Range Not What You Guys Are Getting

[PhilAnderson]

Newbie pilot, here. Maybe 30-35 flights, flying in Phantom mode. Today I was at about 200 feet distance and about 900 feet altitude and lost control signal. RTH works flawlessly. This has happened 2-3 times before. Batteries fully charged, extender pointed at copter, TX antenna pointed pretty much straight up, that is, TX held at slight angle so antenna bent upward hitting my cell phone. No outside interference that I experienced or noticed.

Do I need to be in NAZA to get the distances you guys are posting? Any other ideas?

 

[Dirty Bird]

Newbie pilot, here. Maybe 30-35 flights, flying in Phantom mode. Today I was at about 200 feet distance and about 900 feet altitude and lost control signal. RTH works flawlessly. This has happened 2-3 times before. Batteries fully charged, extender pointed at copter, TX antenna pointed pretty much straight up, that is, TX held at slight angle so antenna bent upward hitting my cell phone. No outside interference that I experienced or noticed.

Do I need to be in NAZA to get the distances you guys are posting? Any other ideas?

What is your flight environment? It is open fields in a rural setting with little Wi-Fi, or heavily urban with lots of home Wi-Fi networks? High overhead you need to play with the extender & antenna positions, and also rotating the Phantom can make a difference.

 

[happydays]

Have you checked that you are in CE mode via the DJI assistant software? i've read that some folks are getting two beeps on startup on the TX indicating CE mode, but in the assistant the report is stuck in FCC. Might be worth a go.

CBS

 

[PhilAnderson]

Newbie pilot, here. Maybe 30-35 flights, flying in Phantom mode. Today I was at about 200 feet distance and about 900 feet altitude and lost control signal. RTH works flawlessly. This has happened 2-3 times before. Batteries fully charged, extender pointed at copter, TX antenna pointed pretty much straight up, that is, TX held at slight angle so antenna bent upward hitting my cell phone. No outside interference that I experienced or noticed.

Do I need to be in NAZA to get the distances you guys are posting? Any other ideas?

What is your flight environment? It is open fields in a rural setting with little Wi-Fi, or heavily urban with lots of home Wi-Fi networks? High overhead you need to play with the extender & antenna positions, and also rotating the Phantom can make a difference.

Definitely not urban. Today I was at a park which is at a high altitude in a forested area and there was no one around. The park is in a large clearing and I had full LOS. Funny you should say rotating the Phantom can make a difference because that's just what I was doing. I went up that high so I could record some of the beauty of the area with a slow rotation. I got about half way through the rotation and lost signal.

So, it's not that I'm in Phantom mode, huh? I thought that was going to be the answer. I don't see a place in the Assistant to change from CE mode to FCC mode. I thought that was under Advanced which when I clicked on it I got a warning that I should be a seasoned pilot before entering that mode. I am not ready to move into any other mode, just yet, so didn't proceed for fear of changing into something I wouldn't know how to get out of. I do get the two beeps from the transmitter but don't see how to change the Assistant to FCC mode if it is in CE mode without changing from Phantom mode.

It's not a really big deal just yet, I'm pretty happy with the range I'm getting, but once in awhile I'd like to stretch my wings just a bit, so any help is appreciated.

 

[pyrophantom]

Have you checked that you are in CE mode via the DJI assistant software? i've read that some folks are getting two beeps on startup on the TX indicating CE mode, but in the assistant the report is stuck in FCC. Might be worth a go.

CBS

Think you got that round the wrong way - one beep is CE mode two beeps is FCC mode, but yes I have read on here somewhere that it does not necessarily mean it is in that mode when you look in the TX settings in assistant