failsafe after 180M?

[chrisono]

I was flying today and went up to 180m high (almost right above me) and failsafe kicked in. is that normal to lose controll if its almost right above you and that high?

 

[Sanababit]

I was flying today and went up to 180m high (almost right above me) and failsafe kicked in. is that normal to lose controll if its almost right above you and that high?

Well, yes if the batteries ran out on controller transmiter, if transmiter signal was lost for more that 4 seconds, if you accidentaly switched from gps to failsafe on side switches of controller tx

Sana

 

[chrisono]

Thanks, all looks good the batteries are not new but the controller light is steady red and i was in gps mode the whole time (exept when i switched to atti when i noticed the decent rate was 6m/s)

guess i will switch out the batteries and try again

 

[N017RW]

Yea.

In addition to those possibilities, and in the strictest interpretation of your situation, when flying directly above you, your antennas' relative positions are least effective.

 

[chrisono]

Yea.

In addition to those possibilities, and in the strictest interpretation of your situation, when flying directly above you, your antennas' relative positions are least effective.

ohhh, well i did not know that; that makes sense thanks

 

[chrisono]

Ok well tested again today with fresh batteries and flew out 70m before ascending and got to 200m before failsafe kicked in. This was all done in a completely open area so not sure what could be causing the distance limitations

would there be any benefit moving one of the antennas from the leg to one of the arms? like in the pic below.

this is my first RC anything so i have no clue when it comes to radios and reception.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Moving one antenna to the arm may help with your reception if that is truly the issue at hand here. Futaba recommends that the ends of the two antennas on the receivers stay 90 degrees from each other, so running one out horizontally along the arm while letting the other antenna dangle straight down would be the optimal configuration.

U.M.

 

[tom3holer]

I definitely sounds like you have a problem.
Be sure to keep the controller antenna mostly vertical so as to match the Rx antenna on the P2.
You should easily get 1500m in open spaces.

Tom

 

[chrisono]

ok thanks, i will give this a go and see how it works, thanks.

 

[N017RW]

Ok well tested again today with fresh batteries and flew out 70m before ascending and got to 200m before failsafe kicked in. This was all done in a completely open area so not sure what could be causing the distance limitations

would there be any benefit moving one of the antennas from the leg to one of the arms? like in the pic below.

this is my first RC anything so i have no clue when it comes to radios and reception.

That would not be advisable in this specific situation.

Firstly, the optimal [stock or OEM] Tx-Rx antenna orientation, with respect to each other, is parallel or in this case vertical.
(Edit: this is illustrated on page 14 of the P2 manual)

The Phantom is not expected to fly more than 35 degrees off horizontal. Thus both antennas are mounted vertically on opposite sides to increase spatial diversity (mostly to to overcome or minimize multipath distortion) and maintain maximum exposure to vertically polarized signals (as tom3holer mentioned).

Secondly you are now placing the antenna next to an ESC which is a known source of EMI.

Uncle Meat (I'm also a Zappa fan BTW) is correct in citing the FUTABA recommendation but that is aimed at aircraft which are constantly changing their orientation and thus this 90 deg. offset improves the chances that one of the antennas is parallel to the Txs polarization pattern.

 

[chrisono]

hmm, ok well i guess its back to square 1 then

 

[Uncle Remus]

Who's NOT a Zappa fan?

 

[N017RW]

Who's NOT a Zappa fan?

My Wife