Had a quick flight, UAVforecast said was 97% cloud cover, but said sats locked would be 14.

Took out for the flight, where I've flew before fine, was very cloudy, had lots of weak signal and 1 complete loss and had to press RTH to come back. Home point had updated, GPS were around 13. I checked the flight details on airdata and showed sats GPS was 11-15 the whole flight. (Again the compass at bottom middle was wrong, but numerous reports of this)

So can cloud cover (I could see the MM at all times), affect the signal of MM? Was disappointed in the weak signals. I use iPhone and am all up to date.

Thanks

why would cloud cover effect your signal, your way below cloud hight

raven swe Posted at 6-8 13:23
why would cloud cover effect your signal, your way below cloud hight

Blocking GPS signal. That’s why I posted I had checked my logs and showed Sats at 11+. This was my original question, why was I getting weak and loss of signal

MM_fly Posted at 6-8 14:11
Blocking GPS signal. That’s why I posted I had checked my logs and showed Sats at 11+. This was my original question, why was I getting weak and loss of signal

The signal strength from remote control to drone is not related to number of satellites.

GPS tells the drone where it is and where it started, radio signal from controller tells it what to do.

The signal reception from drone to controller can be affected by a large number of things, most probable is interference from other radio sources like WiFi from nearby buildings.

Cloud cover has no effect on GPS signal or control signal.
The Mini is not a strong performer.
It's a budget drone, barely more than a toy and in many environments, will not have good signal strength.

Hello there MM_fly. I am sorry to know that you are having this issue with your DJI Mavic Mini on your previous flight. Kindly please check whether the remote controller's antennas are placed properly, you may refer to the below tutorial video. In addition kindly please fly your DJI Mavic Mini to another open field without interference to check there will be changes, you may enable the flight mode when flying. Thank you.

I cant tell if he,s talking about gps or transmission signal, either one aint gonna be effected by clouds anyway, maybe gps very slightly with real heavy dark rain clouds but not enough to give you problems

Ok thanks, it wasn’t because of the clouds then.

I had my antennas pointed correctly, I’ve flown in this same place numerous times. I got the “weak signal” and also a complete “loss of signal”. RTH worked great though. Lost video transmission on the loss of signal one.

I know people say it’s a toy, it’s a good enough one for me, it was just this day that was this problem and I wondered why.

I wasn’t far away, Max 300M away, around 50-70M high.

Thanks

MM_fly Posted at 6-8 23:36
Ok thanks, it wasn’t because of the clouds then.

I had my antennas pointed correctly, I’ve flown in this same place numerous times. I got the “weak signal” and also a complete “loss of signal”. RTH worked great though. Lost video transmission on the loss of signal one.

I wasn’t far away, Max 300M away, around 50-70M high.

At this distance in urban area there's usually interference from other houses, wifi routers ect. The best You can do is to stay in open area, not surrounded by houses, trees, poles... keep the clear line between remote and AC and put Your phone to airplane mode, that increases range as well.

MM_fly Posted at 6-8 23:36
Ok thanks, it wasn’t because of the clouds then.

I had my antennas pointed correctly, I’ve flown in this same place numerous times. I got the “weak signal” and also a complete “loss of signal”. RTH worked great though. Lost video transmission on the loss of signal one.

If you in the UK then you will have a CE drone, it has two transmission modes 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz (google it there's loads of info out there)

if there is any signal interference your remote should default to 5.8Ghz ( copes with interference better) which has a maximum range (in ideal conditions) of 500m . your 300m is not too bad if in 5Ghz mode.

if there is no signal interference it should chose 2.4Ghz which has a maximum range of 2km (in reality you will be lucky to get that far). 2.4Ghz is much more likely to suffer interference which could begin after you flight has started i.e. someone turns their wifi router on.

You can check which one the drone is using by looking in the transmission section of the menu (press the three dots in the top right)

Either way, I would suggest going more than 300m is risky, it's against the regulations for a start and there are many stories of people losing their drone.

It is a CE, UK model yes, I know this is less range than other model. I will check next time on the WiFi. I presume it auto switches in flight if interference though?

Where does it state in UK drone law that 300M distance away is not allowed? I can’t see that. It was in line of sight at all times, and not more than 120M high.

MM_fly Posted at 6-9 09:45
It is a CE, UK model yes, I know this is less range than other model. I will check next time on the WiFi. I presume it auto switches in flight if interference though?

Where does it state in UK drone law that 300M distance away is not allowed? I can’t see that. It was in line of sight at all times, and not more than 120M high.

It won't switch channels in flight, it picks best at launch and sticks with it as far as I'm aware.

If you can see a mini  at more than 300m away I'm impressed, myself and everyone I know struggles to see it well before then.

raven swe Posted at 2020-6-8 13:23
why would cloud cover effect your signal, your way below cloud hight

GPS is Satellite