You know you see so many videos on YouTube amongst others, where pilots claim Miles of range and display the videos to prove it stating that it was an Inspire 1 with bone stock transmitter antenna and aircraft. Unfortunatelly I only have weekends and not all weekends free to fly, so finally I got to try some (somewhat) long range flying. My back yard is the Indian River in North Miami, which in this point is a very wide, maybe a mile or more, bay that is part of the intercoastal waterway. It's wide open with absolutelly no obstructions and at my back is the building where I live, wich I think might be helpful to block stray RF from the city (wishful thinking though I don't know how sound that theory is) To my chagrin at 100 ft altitude 1500 ft distance my video started to get erratic and suddenly totally dissapeared leaving me with green screen that intermittently allowed video to cut through. I stopped and hovered and signal was re established so I pressed on with constant freezing of the image until at about 2000 not only did the video signal cut out but together with the prompt of a weak signal the camera popped out of record I immediately proceeded to fly back and fortunatelly was able to bring the bird back home.

OK guys, what am I doing wrong? is this craft only capable of the same distance the Yuneec Q500 4K can? granted with the 4K I only lost video, RC was perfect and responded immeditely and camera never shut down. So in the long run it gave me better performance in that respect. Frankly I'm not sure I can trust the Inspire at this point to give me reliable range not to mention some additional video issues I've experienced since day one.

Antennas were parallel and angled to the detente with my holding the RC slightly angled upward, no In the panic and disappointment I didnt open the menu to see RF strength, which might have been the thing to do to change channels etc, but nontheless........

Can someone honestly tell me what range I can ACTUALLY expect from the Inspire 1 Pro with the X5 installed?

This is a brand new unit, so I assume if there is something wrong with the craft and/or RC I can have them checked by DJI, but in the meantime I will be very tentative with this bird.

BTW, how do I retreive telemetry and transmitted video feed? Does that
Can you DJI reps give me some insight please? I really love everything about this bird, but so many little things are adding up to a very big one and totally ruining the Drone experience for me.

I'm going to repeat myself from another post. There is nothing wrong with the claims DJI makes about range. The technology they are using on their aircraft is class leading. If you want I can go into details in another response. I have absolutely no doubt that put head to head on the same day, under the same conditions, the DJI equipment will outperform Yuneec for range.  *** To get max range make sure you are using the lowest transmission fidelity setting **

The very nature of radio transmission sets considerable variability in range and also, in many developed countries, the RF spectrum has multiple competing users. In the kind of area you are talking about, there are sometimes other transmitters that you don't know of that are causing interference.

I regularly get 3.5km with the set up you have on sunny days but when its misty or on some days, that drops to about 1.8km.

Get a parabolic reflector rig ($20). Its a low cost way of boosting range.

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2017-3-19 15:51
I'm going to repeat myself from another post. There is nothing wrong with the claims DJI makes about range. The technology they are using on their aircraft is class leading. If you want I can go into details in another response. I have absolutely no doubt that put head to head on the same day, under the same conditions, the DJI equipment will outperform Yuneec for range.  *** To get max range make sure you are using the lowest transmission fidelity setting **

The very nature of radio transmission sets considerable variability in range and also, in many developed countries, the RF spectrum has multiple competing users. In the kind of area you are talking about, there are sometimes other transmitters that you don't know of that are causing interference.

Mike, though it may have seemed so, I was not knocking DJIs claims but rather doubting those of social media postings where there are regular claims of long range flights without any range boosters. In fact one who regularly flies in my area. It has been cleared up to a point by everyone's friend Donnie, that the longest range claims are usually not on X5 equipped Aircraft, but rather the X3, and also referred me to another post that explains more in depth transmission issues etc. I will however say that considering the price difference between the "other" brand craft and the Inspire the "other" is not a bad value at all. That being said, my purchase of the Inspire is more about the camera than the range itself so as long as the camera delivers the performance I have seen to date I have no complains, however it is showing some nasty habits that I've seen from day one likely gimbal related but that is for another post in the X5 area and hopefully I can post with videos to demonstrate the object of my disappointment.

That is entirely opinion MTC - You are clearly a fan of DJI and feel the need to broadcast the fact at times like these.
The response doesn't do anything to answer the queries of the OP and just doesn't help at all.
If you're going to attempt to assist, leave the fanboi-ism aside and provide some pragmatic advice.

OP, I would suggest that if you're able to return to that location, check the signal levels / channel interference in the Go App (on the screen with channel selection - I'm not exactly sure which it will be on your tablet as I'm not flying an I2). Have a look at the noise levels - maybe there is something in the area that is not apparent but creating a problem.

I'd also try some other locations if you can (safely that is) to see if you experience the same rapid drop off of the data link.

Farnk666 Posted at 2017-3-19 16:21
That is entirely opinion MTC - You are clearly a fan of DJI and feel the need to broadcast the fact at times like these.
The response doesn't do anything to answer the queries of the OP and just doesn't help at all.
If you're going to attempt to assist, leave the fanboi-ism aside and provide some pragmatic advice.

Actually it's an I1 Farnk666

mixchief Posted at 2017-3-19 19:02
Actually it's an I1 Farnk666

Oh, no worries then.
Go to the channels selection screen (tap the HD icon) and look at the levels of interference being reported. Can you manually select a channel with the lowest noise level and try again?
The Inspire 1 is capable of more range than you are experiencing in good conditions.
The other thing you can try is to load the '32 channel hack' (google it), however that tends to work more for people in CE regulated regions.

mixchief Posted at 2017-3-19 16:20
Mike, though it may have seemed so, I was not knocking DJIs claims but rather doubting those of social media postings where there are regular claims of long range flights without any range boosters. In fact one who regularly flies in my area. It has been cleared up to a point by everyone's friend Donnie, that the longest range claims are usually not on X5 equipped Aircraft, but rather the X3, and also referred me to another post that explains more in depth transmission issues etc. I will however say that considering the price difference between the "other" brand craft and the Inspire the "other" is not a bad value at all. That being said, my purchase of the Inspire is more about the camera than the range itself so as long as the camera delivers the performance I have seen to date I have no complains, however it is showing some nasty habits that I've seen from day one likely gimbal related but that is for another post in the X5 area and hopefully I can post with videos to demonstrate the object of my disappointment.

What's the empirical data that an X3 equipped Inspire 1 has greater radio range than a X5 or X5-R equipped one.

The only logical reason for a drop in RF range was if there was faulty RF shielding on the camera's electronics.

RF shielding is key to getting FCC / EC clearance for any electronic product.

In my  n=2 experiment, I have not observed a difference in range when using the three different Inspire 1 cameras.

Farnk666 Posted at 2017-3-19 19:41
Oh, no worries then.
Go to the channels selection screen (tap the HD icon) and look at the levels of interference being reported. Can you manually select a channel with the lowest noise level and try again?
The Inspire 1 is capable of more range than you are experiencing in good conditions.

The OP lives in Miami.

Thats FCC territory and the transmission limit is 20dbm EIRP. So the only logical reason for him not to get the rated range is RF interference.

There was a series of posts arguing that the transmit power was far higher in some versions of transmitters compared to others; thread here:
https://forum.dji.com/thread-46345-1-1.html
However, that's died down.

With 32 channels, Channel 20 and 26 are good ones to use for some reason. These are on the ISM band. Tested in several countries now.

Yes Mike I am in the USA and regulated by the FCC, so if my transmission range is limited by FCC standards then all other USA residents and closer to home Miami's would have the same restrictions as I, yet there are YouTube posters IN MIAMI and in areas where I also have flown, that claim bone stock RC and AC that are actually traveling beyond a couple of miles doing live YouTube broadcasts with almost perfect resolution and just about no dropouts, that is what I was referring to in my original post why don't these people fess up and say they are modded and how, can't be the legality of it as the video itself is indeed displaying illegal activity as per the FCC line of sight rule.

It seems different countries regulatory bodies require different specifications for power so I think there are some out there with a higher transmitting power due to the local regulations

mixchief Posted at 2017-3-19 20:08
Yes Mike I am in the USA and regulated by the FCC, so if my transmission range is limited by FCC standards then all other USA residents and closer to home Miami's would have the same restrictions as I, yet there are YouTube posters IN MIAMI and in areas where I also have flown, that claim bone stock RC and AC that are actually traveling beyond a couple of miles doing live YouTube broadcasts with almost perfect resolution and just about no dropouts, that is what I was referring to in my original post why don't these people fess up and say they are modded and how, can't be the legality of it as the video itself is indeed displaying illegal activity as per the FCC line of sight rule.

Some of these folks use flat panel antennas, some add RF amps but I think the latter are relatively few. You'd have to carry extra gear and would look as if you were hunting or something rather than RC flying.

In Miami, I think I know who you are talking about - cruise ship chaser

Try the parabolic reflector - they are pretty good and cheap. Honestly though, unless you have eyes of an eagle, a mile is really far to track for these birds. So yes, most of such posters will be in violation of FCC rules to keep flight line-of-sight.

Monitoring channel interference with the Go App is helpful as well but honestly, there sometimes are those dog days when someone is blasting the airwaves with RF or atmospheric conditions just suck.

Fly safely and enjoy

Mike-the-cat Posted at 2017-3-20 07:12
Some of these folks use flat panel antennas, some add RF amps but I think the latter are relatively few. You'd have to carry extra gear and would look as if you were hunting or something rather than RC flying.

In Miami, I think I know who you are talking about - cruise ship chaser

Agreed, I think the parabolic might be the way to go, you are right a mile is pushing it a bit, but I am doing it in sparsely populated, unless you count the Dolphins and fish, area, that I really want to record I believe I can keep LOS here unless it's a very humid hazy day, which we won't get many of at this time of year. There are a couple of "Island parties I want to crash" photographically not literally.

Height above ground is magical for distance, especially when you have any earth clutter.  I have had problems losing video connection with my aircraft that miraculously reconnects when I gain altitude.  LOS, even on relatively close missions benefits with altitude.

Indian River in Grant area with Inspire 1 pro X5, range is considerably farther than what your achieving.
The others maybe right where condo  WiFi could be interfering.

mixchief Posted at 2017-3-19 19:02
Actually it's an I1 Farnk666

Oops, sorry....

Dixon603 Posted at 2017-3-26 08:08
Height above ground is magical for distance, especially when you have any earth clutter.  I have had problems losing video connection with my aircraft that miraculously reconnects when I gain altitude.  LOS, even on relatively close missions benefits with altitude.

This is a very helpful tip. Thanks.