I took the Mini out today for the second time. I flew over the beach on a bay, pure nature, no buildings, no obstructions. I only get 300meters range. How is this possible? I even chose the best channel with the least green. I am truly disappointed if the box says 4km that I am not even getting 10% of that range!! 4km is a big lie.
this cannot be right to have this short range. Tell me what is going on. Also, since the update also get that motor speed error, even though I took it out for the 2nd time and all props are fine. Dissapointing!!

I had my Mini out last week over water and went 823 meters away without even trying. I am sure it could have gone much, much farther but I had gone as far as wanted at the time. But then again, mine is FCC range.

CE is no match for FCC

I've personally got it to 2629m (8,627ft) with a few obstacles in the way, trees abound, etc. I'm on the FCC version (in the US).

There is a small CE to FCC hack you can do. Doesn't require much hassle but you have to do it everytime you connect and disconnect your phone. It may give a little bit of range. Google it. Its not "true FCC" becasue there are some chips that arent on the CE model. But from experience and many other people I hear, they get a noticable amount of range out of it. And I high advise you to search yagi/uda antenna boosters(the 5.8 ones) There are also blueprints if you dont have the money for it online. Just cut the cardboard accordingly and get a 3 mm diameter copper cable/line and chip them off accordingly. There are many workarounds my friend!
AND the most important part. Use your phone in airplane mode. Or if you want cellular reception, just block wifi bloetooth and lte. It will give a good amount of range, because when you dont deactivate those it starts interfereing with your rc signal from the beginning. Cheers!

Even the ce version will go at least 2000m without loss of signal in rural areas (without any fcc hacks needed)  did you try leaving the mini in automatic signal mode rather than manually selecting a band?

First, check your props using the guide in the link, mine were bad from the factory, it can be hard to tell visually   - https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D712%26typeid%3D712


I did my first real range test this week, on a deserted beach my CE drone got to 1km with no problem, could have gone much further. The range near my home on an open field had only been 300m max. I left the drone in auto and it selected a 2.4ghz channel.

4km is the FCC drone range, you will likely have a CE drone with 2km range.

Floki Chan AKA. EZpawn Posted at 6-25 21:49
There is a small CE to FCC hack you can do. Doesn't require much hassle but you have to do it everytime you connect and disconnect your phone. It may give a little bit of range. Google it. Its not "true FCC" becasue there are some chips that arent on the CE model. But from experience and many other people I hear, they get a noticable amount of range out of it. And I high advise you to search yagi/uda antenna boosters(the 5.8 ones) There are also blueprints if you dont have the money for it online. Just cut the cardboard accordingly and get a 3 mm diameter copper cable/line and chip them off accordingly. There are many workarounds my friend!
AND the most important part. Use your phone in airplane mode. Or if you want cellular reception, just block wifi bloetooth and lte. It will give a good amount of range, because when you dont deactivate those it starts interfereing with your rc signal from the beginning. Cheers!

Thanks for this, I did put my phone on airplane mode. I will definitely look in to those yagis. I want to do whatever to get some distance, I am not a distance freak, but at least I want to be able to find along the bay.

Bezik Posted at 6-26 00:59
Even the ce version will go at least 2000m without loss of signal in rural areas (without any fcc hacks needed)  did you try leaving the mini in automatic signal mode rather than manually selecting a band?

Yesterday I chose manual mode after seeing some youtube videos, it was on 2.4ghz and I chose the least interference channel. It was weird to see interference at the beach in the middle of nowehere. But the green bar, was very small. I will try again on Automatic.

itchyeyeballs Posted at 6-26 01:36
First, check your props using the guide in the link, mine were bad from the factory, it can be hard to tell visually   - https://forum.dji.com/forum.php? ... D712%26typeid%3D712

CE drone yes. I meant that I selected the shortest green bar channel.

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 01:43
CE drone yes. I meant that I selected the shortest green bar channel.

How high were you flying?

Also maybe test in another location, there could be some kind of marine transmitter causing interference at that beach

itchyeyeballs Posted at 6-26 01:45
How high were you flying?

Also maybe test in another location, there could be some kind of marine transmitter causing interference at that beach

20 meters high. I will try to make a screen recording and show.

here is an image from my phone of the area, a sleepy bay with no buildings, I was trying to fly more to the right along the bay, stopped at 300meters at 20meters high.

This was my test flight yesterday - https://app.airdata.com/share/uFTvAV

Do any of those boats have transmitters in them?
Edit - try going higher, signal should be better at about 40 meters

itchyeyeballs Posted at 6-26 01:59
This was my test flight yesterday - https://app.airdata.com/share/uFTvAV

Do any of those boats have transmitters in them?

great app this Airdata! Thanks for sharing. 1km is already very nice, but in that area weren't you expecting a little more? I would be happy if I could do 1km in the bay from yesterday. I doubt the boats have transmitters in them.

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 02:03
great app this Airdata! Thanks for sharing. 1km is already very nice, but in that area weren't you expecting a little more? I would be happy if I could do 1km in the bay from yesterday. I doubt the boats have transmitters in them.

I had to stop at 1km, the drone would have gone much further but there is an area there where people chose not to wear a swimsuit and I didn't want them to think I was filming them  

Before suggesting potential hacks I think one should learn how to exploit what's already in, and it's not that bad.

With clear recipient "the new user" it is important to stay clear of any soaking obstacles (like trees and vegetation), preferably from a vantage point (observation deck or terrace, peak, hill side), always maintain Line of Sight, learn ho to orient the antennas, and use manual frequency selection.

In the nature where no other interfering source is present is best to use 2.4 GHz using manual selection. Auto selection takes place only at power up. Without any 3rd party accessories on I was able to fly about 500m city with 5.8 GHz and 2000m with 2.4 GHz in the countryside.

Now with experience and parabolic reflectors I can comfortable reach 1.8 Km in the open (far from the cities). Exactly 1.3 Km in excess of what DJI says. Anyway... I can still go up to about 2 Km using parabolic reflectors + Yagi/Uda boosters combined. No need to switch to 2.4 GHz as 5.8 GHz is more stable as it is outside the range of most if not all home/office Wi-Fi routers.-

4Km is a spec never seen for a Mavic Mini:
The CE model range is as follows: 2 Km for the 2.4 GHz, 500m for the 5.8 GHz. The FCC version can reach 2.5 Km using the 5.8 GHz frequency.

m80116 Posted at 6-26 02:30
Before suggesting potential hacks I think one should learn how to exploit what's already in, and it's not that bad.

With clear recipient "the new user" it is important to stay clear of any soaking obstacles (like trees and vegetation), preferably from a vantage point (observation deck or terrace, peak, hill side), always maintain Line of Sight, learn ho to orient the antennas, and use manual frequency selection.

The DJI website quotes 4km in the specs for the FCC mini - https://www.dji.com/uk/mavic-mini/specs
2.5 k is the SRRC version (Asia I think)

I’ve achieved 2000m with a CE Mini in a rural setting at 70m height

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 01:57
[view_image]

here is an image from my phone of the area, a sleepy bay with no buildings, I was trying to fly more to the right along the bay, stopped at 300meters at 20meters high.

Sorry, double post...

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 01:57
[view_image]

here is an image from my phone of the area, a sleepy bay with no buildings, I was trying to fly more to the right along the bay, stopped at 300meters at 20meters high.

You definitely need to go higher for better range and stay with remote in open space, turned to the AC. Trees, bushes, flag poles, staying behind the car or motor scooter (my own experience when a friend came on small motobike) - everything can affect range.

FCC model. After 1.0.500 update I took it out for a test. 2.5km with some residential around. Not bad given it is not total nature. You make have a powerful source of interference there, maybe try other patch of nature?

Greece is in a CE area.

I am most annoyed by the marketing of this drone, this is from the website from the company I bought it from. I saw this in the store, up to 4KM and I said wow, surely it won't do 4, but I'll be happy with getting even 1km. I am indeed in Europe and have the CE model, and this is advertised in the store (EU) why do they put this statement and logo of 4KM? I find that this is desceptive advertising. This is the reason that tickled me over to buy this drone.

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 11:45
I am most annoyed by the marketing of this drone, this is from the website from the company I bought it from. I saw this in the store, up to 4KM and I said wow, surely it won't do 4, but I'll be happy with getting even 1km. I am indeed in Europe and have the CE model, and this is advertised in the store (EU) why do they put this statement and logo of 4KM? I find that this is desceptive advertising. This is the reason that tickled me over to buy this drone. [view_image]

If you look again you will clearly notice a number in a bracket at the end of the brief description of the advertised functions of the drone e.g. 4KM Video Transmission (3). This number represents a key to outline the limitations and how these advertised limits are met.

If you look at the bottom of the advertising you will see what each number corresponds to. It is not false advertising as the Mavic Mini is 249g, can achieve a 30 minute flight time and I have seen it flown further than 4KM - but not in Europe - which is why if you look at the key you will notice that (3) states that in CE areas the distance is restricted to 2KM. This key is present in the advertising.

A J Posted at 6-26 12:02
If you look again you will clearly notice a number in a bracket at the end of the brief description of the advertised functions of the drone e.g. 4KM Video Transmission (3). This number represents a key to outline the limitations and how these advertised limits are met.

If you look at the bottom of the advertising you will see what each number corresponds to. It is not false advertising as the Mavic Mini is 249g, can achieve a 30 minute flight time and I have seen it flown further than 4KM - but not in Europe - which is why if you look at the key you will notice that (3) states that in CE areas the distance is restricted to 2KM. This key is present in the advertising.

That small text is conveniently not on their site, look, here a picture in the store where it clearly says 4KM on the label.

I fly a lot higher than 20m when going for range. The ground, and especially water, will have an effect on range at that height.

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 12:16
That small text is conveniently not on their site, look, here a picture in the store where it clearly says 4KM on the label.[view_image]

I copied the key from the official DJI website where they advertise the Mavic Mini. I obviously can't comment on how shops in your country sell products. Perhaps you need to return it to the store where you actually bought it rather than bring it to this forum as nobody on here can give you your money back.

The only reliable information is the one provided by DJI.

Both my local website, the UK (English) website and the User Manual (Mavic_Mini_User_Manual_v1.0_en_1.pdf) report the same range.

I am afraid I might have missed something before... anyway let me copy/paste this time:

Model MR1SS5
5.8 GHz: 4000 m (FCC); 2500 m (SRRC)
Model MR1SD25
2.4 GHz: 2000 m (MIC/CE)
5.8 GHz: 500 m (CE)

The model you have is CE, thus Model MR1SD25.

Apparently the company you've bought your Mini from went to great lengths to spoof improved characteristics. A data mistype can happen, the creation of an entire new logo with a 4 Km written on it it's a whole different thing.

You can however return your product under EU regulations without any penalty or mitigate the fact that you've got a lower specced item. Personally I'd pick the second route as parabolic reflectors and Y/U boosters along with the correct manual usage of frequencies have quadrupled the 5.8 GHz advertised range (of 500m). I'd still ask for a discount (or partial refund) and keep the product.

Unassisted CE model, MR1SD25, here.  Flying over the sea I've had easily reached the edge of my visual range (that's further than theOP's 300m) which is as far as one can fly if complying with the regulations applicable here.

dimitrigr Posted at 6-26 01:43
CE drone yes. I meant that I selected the shortest green bar channel.

I think you need to select the highest green channel. Thats why it's green.

Hi. I am sorry for the trouble this has caused. With regards to this concern. Can you please try flying the said drone in a different location  with less interference isolate the issue. Inteference can be many thing these could be mettal structure or signal from different sources that affects the drone in flight. For reference, I will post an official DJI video tutorial for the best practices when flying the drone. Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.