What causes reduced/loss of signal?

Joined
Jan 1, 2017
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I sometimes experience reduced signal and once in awhile a loss of signal. I can understand this happening if the drone is a couple of miles away, near a cell tower or behind a building. But once in awhile it's pretty much right in front of me. I was getting low signal messages when it was about 100' away today. It was over a big open area with nothing blocking. I slowly continued flying it away from me and regained full signal. This happened a couple of times in different areas. How about power lines? Can they interfere with it?
 
I kind of worry when I'm not connected then have to hope it returns to home like it's supposed to :)
 
I kind of worry when I'm not connected then have to hope it returns to home like it's supposed to :)
Yep. Same with me when my bird is miles away and it disconnects. I worry and wait patiently for it to find it's was back to me.
 
Absolute distance and obstructions are only part if the story. Your AC has to share the allocated channels with other services so if you have wifi, cordless phones and other equipment nearby it will try and play nice with them in sharing the available channels, there are occasions in highly congested areas where you will see this warning. Usually in the middle of suburbia and rarely if ever in more remote locations. Flying around your neighbourhood this is expected.
 
I've had the same issue. The signal, so far, as always came back but I worry that it may not. If I understand correctly if it doesn't my bird should return home correct?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
I've had the same issue. The signal, so far, as always came back but I worry that it may not. If I understand correctly if it doesn't my bird should return home correct?


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
If you have it set to RTH upon loss of signal instead of "hover" AND you have set the RTH altitude high enough to avoid any obstacles between the bird and the home point, then yes.
 
You didn't mention some pretty important info.
What model Phantom?
What version of firmware?
Losing signal at 100 ft is not normal, however there are many threads here where this has been discussed, and a certain firmware version (or several) have been the cause.
Seems to me that there has even been an occasional distance limitation issue that required a repair be DJI

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 
I'm using a Phantom 4 Pro with firmware version 4.0.2. It doesn't happen all of the time. I think it's interference but could be wrong.
 
I did a few flights last weekend. Started off near the beach with a max distance of 9211'. I had a strong signal but had to turn back because the battery was getting low. I later flew in the city. I started to lose signal at a distance of 2600'. I was near a tall building but not behind it. I later went in a different direction and lost signal at a distance of 1600'. That triggered a RTH.
 

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