I live in a relatively rural area and I'm only getting 200-300 meters of range in my neighborhood. The most I've ever gotten was 1.2 km but I had to drive down the road a bit and I had to maintain a very high altitude. Transmitter is honestly not impressive if I can't even get half of the advertised range.


What are people's average ranges on this forum and what sort of location are you in? Thanks!

Watch this video on antenna positioning and see if it helps.
I've flown several P4's and get incredible range on all of them in a rural area.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-5 23:07
Watch this video on antenna positioning and see if it helps.
I've flown several P4's and get incredi ...

Would you mind posting the video lol

jimdotslim Posted at 2016-4-6 11:18
Would you mind posting the video lol

Sorry about that.

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-6 11:23
Sorry about that.
https://youtu.be/P7M9JtfVwQE

Thanks so much for this vid on  antennae use

atis Posted at 2016-4-6 15:08
Thanks so much for this vid on  antennae use

No problem at all. Also in the Academy section of the app is a huge amount of info like the full PDF manual, video tutorials, flight simulator, and a bunch of other great information.
From the home page, upper right corner is a graduation hat icon, that is the Academy section.

The transmitter power output is 20% less than the phantom 3 pro, so most people are experiencing range issues.

I must admit, In the same areas my Phantom 3 Professional gets a lot further than my P4.
It seems when flying through rural areas, the P4 constantly gets "Weak signal" message, as it scrambles to find a different frequency to transmit on, you just need to power through all those messages and keep going.  
If all else fails, and it disconnects from P4, at least the RTH should get you home safely.

R&L Aerial  Posted at 2016-4-7 05:45
The transmitter power output is 20% less than the phantom 3 pro, so most people are experiencing ran ...

A did side by side comparison with my new P4 and my P3P,
I live semi rural with lots of New Mexico high desert open sky,
I flew the exact same flight path and only 5 minutes apart resulted in this;
P3 lost signal at 13.800'
P4 lost signal at 4700'
Thoughts ??

Drone Man Posted at 2016-4-7 06:30
A did side by side comparison with my new P4 and my P3P,
I live semi rural with lots of New Mexico  ...

I think the power loss is in the controller itself so make sure your controller is updated to the latest firmware then try binding your phantom 3 pro controller to your phantom 4 and p4 controller to your p3p then run the test again.

I did a test outside today in a different area using the tips in the antennae video above and I STILL only get 1000 meters max instead of the advertised 5000 meters. This is extremely limiting imo.

Morph1 Posted at 2016-4-9 17:42
where in Canada are you ?,
I got the same thing happen to me on my 2nd flight I was in the open, a ...

I did the test in the rural areas around King City, Ontario

I have heard that the p3p remote has more power than the p4 remote.  But, that's not the only transmitter in the system.  There has to be a transmitter on the aircraft for the video down-link and I assume that there may also be a separate telemetry transmitter on the aircraft.  I am not sure, but there has to be at least one transmitter on the aircraft itself.  So, is only the power of the p4 remote different or is (are) the aircraft transmitter(s) different too.  It would seem to me that if the only thing that changed is the remote power, one should only be getting "weak RC" warnings while the range of the video link would be the same as the p3p.  If the only difference is in the power of the remote, then using a p3p remote with the p4 would improve the p4 range to that of the p3p and solve the issue.  If the aircraft transmitter(s) are weaker, I'm guessing that nothing could be done.

Maximum distance seems to vary a lot. I'm getting 2km. Probably more but I haven't tried. Although it does depend. I was in another town last week and couldn't go beyond 1200m. You could always consider a range extender ( http://bit.ly/1TMljlG ). Non intrusive and makes quite a difference for only a couple of dollars. Although you do have to make sure your antennas are pointing towards your bird with these.

It has been claimed that using the P3P controller with the P4 will improve the range.  I can confirm that my P3P controller works just fine with my P4 and I have only tested once and I got to a distance of about 4,700 feet at about 375 feet altitude here in Los Angeles, but I need to do some more testing.  I would be interested in hearing if someone who has both P3P and a P4 could try their P3P using the P4 controller.  If this test resulted in reduced range for the P3P it would help to confirm that the remote, not the aircraft is the weak link.  I would do this test myself, but I no longer have the P3P quad, just the remote.  I would love for some to try this test and let us know the results.

Thanx,
--Jim

jimdotslim Posted at 2016-4-9 16:27
I did a test outside today in a different area using the tips in the antennae video above and I STIL ...

Jim,

Try using all the tips in my post below for getting maximum range.  I have flown 4+ miles (5-7 km) out a half dozen times with my P4 in rural, unhindered areas using these settings.  Using a custom, fixed, low-interference HD channel and minimum transmission rate of 4 mbps on HD page of DJI GO app are critically important.  I also recommend using a $30 slip-on aluminum parabolic reflector over the RC antennae to maximize signal strength at long distances.

http://forum.dji.com/thread-46954-1-1.html

david.p.mann@ea Posted at 2016-4-13 20:40
Jim,

Try using all the tips in my post below for getting maximum range.  I have flown 4+ miles (5- ...

using 4Mbps how is the video feed you receive?

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-5 23:07
Watch this video on antenna positioning and see if it helps.
I've flown several P4's and get incredi ...

I am still not getting any range out of my P4 to speak of  and it's getting kind of annoying!  Each time I reach between 1600 and 2000 feet I get the notice on my screen "weak transmission". I always double check my antenna to assure they are positioned as suggested. In terms of obstructions I don't think that is the issue here due to where I fly when getting the weak signals. A couple of times my screen went completely blank and it was a bit freaky because at the time I could not see the aircraft. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

M Stuart K Posted at 2016-4-23 03:34
I am still not getting any range out of my P4 to speak of  and it's getting kind of annoying!  Eac ...

If you are in an open area and only getting 2000 feet and you watched the best antenna practices video and have your antennas correctly positioned and also lowered the bit rate in the image transmissions setting then you may have an issue and you can send it in for a warrantee repair to be looked at
If you do lose video signal you can just expand the map page and turned around and followed the greenline back towards home and the image will come back shortly.
I am sorry that you are still experiencing short range.

I've never had ANY issues with range on the P4 regardless of the antennae positioning.

sivaneswaran.sa Posted at 2016-4-22 13:16
using 4Mbps how is the video feed you receive?

I don't notice any degradation in video quality at 4 mbps HD Link transmission rate and, when flying at longer distances, this transmission rate will allow the live video image from the P4 to refresh faster which results in smoother video.

Hey all !
I'M new here, but have tried to read all the threads about this... didn't find a clear answer, so I'm asking the question :

I just bought a Phantom 4 and the video range is extremely bad. I tried it with an Ipad Mini (1st gen) and v3.02, and my Nexus 6p (v3.8), and get the same results discussed in other posts above : even when the phantom is 10 ft from me, with the antennas setup according to the video, and settings at the lowest rate, I experience severe loss of video feed.

Any miracle solution in the horizon ?

Zefred Posted at 2016-11-12 06:28
Hey all !
I'M new here, but have tried to read all the threads about this... didn't find a clear ans ...

I am pretty sure the 1st generation iPad mini is not powerful enough for the job, and neither is the Nexus 6p.  These are the DJI tested and recommended devices:
        
ios: iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPod touch 6, iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad Air Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 2, iPad mini 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad Air 2, iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi + Cellular, iPad mini 4, and iPad mini 4 Wi-Fi + Cellular. This app is optimized for iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

Android: Samsung tabs 705c, Samsung S6, Samsung S5, Samsung NOTE4, Samsung NOTE3, Google Nexus 9, Google Nexus 7 II, Ascend Mate7, Huawei Mate 8, Nubia Z7 mini, SONY Xperia Z3, MI 3, MI PAD

Zefred Posted at 2016-11-12 03:28
Hey all !
I'M new here, but have tried to read all the threads about this... didn't find a clear ans ...

Hello Zefred, welcome aboard!

Try to reset your ipad to factory default (back it up first) and install the Go app ONLY. Try the hardware decoding setting both turned off and on (Go app) and see which one would suit your ipad's power better.

Hope you'll find a fix and enjoy both the forum and flying!

I wanted to know how the antenna system works on the RC... is one for receiving and the other transmitting or vice versa? Or are they identical.  The reason I ask is this, Ive noticed if i unhook my right antenna (if your looking down at the remote) and only use the left antenna, the phantom still flies fine and I can get out to about 2800+ feet easily.  If I do the opposite and unhook the left antenna and only use the right antenna, the phantom loses signal completely in about 20 Feet from me, like it's not flyable.   Can someone enlighten me and tell me if I have a bad RC? or just a bad antenna? Or is this how it's supposed to work?  Thanks! Daniel  (before you ask) I didn't do any mods to the RC. I just opened it up and unhooked the little gray factory wires and tested each one individually.

david.p.mann@ea Posted at 2016-4-13 16:40
Jim,

Try using all the tips in my post below for getting maximum range.  I have flown 4+ miles (5-7 km) out a half dozen times with my P4 in rural, unhindered areas using these settings.  Using a custom, fixed, low-interference HD channel and minimum transmission rate of 4 mbps on HD page of DJI GO app are critically important.  I also recommend using a $30 slip-on aluminum parabolic reflector over the RC antennae to maximize signal strength at long distances.

how are those range extenders used? I have the aluminum scoop extender. Do you flip your antenna down and point the scoop up?

i usually fly by the water edge. the drone goes over water. i limited my range to 300m because im still looking at 1000$ flying by, but when i flew longer she felt fine.

eliot may Posted at 2017-1-19 14:51
how are those range extenders used? I have the aluminum scoop extender. Do you flip your antenna down and point the scoop up?

Use standard antenna position recommendations. If your aircraft is far away from you, the two antennas should be pointing straight up to the sky with their flat sides facing aircraft and with the parabolic reflectors behind the antennas of course.  

The only time you would want to put the antennas straight out (parallel to the ground) would be if the aircraft was several hundred feet directly above you holding the RC. In this case the parabolic reflectors would go underneath the two antenna.

Hi I'm new here I have the phantom 4 and fly in a rural area . I can get 1900 m with the stock antenna. So have gone on to the argtech 7 dbi upgrade . Thing is I still get 1900 m so either I'm not pointing them at the phantom accurately enough or there is absolutely no performance gain. That is at 130 m altitude and the ground rises probably 30 m from where I fly to where the phantom looses video 1900 m away. Any ideas thanks. Ian

Hi ken .i have a quick question. I here people talking about cancelling the Rth and pushing on for more distance
If you do that will the aircraft still rth at some point or could it confuse it and end up with a fly away.

mine is TERRIBLE. about the same as yours. my friend had his mavic here this weekend and he was a mile away before he lost signal. ridiculous.

Zefred Posted at 2016-11-11 11:28
Hey all !
I'M new here, but have tried to read all the threads about this... didn't find a clear answer, so I'm asking the question :

Have you got the usb cable plugged into the remote and into your tablet?

DJI-Ken Posted at 2016-4-5 19:07
Watch this video on antenna positioning and see if it helps.
I've flown several P4's and get incredible range on all of them in a rural area.

You probably live in Florida

connorschulte Posted at 2016-4-22 13:08
I've never had ANY issues with range on the P4 regardless of the antennae positioning.

You have to fly the darn thing first!!

Call Jake at Maxx UAV and all your problems will be solved. Trust me.

DJI-Ken what state are you in??