So it was suggested over in the Mini 2 subreddit that somebody do a real 10km range test of the RC and Ocusync signals. Today, I decided to do such a test.

I turned the drone on and left it on a rock on top of a hill by my house. I then drove 10km away and noted signal and responsiveness when moving the gimbal. Here are my results:

• 1km - Very good RC signal. Very good video stream response.
• 4km - Still very good on both aspects.
• 6km - RC signal down to 4 bars. Still very good video stream response.
• 7km - RC signal still at 4 bars. Video stream has good response but a little pixelation here and there.
• 10km - RC signal wavering between 3 and 4 bars. Video stream has good quality but is 1 or 2 seconds delayed.
• 11 km - RC signal wavering between 1 and 2 bars. Video stream has bad quality and is delayed 3 or 4 seconds.
• 11.7km - RC signal is at 1 bar. Video stream is non-existent. According to my son who was guarding the drone, the gimbal was responding to input at this range with only a little delay.
  

In the picture, the blue dot is at 1km and the red dot is at 11km. The picture was taken while I was parked at the red dot. I did not actually know if the picture took or not. All in all, I was actually pleasantly surprised by the range at which it could keep the connection.

Blimey.  With CE here we can barely get half of that range.  

Very nice range test.    Mini 2 held signal much better that I would have thought.  

DAFlys Posted at 1-1 01:36
Blimey.  With CE here we can barely get half of that range.

Honestly, I think the CE range is just fine. I can barely get to 5km because of the battery anyway.

DowntownRDB Posted at 1-1 05:48
Very nice range test.    Mini 2 held signal much better that I would have thought.

Yeah, I was amazed. I had even forgotten to put on my "range extender". Would have been nice to see if it actually extended it.

blue_canyon21 Posted at 1-1 08:43
Yeah, I was amazed. I had even forgotten to put on my "range extender". Would have been nice to see if it actually extended it.

With the range extender you probably would have gotten a little bit better signal strength results.  Still, without the extended, quite amazing results.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 1-1 13:53
With the range extender you probably would have gotten a little bit better signal strength results.  Still, without the extended, quite amazing results.

Yeah, I've always thought of the extender as more of a "Signal Stabilizer". I've never seen any major difference in range with or without it. But the video stream quality and RC responsiveness do get noticeably better with it.

blue_canyon21 Posted at 1-1 14:07
Yeah, I've always thought of the extender as more of a "Signal Stabilizer". I've never seen any major difference in range with or without it. But the video stream quality and RC responsiveness do get noticeably better with it.

That's good to hear.  What brand of stabilizer do you have?  I've looked at a few just never bought one.

DowntownRDB Posted at 1-1 14:19
That's good to hear.  What brand of stabilizer do you have?  I've looked at a few just never bought one.

I've bought this one for all of my drones and rarely fly without it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HHZS166/

blue_canyon21 Posted at 1-1 14:25
I've bought this one for all of my drones and rarely fly without it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08HHZS166/

Thanks for the link.  I'm going to check them out.  

blue_canyon21 Posted at 1-1 08:42
Honestly, I think the CE range is just fine. I can barely get to 5km because of the battery anyway.

I often get 12km out of the battery myself.  

DAFlys Posted at 1-2 01:39
I often get 12km out of the battery myself.

Would that be 6km out and 6 km back (ie 12km for whatever round trip), though - ie a max range of 6km?

No Original Thought Posted at 1-2 04:09
Would that be 6km out and 6 km back (ie 12km for whatever round trip), though - ie a max range of 6km?

No,  I cant fly that far,  my eyes are not good enough.  

DAFlys Posted at 1-2 04:10
No,  I cant fly that far,  my eyes are not good enough.

Sorry, wrote that in a hurry so wasnt at all clear ..

What I meant was that the original post was about controller to aircraft max 'range' - ie distance between the two.

So being able to fly a max of 5km from the controller, as the post you replied to said, implies that they had a battery warning at that distance from the controller and so had to return to avoid the battery dieing rather than the signal dropping out

You might be able to fly a total flight distance of 12km before the battery dies, and the post replied to implies they flew a total of 10km - 5km away and then 5km back - which is pretty close to your 12km and within the CE signal range limit.

Wow, I just realised that this post now ramblers as well and is probably no easier to understand. I'm giving up for the day now

No Original Thought Posted at 1-2 07:05
Sorry, wrote that in a hurry so wasnt at all clear ..

What I meant was that the original post was about controller to aircraft max 'range' - ie distance between the two.

LOL.  NOT,    I think I understand what you are trying to say.