i have a p3a and after about 1000ft away in distance i get the weak signal on the app and video lag/failure on the app screen.  This makes me nervous so i turn around the p3a and head back to home.  I have changed the channel to 20 manually and have tried auto as well.. same result. i live out of town and not alot of buildings around me.  So what gives? why am i only getting 1000ft of distance before everything goes to crap? i thought i would be able to get at least a 1/2 mile at the least...

You have to test in a different location. Interference from some unknown source could be the culprit, but you wouldn't know unless you tried in a different location much further away. Also, the signal is the strongest when the flat part of the antennas are facing the drone. The weakest part of the antenna is the top, so don't directly point the antenna at the drone.

anyone tried this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/14176115 ... =STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Phantomen3 Posted at 2015-10-14 12:11
anyone tried this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/141761158407?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK ...

Yep, I bought three different styles to try. The best one used real aluminum material instead of 3D printed plastic and aluminum tape. I have flown out 4k ft without any loss of signal in both RC and video link. With these longer flights I have dumped the flight record to healthydrones.com  and according to their analysis I have only minor signal issues at max distance.

Did you follow your Phantom visual direction line with your RC ? Dont turn your back or get side. You absolutely be in direction of your Phantom with your RC. Some of pilots forget it because they just look at the video transmission on their screen. Stupid but basic important to not forget.

Any vegetation between you and the quad when it gets weak?

Trees, buildings, large metal objects, etc will cause limited signal.  Also, your direction and antenna  position are important.   Altitude can help overcome some of these problems too.

i want a signal barometer in the dji go app showing how many % of connection you have between the drone and the remote controller, would make it easier when flying far, to know exacly how much % you got.

Phantomen3 Posted at 2015-10-15 20:17
i want a signal barometer in the dji go app showing how many % of connection you have between the dr ...

That would be a really useful function....

I don't to be honest understand the difference between video range and control range.

For example, I lose video signal and all telemetry at less than 100m line of sight (this is only the standard)...
but it does not RTH and I appear to still have some control..

So my question is this:
* if you lose video signal and all telemetry is that loss of control as well? or not?
* how long with a black video screen do you have, in seconds, before RTH kicks in?

the "bars" indicator next to the controller picture -- is that signal strength? of what? of the video signal or  the control signal?
because I lose video when it still shows lots of bars.

confused.
Bonus question:
If you are in CE territory (which is, what? Australia and Europe?) is usable range about half the "when in US" range
due to automatically set lower output stage power?

There are two different transmission systems, one from the RC to the aircraft to control the aircraft, the second is from the aircraft back to the RC carrying data and video information. You can lose the system that feeds data and video back to the RC without having any effect on the controllability of the aircraft. And no, the range is the same in the US as in Australia, only they speak in miles while we speak in kilometres.