I was recently flying with my new Phantom 4 and I started to get odd error messages (signal loss I think), my aircraft was only 100m (300ft) away.  I turned around and found that a friend, with an identical Phantom 4, was also flying. He said that he was getting interference too, he was around 30m (100ft) away from me. I landed as soon as I could and turned off the aircraft and controller.

  

Could these two Phantom 4’s be interfering with each other?  It certainly seemed that way.  This was the first time that we had flown at the same time.

Does anyone know how to avoid this?

The Phantoms would be perfectly OK.
Your controllers were interfering because they were too close.
Move further away .. maybe 5 metres or so apart and you'll see no problems.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-9-10 20:45
The Phantoms would be perfectly OK.
Your controllers were interfering because they were too close.
M ...

Thanks labroides, however the controllers were around 30 meters away from each other.

Hello Paulfowler, please change another open place without interference around, such as buildings, WiFi, wires or metal. You could check channel on HD page through your APP, then customize the best one.
During flight, please adjust antennas to optimal range. Hope the following tutorials helps:

Chook Posted at 2016-9-10 20:51
Thanks labroides, however the controllers were around 30 meters away from each other.

Flying multiple Phantoms is commonly done without difficulty.
If the Phantoms are allowed to choose their own channels they won't interfere with each other.
Have you tried to set channels or are they in auto?

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-9-10 21:26
Flying multiple Phantoms is commonly done without difficulty.
If the Phantoms are allowed to choos ...

Thanks.  That sounds like a good idea.  They were in auto. How do you set a channel?

How do you know? In the Go app, Switch from Auto to Custom. Hahaha


RedHotPoker

RedHotPoker Posted at 2016-9-10 23:05
How do you know? In the Go app, Switch from Auto to Custom. Hahaha

Thanks (I was guessing that they were both in Auto).  I'll try Custom channels when we fly together again.

Chook Posted at 2016-9-10 07:20
Thanks (I was guessing that they were both in Auto).  I'll try Custom channels when we fly togethe ...

Yes, Probably by default then. ;-)

I have flown my Phantom 3 Pro, several times now with a forum regular Rigworker, and we have Never experienced any negative characteristics..

RedHotPoker

If you switch to custom though, I would not fly too far, because the potential risk of losing signal is a lot higher.

My friend and I flew 2 p4s recently and we had the same situation... weak signal, pixelation, etc... as soon as we started flying apart from each other, everything went fine.

I have a friend with P3.  We fly together a lot.  I live in the country, he lives in the city and appreciates coming out to fly in the open spaces.

Normally we take turns, but we have flown standing less than 5 meters apart.  At that distance the range is drastically reduced, (under 300 meters) but everything else works fine.  Most of the time we video each others drone and chase each other around the sky.

jwt873@gmail.co Posted at 2016-9-10 22:48
I have a friend with P3.  We fly together a lot.  I live in the country, he lives in the city and ap ...

You could always do 'combat drones' use long paper streamers and then chase and cut opponents streamer for points

With the other Phantom 4 turned on, maybe try to rebind your controller to your aircraft so it can actively search for the least-utilized channel.

One thing I noticed when flying with friends, when an active Phantom 4 is in the general vicinity of my P3S, I receive a lot of interference on 2.4Ghz.