Meta4, try going higher. At 50-60 m AGL (the height that the Go app records and displays), you should be getting decent range (2-3000 ft)in the area you described

Richard R · Jul 4, 2017

bhartwell said:
In most cases and under most conditions, your realistic max distance on a P4 is about 1000ft. After that, the video feed gets choppy and usually fails. I've flown in wide open areas, over water, remote locations, etc., and have never gotten any further distance reliably. In populated areas, with lots of interference, your distances will be reduced.

Note, the OP is flying a P3. Range spec much higher than what he is reporting.

lunicy · Jul 4, 2017

What I've learned in the short time I've had a P3P.. The most you are going to get in any normal setting is 4000-5000ft. And even that is pushing it. I have one of the cheap parabolic reflectors on the antennas (that'll gain you a few hundred feet). Flying high, I can get around 3000-3500ft in my suburban area. Remember, every cellphone, wifi router, mobile hot-spot, microwave, baby monitor, etc.. is interference. You might be able to get a little more range with the 32 channel hack. (look it up, it's easy). I've never been in the middle of the ocean, or in the middle of nowhere, so I don't know how far it can go in ideal conditions, but in the real world... this is what you'll get.

Also, radio signals and the phantom itself is a temperamental pain in the butt... worse than a woman. Everything affects radio signal.

Whiskey_Throttle · Jul 4, 2017

My experience along the coastline of Connecticut is the same as lunicy with the p3p. I added the dbso2 itelite range extender and usually get out about 1 mile before the signal gets sketchy.

Meta4 · Jul 4, 2017

lunicy said:
What I've learned in the short time I've had a P3P.. The most you are going to get in any normal setting is 4000-5000ft. And even that is pushing it.

Go to a good interference-free area and you'll be able to achieve distances like the specs or even more.
Max Transmission Distance(Unobstructed, free of interference)

FCC Compliant: 3.1 mi (5 km)
CE Compliant: 2.2 mi (3.5 km)

In an urban area your range will be less than that.