Loosing signal at only 400 meters and system shut down??

[rossco83]

Hi guys,

I have a p4 which is now causing me greif by loosing signal really easily now, which then instigates rth.
Either flying with dji go or litchi platform.

It also has a tendancy for the phone s7 to just shut down completly in flight. I have also tried it on 2 s5's with the same problem so it cant be the phone.... im guessing.

The symptoms leading up to or influencing the disconnection are i beleive as follows:-

While in dji go it will say remote control signal weak then shortly after will drop out and rth. This is happening at only 350-400m in full view. It also says the aircraft battery is 0% when this happens for some reason.


Now the things that could be influencing this behaviour could be.

A few months ago i had a crash in the backyard where i damaged (bent on slightly) the landing gear legs.
Which i replaced them with genuine parts shortly after following step by step tutorial. This didnt seem to affect the performance after it was done as i cant recall it happening to this extent when it was done.

A few weeks after the landing was done i up graded to a maxx range signal booster. This has been on for about 3 months but only flown a hanfull of times.

After installing the maxx range i haven't seen ANY increase in range.
Whether this is to do with the previous crash repair or the installation wasnt done correctly remains to be seen.
However i am confident the installation was done correctly as i followed the step by step installation which went without any complication.

Now since installation of the maxx range i have had a more frequent occurance of these problems with the system either shutting down in flight or loosing signal at a very close range. Which basically renders the product unusable.

Goes without saying that this has been extremely dissapointing and deflating experience in my fairly new entry into drone ownership.

I would greatly appreciate any input and expertise on this.

Thanks.

-

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rossco83]

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[RémyHeli]

Assuming hardware build is fine, nicely connected and no antenna cable damaged, next question would be why this antennna is not performing as expected for you, knowing MaxxUAV products are reputed working well.

It is known that antennas are sometimes not performing best at certain frequencies dues to their physical characteristics. With GO app 4 you might want try comparing performance by either choosing another channel if using manual mode, or let the app doing automatically which could be the best option for your case.

Hope does help. You might want get in touch as well with MaxxUAV, I have seen in this forum they are very supporting.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[rossco83]

Thanks for the response. The maxx range all appeared to be installed correctly as i made sure i took my time with it and everything was connected properly.

As for channel selection i haven't tried manual channel selection but i will give it a try. Although i shouldn't really have to rely on this as i dont know how reliable this will be for longer flights. None the less i will give it a go.

I think i am at the stage now of sending the item to itelite who i bought the maxx range from and getting them to do some testing and diagnose what is wrong with it.

As a side not i tried installing a previous version (2.9) through a link on this forum - which i cant certain if it did install correctly.
Also deleted all photos, flight records and data in the hope this might free up some space or what not.
So i then take it out the back for a little test run, get it about 25m up and 80m out - and then the phone completly shuts down and resets..... Baffling.
This is starting to happen ALOT now.




Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rossco83]

This is another screenshot from using litchi which has been as temperamental as dji go.
It has gps in green at top of screen. I assum this is saying its ok because its green.
However the remote signal icon is only showing 2 bars at 238 meters out.
Shouldnt it be showing full strength ??
Btw it was in unobstructed view.

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rossco83]

Ok so i managed to find out what was causing the range issues.
After a few hours of yroubleshooting today i decided it was time to open up the controller again to check everything was done correctly.
To my surprise one of the anenna cable that came with the maxx range kit had twisted its self around the brass connection where it exits the controller. Thus causing significant damge to the wire by bending it out of shape.
I think this is a pretty important for anyone else doing this installation of one of these antenna. Be extra careful with the wires when clising the kit up and make sure the connections are tight before closing the unit as it appears i musnt have tightened the connection before closing the unit and wjen I've tightened it when it was closed, it has coiled the wire around the inside of the connection.

What triggered me to invesyigate this in the forst place was going onto maxxuav website to see there was a install video for the drilling the controller setup.
In the video it says to be extra carefule that you dont bend the wires out of shape so, lo and behold, that was my problem.
So just goes to show you when trying to find the cause of a problem with the bird. Leave no stone unturned! As i had almost given up after exhausting almost every corner of the dji go app.

Which is still crashing on me btw after fixing the wire.

All i have to do now is get one more longer wire to connect to the maxx range antenna. As it appears only one was supplied.
As i have now had to install the antenna by drilling through the housing in order to utilise the other leads that the kit came with.

Im still not out of the woods yet though....

The dji go app is still crashing on me. Although i think i will need to hook up the maxx range tomorrow to see how it handles first.

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rossco83]

Maxx range installed through body now.. and missing a cable. Anyone ever made up a replacement?

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rossco83]

On a side note. Its good to be back in the air flying [emoji38]

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[rossco83]

Well that was short lived.
Took the drone out today to the heighest landmark with clear line of sight for miles.
I thought i had fixed my range issues by rewiring the controller but it was still dropping out a just over 1km. This is worse than what i was getting with the stock setup.


Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[RémyHeli]

Beware that missing or damaged antenna cable my fry RC board as lacking of hardware to output energy.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots

 

[rossco83]

Ok, i wasn't aware of that. But can't rule it out either.
I have recently uploaded my data to healthy drones. Is there a way it can tell me the reason for drop outs?

Sent from my SM-G930F using PhantomPilots mobile app