Hey ya'll.  I'm super new to the UAV world, so this may be a very very stupid question... And I may already know the answer, but I wanted to double check with some seasoned pro's.  I just got the P3S and was out getting the feel for it, and wanted to see how high it could go, and how far it could go in my neighbor hood.  I changed all my settings to imperial system so this is about what I get on average.  I can get it to fly 209 feet vertical, and about 279 feet downwind (while at 12' vertical).  Yes, this is in on a residental street.  Right down the middle of the road.  

I randomly get pop'ups that say 'interference' but the signal is pretty steady.  Once I get to 279 feet away, the RC disconnects and it RTH.  When i get to 209 feet vertical, it loses RC, and returns.  I've disabled beginner mode, and there's no max currently set in the settings.  Remote is always facing the drone.  Am I doing something wrong, or do ya'll think that people's home wifi is causing the poor signal and disconnection?  I'm using the iphone 7 plus with it.  Any advice would be awesome.  Thanks, and I'm sorry if this is a dumb question.

If you are flying in an urban area, then yes, the Wifi in the area will be having an effect, along with the dozens of other devices that share the band. With the standard you will rarely get a decent range in the 'burbs.

Also make sure the RC's antenna is facing the drone, not pointing at it. In other words the side of the antenna is facing the drone, and don't fly right over your head. And dont' fly in your neighborhood, not a good place to fly for so many reasons.

WilliamM Posted at 2016-11-28 08:34
Also make sure the RC's antenna is facing the drone, not pointing at it. In other words the side of  ...

Thanks for this info.  I honestly didn't know that the antenna was directional (not literally pointing it at the uav).  I am just getting the hang of it and have a huge field behind my house.... So i've been trying it out there, and getting video of the Christmas lights down the middle of the street at dusk.  My neighbors are geeking out about it because they all wanted a video of the lights.  We live in one of 'those' neighborhoods where Christmas lights are insane.  Also, not to sound dumb, but why not fly it overhead?  Besides the obvious of it falling on you, if you keep line of sight, is it because the reception is that bad since you can't get as good signal?  Sorry for the dumb question probably, just super new to all this, and everything i've read, and research can't seem to nail down a general idea.

Hi, could you please clarify your current firmware version?
Please try to fly in anther open area to see if you get the same distance.
And please refer to the image to adjust the antenna.

hybrid33 Posted at 2016-11-28 13:20
Thanks for this info.  I honestly didn't know that the antenna was directional (not literally poin ...

When the aircraft is directly overhead, the antenna in the legs of the aircraft are in their worst position for good signal strength. While you can adjust the position of the antennas on the control unit, when you are directly overhead you are in the worst position for the aircraft.

hybrid33 Posted at 2016-11-27 21:20
Thanks for this info.  I honestly didn't know that the antenna was directional (not literally poin ...

It's not directional, it's omni-directional. But the antenna must be parallel to the legs of the drone as that's where the drones antenna are. As for not flying right overhead, that has to do with the antenna also. If you really need to then you should make the antenna parallel to the ground so it's sending more signal to the craft, but it's still not going to be parallel with the drone's legs. That's way you always want to be out in front of you, not right over your head.

DJI Mindy Posted at 2016-11-28 10:40
Hi, could you please clarify your current firmware version?
Please try to fly in anther open area to ...

Hi Mindy.  I don't know the actual firmware version, although, it did say it needed to be updated, so I updated it VIA iphone app... now that update warning is gone.  I have tried flying in an open field, and get more 'interference detected' than I did before.  I've repositioned the antenna on the handset to no success.  I'm not flying it overhead anymore either.  Just 50' vertical, and the rest downwind.  I got to 275' downwind before RC lost connection.  I did watch the screen though, and during the entire flight, I had 12 sat's, full rc signal to 250', and then it dropped to 2 bars of rc signal, and after another 25', it lost complete connection and returned.  I gotta be doing something wrong here.  I have recalibrated the compass, re-paired the rc with the drone, and still same results.  I was looking on youtube about something about IMU?  Should I do the IMU thing, or is that unrelated?

hybrid33 Posted at 2016-11-28 16:53
Hi Mindy.  I don't know the actual firmware version, although, it did say it needed to be updated, ...

I know your post was to Mindy, but I wanted to give you some input here. It sounds like your doing everything right now. Now I'm assuming you have your RC's antenna pointing vertical with the craft out in front of you. Sat count, compass or IMU calibrations should have no affect on your range one way or the other. If your only getting out 275 feet (83 meters) you have a big issue. To compare, back when my P3S was stock flying in the schools football field (with many homes nearby) I could get out to 500 to 700 meters, and out in the farm land (few homes with wifi) 1000 meters. My view is if your RC signal bars (not wifi) is dropping down at 250 feet and lost at 275 feet, your have a hardware issue. Like a bad module or a loose antenna wire. I'm pretty sure the 'interference detected' message is refering to the wifi band and not the RC control signal, but I'm not 100% on that. One thing I did to stop getting that message was to boot the Go app last, after powering up all the equipment first. But I don't think that's going to change your range issue.

hybrid33 Posted at 2016-11-29 05:53
Hi Mindy.  I don't know the actual firmware version, although, it did say it needed to be updated, ...

Please ensure you had tried to fly in another open field.
If still no improvement, I'd suggest you to send it in for further evaluation.

You can also try a reflector on the antenna. I added a thousand feet to the 1600 I already was getting.   There are a number of commercially made reflectors, but my homemade works as well.
Also, if you fly from the same spot try moving.  You may find a spot with less interference.

I get a average of 2600 feet distant, it requires max height,legally, of 400 feet.  I have gotten 7065 feet at the beach, but was never able to repeat that.
Beware I
Of range extenders, the argtek didn't work for me and actually reduced my range.

fans727218f7 Posted at 2016-11-29 16:55
You can also try a reflector on the antenna. I added a thousand feet to the 1600 I already was getti ...

Something you said was spot on, and I can't believe that I didn't try it first.  I was trying to get a huge distance at 40 ft.  I took it up to 350ft, and I was able to get to 1300ft before I chickened out and brought it back.  Maybe I was lacking the height to achieve the distance I was looking to get.  Thank you tons!

hybrid33 Posted at 2016-11-30 07:07
Something you said was spot on, and I can't believe that I didn't try it first.  I was trying to g ...

You welcome very much.  Now try the reflector and see what distance you get.