The purpose of this poll is to hopefully bring awareness to DJI on just how widespread these problems are even after troubleshooting and trying different things to improve the signal. I believe there is a larger problem within the Mavic Air that needs to be addressed by DJI. There have been multiple discussions and complaints on these forums about distance and connection problems and I would like to consolidate everyone into one place to show how big this crowd is. Hopefully DJI can see it is not an isolated problem or individual problem and can start working on a solution for us.

I think it’s very easy to say there’s a problem, without knowing envoirment’s being used and set up by users, I fly usually in rural areas where interference is expected to be low and I’ve had almost know problems with advertised distance, so if you take my case only thing can be said about it is it works.

Unless for some unknown reason dji have put in different transmitters causing some aircraft to act in a different manner which I would find unthinkable and a ridiculous thing to do.
If we all have the same aircraft and we are all on the same firmware we all use the same software, then by process of elimination, we can’t really blame the aircraft or RC.
But why is the question you are asking, some can only fly shorter distances, then we must consider envoirment our set up the device we are using, surrounding obstacles to signal interference .

And I understand some say they are flying in areas of low interference but still loosing both radio and transmission, but there are many other factors to take into account here , what position are your antennas in are you wearing anything that might interfere with signal, is your phone in airplane mode, one of the biggest complaints I see is . Pilot was in rural area just flying over a small forest lost signal bad transmission, well the answer is already in that question.

There was a video on the spark forum similar discussion, so the guy posted a video spark flying in one direction and him facing opposite direction, it’s hard to take something like this serious.
But we are all human and have our frailties and sometimes when we are saying what is happening , we tend to leave out everything that might not help our argument.

There 's a missing option on the poll. "Sometimes - Depends on location".

For me, in some areas with lots of interference, I start getting signal problems at about 800-900 meters (around half mile). When I go where there is little interference, I still have a decent signal at 2400 meters (1.5 miles). I haven't gone further than that yet.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-4-30 07:01
I think it’s very easy to say there’s a problem, without knowing envoirment’s being used and set up by users, I fly usually in rural areas where interference is expected to be low and I’ve had almost know problems with advertised distance, so if you take my case only thing can be said about it is it works.

Unless for some unknown reason dji have put in different transmitters causing some aircraft to act in a different manner which I would find unthinkable and a ridiculous thing to do.

Regardless of the environment being flown in there is no such thing as a perfect flying environment. That being said I agree that it can cause many problems but the reality is that WiFi is EVERYWHERE now. It would be extremely difficult to get away from some other WiFi which would probably be in a remote wilderness somewhere. Then that poses the question of why would someone buy a drone that can only be used in a remote wilderness?? But then that would be my fault for buying it.

Another result being had (which has happened to me as well) is losing connection mere feet from the aircraft. You're telling me that the drone cannot travel more than 20 feet without receiving interference, enough to disconnect and RTH? Clear line of sight, no trees, no power lines, yet still a communication failure.

If the users environment has that much effect to render the drone nearly useless in anything but a remote location then there is a problem. My P3A operates on the 2.400-2.483ghz and the MA on 2.400-2.4835ghz yet in the exact same location and environment my P3A has absolutely no problem with range or signal at all! How is that environment interference!? That leads me to believe there is a hardware deficiency.

So far not had any issues with distance or signal.  The air has outperformed my expectations, great little aircraft.

I can easily surpass 2500 m but I do experience problems with signal in some areas – near residential buildings or cell towers. What variant do I choose? (Update: OK, now I see it)

dont slow down Posted at 2018-4-30 07:26
Regardless of the environment being flown in there is no such thing as a perfect flying environment. That being said I agree that it can cause many problems but the reality is that WiFi is EVERYWHERE now. It would be extremely difficult to get away from some other WiFi which would probably be in a remote wilderness somewhere. Then that poses the question of why would someone buy a drone that can only be used in a remote wilderness?? But then that would be my fault for buying it.

Another result being had (which has happened to me as well) is losing connection mere feet from the aircraft. You're telling me that the drone cannot travel more than 20 feet without receiving interference, enough to disconnect and RTH? Clear line of sight, no trees, no power lines, yet still a communication failure.

You say hardware deficiency, is this only for some or for all ? A deficiency in the aircraft would surely mean that the problem would be consistent, like you say sometimes you are loosing signal in less than 20 metres, if this was a problem with hardware surely it would be a problem every time you launch.

I think a good option is for those who are having problems to post videos of these problems and areas being flown in, they should show envoirment devices being used and the consistency in loosing signal, I think this will have a greater impact in finding out if there is a problem with aircraft.

Regarding loosing signal within 20 metres if this is happening on a regular occurance, it’s a problem, if it’s not regular then it might be best sorted by checking set up and envoirment, many take off in areas where interference is quite close.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-4-30 07:50
You say hardware deficiency, is this only for some or for all ? A deficiency in the aircraft would surely mean that the problem would be consistent, like you say sometimes you are loosing signal in less than 20 metres, if this was a problem with hardware surely it would be a problem every time you launch.

I think a good option is for those who are having problems to post videos of these problems and areas being flown in, they should show envoirment devices being used and the consistency in loosing signal, I think this will have a greater impact in finding out if there is a problem with aircraft.

Well that's kind of the point of this thread, to see how many owners are experiencing problems. Obviously it isn't all of them, however knowing that these electronic products are most likely to be produced on a product assembly line (possibly multiple lines) there could have been a defective batch or batch of bad components, who knows. When it comes to radio transmission problems they are extremely hard to pinpoint. I work in aviation electronics including radios, radars, navigation systems, etc, and one day things will work fine, the next day complete failure. It's the nature of the wireless technology and yes it is very easy and likely to say its an environmental issue, however you can only say that for so long and to so many people before it should be address or looked into. DJI cant say "The planet earth may cause radio interference, please try in another location." When it comes down to it there are lots of people with these problems, I'm hoping to find out how many to find the point where it tips the scales enough for DJI to say "Lets take another look at this". Consistent reporting like you suggest would help rule out other factors and is the most reliable way to report information.

Again I point back to my P3A, which when I fly it in the same location, with the same iPad, on the same radio frequencies, with less transmitting power than the Air, I have absolutely no problem at all.

dont slow down Posted at 2018-4-30 07:59
Well that's kind of the point of this thread, to see how many owners are experiencing problems. Obviously it isn't all of them, however knowing that these electronic products are most likely to be produced on a product assembly line (possibly multiple lines) there could have been a defective batch or batch of bad components, who knows. When it comes to radio transmission problems they are extremely hard to pinpoint. I work in aviation electronics including radios, radars, navigation systems, etc, and one day things will work fine, the next day complete failure. It's the nature of the wireless technology and yes it is very easy and likely to say its an environmental issue, however you can only say that for so long and to so many people before it should be address or looked into. DJI cant say "The planet earth may cause radio interference, please try in another location." When it comes down to it there are lots of people with these problems, I'm hoping to find out how many to find the point where it tips the scales enough for DJI to say "Lets take another look at this". Consistent reporting like you suggest would help rule out other factors and is the most reliable way to report information.

Again I point back to my P3A, which when I fly it in the same location, with the same iPad, on the same radio frequencies, with less transmitting power than the Air, I have absolutely no problem at all.

If that’s the case and we know that most people live in urban areas then you are never going to get balanced information , so this is why I suggested that the use of video to show problems occurring on a regular basis will have a lot more impact than a lob sided poll.

You are saying that it’s a hardware problem, if that was the case then this problem would be consistent particularly for those who may have come from the same batch, and videos of for instance aircraft consistently loosing signal within 20 metres will show this.

I’m not saying there isn’t a problem but almost everyone I read about here there seems to be very little common denominators, and to show there is a hardware problem I would presume we would see more consistency with loosing signal.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-4-30 08:24
If that’s the case and we know that most people live in urban areas then you are never going to get balanced information , so this is why I suggested that the use of video to show problems occurring on a regular basis will have a lot more impact than a lob sided poll.

You are saying that it’s a hardware problem, if that was the case then this problem would be consistent particularly for those who may have come from the same batch, and videos of for instance aircraft consistently loosing signal within 20 metres will show this.

I fully agree with you and to mee this discussion remains a little academic until we see concrete examples of problems and can analyse their possible sources.

Wachtberger Posted at 2018-4-30 08:40
I fully agree with you and to mee this discussion remains a little academic until we see concrete examples of problems and can analyse their possible sources.

Hey Captain it’s great to see you back, there was a whole thread here on your disappearance here over the last week. I think you have a great calming influence over the forum here, great to see you back, hope everything is good with you.

I also believe that video proof around here finds its way to those at dji much quicker and more informative to engineers, it will also stop the usual answers like fly in a different envoirment etc that really mods and forum users can only give.

The only thing I will agree with the discussion here is not all wireless cards are created equal. Some phones are just better than others, some laptops are just better than others in wi-fi mode.  I have a 3000 USD Asus laptop with the worst possible wireless card than money can buy. I have a 200 buck tablet with a fantastic card in it. So unless we know for sure that every card both in the Remote and in the aircraft are exactly the same, there could be a hardware problem with some units. Let's not discount the possibility or overplay the probability.

Quote from a user on the Facebook page.

So I just got done talking with a Mavic Air engineer. They told
There is going to be a firmware release early in May to fix the WiFi problem with the iPhone. On mine and others you can’t switch between the 2.4 and 5.8 hertz. It is simply not an option on the firmware on the controller. Having said that they said it would work perfectly with an android device. Thanks DJI, I paid 1000. For a drone that requires a new phone and I am leaving on vacation on thurs. To
Me very poor customer service. Does the android phone have to be active or can it be an old phone that has no carrier..... until the new firmware becomes available. Also I can only fly approx 800ft before I get poor signal and bad latency problems. I was told fri they would send me new firmware in 24-36 hours..and they were open on the weekends. I am very new to this stuff and DJI has left a very bad tast in my mouth.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-4-30 09:00
Hey Captain it’s great to see you back, there was a whole thread here on your disappearance here over the last week. I think you have a great calming influence over the forum here, great to see you back, hope everything is good with you.

I also believe that video proof around here finds its way to those at dji much quicker and more informative to engineers, it will also stop the usual answers like fly in a different envoirment etc that really mods and forum users can only give.

Thank you dear friend!

Kevjones1959 Posted at 2018-4-30 09:24
Quote from a user on the Facebook page.

So I just got done talking with a Mavic Air engineer. They told

I have never known of dji service to be open on weekends, hopefully you get the beta soon and it works..

Like iv stated in my thread. The people with iphones can't toggle into their proper modes, so they end up using MIC. Which transmits at about -15 Db/m of power, that's terrible. And the people that have an android and are in a CE region get -18 Db/m which is still pretty bad but not as terrible as MIC. And finally the people that have an android and are in the US get FCC mode, -28 Db/m which is a good overall strength that gets u 1000m+ in decently noisy areas and 1500m - 2000m in less noisy areas. note: when i say 1000m i mean 1000m with clear as day video transmission. also remember that the DB scale is exponential, so the different modes really do make a pretty big difference in the overall transmission quality



as you can see those 3 options are indicating poor range, and all add up to about 44%(we will say 50%) of the people that have voted. Most use iphone and therefore get MIC mode, terrible range and the rest is probably the CE mode guys.


The problem here is simply that DJI isn't fixing the iphone MIC mode issue, if that were to be fixed we would probably see at least 20% less votes on the poor range options.

Kevinab Posted at 2018-4-30 11:48
Like iv stated in my thread. The people with iphones can't toggle into their proper modes, so they end up using MIC. Which transmits at about -15 Db/m of power, that's terrible. And the people that have an android and are in a CE region get -18 Db/m which is still pretty bad but not as terrible as MIC. And finally the people that have an android and are in the US get FCC mode, -28 Db/m which is a good overall strength that gets u 1000m+ in decently noisy areas and 1500m - 2000m in less noisy areas. note: when i say 1000m i mean 1000m with clear as day video transmission. also remember that the DB scale is exponential, so the different modes really do make a pretty big difference in the overall transmission quality

[view_image]

First off I’m in CE region I use iPhone I don’t have a problem, next-trying to use this lob-sided poll does not tell you anything most who don’t have a problem won’t bother either voting or getting involved, those who have problems whether through the envoirment they fly in or the device they are using will make the effort to vote because that’s the purpose of most who come here, you will also notice that all in all it’s a handful who claim to have problems and we really don’t know why.
I do see or read from one person here that dji will be addressing the matter, so whether it’s in beta I don’t know, but these polls do not have the value you claim.
I hope your problem gets sorted soon.

hallmark007 Posted at 2018-4-30 14:07
First off I’m in CE region I use iPhone I don’t have a problem, next-trying to use this lob-sided poll does not tell you anything most who don’t have a problem won’t bother either voting or getting involved, those who have problems whether through the envoirment they fly in or the device they are using will make the effort to vote because that’s the purpose of most who come here, you will also notice that all in all it’s a handful who claim to have problems and we really don’t know why.
I do see or read from one person here that dji will be addressing the matter, so whether it’s in beta I don’t know, but these polls do not have the value you claim.
I hope your problem gets sorted soon.

i guess you have another perspective. may i ask how far u fly? because FCC mode outputs atleast 3x more power than CE, and if i get 1000m - 1500m with FCC mode than u should be getting 500m or less, which in my opinnion isnt the best.

Never had a distance issue, can fly basically anywhere here in New Zealand over 3km before it get's sketchy, even in semi-built-up rural areas 2km is easy. Always fly in FLIGHT MODE, no watches, antennas in correct orientation and in auto frequency. Bizzare so many are having issues, can't help but think it's 100% environmental?

One point of note I noticed when I had the Mavic Pro with Android, I used to get a lot of signal errors, with the iPhone 7 in the same location... I got none, time and time again. Not the solution many are looking for but...

Kevinab Posted at 2018-4-30 14:17
i guess you have another perspective. may i ask how far u fly? because FCC mode outputs atleast 3x more power than CE, and if i get 1000m - 1500m with FCC mode than u should be getting 500m or less, which in my opinnion isnt the best.

I don’t need to fly 2000 metres , but I have tested Mavic Air to over 1800 metres, I don’t have problems with either radio signal or transmission, I also know a couple of guys locally who also use iPhone with no problems, in fact on of these guys have flown over 2400 metres stock CE.

I don’t need to use FCC I purchased under CE regulations I live in the EU, I got what I paid for, but it’s strange I’m not sure what it is your looking for.

Well I bought the Mavic Air this evening and everything has set up perfectly. I will let you know how I find the signal tomorrow after my first few flights. Fingers crossed!  

In the beginning I did loose singnal but after looking at the situation I found two Ant. towers facing my way from a nearby hospital about a mile away.
I changed to 5.8 and all my signal problems went away it's been 4 months now and no signal loss.

TroutboyNZ Posted at 2018-4-30 14:30
Never had a distance issue, can fly basically anywhere here in New Zealand over 3km before it get's sketchy, even in semi-built-up rural areas 2km is easy. Always fly in FLIGHT MODE, no watches, antennas in correct orientation and in auto frequency. Bizzare so many are having issues, can't help but think it's 100% environmental?

One point of note I noticed when I had the Mavic Pro with Android, I used to get a lot of signal errors, with the iPhone 7 in the same location... I got none, time and time again. Not the solution many are looking for but...

There is no way it’s 100% environmental. I’m getting 200M before I start getting poor video feed, and 400M till complete video loss. My Phantom 3A operates on the exact same 2.4ghz band at less decibels power and I can go quadruple the distance in the exact same place. How is that environmental? The point of this is to show how many people have similar problems. If you don’t have problems then good for you, you’re lucky. I and many others feel let down by a very expensive drone that can’t go more than a few meter ps before becoming useless.

I don't know if there is a problem with the Mavic Air, but I will say I am disappointed in the range that mine gets. This is my first drone and it is a good learning experience because I am so new at this. I will ensure that the next drone I buy will have a LOT more range than my MA.

I can go a mile and a half max. That's enough for me.

Is this poll a bit rigged, if you don’t have problems with signal, you can only vote once, if you can’t reach 300 metres you are most likely to vote that you can’t reach 500 metres , so the percentage of both these categories should be seen as half of what they are, so in turn increasing other percentages like the percentage for those who have no problems with signal.
Also the last two categories will send percentages out of whack, to be impartial this at least should have been one vote per person.
I’m just saying as this poll goes along we will never get the real picture.

I lost connection and my drone about 90 meters from shore. It did not return to home. It dove into the water and rests 4.5 meters under rendering a claim impossible on my DJI care plan.

Kristopher250 Posted at 2018-4-30 15:49
I don't know if there is a problem with the Mavic Air, but I will say I am disappointed in the range that mine gets. This is my first drone and it is a good learning experience because I am so new at this. I will ensure that the next drone I buy will have a LOT more range than my MA.

I’m in a similar situation. First drone and got quite dissapointed. I have been flying in different spots in Asia, Europe and now in USA. The result is quite the same: impossible to go further than 300m without a transmission loss. I would say here in USA I have got a max range of 350m. Thats all I’m afraid. Cant believe I have paid for a drone that cant go further

Hi, I'm not going to vote here since I do not have enough flights to give good input. Anyway max distance I have flown so far is a little bit more than 100m and 100m altitude. I'm not planning to fly farther away  because it's illegal in my country and there are good reasons for this. Practically everywhere there could be rescue helicopters or police helicopters flying low and fast. If I'm more than 100m away I have no chance to avoid putting these people in severe danger. This is true for urban areas but also in the mountains. Irresponsible behavior like this is putting our sport under extreme pressure and will make flying more and more difficult. If something happens you face extreme fines or go to jail.

Bill-Fly Posted at 2018-4-30 16:24
I can go a mile and a half max. That's enough for me.

That's about what I get and I'm happy.

I've flown mine 1000m once, that was plenty.

99% of the time I've stayed within 300m which is about the limit that I can keep it in VLOS anyway.

How many of us are using iPhones? I really need to get my hands on an android so i can unlock fcc

I don’t see the poll button. Where can I find it?

A CW Posted at 2018-4-30 14:41
Well I bought the Mavic Air this evening and everything has set up perfectly. I will let you know how I find the signal tomorrow after my first few flights. Fingers crossed!

First three flights went very well yesterday evening. Reached half a mile/800m in a CE, rural area in 2.4GHz (auto) using my iPhone 7 plus with the stock RC and still had three bars of signal left with no drop outs or glitches. In view of that I think 1-2KM in the right environment is doable, if I ever feel the need to fly a mile away over a WiFi transmission...

My range test only limitation here was battery but signal was strong without choppy transmission.

Well I went out to do some testing today and I have some shocking results. First off in order to prove that decreased range is not effected as much as we think by the environment I found an area near me that is away from everything! Here is a video showing where I am and my surroundings:



Wide open area with some trees but I kept a clear line of sight (LOS) as much as I could when testing distance. Last night I downgraded to the original firmware (after a headache using Assistant 2), reset back to factory settings, and updated my app to the newly updated version that was released yesterday! I set up the MA using 2.4ghz, ipad in airplane mode, antennas at 45 degrees, ipad connected through the side, port (not bottom USB), disabled beginner mode and max distance. RESULTS: At 100ft altitude I was able to reach 850M with NO signal loss or video loss/glitch. It was 100% smooth! That was as far as I could go at that height and maintain a 100% clear LOS. I was thrilled. I flew around for the remaining battery and enjoyed great range and clear video.

Now here for the shocker (you'll never guess this):

As my first battery reached 30% I returned to my location and landed. I promptly switched batteries to my 2nd and turned the MA back on. I waited for the home point to update as well as acquire satellites. Once everything was good I took off and moved about 20 feet in front of me. IMMEDIATE VIDEO GLITCHING! Total time to change batteries was less than 5 min and that was the only thing changed! No settings were changed, and I was in the EXACT SAME LOCATION AS BEFORE. I flew around ranging from 20-50 feet away with the video glitching the whole time, pretty badly actually. I returned to my spot and changed to 5.8ghz (I also checked the channel noise and all channels were in the green and indicating low noise). After changing to 5.8 I took off again. SAME RESULTS! Very bad glitching at 20 feet again.

I also took a video as proof although difficult to see, it is glitching plain as day and my distance (I have it set to feet) is only at 42 feet away and 9 feet high.



SO! Literally the ONLY change was the battery. How can the battery cause interference! Can anyone else try this with multiple batteries and see if they notice anything??

dont slow down Posted at 2018-5-3 10:41
Well I went out to do some testing today and I have some shocking results. First off in order to prove that decreased range is not effected as much as we think by the environment I found an area near me that is away from everything! Here is a video showing where I am and my surroundings:

https://youtu.be/kz-MWKyCzBA

Well some progress made, it would be strange for battery to effect downlink signal but I suppose you might have to test again unless you have a 3rd battery.
One other you mentioned 45 degree antennas, this is not optimum. Check out video for correct position and aiming direction of antennas.

That is a helpful video, thank you for sharing it. When I said 45 degrees that is with the RC flat on a table. When I hold the RC the antennas are close to vertical, which for my flight today would have in fact been optimal. I will however pay more attention to changing the antennas as I move the drone around for best performance.

Unfortunately I only have 2 batteries, a third would be very helpful indeed! Maybe I will try and pick up another battery, or see if I can find someone to borrow one from. Still that is not something I would have guessed to be the problem, I can't even logically think of a reason why either. I hope someone can try this and see if it could be possible.

Just ordered another battery, should be here Saturday. Hopefully this will confirm what is my issue.

Charge first battery and try again to see you get same results.