P3P range concerns

[J.James]

These ranges are incredible . Are you guys that are getting these ranges actually able to see the live view on your Ipad,or tablet while flying?

Yes for the most part tho the video can start to get a bit choppy when getting near the end of the range.

Tho usually once its out of video range its not to much farther before it goes in to return to home from not getting any more signal.

And also, for what purpose do you fly those distances? Do you record videos when flying far or no?

Im sure every ones reasons are different But for me Most of my real long flights have been just to test out the range and see what it can do. and because I don't like flying any place around were I live and its much better scenery once i get out past the edge of town and in to the surrounding towns or city's.

Some of my first long distance flights I was helping some one try and locate there lost p1 and not having any luck using my p2 to do aerial recon and also had to keep going all the way to were he lived to take off from.. Then when I got the p3 and put it threw all its test paces and broke in the battery I was going to go and try some searches with the p3 but was stuck with no transportation that week so for the heck of it I tried to see if I could just fly there do a short grid search of the target area and bring her back and review the video to see if I could see any thing that looked like a big white x on the ground or in any of the trees. It was pretty sick to be able to go from my house and 2 towns over to help look for the white hawk down.

Then last Monday there was a small concert a few miles away that the city accost the river puts on every Wednesday during the summer. Tho a few people that were there said it was getting real crowded. So I was not sure if I wanted to go or not if it was to packed. So I flew the p3 to about 1/4 mile away and seen it was mobbed and standing room only and seen it was way to packed to want to bother going or trying to find parking anyplace. So I decided to stay home.

 

[flax]

I flew out to 1.2k (a bit under 4000ft) @ 40meters high and turned back immediately due to weak signal. I'm guessing if I had increased my altitude I may have got longer range. Flat farmland. It was my longest run yet and I forgot to hit record . I've been spoilt with Litchi on my P2V+V3, auto record!

Check your mobile device's (video) cache, the 720p feed might be there?

 

[duse500]

Once again ,After reading these ranges I flew last night just to see the range I could get.
Flat land,trees . I got 900' at 300' altitude. I got 1100' at 400' At those distances the weak image transmission signal kept coming up ?
Why is that

 

[30secs]

Since I haven't gotten a response I guess I'll ask again. Assuming you are holding the tx parallel to the ground. Do you set your antennas horizontally or vertically (sky)

 

[AlmostaJoker]

I have mine set vertically slightly spread apart in a v shape.

 

[bobmyers]

Vertical and straight up

 

[duse500]

Once again ,After reading these ranges I flew last night just to see the range I could get.
Flat land,trees . I got 900' at 300' altitude. I got 1100' at 400' At those distances the weak image transmission signal kept coming up ?
Why is that

I can actually turn the P3 around at the 1100' mark ,and see my house
Could I have a setting wrong?

 

[bobmyers]

I can actually turn the P3 around at the 1100' mark ,and see my house
Could I have a setting wrong?

Do you have any high voltage power lines or power substations around your flight paths? You may have some electrical interference interfering with your radio signals? Check the google map closely for these locations and how they might relate to where you are flying.

 

[FRM]

Can you explain more? Do you men the image transmission setting?

 

[BenDronePilot]

According to DJI it increases the distance of the video feed. Don't shoot the messenger on this one, the app shows this information.

Antenna position affects both the video and the control signal

 

[BenDronePilot]

I get 2500 feet on a really good day. Not too worried about it as going much further in an urban environment is not smart and technically illegal in the US. We have to keep the bird in sight and below 400 feet to stay legal. Away from people, property and wifi interference you will likely get further (thought I haven't tried it yet).

As far as the USA goes you do not have to do any of that to "stay legal". You can fly as high as you want and as far away as you want. As long as you're not doing something reckless use some common sense such as not flying in the direct flight path of air trtror next to an airport runway and all will be good.

 

[BenDronePilot]

the transmitter signal is different from the Lightbridge signal. you could lose transmitter signal and still have Lightbridge showing the picture. As soon as you loose the 2.4 GHZ connection from the controller to the receiver completely, the RTH is going to initiate and if the Lightbridge signal is still good, you will get the screen popup-- Check the transmitter signal at the top of the screen for signal strength and the one next to it for light bridge strength. If the Lightbridge goes out first, then you will not know anything about the controller signal to the aircraft.

It's all the same 2.4ghz signal which handles both the control and video signal. The only reason you will loose the video before control is the control uses very little data vs the amount of data MeeMeMneededNeeded needeneededneeded fprfor vkdel


FoFo



iimpimpoimportimportanimportantimportanimportimpori

 

[duse500]

Do you have any high voltage power lines or power substations around your flight paths? You may have some electrical interference interfering with your radio signals? Check the google map closely for these locations and how they might relate to where you are flying.

closest High voltage lines and substations are about a mile in back of my house.(would that make a difference) I fly out the front door. My flight path is 100 acres surrounded by hundreds of acres of trees that has no houses ,cell phone towers,high power lines. Just trees and a couple of creeks.

 

[duse500]

Can you explain more? Do you men the image transmission setting?

Are you replying to me?? If so ,at around 900' a red flashing signal(comes and goes) at the top of the screen says "weak Image transmission " . I can bump it to 1100' but then it stops flashing and just stays solid. Thats about the time I hike up my skirt and head back.

 

[MattyDread]

In the morning I'm going to do a distance test at a dryed up lake called Lake George - it's approximately 15km x 5km, so should be able to keep line of sight, also no buildings, power lines etc.

I'll post the flight log tomorrow evening & see what happens, btw I've only had the P3P 2 weeks & haven't flown further than 300m out at a time.

 

[smaugnaut]

Im right with ya I got scared on return as I watched battery % go down and down and I still didn't hear her
View attachment 23644

Hahahaha this is an awesome suicide mission!

 

[Mark Baldwin]

Range seems to be highly variable. Three days ago, I made my personal best distance of 8500 ft. Flew from the exact same place last night and couldn't do more than 2500 ft.

 

[duse500]

I made it to 5000' today ,flying up the creek.(at 400' att) pretty much an Open line of site (1 bridge that is @ 15-30 off the creek).
Then the dreded,,, weak RC and image transmission " signal came on. I was very happy to get to 5k but would still love to get the 10-15k on the stock set up.
Any other tips???

 

[bobmyers]

I made it to 5000' today ,flying up the creek.(at 400' att) pretty much an Open line of site (1 bridge that is @ 15-30 off the creek).
Then the dreded,,, weak RC and image transmission " signal came on. I was very happy to get to 5k but would still love to get the 10-15k on the stock set up.
Any other tips???

Pretty soon, after all the distance issues are resolved-- we can have a Phantom Marathon Thread

 

[30secs]

Is there a way for me to easily see what's the further I've gone in previous flights?