Hi!

I'm still new to P4 ownerwship, and am definitely still learning, so please bear with me.  I was out flying my P4 this afternoon downtown at the San Diego embarcadero (had a great time too!) but started receving a distance warning message on the remote when the drone got about 760 feet away. The picture attached, from the flight log, shows it's approximate location when I received the warning.

Isn't it supposed to go a bit farther before loosing comm? :-/

Thanks for your time!
Heath

I can get about 3000' before mine gives up and that's with some trees. I don't think I'll ever see anywhere close to the advertised range but 760 is another story. Usually when someone complains about range here they are beat up a little and told to read/watch the antenna pointing instructions. Rabbit ears straight up, perpendicular to the drone and always facing towards it (never turn your back on a P4).

dirtdroner Posted at 2016-4-9 07:41
I can get about 3000' before mine gives up and that's with some trees. I don't think I'll ever see a ...

Thanks dirtdroner. Believe me, I was expecting to get beat up a little by posting that question. ha! I've read the book, had the antennae positioned properly, was facing the P4, etc. :-/  I'll keep playing with it and will try other locations.  Again, thanks for the post. Have a great weekend!

All depends on how much interference at your location. I got over 2 miles away the other day and still had very good link, only turned around because of battery

Hello, you can adjust the antenna during the flight:

Here is a range test by Ken :http://forum.dji.com/thread-47076-1-1.html

pgrover516 Posted at 2016-4-8 19:48
I have a P3A and get over 10,000 ft with stock equipment in an area with no radio interference, I c ...

Hello...I've seen over 15,000 feet with a P3P using the Windsurfer kit.  On the exact same path, I only saw around 8000 feet before I completely lost signal and the RTH feature activated.  On another forum, somebody posted the FCC license for both the P3 and P4.  The P3 showed over 0.7W out while the P4 was less than 0.6W.  Hmmmm...

Heathman,

I have gone out 4+ miles with my P4 a half dozen times.  Please see my post below on best antenna and DJI GO app setup and procedures for getting maximum range.  Let me know if this is helpful.

How to achieve P4 max range up to 4.5 miles

Heathman Posted at 2016-4-9 01:02
Thanks dirtdroner. Believe me, I was expecting to get beat up a little by posting that question. h ...

Hi

Might be a stupid question but have you changed the maximum allowed range in the DJI go app? The default distance is pre set quite low coyld be worth a check? Flew mine for the first time yesterday and got over 5000 feet. Used the P2 for quite some time before that and could easily match the distance youre currently getting out of your P4. In built up areas is better to go a little higher as to avoid interference as much as possible. Hope you figure it out

Thank you all for you replies. I really appreciate the time you've taken and the advice you've given. I must not have had my antennae pointed correctly yesterday. :-/  This is definitely a learning experience! ha! I'm joining a MeetUp group tomorrow for drone enthusiasts and look forward to getting more ideas from them as well. So, again, thank you all and have a great weekend!

Heath

pgrover516 Posted at 2016-4-10 11:30
Yes that's been mentioned, some of these guys would be thrilled to get 8,000 ft, the OP didn't eve ...

My stock phantom 4 went out 6500 ft ( about 2000m) and the signals (controller and video)  still strong (full bars), I returned it because of the battery level (55%).

The area you flew might have lot of interference.

I have heard that the p3p remote has more power than the p4 remote.  But, that's not the only transmitter in the system.  There has to be a transmitter on the aircraft for the video down-link and I assume that there may also be a separate telemetry transmitter on the aircraft.  I am not sure, but there has to be at least one transmitter on the aircraft itself.  So, is only the power of the p4 remote different or is (are) the aircraft transmitter(s) different too.  It would seem to me that if the only thing that changed is the remote power, one should only be getting "weak RC" warnings while the range of the video link would be the same as the p3p.  If the only difference is in the power of the remote, then using a p3p remote with the p4 would improve the p4 range to that of the p3p and solve the issue.  If the aircraft transmitter(s) are weaker, I'm guessing that nothing could be done.