Hi Mavic Pilots,

I'm creating a new thread cause i couldnt find anything on the search similar to what I'm experiencing.

I bought my mavic 3 weeks ago but I only fly it once a week. so it has no more than 3/4 flights in total.
Only today I decided to fly it further than my line of sight.

Everything calibrated, antennas 45 degrees, firmware up to date.

I tried with an iphone 7 plus and an ipad mini 2.


With the ipad mini 2 i could only get to 700m. Iphone 7 plus 800m.

I'm really close to the beach (50m away) and there is no interference, no big buildings,etc.


Is this normal?
I thought i could fly the mavic up to 7km away.


Any anwser would be appreciated.


Thanks

Guido

Check this video on how to position your antennas and how the reception works:



There are many things that affect your maximum range.

At long distance the antennas should point straight up when you hold the RC as the signal is the strongest 90 degrees sideways.

Image from http://rcbeacon.com/blog/?p=3184

Dronoob Posted at 2017-2-6 02:08
At long distance the antennas should point straight up when you hold the RC as the signal is the strongest 90 degrees sideways.

[view_image] Image from http://rcbeacon.com/blog/?p=3184

I tried both, 45 degrees with the ipad and 90 degrees with the iPhone 7 (I have the sunshade from dji that forces you to use the antennas at 90 degrees angle)
Same result. 700 - 800 m max distance.

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-6 02:22
I tried both, 45 degrees with the ipad and 90 degrees with the iPhone 7 (I have the sunshade from dji that forces you to use the antennas at 90 degrees angle)
Same result. 700 - 800 m max distance.

What height were you flying at..

hallmark007 Posted at 2017-2-6 04:09
What height were you flying at..

I started at 50m and I lost signal at 80m

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-6 04:42
I started at 50m and I lost signal at 80m

Ipad/iphone??? Why should the screen interfere with rc? Are you using the controller itself or do you use WIFI mode and control it with your mobile device?
That would explain alot!

MacIak Posted at 2017-2-6 09:54
Ipad/iphone??? Why should the screen interfere with rc? Are you using the controller itself or do you use WIFI mode and control it with your mobile device?
That would explain alot!

Maybe I wasn't clear but the screen doesn't interfere with the signal, I just tried two different devices because maybe that was the reason, but its not.
I'm using the controller with the phone or tablet attached.
And that's the altitude I reached when I lost signal. 80m

is the signal strength on the controller the same as the app shows?does it return to home or can you keep flying?

It's wired should be go much further away

jims3000 Posted at 2017-2-6 19:15
is the signal strength on the controller the same as the app shows?does it return to home or can you keep flying?

Mm that I don't know, ill do another run test today, same spot. same settings.
It gave me a warning and stopped. then it continued a bit more and warning again and returned to home. which is stopped once I gained signal again and brought it home.

WYHSniper1007 Posted at 2017-2-6 19:38
It's wired should be go much further away

I know, that's why I'm concern. And stupid me, I decided to do this test after the 14 days were over, so I cannot exchange it now.

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-6 02:22
I tried both, 45 degrees with the ipad and 90 degrees with the iPhone 7 (I have the sunshade from dji that forces you to use the antennas at 90 degrees angle)
Same result. 700 - 800 m max distance.

I wonder if the sunshade has anything to do with it.  Doesn't it fit over the antennas? Seems like that would impede the signal.  

Visualkaos Posted at 2017-2-6 20:10
I wonder if the sunshade has anything to do with it.  Doesn't it fit over the antennas? Seems like that would impede the signal.

I think it could be it.

I did a quick test, not same as yesterday cause is super windy today, but I reached 600m with a solid signal.

Ill wait to see if it calms down later on and do it again.

Weird, I thought that buying that sunshade, I wouldn't get any issues since Dji designed it.


Ill try to replicate it again later on.

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-6 20:05
I know, that's why I'm concern. And stupid me, I decided to do this test after the 14 days were over, so I cannot exchange it now.

You can still contact the technical support that they will fix for it if there is some issues

jims3000 Posted at 2017-2-6 19:15
is the signal strength on the controller the same as the app shows?does it return to home or can you keep flying?

I get a different reading with the controller signal.....low on phone screen but its allgood on the controller? Any reason why it does that? Ive pushed it out to 3km in a safe place i have out in the yonder and didnt loose signal but have on the odd occasion in another spot but not that far away?

fans960b109d Posted at 2017-2-7 02:38
I get a different reading with the controller signal.....low on phone screen but its allgood on the controller? Any reason why it does that? Ive pushed it out to 3km in a safe place i have out in the yonder and didnt loose signal but have on the odd occasion in another spot but not that far away?

DJI GO 3 or 4 ? Android ? DJI GO 4 on a lot of androids causes a lot of troubles ..............

Try a different version of DJI Go also. Also, try a different location with as few as interference possible. Like some rural area.  If it still happens, you can choose to send them in.

DJI-Thor Posted at 2017-2-7 22:43
Try a different version of DJI Go also. Also, try a different location with as few as interference possible. Like some rural area.  If it still happens, you can choose to send them in.

Ill try with a different app, but i thought that phone and apps had nothing to do witn controller signal.

One thing that improoved a lot the signal was taking off the sunshade (the one that DJI sells on its website)

I lost connection to the drone and the RC every time I have flown it 3 or so times! initially was having trouble contenting to the drone when first powered up and after several attempts it connected, then let the drone go around 750mtrs and again lost signal to the RC, lucky I could see the drone and was hovering so I walked over to it and still could not establish a connection, I then waited for the battery to run low and when it did it did a RTH and landed safley!
although the 3rd time it clipped the fence and broke only the propellers thankfully,
Prior to this I reinstalled the lasted firmware to the drone and the RC hoping this would rectify it but it didn't,
I have now downgraded the firmware to the previous version and this seems to have fixed it although I only given it 3 more short flights upto 750mtrs away as now without any issues,
I'm using a iPhone 6 if that would make a difference!

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-8 04:33
Ill try with a different app, but i thought that phone and apps had nothing to do witn controller signal.

One thing that improoved a lot the signal was taking off the sunshade (the one that DJI sells on its website)

Two questions which have not been asked here - and this may have an influence:

1) have you carried out auto take-off from the screen or took off with left stick up?

2) have you switched your phone to flight mode?

First is just speculative but the second question has strong validity - best is to fly without the radio antennas on the phone bothering the controller. You can keep your GPS on - this does not transmit anything from the phone.

rnrnrn Posted at 2017-2-8 08:05
Two questions which have not been asked here - and this may have an influence:

1) have you carried out auto take-off from the screen or took off with left stick up?

1) I tried both, with the ipad i used the auto take off, and the iphone i did it with the sticks.

2) I have the wifi version of the ipad, and it was off, gps on. and with the iphone i left the 3G 4G on, cause i thought the app used the internet for the maps.
But suprigsingly the iphone worked a bit better than the ipad.

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-8 17:22
1) I tried both, with the ipad i used the auto take off, and the iphone i did it with the sticks.

2) I have the wifi version of the ipad, and it was off, gps on. and with the iphone i left the 3G 4G on, cause i thought the app used the internet for the maps.

Ok - got it - so No 2 seems more like a dead end then. Although I would anyhow advise using flight mode - you really don't want to receive a call during flight ;-)

As for the auto functions - some users have reported strange things like non-responsive sticks which happened after auto take-off and did not happen with manual one. In this case I would also advise flying manually - it's more fun as well ;-)

Can you see well enough without the sun screen on? I can't relate to this at the moment because I'm in Berlin, Germany and I haven't seen live sun in days and with the winter sun previously it's really not a problem to see everything clearly enough.

rnrnrn Posted at 2017-2-9 00:36
Ok - got it - so No 2 seems more like a dead end then. Although I would anyhow advise using flight mode - you really don't want to receive a call during flight ;-)

As for the auto functions - some users have reported strange things like non-responsive sticks which happened after auto take-off and did not happen with manual one. In this case I would also advise flying manually - it's more fun as well ;-)

I replicated the test today with almost no wind and i could take it to 1000m, at that point the controller drop from 3 bars to 0 and started the return to home.

I'm on a beach flying the drone over the ocean. Is it possible to have interferences here?

I dont understand it.


ps: the sunshade is useless, doesnt cover the sun because its too far away from the screen

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-10 17:38
I replicated the test today with almost no wind and i could take it to 1000m, at that point the controller drop from 3 bars to 0 and started the return to home.

I'm on a beach flying the drone over the ocean. Is it possible to have interferences here?

The only way you could have such interference there is if there's a huge antenna somewhere in the vicinity generating that kind of noise. Military installations do that as well - at an anchorage in Turkey, roughly 10Nm from the naval base, we had zero satellite communication due to interference - but that was an exception. What may be for sure is a disconnected antenna in the leg of the Mavic and therefore not transmitting properly. Some disconnection inside the RC is also possible but less likey.

I'd say in this case you may need to send in the drone back. Sorry :/

Guidilloo Posted at 2017-2-10 17:38
I replicated the test today with almost no wind and i could take it to 1000m, at that point the controller drop from 3 bars to 0 and started the return to home.

I'm on a beach flying the drone over the ocean. Is it possible to have interferences here?

I have clocked up over 100km on my mavic and many flights been able to get out past 3km with no probs....always over lakes and lots of mountains hia, i would send it back as it should have no worries getting past where your getting to :-/

Was having similar problems. Random disconnects. Sent mine back Friday. Will know soon what the diagnosis ends up being.

I'm speaking with somebody from support already. Cause I'm having 2 major issues. One is the signal loss and the other one is the tilted horizon when panning the Mavic side to side. The gimbal doesnt seem to keep with the tilted drone.

Hopefully I get a completely new drone. I'm a bit worried tho cause I'm over the 14 days that they give you to exchange it. I received the Mavic 21 days ago.

I'm leaving Australia in 2 weeks. Hopefully I can sort this out before I'm gone.

Thanks everyone for the replies. Ill update the post with the outcome.