I've been doing quite a bit of fly time and at almost religiously I loose signal at about 1000ft. Im not near any towers or transmitters, batteries are all at max. Antennas are not collapsed, and I'm in direct view path.   any ideas?

Yeah same me 2 I'm very disappointed the Phantom did better than that.

Yup , my p2s fatshark 600mw 5.8ghz tx is crystal clear with no breakup whatsoever at 1000 meters + , as I suspected the lightbridge setup Isn't really powerful enough or easily loses its link .... Anyone ??

same here too many signal breaks...despite picking empty channels under custom not happy with range at all My phantom is a champ compared to Inspire 1 (BETA)

If mine will not make a miles using the bigger battery after it warms up here in the northern states, its going in the garbage can.  My hex will do it easy.

(Without research)...Maybe DJI have trimmed* some of the original feature like distance's in order to enforce safer flying....Without the acceptance of the user.
*If* so then this would make it no more than a very expensive toy and not really suited for photographic and Filming use like intended.
I have one of the Original Inspires but have not flowen FPV anywhere near those lengths Yet..But can only guess it will perform well.

Captain Obvious Posted at 2015-2-17 08:45
(Without research)...Maybe DJI have trimmed* some of the original feature like distance's in order t ...

This could very well be the case as with the phantoms you would plug into the phantom NAZA tools and it'd ask you to upgrade to the latest assistant and firmware etc recal etc .. And then like I figured came the flight restrictions little by little , as people began to fly in obviously stupid places without a clue.
Exellent Range is one of the most important functions video or Rc link for the inspire to be worth it , And
It must work without exception for the purpose intended .

Hmm.. on the contrary, I made a distance of 2km in a build up residential area at about 50-55 meters in altitude. The image quality is great. I could have push it even further, with all signals still going on strong. As long as the TX antennas are pointing in the inspire direction, and line of sight, I believe it should not be an issue to go the distance.

drick1804 Posted at 2015-2-17 09:12
Hmm.. on the contrary, I made a distance of 2km in a build up residential area at about 50-55 meters ...

drick1804 were you using "auto" under channels or custom for that 2km transmission?

Did you set the distance in the App? There is a max distance and max height. If you didn't set those they will be at the default which is about the distance that you are stating.

arunmehta Posted at 2015-2-17 09:43
drick1804 were you using "auto" under channels or custom for that 2km transmission?

I was letting the app do its thing, so yes.. it was on auto.

I recently watched on youtube a flight of the inspire from the beach and out towards the sea. The user took it all the way to 4.7km!! There was certainly intermittent break in image quality but overall I was rather impressed by the overall performance. It was flying at about 30 - 40 meters in altitude!
If I were to take this and translate it to flying in a rather build up residential area which I have done so at 50 meters in altitude, I see the inspire's transmission being relatively strong above the 2km distance mark, which I have done so with ease.

drick1804 Posted at 2015-2-17 10:36
I recently watched on youtube a flight of the inspire from the beach and out towards the sea. The us ...

Redeeming ! If mine goes that far compared with my p2 I'll be happy . Just seems that many are not experiencing a confidence inspiring video link when beyond visual range .

drick1804 Posted at 2015-2-17 10:26
I was letting the app do its thing, so yes.. it was on auto.

There is a height and distance setting in the App. Check those settings and see what may be happening? My Phantom will out do the range that you are experiencing. The Inspire should far out do the Phantom range as it is a controller with much more output power.
All of these issues are wearing all of us down. I am a dedicated DJI user and enough is enough! I am not going to fly mine so if anyone wants a deal contact me with an offer. It has never been off the ground and has two TB48 spare batteries. I am worn down with all of these issues. The fun part is long gone!

"I recently watched on youtube a flight of the inspire from the beach and out towards the sea. The user took it all the way to 4.7km!! There was certainly intermittent break in image quality but overall I was rather impressed by the overall performance. It was flying at about 30 - 40 meters in altitude! "


Less interference over water.

Is the short transmission distance being caused by not having your tablet in airplane mode

I find that the Android Nvidia Tablet performs much better than the iPad mini. Yesterday I went around 1600 ft. outbound and got a good signal even with a screen recorder running in the background. As far as the mini Pad...it has not had the great range since the update to 1.01. With .9.0.2 I went out around 2000 ft. with a good signal. I may try the updated IOS without the screen recorder on to give it a fair chance.

Can get 1.7 km at least on multiple occasions. The transmit power on the Inspire LB tx is the same -20 dB/m or 100mW as for many RC transmitters. In addition to antennas not crossing, 1) adjust their vertical plane (should be perpendicular to ground or close to) 2) face the craft. You can experiment by rotating while standing in place - observe signal falling off when you are > say 30 degrees off front. You can verify by checking the radar display on the tablet (bottom left corner)

Let me add a little bit more to this. I am using the dual controller setup. I have dual Nexus 7 II's as well as I have tested on dual Ipad mini's. I changed from the mini's although had a brighter screen seemed really buggy The android platform has been very good.

My antennas on both controllers are in the proper position and all batteries are at max charge, Also both tablets when in use are in airplane mode with Wifi and Bluetooth disabled.

Earlier today I got to 1053 feet near my house before it began to have transmission problems. Then I did another flight with a single remote and it flew to 1058 feet from home point.

Next I changed location. This new location was in the middle of farmland with the closest transmitter or antenna being 5.2 miles. (hell for that matter I was even having cell reception issues.) I was on a hill about 100ft above the flat landscape and the largest building was some farmers house about 1/2 mile away. Everything around was almond trees which I was well above the tree tops.  I flew dual control for this test and it went about 1300ft and started having weak signal and at 1380(ish) it lost all signal and did the auto RTH (yeah it worked flawlessly)

Then I redid that test with a single controller and had the same results but this time at 1490ft from home point.  So at this point I am lost as I cant come up with a better envionrment to keep testing this.   DJU I bought this because it was supposed to outperform my Phantom II in several ways including distance. Whats going on.

PS also on a side note, I tried calling the north American office for tech support at 2:15pm PST.  I was on hold for  225 minutes (originally caller number 9) ad at 5:30 PM PST the system disconnected me. Really they must only have one tech online...  Tech support line (EPIC FAIL)

Truth be told..I'm using nvidia shield with aeroplane mode switched on. Like I mentioned earlier in my post, 2km distance from home point..no issues at all. My inspire certainly wants and urges me to go further with signal going on strong. I will push it and see how far it can go in a build up residential area and let you know my findings.

I ran a test this morning with the IOS app and the screen recorder turned off. Had a great signal all the way out to almost 3400 ft. I turned back with RTH since it was pretty windy and I felt that it was getting outside LOS.

Based on the design and geometry of the controller interface (I.e. Communications) vs communications with the Inspire the question should be does and can different tablets cause that great of a discrepancy in range from user to user?  I personally don't see how considering, unless my understanding of this system is incorrect the tablets are nothing more than a display and user interface  with all communications being handled by USB.

Do you have cellular capability on your Tablet? If you do, put the Tablet into Airplane Mode and see what happens?

PureSQNut Posted at 2015-2-17 23:52
Based on the design and geometry of the controller interface (I.e. Communications) vs communications ...

I think a lot depends on the tablet's processing power otherwise the video breaks up. The miniPad does fine as long as I'm not running screen record. The screen capture software is, obviously, too processor intensive. The Nvidia Shield has plenty of processor power...consequently I can run both app and screen recorder...but...I can get a greater range on the Nvidia if the screen recorder is turned off. So I think the difference in individual tablet experience can be put on how many apps one is running while using the app for flying.

PureSQNut Posted at 2015-2-17 23:52
Based on the design and geometry of the controller interface (I.e. Communications) vs communications ...

i just tried an experiment to answer that question. I was getting frequent data lapses on Ipad air 2 so i tried NVIDIA Shield ......i flew the inspire to 500 feet altitude and ran down the battery to 20% ...approx 17 minutes NOT a single data lapse....what does this mean:

The tablet model makes a difference in the data stability
NVIDIA shield is superior to ipad air 2 for data integrity and reliability
ps both tablets were in airplane mode and AUTO channel

arunmehta Posted at 2015-2-18 03:23
i just tried an experiment to answer that question. I was getting frequent data lapses on Ipad air  ...

I concur. The Nvidia Shield may be the first Android to pose a threat to the Apple tablet.

pete1144@me.com Posted at 2015-2-18 02:37
I think a lot depends on the tablet's processing power otherwise the video breaks up. The miniPad  ...

Hello Pete, How do you turn off screen capture in the app?

I lost signal at just over 1.25km which lead to a fatal crash.  Not a happy camper.  

PureSQNut Posted at 2015-2-17 23:52
Based on the design and geometry of the controller interface (I.e. Communications) vs communications ...

Yes, I have the same issue with this entire conversation. The tablet should have nothing to do with how far the aircraft can fly from the remote controller, unless the tablet itself is interfering with the communications link between the aircraft and controller. I'm guessing that any limitations on distance are primarily due to DJI's implementation of Lightbridge on the Inspire. Also if memory serves me, the Pilot app lets you select the amount of bandwidth that Lightbridge uses. A useful test would be to see how far one can fly using the different bandwidth settings.

I cant see how the tablet should be the reason for long or short distance.

Communication between the copter and the pilot is with the Remote control.
You just connect the remote to the tablet for more info and settings. Still,
the communication is done by the controller.

Anyone with more knowledge?

How do you adjust the bandwidth?