How is it that the drone signals can go for miles while my wifi cant even get to my next room?

[nomnomnom]

What kind of technology is the phantom controller using that allows it to go for miles? I've even had it worked behind obstruction (I know I'm not supposed to) say behind trees, or even sometimes buildings.

Meanwhile, my wifi gets weak and sometimes unusable two rooms down the hall?

 

[tml4191]

Wifi signals from homes can affect the signal on your drone. That's all I remember from some old dji phantom YouTube videos.

 

[nomnomnom]

Sorry I wasn't being clear. My p4p is flying just fine. I'm just wondering how is it that DJI can get these things communicating from so far through so many objects. Meanwhile most home wifi have a hard time just reaching upstairs of a house.

 

[pomonabill220]

In house wifi has to go through walls and floors/ceilings, where wifi out doors is clear line of sight with very few obstructions.
Walls, whether sheet rock or lathe and plaster, COULD have metal reinforcement in them as well which would further attenuate wifi signals.
Wifi is very "picky" and easily affected.
(originally when I read the title of this thread, I was reading "wife", NOT wifi... LOL)

 

[nomnomnom]

In house wifi has to go through walls and floors/ceilings, where wifi out doors is clear line of sight with very few obstructions.
Walls, whether sheet rock or lathe and plaster, COULD have metal reinforcement in them as well which would further attenuate wifi signals.
Wifi is very "picky" and easily affected.
(originally when I read the title of this thread, I was reading "wife", NOT wifi... LOL)

LOL!

 

[Deleted member 62848]

Sorry I wasn't being clear. My p4p is flying just fine. I'm just wondering how is it that DJI can get these things communicating from so far through so many objects. Meanwhile most home wifi have a hard time just reaching upstairs of a house.

Phatom has wifi extender built into remote which talks to drone and app,,sure that right,,thats how you can be nowhere and fly with screen view,,,,,(creates its own wifi) ???

 

[UpLift Aerial]

The drone and controller don't connect using wifi the app and controller do.

 

[sswingle]

The drone and controller don't connect using wifi the app and controller do.

Yes but they are both a 2.4 Ghz radio signal. Just different information being transmitted.

I have often wondered this myself.

 

[nomnomnom]

The drone and controller don't connect using wifi the app and controller do.

they do connect using 2.4ghz radio, which is what my router has.

 

[Deleted member 62848]

 

[nomnomnom]

View attachment 87887

sorry what I am looking at here? The wifi extender? You can get wifi extender for home wifi too but you sure don't internet at your friends house down the block

 

[BigAl07]

The P3S using "standard" WiFi while later models use Lightbridge and Lightbridge2.

DJI Lightbridge - revolutionary 2.4G Full HD digital video downlink

DJI Lightbridge 2 – Professional Quality Live Streaming From the Sky

 

[nomnomnom]

The P3S using "standard" WiFi while later models use Lightbridge and Lightbridge2.

DJI Lightbridge - revolutionary 2.4G Full HD digital video downlink

DJI Lightbridge 2 – Professional Quality Live Streaming From the Sky

Yes lightbridge is very cool. But what kind of magic is this? Where can I read how this magic works?

 

[BigAl07]

Yes lightbridge is very cool. But what kind of magic is this? Where can I read how this magic works?

I honestly have never looked into it from a technical side. It just works and works GREAT IMHO. Here's their WIKI about it:

DJI Lightbridge - DJI Wiki

 

[Deleted member 62848]

sorry what I am looking at here? The wifi extender? You can get wifi extender for home wifi too but you sure don't internet at your friends house down the block

This was just a pic showing how drone wifi work,

 

[Jiggly-Wiggly]

I think it's a fairly complex set of factors, and I'm not really qualified to know all of them. My P3P controller is rated at 20 dBm output which is 100 mW whereas most powerful WiFi routers are rated at around 500 mW output. So you would think WiFi devices would be able to link to a router at further distances than a P3P to it's controller, but we all know this doesnt happen! Like others have said, walls can greatly reduce the WiFi signal strength which is why they are designed to have high power output to begin with. Also, WiFi works on a "positive acknowledgment" protocol where every packet sent to a client device has to have verification sent back to the router, whereas Lightbridge likely doesnt need this protocol? Also, antenna gain and direction are designed differently between WiFi routers and Phantom equipment --- WiFi routers have antennas that best produce a 360-degree signal for maximum coverage in a house to multiple devices whereas a Phantom controller just needs to worry about connecting to one tiny dot in the sky.

 

[Phrillseeker]

It would seem to me that two things happen which make the Phantom signal travel further
- the signals between drone and controller are a lot stronger (the drone is a lot heavier than your average wifi router)
- the signals are far less complex and carry less data (you have no spam email for instance...)
Pithagoras said that: wifi signal strength X data transmitted is inversely proportional to distance covered ( d = 1 / wS x Ts)

My Apple Airport Extreme router recently died and as my P4 sits on top of the cupboard next to it, I plugged my internet cable into my drone and am now using that as a wifi router. The signal is so strong that I am able to provide wifi for all the other homes in my town.

So it must be a stronger signal....

 

[nomnomnom]

It would seem to me that two things happen which make the Phantom signal travel further
- the signals between drone and controller are a lot stronger (the drone is a lot heavier than your average wifi router)
- the signals are far less complex and carry less data (you have no spam email for instance...)
Pithagoras said that: wifi signal strength X data transmitted is inversely proportional to distance covered ( d = 1 / wS x Ts)

My Apple Airport Extreme router recently died and as my P4 sits on top of the cupboard next to it, I plugged my internet cable into my drone and am now using that as a wifi router. The signal is so strong that I am able to provide wifi for all the other homes in my town.

So it must be a stronger signal....

I cant tell if thats suppose to be a joke?

 

[With The Birds]

Yes lightbridge is very cool. But what kind of magic is this? Where can I read how this magic works?

Google wifibroadcast. Wifi broadcast is part of the wifi feature set. Packets are constantky transmitted without any need for ack and will be processed as bast as possible even if data is corrupt/missing. You can get 2km+!video transmission over standard wifi with the same or less latency as lightbridge. That’s probably what DJI calls lightbridge. DJI runs DD-WRT on the standard so no reason to think they wouldn’t build on an existing off the shelf protocol rather than starting from scratch.

 

[Phrillseeker]

Of course I am serious...