Hello,

i just got my Mavic Mini two days ago and tried to get the max range yesterday.

I achieved a max of just under 800 (height ~120m) meters on clear sight without any obstacles, minor wind.


Also the signal wasnt very good throughout the last third of the flight, messages about the low connection occured at about 500 -600meters with heavy fps spikes in the live view.


However i noticed the wifi was on 5.8 Ghz the whole time despite it being set to AUTO which i thought would switch to 2.4 as soon as the 5.8 runs  out of 'range'.


To be noted, the max distance on the CE version with 5.8 Ghz is 500 meters (so the interference i got somehow makes sense), 2000 with 2.4 Ghz, so naturally i thought itll just change after the 500m but it doesnt.

Did a second try with about the same results (750 ish meters) while still being locked on the 5.8 band.


Tomorrow i can test if setting it to manual mode and selecting a 2.4 channel changes anything but could anyone else here in the forum share his previous results with the locked auto mode?

Also which conditions have to be met for the controller/drone to switch to 2.4 on auto, i dont want to set it to manually every time i start the drone tbh just to get about 1.3km of range



Best regards!

Hi there, just to clarify, the channel will not be switched during a flight even it is in auto mode. When set to auto mode, the drone will pick up the best channel base on the current environment every time the drone is powered on. Normally, 5.8GHz has less interference, so 5.8 band tends to be selected the most. You may set the channel to manual mode and try to fly in 2.4GHz. Thank you.

Hi,
did some testing today.

Indeed the auto mode locks the channel and band (e.g cant be switched during flight which makes sense).

I reached the same 800m with 5.8 today, flew back and tried the manual mode.

It turned out to be a game changer as i had a stable connection until 1600 meters with the connection getting lost at 1800-1900 meters which exceeded my expectations for the CE model.

So enable flight mode on your phone, turn on manual mode, and select a good 2.4Ghz wifi channel at all times i would suggest.

I advocated this kind of strategy was used very early in my MM career. Too bad this was never mentioned in the manual.

Thanks for your clarification DJI Thor.

PythonLimited Posted at 4-4 11:39
Hi,
did some testing today.

Yes, 2.4 GHz is a beast in the wild but in a city... I've oftentimes resorted to 5.8 GHz as it could bring me at least 500 meters where 2.4 GHz would have taken too much time to test (and find a channel free enough to get a better range) and probably not getting the job done either.

well this is plain stupid if auto mode cannot change channels....the only thing it does automatically is choosing a channel. i guess then it does not make sense to fly auto, it is always better to choose manually according to environment and the plan of the flight....and the manual, if i remember correctly, states something totally different. i think mentions in auto the channel switch can happen according to channel pollution.

No I don't think it does... but they should have written this down in the manual plainly and clearly. At the beginning I really thought that AUTO meant auto-frequency switch. It doesn't.

m80116 Posted at 4-4 15:17
No I don't think it does... but they should have written this down in the manual plainly and clearly. At the beginning I really thought that AUTO meant auto-frequency switch. It doesn't.

Sure didn't know that either. Good info.

m80116 Posted at 4-4 15:17
No I don't think it does... but they should have written this down in the manual plainly and clearly. At the beginning I really thought that AUTO meant auto-frequency switch. It doesn't.

Well i tested it today - first flight i did was on manual, selecting 2.4 GHz channel and i was not very impressed by the result - i got like 1 km away the furthest. I lost connection several times, one of which caused a reboot of my phone... overall not very impressed and it was a bit laggy. The second flight was on auto 5.8 GHz and it was a lot better, i had a disconnect only once but a serious one as it caused a reboot of my phone, again. However i got to 1356 m which was kind of a surprise, as it should be no more than 500 m according to specification. I had the cheap Chinese  range extenders, but still.

That is a lot. Wondering if some 5.8 GHz CH are better than others, the lowest can still be pretty near std. 5 GHz Wi-Fi routers.

sbonev Posted at 4-5 09:45
Well i tested it today - first flight i did was on manual, selecting 2.4 GHz channel and i was not very impressed by the result - i got like 1 km away the furthest. I lost connection several times, one of which caused a reboot of my phone... overall not very impressed and it was a bit laggy. The second flight was on auto 5.8 GHz and it was a lot better, i had a disconnect only once but a serious one as it caused a reboot of my phone, again. However i got to 1356 m which was kind of a surprise, as it should be no more than 500 m according to specification. I had the cheap Chinese  range extenders, but still.

[view_image]

Did you enabled flight mode on your phone?
Also it seems as you are flying over residential places which might interfere a lot with the 2.4ghz bands.

But nice range with the 5.8 gotta try that out too.

Those are my transmission channels and their usage. What about yours?
Also which one was selected on auto.

Btw the red indicator on the selected channel comes from the remote itself. That’s the signal used for transmission.

PythonLimited Posted at 4-5 12:40
[view_image]

Those are my transmission channels and their usage. What about yours?

I tried manual mode a few times but it always feels like as soon as i select a clear channel (green) it then turns red, seemed like i was chasing my tail so i always ended up going back to auto, is this correct that the channel shows red once selected as its now picking up the RC signal? seems like they should change this if possible as I found it very confusing. Another question I have regarding the green bars is which is better to select, the short green bars or the taller green bars?

PythonLimited Posted at 4-5 12:31
Did you enabled flight mode on your phone?
Also it seems as you are flying over residential places which might interfere a lot with the 2.4ghz bands.

no airplane mode, just disabled all but gps... yes it was residential places but i was flying off a hill which is  some 50-100 m higher than the residential area...so the actual height is higher, hence it should not be that much interference on the 2.4 GHz band...or i thought so at least...

m80116 Posted at 4-5 12:26
That is a lot. Wondering if some 5.8 GHz CH are better than others, the lowest can still be pretty near std. 5 GHz Wi-Fi routers.

yes, there was some wind so i was trying to get some shots and the lag was annoying me. that is why i didn't realize how far i was actually...

PythonLimited Posted at 4-5 12:40
[view_image]

Those are my transmission channels and their usage. What about yours?

i think after i switched it on auto it selected 161... though i doubt it depends on that...

Bezik Posted at 4-5 12:49
I tried manual mode a few times but it always feels like as soon as i select a clear channel (green) it then turns red, seemed like i was chasing my tail so i always ended up going back to auto, is this correct that the channel shows red once selected as its now picking up the RC signal? seems like they should change this if possible as I found it very confusing. Another question I have regarding the green bars is which is better to select, the short green bars or the taller green bars?

For me it does, yes.
I always have all bars small and green but as soon as I start to select a channel that one goes red...

Regarding the height of the signal bar I've no idea sorry .

Also DJI could probably update the refresh speed of the transmission signals or get us a little indicator that it really is updating. For me personally it feels like some of those bars just stay the same until you reconnect with the drone. E.g.thise red bars (except channel 1) youve seen on my picture were gone a few moments after ive landed, but we're present during the flight.

PythonLimited wrote: Btw the red indicator on the selected channel comes from the remote itself. That’s the signal used for transmission.

If you are right and the red peak comes from the remote itself, why does this not happen in the 5.8 Ghz Band as you can see on my screenshot.

How does auto-mode work? What are the criterias for the decision which channel or band is used? Which device is responsible for the decision? Remote or Mavic Mini or both?

One you get beyond 300m you can't see it any longer, so your flight is now illegal. Why not stay VLOS and safe?

Very fruitful tips here. Thanks everyone for your contributions

I always thought auto mode was the safest way thinking it would choose the best channel available automatically during the flight. I see now that I was wrong.

Lastly, your explanations of the effect of inside / outside city flights on the transmission are important for us. This page should be archived and pinned once it reaches its goal

Thanks again everyone

I have never noticed that the channel or even the band was changed during the flight. So it is very likely that the supposedly best channel in automatic mode will only be set at start-up and will then no longer change. Nobody seems to know that exactly, maybe the channel will actually change, but only the one from the start is displayed (who knows ?)

And: The best channel in automatic mode can get bad maybe 200 meters further, especially when you fly close to residential areas.