Flew my stock P4 3.66 miles!

Lake Mead is pretty remote, unlikely you'll have much wifi at Callville this time of year. Did you check the traffic on the 8 channels before you flew? Was there any wifi traffic at all out there?

There is little to no wifi interference. There are a few people with mobile hotspots but in auto most of the channels were clear.

Try auto mode and report back. ;)
 
Oops, not sure how I missed that 30% battery capacity, must be blind :oops:
But I still can't see anywhere about how much throttle and how fast he was flying?

Looks like I was running 85 to 88% throttle at 36 mph.
 

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My point exactly. Say you take off in manual mode on channel 32 because it has low interference, as soon as you fly 5k away there could be major congestion on channel 32. Manual mode you're stuck on that channel.

In auto mode say you take off on channel 8 and fly 5k away and the channel gets congested the app will switch to a better channel that is less congested.

A lot of people are confused by the 32 channel hack, manual mode, and auto mode. I've always argued the 32 channel hack is pointless if you can't automatically change channels. Auto mode scanning and selecting 8 channels automatically as you fly will always be superior to manual mode or 32 channel hack?

There are possibly some pros and cons to both approaches. If the 8 auto channels were, hypothetically speaking, all to be in somewhat heavy use in a particular locale but some of the other available 32 channels were to be mostly free, then a manual selection might work better. But that sounds like a rather contrived situation. Unfortunately, without a spectrum analyser on the Phantom, it is going to be hard to get documented evidence whether this is a significant scenario.

Obviously auto mode across all 32 channels would be best - I assume that there is a good reason why that has not been implemented. For most use cases I would guess that auto across 8 is the best option, but if anyone can demonstrate differently I'd be interested in the data.
 
Dude, KMan, Your a total fiend. Have you calibrated your batteries or flyin with the s?

Nice job
Completely calm conditions this morning. Max distance was 19,335.7 feet at ~175 feet. 3.66 miles!!! Is that a world record for stock P4? Total flight distance was 38,839.1 feet with a total flight time of 14 minutes 41 seconds. Landed with 30% battery.

Controller signal was full scale and HD downlink was -1 bar when I turned around. I believe I could have pushed it farther but didn't want to risk having to land in the water.

Completely stock P4 and controller running auto channel mode. Any questions? Just ask! Photo of me was after I completed the flight. :)
Dude, KMan, Your a total fiend. Have you calibrated your batteries or flyin with the DJI app?
Reminds me of Lake Powell.
Nice job
 
Dude, KMan, Your a total fiend. Have you calibrated your batteries or flyin with the s?

Nice job

Dude, KMan, Your a total fiend. Have you calibrated your batteries or flyin with the DJI app?
Reminds me of Lake Powell.
Nice job

The first few flights I ran the batteries down to 40 to 50% and then charged.
 
There are possibly some pros and cons to both approaches. If the 8 auto channels were, hypothetically speaking, all to be in somewhat heavy use in a particular locale but some of the other available 32 channels were to be mostly free, then a manual selection might work better. But that sounds like a rather contrived situation. Unfortunately, without a spectrum analyser on the Phantom, it is going to be hard to get documented evidence whether this is a significant scenario.

Obviously auto mode across all 32 channels would be best - I assume that there is a good reason why that has not been implemented. For most use cases I would guess that auto across 8 is the best option, but if anyone can demonstrate differently I'd be interested in the data.

I know people on here are dead set on manual mode and don't want to try auto. I don't get why not. You literally can switch between manual and auto while you're flying.

I used to fly in manual until I found out auto jumps channels as needed. I'm happy with my 3.66 mile flight today.
 
I'm happy to report I went 15,000' today with windsurfer at the exact same place I only got 6500' with windsurfer a couple days ago. Total distance of 32000' with about 38% left at landing (I started with 95%). One change was made, possibly 2. Last night I updated the RC firmware from 1.57 (loaded a week ago) to 1.58 which apparently came out sometime in the last week. I'm not sure what that update was for, does anyone know? However, the big question is the bitrate. When I updated to 1.58 I noticed the bit rate in the Go app was set to 10mps, even though I previously set it last Thursday to 4mbps. I didn't think an RC update would change the app settings. If it does, it's possible the 10mbps reset happened also last Thursday, since I updated my app first, then my RC, then the bird. I may have been flying the whole time at 10mbps, I'm unsure. I do know that when I first got the app update last Thursday, I set everything to match my P3P settings, and I know I set the bit rate to 4mbps, however afterwards I updated the RC firmware and the bird firmware, plus IMU and compass calibrations. I didn't go back and recheck the settings. All this time I'm thinking now I was using 10mbps, so no wonder I was only getting a mile with windsurfer. I finally got the sensor calibration to work last night too with the new Digital assistant release. I think that fixed the vertical hover drift, it didn't seem to do that anymore with today's flights.

I finally feel good about my P4. :D:D:D:D:D:D
 
I'm happy to report I went 15,000' today with windsurfer at the exact same place I only got 6500' with windsurfer a couple days ago. Total distance of 32000' with about 38% left at landing (I started with 95%). One change was made, possibly 2. Last night I updated the RC firmware from 1.57 (loaded a week ago) to 1.58 which apparently came out sometime in the last week. I'm not sure what that update was for, does anyone know? However, the big question is the bitrate. When I updated to 1.58 I noticed the bit rate in the Go app was set to 10mps, even though I previously set it last Thursday to 4mbps. I didn't think an RC update would change the app settings. If it does, it's possible the 10mbps reset happened also last Thursday, since I updated my app first, then my RC, then the bird. I may have been flying the whole time at 10mbps, I'm unsure. I do know that when I first got the app update last Thursday, I set everything to match my P3P settings, and I know I set the bit rate to 4mbps, however afterwards I updated the RC firmware and the bird firmware, plus IMU and compass calibrations. I didn't go back and recheck the settings. All this time I'm thinking now I was using 10mbps, so no wonder I was only getting a mile with windsurfer. I finally got the sensor calibration to work last night too with the new Digital assistant release. I think that fixed the vertical hover drift, it didn't seem to do that anymore with today's flights.

I finally feel good about my P4. :D:D:D:D:D:D

Did you try auto yet?
 
Ok now that is what I wanted to hear OP.. Now I feel good about buying a P4.. I was on the fence before because of all the posts about the poor range. I do mostly distance flying with my stock P3p (windsurfers only) I've gone 3.1 miles out with full signal and video (ran out of room) and 8.1 miles total flight distance. I wasn't going to go for the P4 if it couldn't at least equal those numbers.. So your post is really encouraging. However it seems battery time might still be an issue. I see some guys are getting comparable distances but in about 15 minutes.. So the P4 is really fast (in sport mode) and can cover distance quickly, but still is maybe limited on batt time.. Nevertheless I will be buying a P4 and keeping my P3p. Now the only question is what to do with my P3s.. I bought it at $500 less than a month ago, have only 10 flights on it, in perfect condition. The best distance I got with it using a windsurfer was 7,000 ft out before losing signal and video completely.. I was thinking of selling it but now I hear that they are going for $300 brand new? Oh well..
 
We're in the app can you change the bit rate?

Click the drone icon next to the home icon in the upper left. Click the HD tab. Select manual. Adjust the bitrate.

Again, I fly in auto. This allows multiple channels to be used and the bitrate change automatically. No idea why people are flying in manual. Makes no sense.
 
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Ok now that is what I wanted to hear OP.. Now I feel good about buying a P4.. I was on the fence before because of all the posts about the poor range. I do mostly distance flying with my stock P3p (windsurfers only) I've gone 3.1 miles out with full signal and video (ran out of room) and 8.1 miles total flight distance. I wasn't going to go for the P4 if it couldn't at least equal those numbers.. So your post is really encouraging. However it seems battery time might still be an issue. I see some guys are getting comparable distances but in about 15 minutes.. So the P4 is really fast (in sport mode) and can cover distance quickly, but still is maybe limited on batt time.. Nevertheless I will be buying a P4 and keeping my P3p. Now the only question is what to do with my P3s.. I bought it at $500 less than a month ago, have only 10 flights on it and it's in perfect condition. I was thinking of selling but now I hear that they are going for $300 brand new? Oh well guess I'll just keep it..

Glad you found my post helpful. I explained how I went 3.66 miles using auto channel selection but people getting terrible distance using manual channel mode still refuse to try auto mode.

No idea why.
 
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Did you try auto yet?
No didn't have to, my normal ch20 was super quiet, like usual, and I got 15000'. I didn't want to change to auto yet. My logic is you were in an area with virtually zero wifi anyway, so being on auto isn't what helped you. Having no wifi in the area is what helped. I will try auto another day, but my past experience is manually choosing the most quiet channel works best. That's why the majority of this forum flies manual, not to mention the hack to get 32 channels, flying on frequencies that most others don't use, super quiet.
 
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No didn't have to, my normal ch20 was super quiet, like usual, and I got 15000'. I didn't want to change to auto yet. My logic is you were in an area with virtually zero wifi anyway, so being on auto isn't what helped you. Having no wifi in the area is what helped. I will try auto another day, but my past experience is manually choosing the most quiet channel works best. That's why the majority of this forum flies manual, not to mention the hack to get 32 channels, flying on frequencies that most others don't use, super quiet.

I guess we agree to disagree. I normally fly in SF where there is a lot of interference. Flying in auto gives me a lot more distance.

The app will auto jump from 1 to 8 channels as channels get busy unlike flying on one channel in manual mode.

Like I said, you can take off in manual on a clear channel but that channel is only clear where you currently are. If the drone is at a distance, that clear channel could now be busy in the location the drone is at. That's why I always fly in auto, it's actively scanning and adjusting for the best channel. You're flying on 8 chnannels instead of 1.

It takes one click to change from manual to auto. Give it a try. A lot of people may fly in manual mode on here but it doesn't mean they are right.
 

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