Phantom 3 Pro power output specs?

[JPriami]

Does anyone know the power output of the Phantom 3 pro controller itself? Also the aircraft itself has to be transmitting the video back so I'm curious what the power output is on that also.

Im playing around with some radio wave propagation. Mapping a theoretical coverage map based on the specs of the hardware and the terrain here at home.
I'm guessing they are 100 milliwatts but not for sure.

 

[N017RW]

You're guess is good.

Here's the specs.: http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3/spec

 

[JPriami]

Thank you for that

 

[JPriami]

Well I just checked the transmitter output directly. It's only 16.6dbm so that's only like 45.7 milliwatts.. I figured being in the USA it would be 100 milliwatts? Is there a setting?

 

[N017RW]

No.

I've been saying this for quite awhile now...

If you read the FCC test report you'll see that is the measured conducted output power, or about 16dBm.

Then the antenna has 3.5dBi of gain for a total EIRP of 19.5dBm or close to 100mW.

 

[JPriami]

So I'm not the first person to buy some test gear and find this out lol...well darn. Haha.

I had just figured being on the specs it has a FCC of 20dbm and a CE of 16dbm there might be some difference based upon where it was sold.
Also I find it odd that that when I first turn it on it comes up to 21-20dbm then drops down to 16dbm after a couple seconds. Like its being told to almost.

Also at 16dbm + 3.5dbi it's only like 89 milliwatts. Man all my propagation maps are going to need adjustment meow

 

[N017RW]

It made me wonder if the non-FCC models were shipped with a unity-gain antenna.

But this does not make sense from a manufacturing standpoint when it can easily be done at the firmware level (whether it's GPS [location] based or not).

 

[JPriami]

Looks like my hunch on it being told to change from 20dbm to 16dbm was right. I didn't have the p3 powered up. I was just measuring the transmitter alone. So based on the thought it might be being told what power to do. I decided to power up the p3 also to let it lock GPS. Bam the power changed to 20dbm once locked. So if it doesn't have GPS lock it defaults to the lower 16dbm power output.

Good bit of info to know.

 

[4wd]

You could now test a precious information for us. I guess you are in USA since you have 20 dBm, could you change localisation on your device to EU country (Germany for example) and then retest again?

Excellent idea.

 

[damitjim01]

What happens if the bird is far away, does it move up more? I would think it would also vary it's power level like your cell phone does. Further from the tower, the higher the output of the phone.

 

[N017RW]

What happens if the bird is far away, does it move up more? I would think it would also vary it's power level like your cell phone does. Further from the tower, the higher the output of the phone.

No evidence to support that in the P3.

 

[JPriami]

I

What happens if the bird is far away, does it move up more? I would think it would also vary it's power level like your cell phone does. Further from the tower, the higher the output of the phone.

I doubt it would vary power based on distance away. Reason I feel this is, that it's max rated for 20dbm for FCC (usa) and 16dbm CE (europe). Also once it locked GPS and being right next to the P3 on the bench it went to 20dbm and stayed.

 

[JPriami]

You could now test a precious information for us. I guess you are in USA since you have 20 dBm, could you change localisation on your device to EU country (Germany for example) and then retest again?

I'll give it a try this weekend. But if your under CE being Europe? I'm guessing 16dbm

 

[JPriami]

Just thinking. I won't be able to really know. Being in the usa. Because if I change it and then GPS locks to usa. It would be doing 20dbm anayways..

 

[JPriami]

Well based off of it running on CE without a GPS lock automaticly. Then changing to FCC once the GPS locked..it would be a safe bet that it does use the GPS to set it

 

[JPriami]

Ok. But the p3 uses GPS to find its location so the dji go app will load a map file from online.

Even if you keep it in atti mode I'm willing to bet it still uses location to show itself on the map of the dji go app. Otherwise you wouldn't have any tracks.

 

[JPriami]

Being I'm in the states, only thing I can do it try to make it stay in ce mode even tho I'm in the fcc zone. I can't really test it to stay in fcc mode being I'm already here. I'll try this weekend.

 

[4wd]

What we're interested in is what happens if you temporarily change the location settings in your tablet.

The theory has been proposed that the location (as set by the user) on the device is the main thing determining the output power when the P3 boots up.

 

[JPriami]

Well i have Googled it & looked all over in the dji go app and can't find it. How are you setting your location in the dji go app like you mentioned? Only thing close was the ntsc vs pal setting. That didn't change anything.

 

[Mad_angler1]

change your device region in IOS under General Setting