Hi. I am  from South Africa and a new Dji Spark owner. Besides my drone being everything I could ask for and more I am concerned about the range I am currently getting with the drone connected to the transmitter.

The furthest I could take the drone is 123m away in a moderately interference free area (the beach) before complete signal loss and the drone returning to home automatically. I've seen the range advertised as roughly 2km with some people in other parts of the world actually exceeding this distance. To be honest I would be grateful if I even got half the advertised distance but sadly this isn't the case

This is a bit concerning for me because I either am doing something wrong or fallen victim to false advertising. The dji spark is a fairly pricy drone and one of it's selling points that convinced me to purchase one was the range but unfortunately I am not getting what I paid for.

Please could someone assist in this regard

Are you flying just with a mobile device or do you have the remote control as well? For mobile device only the range is indeed limited to 100 meters. When using the remote control the range depends on the transmission standard (CE or FCC) that is applicable in your country, but in any case is well above 100 meters in good conditions.

Wachtberger Posted at 2017-12-15 15:05
Are you flying just with a mobile device or do you have the remote control as well? For mobile device only the range is indeed limited to 100 meters. When using the remote control the range depends on the transmission standard (CE or FCC) that is applicable in your country, but in any case is well above 100 meters in good conditions.

I am flying it with a remote controller @ 5.8ghz frequency but still unable to push it past 123m before complete signal loss. I am unsure of whether South Africa follows FCC or EU regulations.

fansdb2c0d84 Posted at 2017-12-15 15:12
I am flying it with a remote controller @ 5.8ghz frequency but still unable to push it past 123m before complete signal loss. I am unsure of whether South Africa follows FCC or EU regulations.

Try to find out which standard applies in your country and switch to FCC mode if possible. But from your initial report I conclude that your Spark and RC must be in CE mode right now with this poor range performance. Should that be the standard in your country you can still find out about the ideal antenna positions (have a look on this in the user manual) and you always have to direct your RC in direct line to the Spark to have good signal.

Hi, sir. Please follow the advice above. Did you try to change several environment for further check? Please ensure that you choose the channel with best signal. Or you can choose auto of Channel Mode under Image Transmission Settings. Please keep us updated, thanks a lot.

DJI Elektra Posted at 2017-12-15 19:06
Hi, sir. Please follow the advice above. Did you try to change several environment for further check? Please ensure that you choose the channel with best signal. Or you can choose auto of Channel Mode under Image Transmission Settings. Please keep us updated, thanks a lot.

Im still relatively new to flying and haven't tweaked the finer settings of the drone. Everything is still set to auto which is where I thought I was doing something wrong.

I will try different locations, different antennae positions etc and keep you updated.

Thank you for your speedy replies and assistance

Regards.

fansdb2c0d84 Posted at 2017-12-16 01:08
Im still relatively new to flying and haven't tweaked the finer settings of the drone. Everything is still set to auto which is where I thought I was doing something wrong.

I will try different locations, different antennae positions etc and keep you updated.

You are most welcome!