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Hkdman
lvl.1

United States
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A couple of quick questions.  First off - I am definitely getting more confident in my flying!  I am trying to extend my flight distance a little more each day.  Using the Litchi App, I have 2 quick newbie questions:

1) I fly a P3 Standard.  After anywhere from 800 - 1300 feet away at a height of 300 feet - I will lose connection.  I get a red "DISCONNECTED" indicator on my Litchi app.  I seem to lose both video and the tracking on the app.  I am flying in heavy residential, but the buildings are all houses that are typical suburban (10-15 feet high strucutres).  I have ordered one of those cylander range extenders, but is this range about what I should expect?
2)  Also - I have seen some coflicting information.  I have read that when I lose connection, the mission will continue to run until the very end (I just won't see it on the map or video).  However, I thought I read on the Litchi instructions that for the P3 Standard, when you lose connection, the drone will just hover in place at whereever you lose connection.  I must admit, I get a little nervous when I cannot track on either the map or through video so I usually freak out and hit the RTH - but if I leave it alone, will it run the mission on the P3 Standard?  I always have the last waypoint set to be really close to the first waypoint as a precaution - so I would feel comfortable if it ran the mission but I just wanted to get confirmation since like I said it is kind of freaky when you don't see anything.  

Last question (I promise) - I downloaded the new DJI app that does the waypoints - any thoughts on the pro / con of this app versus Litchi?

Thanks!
2017-1-5
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BillW50
lvl.4

United States
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Litchi will continue on the mission whether it is in radio range or not with the P3S. I fly out miles at a time and it is out of radio range about 90% of the mission. Hitting RTH only works if you still are in radio range. Out of radio range the Phantom will just do what it is told to do. So doing anything in the App or with the controller won't do anything until it comes back within radio range. Yes in a heavy residential area, that is probably about typical range.
2017-1-5
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Hkdman
lvl.1

United States
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BillW50 Posted at 2017-1-5 18:09
Litchi will continue on the mission whether it is in radio range or not with the P3S. I fly out miles at a time and it is out of radio range about 90% of the mission. Hitting RTH only works if you still are in radio range. Out of radio range the Phantom will just do what it is told to do. So doing anything in the App or with the controller won't do anything until it comes back within radio range. Yes in a heavy residential area, that is probably about typical range.

When I get the disconnected message - if I do the down up / down up action on S2 - it triggers the RTH and returns to me...any idea why this would still work?  Per your note - it sounds like it should not be able to do RTH
2017-1-5
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Hkdman
lvl.1

United States
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BillW50 Posted at 2017-1-5 18:09
Litchi will continue on the mission whether it is in radio range or not with the P3S. I fly out miles at a time and it is out of radio range about 90% of the mission. Hitting RTH only works if you still are in radio range. Out of radio range the Phantom will just do what it is told to do. So doing anything in the App or with the controller won't do anything until it comes back within radio range. Yes in a heavy residential area, that is probably about typical range.

What is interesting to me is that even when I have the Disconnected message - I can do the up/down RTH method on S2 - and the bird comes back...any idea why?  Like I said - the video feed is frozen and it does not seem to track on the map in the ap.
2017-1-5
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Steve-76
Second Officer
Flight distance : 175495 ft
United States
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Yes I recently found this out on every other flight I would lose control signal first and it would rth then come back to liking signal and I can gain control again.

I updated to 179 went to my usual spot. Out in the mountains this time one third of the distance I lost the video got the disconnect in the red light I started to panic a little bit cuz I love my Phantom and it's been the best most reliable drone I've ever had anyway I turned on and off the controller again then I heard it beeping going into return to home.

After reading things on the form in figuring some stuff out I'm looking at it as the red light is the downlink from the Drone the video and telemetry not the uplink to the Drone with control at that point you can flick your switches and have return to home.

I have a DBS mod and I've maxed out at 3600 feet
2017-1-5
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BillW50
lvl.4

United States
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Hkdman Posted at 2017-1-5 19:05
When I get the disconnected message - if I do the down up / down up action on S2 - it triggers the RTH and returns to me...any idea why this would still work?  Per your note - it sounds like it should not be able to do RTH

Yeah if you get a disconnect message and then perform a RTH with S2 and it comes home, it means the Phantom heard your controller. When you get the disconnect message, it can be close enough to hear from the controller part of the time. It is like listening to a far distant radio station that is fading in and out.
2017-1-6
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Hkdman
lvl.1

United States
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Steve-76 Posted at 2017-1-5 22:00
Yes I recently found this out on every other flight I would lose control signal first and it would rth then come back to liking signal and I can gain control again.

I updated to 179 went to my usual spot. Out in the mountains this time one third of the distance I lost the video got the disconnect in the red light I started to panic a little bit cuz I love my Phantom and it's been the best most reliable drone I've ever had anyway I turned on and off the controller again then I heard it beeping going into return to home.

Thanks for the info.  Just out of curiosity...what is a DBS mod?  The range extender that I ordered is one of those that you put on the antenna and it looks like a semi circle thing.
2017-1-6
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BillW50
lvl.4

United States
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Hkdman Posted at 2017-1-6 08:20
Thanks for the info.  Just out of curiosity...what is a DBS mod?  The range extender that I ordered is one of those that you put on the antenna and it looks like a semi circle thing.

http://dbsmods.com/phantom-3-standard-solution/
2017-1-6
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WilliamM
First Officer
Flight distance : 904364 ft
United States
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BillW50 Posted at 2017-1-6 02:50
Yeah if you get a disconnect message and then perform a RTH with S2 and it comes home, it means the Phantom heard your controller. When you get the disconnect message, it can be close enough to hear from the controller part of the time. It is like listening to a far distant radio station that is fading in and out.

I think you stated that very well, I agree with your thoughts here. I think that beeping is the RC telling the drone "come home", it only needs to hear it once.
2017-1-6
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WilliamM
First Officer
Flight distance : 904364 ft
United States
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Steve-76 Posted at 2017-1-5 22:00
Yes I recently found this out on every other flight I would lose control signal first and it would rth then come back to liking signal and I can gain control again.

I updated to 179 went to my usual spot. Out in the mountains this time one third of the distance I lost the video got the disconnect in the red light I started to panic a little bit cuz I love my Phantom and it's been the best most reliable drone I've ever had anyway I turned on and off the controller again then I heard it beeping going into return to home.

I agree with this statement "I'm looking at it as the red light is the downlink from the Drone the video and telemetry not the uplink to the Drone with control" But with a very same twist, when the "telemetry" is lost you get a red LED (RC disconnect), not the video. Their both on 2.4 GHZ wifi, but still two different signals. To back up what you said, how else would the RC know the control signal is not going through, but via the telemetry telling it, or the lost of telemetry. Back when my setup was stock I'd always have a RTH (red LED) right after having the "Image/telemetry" lost message. So once the telemetry goes down, there's no data to confirm a RC connection. IMO
2017-1-6
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