Hey guys,

I've had the mavic mini for about a week now. I live in a somewhat wooded area/suburb - and I'm having a real issue getting past 1,000-1250 ft max. Sometimes not even 800 ft. It is the FCC drone (im in usa). I'm using 5.8ghz and ive tried manually choosing the best channel and auto for transmission. I've also tried putting my phone in airplane mode. I always try to face the direction of the drone and move with it and hold the controller correctly so that it gets a good signal. If I had to guess it could be due to trees. For reference, I'm flying it about 130-140 ft high. I'm not sure if I should fly it higher.

There's also been a time where I flew it over a frozen pond w/ little obstruction minus, say a small non-dense tree line between me and the pond - at 150-200ft height and i think I maxed out at 1250-1450ft distance.

I know the advertised 2.5 mile distance for the drone is under ideal conditions in a flat area- but i'm barely even scraping 10-15% of that.

I'm hoping i'm either doing something wrong, or there is a defect - as I'd hate to be constrained to my neighborhood block. Kinda defeats my expectations/ purpose for getting this drone.

I've included a photo of my farthest flight, please note that those trees are barren this time of year - it was not as dense as it seems and they were rather skinny trees + half of that is on a decline.  So about 1450-1500 ft and 180 ish ft high before it crapped out on me.  Which is what, like 10% of the theoretical max as advertised?

Please let me know if you have any tips or suggestions as it is greatly appreciated.



Thank you!

Aloha beedu,

     There are a few possibilities that may be causing you problems.  The one that always seems to screw me up is the Imperial vs Metric setting.  Generally, DJI offers you the ability to chose between the two but in other platforms did not make the change completely throughout the interface between the user and the display.  Be sure to check if you have the settings right as per Metric and Imperial.

     You will have to set your altitude limit and range limit in the settings (at least I had to).  The default is way less than the max allowed.  Be sure to set your RTH altitude to a reasonable altitude while you are at it.

     I fly in jungle tunnels on a regular basis in a generally humid environment.  From first hand experience, I can tell you that on humid days and within one day after a rain, transmissions are not real good.  The water in the vegetation absorbs the signal and greatly reduces range.  The thick needles of evergreens hold a lot of water even on dry days.  

     The best test for range situations where trees are involved is - as you suggested - go to a higher altitude.  The DJI GO 4 app announces the event when you reach max altitude, I have not tested whether the DJI Fly app does.

     Interesting what you said about 5.8 GHz, I thought our model Mini only had 5.8 GHz?  Does DJI Fly allow you to manually choose a channel?  I may have set my Mini to Auto since I fly in the jungle and rural environments and Auto works well here.  I did research that my model Mini only has 5.8 GHz though.  But, I have not updated my DJI Fly program because I thought I was using the latest.  I may have to look into that now.

     Hope this helps!

Aloha and Drone On!

Aloha beedu,

     This is the video I made flying in the jungle tunnels.

https://forum.dji.com/thread-208259-1-1.html

Aloha and Drone On!

As suggested your screenshot displayed meters and you were referring to feet, so probably you've got a little bit misled by these figures.

Concerning vegetation I agree with the sharp analysis from Cetacean, as for the MM I suggest you really stay quite low in altitude and check the wind forecast for gusts at 100 meters above ground.
The challenge having an homepoint in a wooded area like that is to get the Mini as high to maintain LoS (line of sight) but still under control as the winds even when calm can be quite unforgiving at altitude for a little bird such as the MM.

I can confirm that trees really screw up the signal. I’m also using the FCC model and I had it at about 2km out (~6.500 ft I believe) with no issues in a mountain area. As soon as I walked behind a tree I lost contact. I did some more testing in that situation and that one big tree in the line of sight between me and the drone  was cutting my range to just 1km.

Maybe you are mixing up Meter and feet.
But see it, i wander where is channel 1-13 or 1-11 for me. I bought my MM from Chin,  so its may be a CE, but where are the other channels. I saw many video in Forum and youtune as well. All those shows many channel.  I couldnt find any for me. Manual & auto, both same case.   

Hi. I am sorry for the trouble for the trouble this has caused. With regards to this concern. Kindly please try flying the drone in a open area with less interference and please stay within the line of sight to isolate the issue. Please keep us posted for further assistance. Thank you.

Thank you for your replies as to the meters vs feet issue - I fly in imperial for some reason the playback feature shows in metric

SUNNY 2461 Posted at 2-22 07:53
Maybe you are mixing up Meter and feet.
But see it, i wander where is channel 1-13 or 1-11 for me. I bought my MM from Chin,  so its may be a CE, but where are the other channels. I saw many video in Forum and youtune as well. All those shows many channel.  I couldnt find any for me. Manual & auto, both same case.

It looks like you have the FCC model, with just 5.8Ghz

Check the label inside the drone (aft port).

MT1SD25 is CE
MT1SS5 is FCC

Since you don't have 2.4 GHz it should be FCC. Today with my extenders (just reflectors) my MM picked CH 153 (5.8 GHz) where theoretically in the open could have used 2.4 GHz... I thought to myself, I'll have a problem later in the flight but I was wrong, with just 25 mW I pushed my little friend 750 meters away from me and had a wonderful tour, came back and landed with just one short hiccup when I probably wasn't oriented that well.

m80116 Posted at 2-22 13:34
Check the label inside the drone (aft port).

MT1SD25 is CE

Thank you! mine is FCC i'll have to try that

Ice_2k Posted at 2-22 12:59
It looks like you have the FCC model, with just 5.8Ghz

Yes, i checked the box. That means there is no way to extend the range?

SUNNY 2461 Posted at 2-23 00:05
Yes, i checked the box. That means there is no way to extend the range?

The FCC version already has a 4km range, why do you need to extend it further?

Ice_2k Posted at 2-23 01:22
The FCC version already has a 4km range, why do you need to extend it further?

Because it's never going more than 100-130 meter high. 500 is limit, at least 300 meter can go...i never got a height more than 150m  

Are you trying to fly directly above you?

Get it up in the air and next to the limit where you were having problems, hovering there find a suitable free channel, get back to homepoint, land the drone and manually select the channel you previously found freer at height. This might be the best way to extend your range in a very busy frequency airspace.

Don't forget to correctly orientate the RC antennas and maintain vLoS.

I advise you not to fly high above a city as you may interfere with civilian flights and MM is not really suited for those heights (and also not very wind resistant). I suggest you stay within 50 meters from the ground and 200 meters from the homepoint. The city environment is definitely not the best place to fly a drone far away.
Besides... what does he plan on doing 500 meters above a city... I use Google Earth for that which is 100 times safer ! It's absolutely a non-sense asking a Mavic Mini to do that...