250Flyer Posted at 5-16 12:01
What youve seen and what youve done personally is different. Do a range test and prove me wrong…

Waiting..

I’ve done my own tests for sure.

Re: penetration - Avata 1 and O3 Air Unit have really been amazing, I've flown through a 700m long building with both of them and so far in my limited testing Avata 2 seems even better (as specs seemed to suggest it would be). Unfortunately RF is weird and unpredictable, but #1 thing to keep in mind is to try to have your goggles always pointing in the aircraft's general direction (most people unconsciously start looking more and more towards the ground as they fly which can really hurt your signal) and it should be able to easily outfly its battery in LOS or do several reinforced concrete walls or a bunch of trees BVLOS.

250Flyer Posted at 5-16 04:41
From my testing the avata 1 with the ham file has way better signal and penetration compared to avata 2 with ham file.

I have done range tests too. Avata 1 with ham file is different class.

not by my testing.... avata 1 with ham file did not get as far as my avata 2 with ham.
and the avata 2 had way more stuff "in between"

even the avata 2 without ham did better than the avata 1 with ham... and the avata 2 had a thick brick wall, trees, bushes, couple cars, and ground in between, avata 1 just some bushes.... both low to the ground (around 1 meter)

so by my experience, penetration of the avata 2 signal is way better (in CE ZONE!!!!)
a couple of youtubers also tested this and they say it is due to the use of tri band on the avata 2 in CE zone (2.4, 5.2 and 5.8) of the avata 2 compared to dual band (2.4 and 2.8) on the 1.

DAFlys Posted at 5-16 09:13
It’s on 10km unobstructed.  Basically you’d need to sit on a hill top and fly out 10km to achieve that.    And you’re not getting back from that.   The range tests show the avata 2 with and without the file achieving the same distance before having to come home but without the ham file you’d loose some bars.

The main improvement for me will be to retain a strong signal amongst some tress when at 100th of the max advertised operating distance. I appreciate the need for a clear LOS to reach ridiculous and highly illegal distances but I wouldn't expect a tree 200m away to block the equivalent of 9.8KM of range lol

A J Posted at 5-16 21:49
The main improvement for me will be to retain a strong signal amongst some tress when at 100th of the max advertised operating distance. I appreciate the need for a clear LOS to reach ridiculous and highly illegal distances but I wouldn't expect a tree 200m away to block the equivalent of 9.8KM of range lol

I flew around the woods early on without the ham file and got some good penetration, but RF is pesky and can be different every day of the week.    But with the HAM file things do get better and theres no way to tell its install which is nice as the old way of having the manual channel selection available has been dropped,   Very smart of DJI.

DAFlys Posted at 5-16 22:10
I flew around the woods early on without the ham file and got some good penetration, but RF is pesky and can be different every day of the week.    But with the HAM file things do get better and theres no way to tell its install which is nice as the old way of having the manual channel selection available has been dropped,   Very smart of DJI.

I've always been able to manually select frequency channels. Annoying we can't do that ourselves. They'll let us do freestyle power loops at 60mph but we can't choose a channel lol
If I'm going to fly into woodlands then the hack is the only way forward I guess. Having to set my RTH to hover to prevent it flying up into trees every minute is not my idea of fun!

A J Posted at 5-16 22:17
I've always been able to manually select frequency channels. Annoying we can't do that ourselves. They'll let us do freestyle power loops at 60mph but we can't choose a channel lol
If I'm going to fly into woodlands then the hack is the only way forward I guess. Having to set my RTH to hover to prevent it flying up into trees every minute is not my idea of fun!

Now weve got three frequencies to select between as well it seems the software probably can do a better job at picking the least congested.  

DAFlys Posted at 5-16 22:20
Now weve got three frequencies to select between as well it seems the software probably can do a better job at picking the least congested.

Yeah, 5.1, 5.8 and 2.4 gigs - I bet it selects 5.1 all the time! It has to - I've put drones like the Mavic Air 1 (wifi only) in the same areas as the Avata 2 and never had signal issues that I get with the Avata 2 and it's O4 system.
I think that HAM file is calling me as I do not have the confidence to fly this drone anywhere but in direct perpendicular LOS to the goggles without so much as a leaf in between lol

A J Posted at 5-16 22:26
Yeah, 5.1, 5.8 and 2.4 gigs - I bet it selects 5.1 all the time! It has to - I've put drones like the Mavic Air 1 (wifi only) in the same areas as the Avata 2 and never had signal issues that I get with the Avata 2 and it's O4 system.
I think that HAM file is calling me as I do not have the confidence to fly this drone anywhere but in direct perpendicular LOS to the goggles without so much as a leaf in between lol

Mine was pretty good without the HAM file,    easily out flew the battery and in woods was fine,  you may have seen the bluebell video.  But it is better with the HAM file.     But who's to say we wont loose this after the next software update anyway.  

DAFlys Posted at 5-16 22:48
Mine was pretty good without the HAM file,    easily out flew the battery and in woods was fine,  you may have seen the bluebell video.  But it is better with the HAM file.     But who's to say we wont loose this after the next software update anyway.

I'll give it a proper test in a local woodland either today or early next week mate. I'm reluctant to do any hack on any drone (never have) as not sure of the implications to the care refresh and warranty cover and you never know what else is on that file...

A J Posted at 5-17 00:17
I'll give it a proper test in a local woodland either today or early next week mate. I'm reluctant to do any hack on any drone (never have) as not sure of the implications to the care refresh and warranty cover and you never know what else is on that file...

It’s an empty file you create yourself.     If you power goggles on last it’s not in effect.  I’d watch all the mads tech content about it.  He goes into all the detail.    You can even delete the file from the sd card once your done.

DAFlys Posted at 5-17 01:50
It’s an empty file you create yourself.     If you power goggles on last it’s not in effect.  I’d watch all the mads tech content about it.  He goes into all the detail.    You can even delete the file from the sd card once your done.

Thanks David - I've watched his vid. Very tempted but I'll keep things how they are for the time being. Signal seemed better today for some reason! I'll be posting another vid in a minute showing improved manual flying (by my standards)

A J Posted at 5-17 04:08
Thanks David - I've watched his vid. Very tempted but I'll keep things how they are for the time being. Signal seemed better today for some reason! I'll be posting another vid in a minute showing improved manual flying (by my standards)

Rf really fluctuates so you can have good and bad days.  

I’ve had to give up on manual up here.  It’s too limiting with this stupid 400ft limit applied.

DAFlys Posted at 5-17 04:33
Rf really fluctuates so you can have good and bad days.  

I’ve had to give up on manual up here.  It’s too limiting with this stupid 400ft limit applied.

Weather is lovely down here today with 3mph winds! It made flying today much easier than on Wednesday!  

A J Posted at 5-17 04:37
Weather is lovely down here today with 3mph winds! It made flying today much easier than on Wednesday!

It’s been quite mixed up here but I’ve still managed to break the 300km barrier on mine.   Not quite the 6000km my mini3p did before DJI replaced.  

DAFlys Posted at 5-17 04:44
It’s been quite mixed up here but I’ve still managed to break the 300km barrier on mine.   Not quite the 6000km my mini3p did before DJI replaced.

I've hit 143KM on my Avata 2 since 20 April. It's amazing how quickly it adds up. 6K KM for a drone like a Mini is insane!

A J Posted at 5-17 04:47
I've hit 143KM on my Avata 2 since 20 April. It's amazing how quickly it adds up. 6K KM for a drone like a Mini is insane!

Yep.   The warranty replacement is already over 5k km.   I think I fly too much.  

DAFlys Posted at 5-17 04:51
Yep.   The warranty replacement is already over 5k km.   I think I fly too much.

Hahaha - may be but if you enjoy it then why not! I'm flying about 6 batteries a week at present as determined to nail manual flying. Small steps but after today I'm seeing definite progress!

BadBert Posted at 5-16 21:41
not by my testing.... avata 1 with ham file did not get as far as my avata 2 with ham.
and the avata 2 had way more stuff "in between"

No way does the avata 2 with ham do better than the avata 1 with ham fie. Mads tech even says it doesn’t.

I know personally that it doesn’t. For a start the avata 1 unlocks more channels with manual selection where as the A2 in CE with ham file has less and stays in auto...

Strange you say that. The RF behavior is way different on 04 too

BadBert Posted at 5-16 21:41
not by my testing.... avata 1 with ham file did not get as far as my avata 2 with ham.
and the avata 2 had way more stuff "in between"

I have also tested it against my mini 4 pro in FCC (mod to rc2) and it is also poor compared to that. (The avata 2).

Still, I’m happy with mine.

Please let me know if ham file still works with new firmware for avata 2 and goggles 3 I am not able to test it until Sunday :/

player_87 Posted at 5-28 08:20
Please let me know if ham file still works with new firmware for avata 2 and goggles 3  I am not able to test it until Sunday :/

Yep, HAM file still works and it seems to even unlock manual channel selection in CE mode (unless it's unlocked by default now, I don't feel like factory resetting my goggles again to try, but it shows 3 channels at 60MHz for 5.8GHz band which matches FCC mode + HAM file).

fichek Posted at 5-28 13:38
Yep, HAM file still works and it seems to even unlock manual channel selection in CE mode (unless it's unlocked by default now, I don't feel like factory resetting my goggles again to try, but it shows 3 channels at 60MHz for 5.8GHz band which matches FCC mode + HAM file).

Thank you Fichek, I will give it a try this weekend  

250Flyer Posted at 5-16 12:01
What youve seen and what youve done personally is different. Do a range test and prove me wrong…

Waiting..

I have Avata 1 and 2 and found 2 to have better signal penetration in the woods and in open areas too and what is more important a lot more predictable signal while Avata 1 tend to abrupt the signal without warning

Does anyone know if the ham file still works under the just released firmware updates?

DJI Avata 2 Firmware: V01.00.0300
DJI Goggles 3 Firmware: V01.00.0200
DJI FPV Remote Controller 3 Firmware: V01.00.0100

fans28257c17 Posted at 5-28 22:25
Does anyone know if the ham file still works under the just released firmware updates?

DJI Avata 2 Firmware: V01.00.0300

A few people are telling me on Youtube comments that it still works,   but I'm waiting for Mads Tech to prove it.

alex_markov Posted at 5-28 20:49
https://youtu.be/2m0aTWnayCg
I have Avata 1 and 2 and found 2 to have better signal penetration in the woods and in open areas too and what is more important a lot more predictable signal while Avata 1 tend to abrupt the signal without warning

Totally confused! Height shown as 1.8m????????

yogi053 Posted at 5-28 22:57
Totally confused! Height shown as 1.8m????????

That's relative to his takeoff point. He took off from the side of a hill and just went straight without much elevation change.

fichek Posted at 5-29 00:07
That's relative to his takeoff point. He took off from the side of a hill and just went straight without much elevation change.

Oh! thanks fichek for putting me straight. Duh! Never thought about him being on a hill.

I've just updated my Avata2 to the last firmware. The novelties are awesome. I used to fly with the former firmware, and the signal improvement with the ham file was very obvious, but as you know channel selection was stuck in "auto", so we couldn't know the number of channels (in CE, we were supposed to have the 2.8, 5.2 and 5.8 GHz bands, but we could not see that in the settings). With the new firmware, everything went smooth, I did a factory reset, and formatted everything and it flew fine without the ham file. I then loaded the ham_cfg_support file to the goggles3 sd card's root directory, and the channel selection can now be either auto or manual. However, the drone now has only two bands, 2.4 and 5.8 GHz, the 5.2 is missing, indicating that the drone is in pure FCC mode. I'm away from my test site, I'm planning to test the ham file's efficiency this weekend. But short to say, the ham file is NOT ignored, and has a visible effect on the Avata2, however the boost is to be tested.

yogi053 Posted at 5-28 22:57
Totally confused! Height shown as 1.8m????????

Well, the range is almost always limited by the battery so climbing is not advisable slope is mild so the drone did not go high but never climbed

alex_markov Posted at 5-29 06:29
Well, the range is almost always limited by the battery so climbing is not advisable  slope is mild so the drone did not go high but never climbed

Yes Alex, fichek explained to me that you flew straight out from your position on the hill. I didn't think about that. Silly me.

Rigel@Boyoz Posted at 5-29 06:22
I've just updated my Avata2 to the last firmware. The novelties are awesome. I used to fly with the former firmware, and the signal improvement with the ham file was very obvious, but as you know channel selection was stuck in "auto", so we couldn't know the number of channels (in CE, we were supposed to have the 2.8, 5.2 and 5.8 GHz bands, but we could not see that in the settings). With the new firmware, everything went smooth, I did a factory reset, and formatted everything and it flew fine without the ham file. I then loaded the ham_cfg_support file to the goggles3 sd card's root directory, and the channel selection can now be either auto or manual. However, the drone now has only two bands, 2.4 and 5.8 GHz, the 5.2 is missing, indicating that the drone is in pure FCC mode. I'm away from my test site, I'm planning to test the ham file's efficiency this weekend. But short to say, the ham file is NOT ignored, and has a visible effect on the Avata2, however the boost is to be tested.

I wonder if 5.2ghz still works in auto mode.   Hopefully Mads Tech will test that.  

DAFlys Posted at 5-29 08:40
I wonder if 5.2ghz still works in auto mode.   Hopefully Mads Tech will test that.

Yes it does, both on Goggles 2/Integra and Goggles 3. 5.2Ghz mode has only ever been in Auto though with no manual selection avaiable.

Ham is now fully working as pre Avata 2 with RF power and channel unlock in CE to.

Mads Tech Posted at 5-29 09:06
Yes it does, both on Goggles 2/Integra and Goggles 3. 5.2Ghz mode has only ever been in Auto though with no manual selection avaiable.

Ham is now fully working as pre Avata 2 with RF power and channel unlock in CE to.

Brilliant news.  Thanks for checking this out.  

Great news..
Avata2 rulez!..

Rigel@Boyoz Posted at 5-29 11:47
Great news..
Avata2 rulez!..

Avata 2 sure does rule.