Mark The Droner
First Officer
Flight distance : 2917 ft
United States
Offline
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Regarding the 2.4 and 5.8, they are two completely independent signals. One has no relationship with the other at all.
If you're heading straight out and you lose 2.4, the screen will freeze and you may or may not have control via 5.8. You likely do have control early on, but you have no way of knowing unless you have a live tracker which is also completely independent. So without a live tracker, you are flying blind. Obviously, as you head further out, you'll eventually lose control but, again, you need a live tracker to know exactly when. There is no relationship between when the AC begins RTH and when you lost the 2.4 connection. The only thing that matters is the 5.8 connection. Technically, if the 5.8 control signal was strong enough, you could fly for 20 miles or more with no 2.4 connection. In fact, you could fly 20 miles or more without even powering up your mobile device. You could even disable the 2.4 transmitters on both ends completely and the AC could still fly just fine.
The 5.8 is very simple. It is the control signal and nothing else. It shoots out from the controller and is received by the AC. As long as the 5.8 ghz signal is being received by the aircraft, it will fly. That's all there is to it.
The 2.4 is very complex which is why it usually drops out first - because there are so many things that can go wrong. 2.4 takes care of video and telemetry. Both the controller and the P3S have transceivers with a switching mechanism and then two antennas connected. Each of the two antennas does the same job, but they to it one at a time and switch between each other automatically in a constant effort to get the best connection. But that's just the beginning.
It's a very complex process which allows the system to work. For example, in order to see video on your mobile device, the bird must transmit an image, the controller must receive it, the controller then sends data back to the bird called a checksum. The bird then receives the checksum and sends yet more data back to the controller to either confirm or deny whether the data sent the first time was correct, and then, finally, if the data is correct, the controller sends the data to the mobile device on yet another 2.4 frequency (and this whole checksum process may very well go again between the mobile device and controller).
Yes, it's possible to lose video and still have telemetry and vice versa. This is more obvious on the trip back. As your AC gets back into range, 2.4 will normally return. But sometimes the video will crash (freeze) and not return regardless of your range and yet your telemetry still works fine. Typically as the AC comes into range, you'll see the FPV try to update, the FPV screen will change slightly, and then it will freeze again and not come back. But you'll see your telemetry is working. Less often, the telemetry will crash and not return, but your FPV works fine. But most of the time, both will return normally as you fly back into 2.4 range. Every once in a while, your flight app will crash completely and you will either have to reload the app or even reboot the mobile device while the AC is in the air. But remember - none of this has anything to do with the AC. It's advantageous to have a solid mobile device with lots of memory to minimize these problems. It's also advantageous to have a live tracking device so that you can monitor your aircraft's position, altitude, speed, battery, etc. as it flies regardless of its range.
Remember - flying out of LOS is not legal in the U.S.
Hope this helps.
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