Dedicated P4P Range and Distance discussion

[AnchorageAk]

I have no idea what you are talking about. I EASILY fly my P4Pro at over 4 miles out. And I'm in a major, major urban area with tons of interference. The range is insane. Perfect feed and only limited by battery.
The addition of the 5.8Ghz makes this easily, easily possible. I get infinitely better range than any of my DBS modded P4s. No need for antenna mods on this. The range is basically one of the biggest upgrades with this drone.

If you are getting shitty range, then you have a lemon and need a replacement.

I wished I had your P4P. My Mavic does much better. I got where I fly it most of the time. I keep it on the dash of the car. I am very glad I found this discussion.

 

[PaulSouthport]

I did a couple of tests of my new P4P today.
UK CE mode in a RF quiet area (at least, it should be, the 2.4 graph showed quite a lot of activity).
5.8 was solid(ish) but quite directional - good out to 1600m, where it started to get a bit a low. New bird, so headed home like a chicken.
2.4 was solid out to 2300m, then a little up and down, again, came home because I should, not because I had to.

So far, impressed. Similar performance to my P3A, but the camera - wow - that's a work of art!

 

[GadgetGuy]

I wished I had your P4P. My Mavic does much better. I got where I fly it most of the time. I keep it on the dash of the car. I am very glad I found this discussion.

All the P4P's perform the same way on Auto 5.8Ghz. I've tried 10. Up to 5 miles away, if you add a windsurfer and clear LOS, and start at 250' above the area you wish to fly over. YMMV.

 

[AnchorageAk]

All the P4P's perform the same way on Auto 5.8Ghz. I've tried 10. Up to 5 miles away, if you add a windsurfer and clear LOS, and start at 250' above the area you wish to fly over. YMMV.

So the wind surfers do work on 5.8, do they work of the other frequency? I can't wait to try this out. I like the P4P, it is a tough drone. It seems to take a fair amount of abuse. Thanks for the info.

 

[GadgetGuy]

So the wind surfers do work on 5.8, do they work of the other frequency? I can't wait to try this out. I like the P4P, it is a tough drone. It seems to take a fair amount of abuse. Thanks for the info.

Windsurfers are frequency independent, as all they do is focus the omnidirectional signal into a directional signal, facing forward. They work on both 2.4Ghz and 5.8Ghz.

 

[Onemanshow]

Hi guys .
Went out flying out , ( no straight , No VLOS, but clear enough ) , Did 26000ft ( One way) then turn around and on the return trip , too much powerful front wind , battery dropped and at around 17% the AC wanted to land itself , no control over , i had the camera down from 28% and was starting to anticipate an emergency safe landing area .
Pushed the bird behind a tree , i guess he dropped/ crashed ( i was about 4 miles away) .
Got in the car and after a few minutes i found it , it was very foolish to increase the range and bypassing my limits ( i should have grown 1000ft/per flight)
Bird is way better , smoother with the old FW . No damages , full flight on another battery after the crash / recovery.

The trip :
24800ft /58% Batt ... i kept going ( stupid me )



26000ft / 58% Batt , i started turn around



Bird started to land here , I pushed the stick to have it land behind the Tree , not too far from the road


Then ...disconnected and vanished from all radars .....


Got in the car , used the nav to get to the city name /area and used the map to find the tree .
On Long range flights , i always monitor areas i am above in case something happen and i need to get there , great exercise .


Tree from the Sat imagery

Actual tree ( cell pic)


Where the bird crashed

 

[FlashBuddy]

Thanks, great story.

 

[Onemanshow]

Thanks, great story.

This is the sat pic who helped me too ( missing from a line above )

 

[GadgetGuy]

Autoland can be changed to 10% under the battery Critical Battery settings so you don't have to fight it prematurely (highly recommended!). However, you can still control all aspects of flight during the Autoland, to navigate back to your home point, including ascent! Just give full up left stick to ascend, or roughly 75% up throttle to just stop the descent, and maintain altitude. Otherwise, with no left throttle, it starts descending! OA is disabled during Autoland, so do not apply full forward throttle, which will then be 35+ mph. Instead, maintain a steady 30mph, as though OA were still on, to get the maximum flight time out of the last 10% of remaining battery. Handcatch as soon as you can reach up and grab a skid! Good luck!

 

[fiberdude]

More data from a remote location with little rf interference and very flat topography.

P4P on 5.8 GHz at 150 feet AGL made it 18309 feet with loss of signal and aircraft disconnected with failsafe RTH initiated. Lots of glitching during the last 3000 feet. Landed with 40% battery remaining. Outbound velocity was approximately 29 mph with a duration of 17:17.

P4P on 2.4 GHz at 150 feet AGL made it 19711 feet with loss of signal and aircraft disconnected with failsafe RTH initiated. Lots of glitching during the last 5000 feet, with some glitching at much less range. Landed with 27% battery remaining. Outbound velocity was approximately 29 mph with a duration of 18:25.

Mavic at 150 feet AGL made it 18603 feet with almost no glitching and good video. Smart RTH tried to make me turn around at about 17000 feet but I pressed on until I felt I had to turn around to make it back home. However, I landed with 25% battery, so, I could have easily gone a little farther. Outbound velocity was approximately 20 mph with a duration of 17:33.

Overall, it seems that the Mavic has a more robust video system than the P4P.

Must be an error somewhere: P4P outgoing speed 29 mph with a flight time of 17:17, while Mavic outgoing speed 20 mph with a flight time of 17:33 ?

Care to explain ?

RTH speeds are the same for the two at about 35 km/hr.