The Official "My P4 Range Is Too Short" Thread - Don't Start New Range Threads!

eyecon82 · Apr 4, 2016

Also, with no interference, I can get decent range, but nothing close to p3.

Fact is, P4 seems to be much more susceptible to interference than p3

Ramphex · Apr 5, 2016

13348 feet / 2.52 miles each way on stock setup today, 33 degree temps. Was going to do a comparison of windsurfers and no windsurfers but never lost signal without. Went back because I was too cold standing outside plus had some head on wind returning. Landed with 28% battery.

phantom13flyer · Apr 6, 2016

Jlomb436 said:
Low signal at 1200 feet?

Hey everyone.

I took my P4 out on it's maiden flight and went around a park as I wanted to test the range a little bit. I was about 350 feet up at a distance of 1200 feet away and I started to lose RC signal. I was in clear LOS and nothing in between myself and the drone. Video reception didn't have any issues. I checked healthydrones.com and I can see that I had 78 signal errors at the time. Now, the low signal warning was only for a split second, but that seems odd at 1200 feet. I was honestly hoping to take it out at least a mile or 2. I've seen some videos of people getting 15-20K feet. Are my expectations too high or is that abnormal to get signal loss at 1200 feet?

Yeah the warnings are not a big deal. The p4 seems to take a split second longer to switch to a cleaner channel than the p3 . Hopefully the next firmware update will speed this up. But just let the auto select do its thing and the signal will settle in and become stable.

D'sAdvanced · Apr 7, 2016

Let me get this straight - this Official Post is named "my P4 range is too short" yet the OP states to stop complaining about range? What am I missing here? Let people complain if they so choose. It will only make us, consumers more knowledgeable and create more competition between the drone manufacturers. The last thing we want to do is stifle speech.

Ramphex · Apr 7, 2016

The point is to centralize the complaints in one thread vs 100 threads flooding with negativity. It always seems like people will go out of their way and seek out ways to share their negative opinion but not so much for when it's positive.

morph1 · Apr 8, 2016

Hey all,
So what is an average distance you guys get ?? , I flew yesterday and lost RC signal completely at 475 M distance...
Bird, RC and the App is all updated to the latest firmware

Ramphex · Apr 8, 2016

Were you in a highly congested wifi area by any chance?

KidKobe210 · Apr 9, 2016

I've only been able to get to about 3,300 ft before i start to lose RC signal. Ive only flown in town so far (not too big of a town, est population about 85K).

I will go outside of town this weekend and see how it does.

Are there settings that can help with range i should be aware of?
ive been seeing people change something at "4mbps". will this help and is there a downside to doing this?

Ramphex · Apr 9, 2016

Yes, channel mod will allow you to operate on channels on 2.4GHz spectrum that is allotted for other communication devices.

nhoover · Apr 10, 2016

I tried a couple of flights today in a relatively uncongested area where I have flown over 18k' with a windsurfer on P3P. With the same windsurfer I got 11,800 and 12,700' with the P4. Am heading out to an even quieter place (where I've gone 21,000' with P3P) to try tomorrow. Not impressed although 2 miles is pretty much all I need for normal stuff.

borgqueenx · Apr 10, 2016

range is alot less also for me. It also is indeed more sensitive for interference.
Probaly need to buy a booster soon....It's the only solution we got probaly.

Tahoe Ed · Apr 10, 2016

Borgqueenx, you are right it is all about the interference.

Ramphex · Apr 10, 2016

Channel mod and windsurfers is a good start.

Jlomb436 · Apr 10, 2016

I just decided to get in a quick flight after the rain and flew around the local high school. I got 1478 feet and it lost signal. It initiated the RTH function. I had clear LOS too. Ill have to do some more testing but that is extremely short in my book.