I bought a P3 pro a few weeks ago and finally tried a flight of less than a mile. I got less than 700 meters before it lost the signal and initiated the RTH.

I live in Atlanta, Georgia. It is hilly and covered with dense large trees. The hills can easily run over 50 feet and the trees over 100.

I have had other drones using 5.8ghz that were very dissapointing at a 500 meter range. After reading about the vaunted "lightbridge" technology, I thought there was a fix. I even wrote to DJI before purchasing asking if my environment would cause the same reduced range with the phantom. They assured me that the lightbridge technology combined with the extended American standard would solve my problems.

At this point I feel very dissapointed. This is not a cheap purchase and it is not performing according to the promises of the manufacturer.

Just a question:

"They assured me that the lightbridge technology combined with the extended American standard would solve my problems."

What's an 'extended American standard'?

FCC power mode instead of the reduced CE mode in Europe.

I had issues in my residential area. Yesterday I went 7000ft in a way cleaner open area. I could have gone a bit further, but chickened out.. But that is still not even close to advertised 3.1mi/5k... But, unless i can try in a totally unpopulated area, i will not know.... 5200ft per mile, i shoul dbe able to go nearing 15000ft without any mods, in pretty ideal environment..
While flying near my town, I had times where signal was lost in as little as 600ft, or as far as 3000ft....  This is P3A, all stock.

Have you seen this?
http://forum.dji.com/thread-33091-1-1.html

might not be the cause but worth noting.....as well, check your defaults are not set to the ce mode as i have seen this before....

http://forum.dji.com/forum.php?m ... mp;page=1#pid251592 for some other useful information.

Range fluctuates over time. There have been days that I could easily fly 3500 m away, even with trees and buildings in the line of sight, while on other days, on the same place I didn't get any further than 1000 m.
Electrical interference which can be estimated  for your area by several (free) apps available in IOS and Android play a major role. Antenna direction is also important and height of the flight: the higher the less intezrference from your trees and hills.

Bottomline: don't be disappointed too soon: there will be (much) better days

If you haven't already done so, make sure your antennas are set up as per the video here.You can also try flying a bit higher and/or standing at a higher point.

If all those fail you could consider range extenders.

Edit: just realised the video was already linked so no point watching it twice

Your antenna direction maybe wrong?

Northofthe49th Posted at 2016-5-23 00:34
Have you seen this?
http://forum.dji.com/thread-33091-1-1.html

How do I check?

vinojaya6 Posted at 2016-5-23 02:32
Your antenna direction maybe wrong?

I was checking the antennas during the flight. They were correct. I made a windsurfer antenna from Tom's Tech Time that I will try later today. I thought I would try the homemade variety before I ordered something from Amazon.

Still, DJI assured me that I would have much greater distance than using 5.8ghz.

Join the club.

Northofthe49th Posted at 2016-5-23 02:34
Have you seen this?
http://forum.dji.com/thread-33091-1-1.html

"check your defaults are not set to the ce mode as i have seen this before...."


This sounds dubious.  
You can't change those settings for a P3.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-5-23 04:54
I was checking the antennas during the flight. They were correct. I made a windsurfer antenna from ...

"DJI assured me that I would have much greater distance than using 5.8ghz. "

DJI were right.  Lightbridge will push a lot further.
But there are a lot of variables at play and Lightbridge won't give the same distance every time in every environment.

labroides@yahoo Posted at 2016-5-23 06:03
"DJI assured me that I would have much greater distance than using 5.8ghz. "

DJI were right.  Lig ...

Understood. However, the point is that I contacted DJI before I bought the drone and told them where I live, what the environment is like and my past history with drones using 5.8ghz.

On a brighter note, I just came back from flying with my home made windsurfer parabolic antennas from Tom's Tech Time and I got 2200 meters. I probably could have gotten more by moving around as the parabolics are more sensitive to direction. That is quite a jump from 700. If I can get a mile or more then I will be happy enough. I'll be ordering a set off Amazon today.

I was also quite impressed with the stability as there was a 20 mph wind. I flew into the headwind and hit over 20 m/s on the way home. I also flew it in Atti mode around the field and found it was quite controllable even in strong winds. That is probably due to the fact that this is the heaviest drone I have owned.

Overall, if I can get the distance reasonable, I will be very happy with my purchase.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-5-23 08:50
Understood. However, the point is that I contacted DJI before I bought the drone and told them whe ...

'However, the point is that I contacted DJI before I bought the drone and told them where I live, what the environment is like and my past history with drones using 5.8ghz.'

This is a company based in China, they would have no idea what your local environment was like, and apart from that, they always tell you what you want to hear. This is part of Chinese culture.

If you have a lot of tall trees around, then that is seriously going to restrict your range unless you fly way higher than the trees and also place yourself in an elevated position.

u should try to switch ur phone to flight mode and turn off wifi and bluetooth, if ur house have wifi router, might be good to switch it off also then you can try to see if it will extend ur distance,

for me when i am using my ipad with cellular and wifi, i only achieve a distance of 500m, but when i switch ipad to flight mode, it goes to 1.4km (i am in a CE region),

but for iphone, i dont have to turn off the cellular and i can still achieve 1.4km.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-23 07:07
'However, the point is that I contacted DJI before I bought the drone and told them where I live,  ...

Chinese culture??

In the US it is called a material misrepresentation of fact. Under the Uniform Commercial Code it could be argued that it was not fit for the particular purpose stated.

So I guess the next time you buy something from China, say a green statue, and you ask if it is Jade and they say yes, then it is ok if they send you green glass. Anywhere in the world you go, it is simply not an honest answer to a civil question.

And yes, they can know the conditions because they were clearly described as densely forested, hills rising 20 meters and trees rising over 30 meters. China is not without hilly or mountainous regions.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-5-24 07:53
Chinese culture??

In the US it is called a material misrepresentation of fact. Under the Uniform  ...

You are really naive, try suing a Chinese company, they don't care and you won't get anywhere. In China the seller is King, not the buyer, and there are almost no consumer laws to protect you.

You are presumably an American with no idea how the rest of the world works culture wise, they hate America in China, and simply want your money. As for understanding the question you posed, the people on the phones are trained to provide the simplest answer by rote, they have no idea what terrian means.

Geebax Posted at 2016-5-24 06:50
You are really naive, try suing a Chinese company, they don't care and you won't get anywhere. In C ...

I am quite aware of the situation in China and the rest of the less developed world. I have traveled extensively in my life. My son taught English in Nanjing for a year. My wife is a visiting professor at Peking University. I was a businessman for over 30 years and dealt with Chinese and Vietnamese companies. Now I am an attorney and I have no interest in suing anybody over an $830 purchase. Certainly the American distributors can be held liable if anyone cared to sue.

I do think it is rather inappropriate to attack someone as having no idea about how the world works, how ignorant they are about foreign culture or to make sweeping statements that all Chinese hate Americans. Assigning a personality trait to an entire country's inhabitants is ignorant and ill informed. We have just too many Chinese friends here who would disagree with your statement.

My only complaint with DJI is that I thought I was dealing with a better class of company than Hubsan, who burned me on my last drone, based on many of the reviews I have read. My statement was simply a reaction that somehow it is ok to misrepresent something and call it cultural. It may be common in that culture, but it is never ok.

The best companies, no matter where they are, think of their customers first over the mere short sighted concern of making a quick sale.

Yeah, I'm surrounded by trees as well.  Radio waves don't do so well trying to penetrate dense foliage so maintaining electronic line-of-sight between the remote and the Phantom is critical.  That's why I put a deer stand next to the house so I can get above the clutter. (only around $90 with Free shipping from WalMart -- and as long as you don't live in a area with an anal retentive homeowners association)

gil Posted at 2016-5-25 01:32
Yeah, I'm surrounded by trees as well.  Radio waves don't do so well trying to penetrate dense folia ...

Looks good. The question isn't the homeowner's association. The question is whether my wife will leave me.

I lived in Hawaii for a while and could go beyond the 3.2 mile range no problem.  I was limited on battery instead of RC signal.  Now back stateside, I'm lucky to get 1 mile stock due to the terrain and other interference.  Using the windsurfer antennas have gotten my flight distances back up to the 2-4 mile range.  I've also flown in the Atlanta area and got compass errors and signal interference messages quite often.  I really think it's just a matter of where you are and what physical objects and terrain around you.

skipilot1 Posted at 2016-5-25 01:39
I am quite aware of the situation in China and the rest of the less developed world. I have travel ...

Alright, lets try it a different way. The US has the most highly developed sense of customer service in the world. No oither country that I have dealt with does business as well as they do, but in comparison, China is in the dark ages. From time to time I have to travel to China to organise manufacture of products there, and it is not a straightforward process. They screw up things quite often, substitute cheap materials without your knowledge, and work to the 'that's close enough' principle.

Most meetings over there are trying to correct problems in the manufacture, and you are constantly dancing around problems that will cause them embarrassment, because that puts a stop to the process. But you have to work through it because you have almost no legal rights in China as a foreigner, so you need to negotiate yourself into getting the product you want.

You quoted 'Uniform Commercial Code', yet you say you are an attorney? Are you not aware that American laws mean absolutely nothing in China or most other countries? Yes, you might be able to find the distributor liable, but all that will do is shut down distribution, you won't be able to touch the Chinese parent company.

dieselwind Posted at 2016-5-25 02:44
I lived in Hawaii for a while and could go beyond the 3.2 mile range no problem.  I was limited on b ...

I received my copper parabolic range extenders. The homemade ones from Tom's Tech Time were helpful. As these are larger and smooth copper instead of wrinkled aluminum foil, I hope they will give me a boost.

Hopefully I will try them later today and report back.