Lightbridge vs WIFI for control

[Joe Glenn]

John,

Thank you for an incredible explanation! This is a question I've had for the last two years.

 

[Mark The Droner]

... There is no handshaking in this protocol,....

Then why are my hands always shaking?

 

[Tim Dawes]

If you have a new P3P with a GL300C RC, that could be your issue. Your P3A may have the GL300A or B, which could have more transmit power. If you have your P3A still, try linking that RC with the P3P craft and see if that makes a difference. In general, if you have the P3P set to 4mbps with a GL300A or B controller, it will have the same range as your P3A.

I went through similar disappointment when I bought a P4 last year, it was very frustrating.

I did some testing last year and found the GL300C controller to be WEAKER than GL300A and Inspire GL658A. This is exactly why I retired my GL300C and fly my P4 exclusively with a GL658A controller, because it demonstrated more transmit power to control the craft at greater range. I was very unhappy with my P4/GL300C having less than 1mil range, when my P3P easily has over 2mi range in the same test location. I knew there was a reason, and I found it to be the GL300C is anemic for transmit power, 50% less than Inspire GL658A. With GL658A my P4 easily goes 3mi in my normal test area in the hills, 3X what the GL300C could do.

The fact you live in Europe is another issue, even weaker transmit power. I feel sorry for you guys on the other side of the pond, that's really sad. You could use an external amplifier to boost your signal, but that requires another battery you need to charge, not to mention the added bulk and weight to the RC.

How does one know what type of controller you have?

 

[With The Birds]

John,

Thank you for an incredible explanation! This is a question I've had for the last two years.

If you are interested google “wifibroadcast”, it is likely lightbridge is just a nicely polished implementation of the wifibroadcast protocol (part of the wifi standards). It works as @John Locke had described although it isn’t expensive to implement, the only real requirement is that you need a wifi dongle that supports promiscuous mode. The open source guys were doing this with raspberry pi’s long before DJI released a lightbridge equipped AC.

 

[John Locke]

How does one know what type of controller you have?

It's printed on the controller, back bottom.