Lag & transimission issues - better cable

[SouthernPhantom]

I have a Phantom 3 with a Samsung S5 phone. Happened to notice that the car charger was becoming intermittent with its small USB connection. But the Samsung cable that came with the phone (with its special wide USB connection) was fine.

And I was getting lots of lag and interruptions between the RC and the drone using DJI's cable (small USB connector).

So, I tried the native Samsung cable, and it worked great. As a result, I bought a couple of new Belkin S5 cables (with higher data rate) at Office Depot. They have the special wide Samsung S5 USB connections.

No more transmission dropouts flying the Phantom!!

Bottom line, it seems that the concept of using an Android or Apple phone/tablet with lots of applications and communications running in the background, variable operating systems, and flaky cables and connections, is the weakest link in the system -- as many users have surmised. Simply improving the cable connection made a world of difference for me!

So why not have a dedicated monitor and software that comes with the drone?

 

[Chuck Young]

So Samsung has a MHL connector versus the standard micro-usb, a lot more connections in the MHL (5 vs. 11) and the dimensions are a little different. If you have had any problems with your connections an MHL cable will probably help a lot.

 

[SouthernPhantom]

Samsung's native S5 cable end is more specialized. Here's a picture of a standard car-charger cable and the Samsung cable that came with the phone. Both fit into the same port on the S5 phone and will charge the phone, and connect (at the other end) to the Phantom's RC. But the wide Samsung style (and the Belkin cables that match it), seem to provide a better, more secure connection -- and I believe they have higher data rates. For whatever reasons, I now get much better performance with the P3. I'll keep testing and report back. If my theory is right, the tiny connection degrades (and widens) over time, causing flaky data transmission -- in addition to everything else that might interfere with a multi-purpose mobile device performing such an intense dedicated function.

 

[Chuck Young]

Samsung's native S5 cable end is more specialized. Here's a picture of a standard car-charger cable and the Samsung cable that came with the phone. Both fit into the same port on the S5 phone and will charge the phone, and connect (at the other end) to the Phantom's RC. But the wide Samsung style (and the Belkin cables that match it), seem to provide a better, more secure connection -- and I believe they have higher data rates. For whatever reasons, I now get much better performance with the P3. I'll keep testing and report back. If my theory is right, the tiny connection degrades (and widens) over time, causing flaky data transmission -- in addition to everything else that might interfere with a multi-purpose mobile device performing such an intense dedicated function.
View attachment 23547

Ic, I have the Note 4 and it uses the MHL, some people have had problems with that type. The connector you are showing is the USB 3.0 micro B plug, same as used on the Note 3. Apparently it presents a problem too.

 

[cnynctry]

The larger S5 plug carries data. The small one that plugs into one side of the phones connector is for charging only.