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The Official "My P4 Range Is Too Short" Thread - Don't Start New Range Threads!
- Thread starter Ramphex
- Start date
Which is exactly why you shouldn't waste money for aftermarket antennas.
After market antennas are for people who don't live in perfect flying areas . My DBS panel is amazing . I was lucky to get 1.5 miles where I fly with the stock antennas and now my signal far exceeds the battery power of my p4 . Battery modification coming soon. Thank you maxxuav!!
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app
I don't live in a perfect flying environment. I live in Chicago suburbs with plenty of interference and I can still get 18k
Very nice flight . I like to be able to fly a lot lower than 400 ft and still be able to get great range . But antenna modifications aren't for everyone . Safe flying brother!
Stupid question maybe.... But do i need to be in SPORT mode to get big distances or will GPS mode do it?
An even dumber question. I have tried to switch my channels from Auto to Custom mode but for some reason I am only left with Auto. I happen to be in Europe if this is the limiting factor. Great forum and great advice. Cheers.
Need help on downloads for phantom 4, when do you get updates , or how do you know that there is any?
As long as your Go App is up to date, and you are connected to the internet with your mobile device when connecting to your P4, it will alert you to new firmware, usually.
I cannot answer this one, I don't do custom channels, sorry. :-(
I pushed out to 3 kilometers today, which happens to be the max distance allowed in Europe. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when I was getting weak connection warnings. I even got a disconnection warning but I pushed on. Hit 3 kilometers and turned around. Just for fun, I will aim for 4 kilometers and see what happens.
Attachments
Thank you Bryan 22. If you don't like the post don't read it. Simple enough. My P2, P3, Inspire1 have great range. If I fly my P4 in the same area and same place I'm lucky if I can get it 2500 feet away before I lose signal. Well Ramphex says there's nothing wrong with his P4. He must have gotten one that was made correctly. You would think with 724 messages (on this site) he'd be able to help others instead of complaining about what they are asking.
Hi all. First post. Newbie to flying drones pretty much. Had a Parrot AR that I fooled around with, but just got the Phantom 4.
First few flights (well first few dozen)...mind blowing! Unreal! The control, the videos ... I wasn't expecting to get such a thrill.
So, now feeling a little more comfortable...tried to go for a little bit of range today...
Got up to around 190 ft, and horizontal distance of 1400ft....and then whamo, started to get the weak video warning, and then the weak remote warning. I turned around and hightailed it back home.
Came back to this thread....read all 11 pages...and went out to try again.
This time a little higher altitude, but still only around 1200 ft...still pushed through...but then was getting the weak remote errors frequently, got scared and came back.
Switched to manual mode...channel #20 and switched that other setting to 4 . No difference really in distance at all.
I am in the country, lots of trees around. Taking off from a fairly large open back yard. Antennae are parallel. Perpendicular to RC (should they be pointing straight up....would that make a huge difference anyways?). Bright sunny day today.
I was reading that trees cause interference...but not even 1500 ft distance?
Any help greatly appreciated.
First few flights (well first few dozen)...mind blowing! Unreal! The control, the videos ... I wasn't expecting to get such a thrill.
So, now feeling a little more comfortable...tried to go for a little bit of range today...
Got up to around 190 ft, and horizontal distance of 1400ft....and then whamo, started to get the weak video warning, and then the weak remote warning. I turned around and hightailed it back home.
Came back to this thread....read all 11 pages...and went out to try again.
This time a little higher altitude, but still only around 1200 ft...still pushed through...but then was getting the weak remote errors frequently, got scared and came back.
Switched to manual mode...channel #20 and switched that other setting to 4 . No difference really in distance at all.
I am in the country, lots of trees around. Taking off from a fairly large open back yard. Antennae are parallel. Perpendicular to RC (should they be pointing straight up....would that make a huge difference anyways?). Bright sunny day today.
I was reading that trees cause interference...but not even 1500 ft distance?
Any help greatly appreciated.
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Densely wooded areas will definitely have an affect on your signal. Trees will absorb the radio signal, so to speak, and not give you ideal transmission range. I have tested this MANY times with my Phantom 3's, my Phantom 4, and now my Inspire 1. the only one that does better is the increased power T601 Inspire 1 V 2.0, but not a TON better, but still better yet. When I move all the UAV's to my parents location in the country, with hardly any trees, let alone cell towers and "in town" interference's I have at my own home, I get almost 14,000 feet on my P4, roughly the same on the Phantom 3, AND APPROXIMATELY 15000 on the inspire. Just my $0.02 though, I am sure someone will say I am wrong, but for me, the proof is in the pudding, because in town I get a seriously worse range, and same affect in heavily wooded areas.
Thanks for reply. Yes I'm hoping it's the trees, although I wouldn't really call it densely wooded. Going to try tomorrow in a more open field.
I've attached some flight info.
Yeah, not densely wooded, but wooded in areas, and highly populated it appears, at least around where you were flying. People / household interference is just as bad. Please keep us up to date!
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First post, I just ordered a P4 , in large part due to the range. I'm not afraid of modding it, but I need it to be reliable. First mod has to be flight time. Surely it can carry a larger capacity battery, although I realize the battery pack is a proprietary design, or looks like it. My intent is to use it mainly offshore from my fishing boat, so there should not be a lot of interference from other 2.4ghz devices or trees !! What mods do I need to increase range and I'll search for battery mods.
Another newbie here and first post other than the checking on board post.
Got a P4 about 3 or 4 weeks ago and went right into the mods. Got Jakes Evolite Kit Plus. Barring those times you forget to turn the amps on, it works really great.
I've been out the last two weekends and did some range runs that I turned around based on battery concerns alone. Yesterday, I did a run that went about 17,000 ft out and back. I didn't lose a single bar on HD or controller. I'm not familiar enough with the P4 to know how it behaves when the battery is low, so I'm starting the flight into the wind and turning around with 60% battery to make sure I have more than 10% when I get back. I'll probably do a similar flight when the weather clears up and just hover when I get back until it wants to quit altogether just to see how far I can get toward 0% battery.
The area out here is relatively flat and I generally look for a highest point to start the flight. Company I work for has about 28,000 acres and employees are allowed access. A lot of it is leased hay ground, so it's not hard to find a little cleared knoll to perch on and have a good line-of-sight view for quite a ways. In the little hamlet where I live, the wires for power, tv, and telephone seem to be a significant interference, so I'm convinced that wires are a significant interference.
I was searching the forum here, among other places, and trying to figure out if the 400' limit was hard in the P4 and just found out yesterday that I could adjust it up to 500m. I see a lot of folks on the forum here saying that there's no reason to go above 400' and I'd have to disagree with that. Guess I'll leave it at that.
In any event, I work at a large industrial facility and I manage to get an aerial video that tracked around the entire plant and it's awesome.
I'm very pleased with the P4 and my range is just fine for my purposes (it's beating the battery at this point. battery upgrades available?????).
I've been telling friends/co-workers that after an entire career in the navy as a helicopter pilot, I honestly enjoy the P4 more.
Got a P4 about 3 or 4 weeks ago and went right into the mods. Got Jakes Evolite Kit Plus. Barring those times you forget to turn the amps on, it works really great.
I've been out the last two weekends and did some range runs that I turned around based on battery concerns alone. Yesterday, I did a run that went about 17,000 ft out and back. I didn't lose a single bar on HD or controller. I'm not familiar enough with the P4 to know how it behaves when the battery is low, so I'm starting the flight into the wind and turning around with 60% battery to make sure I have more than 10% when I get back. I'll probably do a similar flight when the weather clears up and just hover when I get back until it wants to quit altogether just to see how far I can get toward 0% battery.
The area out here is relatively flat and I generally look for a highest point to start the flight. Company I work for has about 28,000 acres and employees are allowed access. A lot of it is leased hay ground, so it's not hard to find a little cleared knoll to perch on and have a good line-of-sight view for quite a ways. In the little hamlet where I live, the wires for power, tv, and telephone seem to be a significant interference, so I'm convinced that wires are a significant interference.
I was searching the forum here, among other places, and trying to figure out if the 400' limit was hard in the P4 and just found out yesterday that I could adjust it up to 500m. I see a lot of folks on the forum here saying that there's no reason to go above 400' and I'd have to disagree with that. Guess I'll leave it at that.
In any event, I work at a large industrial facility and I manage to get an aerial video that tracked around the entire plant and it's awesome.
I'm very pleased with the P4 and my range is just fine for my purposes (it's beating the battery at this point. battery upgrades available?????).
I've been telling friends/co-workers that after an entire career in the navy as a helicopter pilot, I honestly enjoy the P4 more.
