Hatu is a well known Youtuber from Colombia that usually makes maximum range test on drones. He allways perform the test in optimal conditions and at the same spot, so results can be easily compared. Today he has released the Air2S test, and just like many other people out there is having truble with it.

Here is the Air 2S with O3 and 4 antennas, the video is stuttering all the time, the signal is awful and he starts getting 3 bars at just 2Km and 2 bars at just 3Km. The drone can't go past 6Km and it's impossible to fly safely past 4 Km:



Here is the Mavic Air 2, in the exact same spot, with Occusync 2.0 and only 2 antennas reaching 9.6 Km with no signal problems at all:



Here is the Mini 2, reaching 5 Km with Occusyinc 2.0 also, with no signal problems at all except that the fact that the two anennas on the Mini 2 are not as strong as the ones in the Air 2, so less strength in the signal is understandable:



Note that he even performs the Air 2S range test two times in two different days to doublecheck, the first time with the standard controller and the second time with the smart controller. The results are exactly the same for both.

Please, we need some official input about this issue and wether if DJI is working to fix it in the upcoming updates.

That's strange I did a range test myself with CE version and it did wonderful reaching more than 9 kilometers without any problem at all. It had three bars and the video feed was perfect. It

Niknik Posted at 5-2 16:13
That's strange I did a range test myself with CE version and it did wonderful reaching more than 9 kilometers without any problem at all. It had three bars and the video feed was perfect. It

There's another longranger in CE that can even fly the Air2S with a moded battery and the standard controller to 19Km in a one way flight, so definetelly something odd is going around. More than 12 Km under 120m height... while I see myself climbing to 120m at just 3Km LOS to keep connection.



The signal has better penetration that my Mini 2, but in open areas, at LOS I see the drone underperforming where my Mini 2 could fly well.

I changed form flying in HD to Smooth transmission mode and seems to maintain the connection a bit better, but still the Mini 2 performed way more consistently. Air2 S transmission don't degrade progressively, I find myself flying with just 1 bar, then jumping to 3, then 1 again... in places where the Mini 2 stayed just in 3 bars.

Mini 2 box says 6Km in CE mode and flyes well till 3.8Km... on the Air 2S says 8Km and yep, I managed to do 4.8Km once, but was mostly due to the fact that the Air2S cruises faster and has more flight time than the Mini 2, but on my usual flight range of >3Km the Mini 2 just performs more consistently as long as I maintain LOS.

I was having some expectations seeing the performance of the previous Air 2, and Mavic 2 compared to my Mini 2, but irl the usable range of the Air 2S is about the same than my previous Mini 2, wich is quite disapointing, because I have no doubt that if I had an Air 2 it would destroy my Air 2S (and Mini 2) long range signal performance.

Huginn Kenningar Posted at 5-2 16:39
There's another longranger in CE that can even fly the Air2S with a moded battery and the standard controller to 19Km in a one way flight, so definetelly something odd is going around. More than 12 Km under 120m height... while I see myself climbing to 120m at just 3Km LOS to keep connection.

The most significant issue with range is existing interference or signal competition, and there is no reason to support the idea that individual models have problems. On any given day, the signals in any area may change. It only requires one other signal source, out of potential thousands, to give problems and limit the range of the signal.
  
"He allways perform the test in optimal conditions and at the same spot, so results can be easily compared."

I strongly disagree. The results cannot easily be compared, you could only compare them in a tightly controlled laboratory experiment. It only takes one person to be in the area with a phone running WiFi to upset the measurement.

You make a broad statement that the 2S transmission system is broken, based on observations made by one person and yet already in this thread, Niknik has replied saying he has no problem at around 9 km distance.

Geebax Posted at 5-2 17:23
The most significant issue with range is existing interference or signal competition, and there is no reason to support the idea that individual models have problems. On any given day, the signals in any area may change. It only requires one other signal source, out of potential thousands, to give problems and limit the range of the signal.
  
"He allways perform the test in optimal conditions and at the same spot, so results can be easily compared."

The moment you have even the Mini 2 performing better... there's definetelly an issue with the transmission system.

I currently have 405 flights and 105 hours of flight time in the same 3Km radious... so I know for sure that the Air 2S transmission system is underperforming compared to my Mini 2, and the Hatu video and a bunch of other LR test just confirm that fact.

Geebax Posted at 5-2 17:23
The most significant issue with range is existing interference or signal competition, and there is no reason to support the idea that individual models have problems. On any given day, the signals in any area may change. It only requires one other signal source, out of potential thousands, to give problems and limit the range of the signal.
  
"He allways perform the test in optimal conditions and at the same spot, so results can be easily compared."

I've been saying it's underperforming since the first time I flew it in my area compared to my previous experience of the last 6 months with my Mini 2.... and I've been testing it since then (about 75 flights with the Air2S and more than 300 with the Mini 2).

Air2S has better signal penetration under 2Km range compared to the Mini 2, but past that distance it's performance is weaker than the Mini 2, being less consistent and stuttering and freezing all around.

Yes, you can blindly push it to a further distance while it stutters and freezes because it has 4 big antennas vs 2 little ones, but that's not usable flight range.

Based of my experience on my area:

From 0 to 2Km, Air 2 S has better signal penetration and performs better than Mini 2.
From 2Km to 3.8Km Mini 2 owns the Air2s in transmission performance.
From 3.8Km to 4.8Km Mini 2 needs to return due to battery while Air2S can keep pushing at 120m height with the signal just stuttering and freezing till it just disconnects and RTH.

You can make it a liitle less obvious when flying in smooth mode, but it's just a tiny improvement... although I still don't know if it's placebo or not.

There are lot of things that can make the drone underperform appart form environmental and operator ones, coming both from the hardware and the software of the system.

If the Air 2 S was my first drone I'd be quite happy with the range and performance, but coming from the Min 2 it just doesn't feel rigth... and sorry, but that's the reality.

I am not trying to compare my experiences. I don't even have a A2s. But there is an area in my neighborhood that causes weak signal almost every time I fly there, mostly with the Mini or sometimes the MA2. I usually just try to fly past and ignore it. Sometimes that doesn't work and it comes back. This never happens with the Mini 2. I wonder if the Mini 2 is just far better in high noise environments.

GaryDoug Posted at 5-2 19:57
I am not trying to compare my experiences. I don't even have a A2s. But there is an area in my neighborhood that causes weak signal almost every time I fly there, mostly with the Mini or sometimes the MA2. I usually just try to fly past and ignore it. Sometimes that doesn't work and it comes back. This never happens with the Mini 2. I wonder if the Mini 2 is just far better in high noise environments.

Mini 2 had an uptdate a few moths ago that optimized it's behaviour in areas with interference, but Idk if the Air 2 got any improvement.

Hope this gets fixed soon as seems more of a software problem than a hardware one.

_____________

Compared with OcuSync 2.0, what are the improvements of OcuSync 3.0, used by the DJI Air 2S aircraft?OcuSync  3.0 uses a brand-new image transmission solution. It is equipped with  four antennas compared to OcuSync 2.0's two antennas, which brings full  HD image transmission of up to 12 kilometers (measured in an  interference-free and unobstructed environment, and in FCC standards),  enhances the anti-interference capability of the image transmission  system, and improves the reliability of the image transmission system in  complex environments such as cities.



Just by reading that and by knowing the limitations of the Mini 2 due to weight, I'd expect a much better performance comparted to the Air2, yet it can't even compete with the Mini 2 past 2 Km in my usual flying area.

Today was just 5-7Km/h wind at 120 meters and I did some long range test in "Smooth" transmission mode, which seems to work a little better as it's only transmitting 720p/30FPS video feed as opposite to the 1080p/30 option, and also checked wich of the flight modes could achieve longer range before RTH prompted you to return for the first time.

I managed to do 6.2Km flying in normal mode at full stick using brake mode instead of bypass, and returned in auto RTH mode, landing with a bit more than 30% battery left, so quite happy with the overall performance.



Normal mode at 40Km/h (half stick) achieved 5.6Km... it's a bit tedious as you have to fight the spring tension to maintain the speed, so it's a nice find that Normal mode full stick is being more efficient for traveling.

On sports mode full stick I only achieved 5Km before RTH prompted me to return, which was expected as the drone is flying less efficiently.

Transmission wasn't superb, but at least it didn't freeze/stutter too much and this time the bottleneck has been the battery, which is the ideal thing. Pushing the battery I calculate that  about 7Km could be possible but it's wiser to try to land at 30% instead of 20, as at 10% the drone begins autolanding procedure and cuts the amperage of the motors down.

For the most part and watching how the air 2 vs the Mini 2 perform I expected a better signal performance for the Air2S transmission system, which is only true at lower ranges where the 4 antennas achieve further signal penetration. But at long range something is odd, maybe channel selection algorithm, maybe bandwith...

I usually fly under 2.5Km range anyways, where you have plenty of battery to work instead of burning it all travelling.

PS: The altitude increase you see in the table is due the the slope of the terrain, as I took off from the shore and went inwards to the mountains, wich end up being 231 meters tall according to the topographic map.

I flew over an ocean for about 2km at the height of 115 meters with the antenna pointing towards the drone, no interference and no obstacles blocking, I can't seem to find the problem with it (this is flying in indonesia without rules of flying over oceans)

Flying Shutter Posted at 1-11 03:05
I flew over an ocean for about 2km at the height of 115 meters with the antenna pointing towards the drone, no interference and no obstacles blocking, I can't seem to find the problem with it (this is flying in indonesia without rules of flying over oceans)

Are you aware you answered to a post 19 month old ?

FabioV Posted at 1-11 07:34
Are you aware you answered to a post 19 month old ?

yes i am aware,

Please turn OFF Bluetooth this is radio technology and will cause interference

Go to the phone app store and install fake GPS and point to the center of United States map and press play, this will let you have a stable transmission both on 2.4 and 5.8

please turn off mobile or tablet Wi-Fi this includes 2.4 and 5.8 as it will interfere with your DJI transmission this includes any other drone transmission as most drone use 2.4 or 5.8 since they are the same transmission they will interfere with each other

Please turn off your mobile sim that is also another mobile Wi-Fi exchange, in order to do that you must turn on flight mode

Once you have received 11 satellites and updated your homepoint is also updated and you are certain on the app map you are certain it is there and updated near your homepoint you can disconnect mobile data and enable flight mode on mobile this prevents hackers from intercepting your connection or anyone else sniffing your transmission, turn it off please