Hello,


Just wanted to see if anyone could share their experience with range and the remote controller.
I am getting an awful range. When i connect my phone to the remote via wifi I get 100-150 meters. And when i connect to the remote in airplane mode with a usb cable (i use the otg cable of my phantom for that) it improves a bit but i still i dont get more than 220 meters. I fly in a city so i know im not in optimal conditions but still its barely 10% of the advertised range.
Any one want to share their experience ?


Cheers

I fly in the UK and get about 100meters, I'm thinking these may help ? http://amzn.to/2tIUSn1

In the Uk I have had 500m+ easy ( starts 37 second into the video )

Sploodge Posted at 2017-6-20 05:55
In the Uk I have had 500m+ easy ( starts 37 second into the video )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_U7EU9LC0&feature=youtu.be

Nice! No drops at all? Guessing being over water helped... Have you achieved that / further over land?

Sploodge Posted at 2017-6-20 05:55
In the Uk I have had 500m+ easy ( starts 37 second into the video )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0_U7EU9LC0&feature=youtu.be

Easily of course, you were over water ! I think that 500 m over water is a pretty awful range result mate.

fans8f749536 Posted at 2017-6-21 04:50
Easily of course, you were over water ! I think that 500 m over water is a pretty awful range result mate.

Doesn't sound too bad, considering others are getting way less than that.

Tviscomi Posted at 2017-6-21 05:35
Doesn't sound too bad, considering others are getting way less than that.

think its pretty good as well. official specs saying 500m max in ideal conditions. In EU with our capped transmissions thats alright with me.
reading the other pilots problems i thought i never the a EU range vid like this.

@Sploodge
did the rc was set to 2.4 or 5.8?
and did you use wifi or usb connecting the rc and phone ?

kasei Posted at 2017-6-21 08:43
think its pretty good as well. official specs saying 500m max in ideal conditions. In EU with our capped transmissions thats alright with me.
reading the other pilots problems i thought i never the a EU range vid like this.

What cable did you use to connect the RC to the iPhone?

I get about 100 meters in open field. Used a OTG cable to connect my Samsung S7 Edge as well Wifi to the RC. Both a poor distance. This is a very big disappointment.

Hi.
My Max Range was 389Meters at a high of about 120Meters. In an area at the edge of a city.
At this Point the Auto Homecoming activated.

After about 280Meters the Remote started to disconnect with the spark and the video dropped out.

I used a iPhone 6 with an OTG Cable. WLAN disconnected.

May it help when I put the iPhone in FlightMode? Maybe there is some interference with the LTE Signal?

So. After all, I am a bit disappointed - I never expected 2 Kilometers Range, but at least 800Meters should be possible.

The second Range test was even worse. I stood at the top of a litte hill and had free range to all sides. After about 250Meters the homecoming activated.

I will report further tests. cu

You think 300 meters isn't far? My question is how do u see it at that distances it's so small?

you are really couragous, I would never do a range check over water, these things cannot swim....

Because of the regulatory issues in Germany/EU the WLAN Power of the Remote is limited to 18dbm. The full Power is 25dbm.

Therefore it looks like 300-500meters are normal distances. In an non-urban area and 150-300meters in urban areas.

Hmm.

In the Internet i found some kind of little parrabol mirrors to slide over the antennas. Does Annyone have some experience with this?

Cu

fanse4cd55e1 Posted at 2017-7-22 03:19
Because of the regulatory issues in Germany/EU the WLAN Power of the Remote is limited to 18dbm. The full Power is 25dbm.

Therefore it looks like 300-500meters are normal distances. In an non-urban area and 150-300meters in urban areas.

Have just purchased them but didn't test yet.

Will post some feedback as soon as possible.

Enjoy flying

Maybe it is possible to squeeze out some extra Range. I will Test some Differenz Areas. It also seems to have positive effects when the antennas are Heading to the drone with the Long side. Somebody explained to my that a Wifi Signal Weakest Spot is on the Tipp of the Antennas.

Try this sequence... power on the remote with No cable attached.  Then turn the dji go4 app on.  Plug the lightning cable to iPhone or iPad then plug the otg end into remote ... now power on the spark.   Also turn off WiFi on phone before any of the above.   If you get to about 85 meters high i found i got great range and almost zero lag to about  650 meters in a rural area still had more but i chickend out

I performed a long distance test flight today, using the controller and my phone connected via wifi. I was able to a little over a mile with no issues at all, 5605 feet to be exact. I probably could've gone a bit further as signal was still good, but I was concerned about wind on the return flight.

I switched to 2.4ghz and wacked on a pair of those mirror things and I got well over 1,000m today. It would have gone further but batter was low. Weird feeling, couldn't see it after about 100m so 1,000m was just dust in the sky somewhere! Perfect video and control not one drop out. I reckon it will go to 1,500 pretty easily. Will be trying again tomorrow!!

650  ft or about 200 meters withall i get cant switch to 2.4 keeps going back to 5.8 th

650  ft or about 200 meters with rc , is all i get cant switch to 2.4 keeps going back to 5.8 . am very disappointed , on island usvi, loses signal and does rh

TMUSVI Posted at 2017-8-7 06:07
650  ft or about 200 meters withall i get cant switch to 2.4 keeps going back to 5.8 th

You have to power everything up without OTG Cable attached, select a 2.4ghz Wifi channel and as soon as it says restarting wifi, disconnect wifi. Plug the OTG cable in and you'll be on 2.4ghz for remote to Spark transmission.

I'm flying in the UK BTW.

I have similar issues.
Im in Austria, flying mostly in rural areas with very few people around.
Ive gotten something around 300m max. This is in almost ideal conditions.. it surprises me that some people get well over 1000meters.
I guess it really depends on the location. In the US it seems to be a lot easier to get some range. In EU more people have a problem, but also in the EU some people get great range.

Have you tried using the antenna boosters? They seem to have had a big impact on the distance I've been able to get. So far, 1200m semi rural in UK.

I'm a bit surprised to see the issues with limited range in EU (CE), as not experience the same in The Netherlands

Setup: Spark + RC/IPad 4 Mini / OTG all latest firmware / App   Always use 2.4 GHz - No mods!

Height 80 meters

Uploaded my  logfile to Airdata.com and below Signal Map with distance 902 meters  ... all green - no warnings. (Signal Score 100) Point F - Minor Signal Error 9.7

With RC and OTG, iPhone in airplane mode, no Bluetooth etc I ve been getting close to 4000' distance a few times, between 60 and 100' altitude flying over land but from a boat. That's outside the EU obviously. Signal was strong so I could have gone further but didn't need too. Most flights have been on the 2500/3000' range.
The key is not to have anything between the drone and the RC. Clear LOS

Set a record today, 2.1km. OTG cable on 2.4ghz but not using those mirror things. Also didn't have airplane mode on (as forgot!) but had clear video the whole time

Am in the UK.

PS could have squeezed out another 300m I think but had messed  about a bit before taking run out so battery was low

Full flight

Screen shot from the fill flight

russham1 Posted at 2017-8-10 03:17
Screen shot from the fill flight

I am in Mexico. Seems the spark is on CE (as per the UK as 2.4 has 13 channels showing). Am not near anything, on the beach using 2.4 and got to 300m over the sea before connection lost and RTH. Not sure why the huge difference. Have tried with and without a cable. Similar  experience. Initially it defaulted to 5Ghz channel but lost reception when it went to 100m straight up. 2.4 was better but miles off what you are achieving. About 200m and the picture breaks up and at best it has a latency lag when closer.

Loobola 0 Posted at 2017-10-29 08:22
I am in Mexico. Seems the spark is on CE (as per the UK as 2.4 has 13 channels showing). Am not near anything, on the beach using 2.4 and got to 300m over the sea before connection lost and RTH. Not sure why the huge difference. Have tried with and without a cable. Similar  experience. Initially it defaulted to 5Ghz channel but lost reception when it went to 100m straight up. 2.4 was better but miles off what you are achieving. About 200m and the picture breaks up and at best it has a latency lag when closer.

Other observations.

When selecting a channel on 2.4 say channels 3-9 shows as green with little interference. After selecting channel 5 say, 4 and 6 then show as high interference (is that from the spark itself? If so seems strange it’s own broadcast would show as interference to itself).

I have a Garmin watch that has wifi on. I will try turning that off in next flight.

I have set my phone to airplane when using the cable. No improvement.

Any help / thoughts appreciated.

get these , will make a big difference ........


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fold- ... 2057872.m2749.l2649

i don't fly without them

russham1 Posted at 2017-8-10 02:45
Set a record today, 2.1km. OTG cable on 2.4ghz but not using those mirror things. Also didn't have airplane mode on (as forgot!) but had clear video the whole time

Am in the UK.

But you must have been in FCC mode then, no way to get that distance with CE mode.

m1n1s Posted at 2017-10-29 08:40
get these , will make a big difference ........

Thanks, can you add any values to the improvement? Ie double the range or an extra 100m say?

Also I thought in Mexico the spark would be on FCC as opposed to CE. Couldn’t find any definitive info for Mexico but seemingly not.

Might just accept the 200-250m range limit and upgrade to a Mavic after the next major release (say 6-12 months). I should dig around the Mavic forum but I assume even on CE in the UK the range is good? Say 1km? (Not that I would need such a range). Again as an aside I would hope the next Mavic version pushes it in to the sport category moreso with say a wearable GPS device for better tracking (airdog like).

Loobola 0 Posted at 2017-10-29 11:28
Thanks, can you add any values to the improvement? Ie double the range or an extra 100m say?

Also I thought in Mexico the spark would be on FCC as opposed to CE. Couldn’t find any definitive info for Mexico but seemingly not.

for me these were a big change on distance.

in built up areas i was having issues at 150-200m , now i can get out to 500m.

in wide open areas 400-500m was easy before now i can get 700-750m.

the one down side to the parabolic reflectors is the aerials are very directional, you need to be pointing at the spark quite accurately.

This week i got 98m range with mobile phone in center of Warsaw where in networks are 20+ and all channels red.
But ofc low signal notification is  even after 5m ;) - 98 is my record - max in altitude is 40m - then screen turns grey - i have in city with smartphone problem even with quickshoot when i set 50m range ->  signal lost ;)

I have reached about 850-860 meters range in Spain, in an area with low interference.

Over water, I'm getting very good distance. I haven't tested it very far over land yet. I have occasionally gotten transmission interruptions at around 500m when line of site was broken by trees.

I recently did a little bit of a  not so brave range test, and had my little Sparky  200 feet high and 20 283 feet out , which according to Google is 696 meters.  At that point I was starting to get some intermittent and video transmission loss about every few seconds.  That was far enough for me and I turned around and came back home.  This wasn't an area which based on what I could tell should have very little interference and was across some Open Fields.  I will have to try another range test as I did buy the little range extender thingies from Amazon but this flight that I'm talking about here was without those attached.

Cheers...

Todd in Chicago