Phantom 3 Standard RC Signal Lost

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So I've been flying my drone recently and every time I get to a certain altitude, my RC Signal would drop out.

I have my max altitude set to 500 meters, but I never fly over 400 ft. But I can't even get to 400 ft. The highest I've reached is our 200 ft. I've reset the RC Link 3 times I believe.

I honestly don't know what going on, maybe you guys can help. Thank you.
 
That is your problem. The edge of the antenna on the controller needs to face the Phantom legs. If you go straight up you will get a bad signal. Even if you put the controller out flat you still won't have the best signal, because the phantom antenna runs down the legs.
You need to fly away horizontally.
 
That is your problem. The edge of the antenna on the controller needs to face the Phantom legs. If you go straight up you will get a bad signal. Even if you put the controller out flat you still won't have the best signal, because the phantom antenna runs down the legs.
You need to fly away horizontally.

I just went out and tested your theory, but it still didn't work. I got it up to around 200 ft, and it lost it. I moved the antenna around to see if that would help, but still no
 
How far away, horizontally, were you when you tested?

The P3S signal is pretty poor in ideal conditions. Any kind of interference, wifi, phone etc. will reduce it.
 
How far away, horizontally, were you when you tested?
The P3S signal is pretty poor in ideal conditions. Any kind of interference, wifi, phone etc. will reduce it.

I was about 5 ft away when I took off, and I flew the drone 100 ft away
 
The side of the antenna needs to be parallel with the vertical part of the phantom legs for maximum signal. You cannot achieve that at 100 feet out and 200 feet up. Try 500 feet out.
 
The side of the antenna needs to be parallel with the vertical part of the phantom legs for maximum signal. You cannot achieve that at 100 feet out and 200 feet up. Try 500 feet out.

My problem is, is that I've gone straight up 400 ft. I kept it in my backyard. I've done it before. So I don't understand why all of a sudden, it doesn't go that high
 
Then you got lucky.
Upload your flight log to airdata, it will show you the signal strength and any other warnings that may explain what's going on.
 
I have the same issues at 500 - 700 feet distance and the flight logs don't seem to help. I have 100% signal strength. I finally started recording the screen so I could go back and examine the details displayed in the app. I would go from full bars to no bars almost instantly before RTH would kick in. I was always able to cancel as the bars returned almost as fast as they would disappear.

I've tried two stock RC's with same results so I don't think it's my RC. Personally I believe there's an issue with the receiver somewhere in the AC and it's going back to DJI for a look under the hood.
 
I have the same issues at 500 - 700 feet distance and the flight logs don't seem to help. I have 100% signal strength. I finally started recording the screen so I could go back and examine the details displayed in the app. I would go from full bars to no bars almost instantly before RTH would kick in. I was always able to cancel as the bars returned almost as fast as they would disappear.

I've tried two stock RC's with same results so I don't think it's my RC. Personally I believe there's an issue with the receiver somewhere in the AC and it's going back to DJI for a look under the hood.

Yeah, I'm contacting DJI tomorrow to see what I can do.
 
So I don't understand why all of a sudden, it doesn't go that high

I would agree with comments by others above, position of the controller antenna relative to the drone can reduce signal but, you've already investigated that, so that may not be the problem. Your comment above makes me ask, did anything change (including updates) around the time when you first noticed the problem? I'm wondering if it could be a signal interference problem. I'm not convinced that's what's going on but, do you have the same problem when flying at other locations? What kind of area are you flying in? Have you tried activating airplane mode along with your wi-fi connection to reduce possible interference? Depending I where I fly, I can routinely get over 6000 feet of range at 400 feet altitude in rural areas with my Standard before losing signal so, something definitely doesn't sound normal with what's going on with your situation. I'll defer to the experts here on this one. Good luck tracking down the problem.
 
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6000’? Wow, I can only get about 1200’ out at 400’ elevation. I bought the Argteck and still only get 2000’. I live in a rural area with lots of trees, so I always discounted my results because of it.
Before going to DJI, I flew Symas and kept losing them at differing distances. There are Ham operators in the area, and I believe they interfere as well.
But even with the trees and interference, I have never had trouble getting to 400’, even with the Syma X8C. It sounds like there is definitely wrong with the OP’s AC.
 
So I've been flying my drone recently and every time I get to a certain altitude, my RC Signal would drop out.

I have my max altitude set to 500 meters, but I never fly over 400 ft. But I can't even get to 400 ft. The highest I've reached is our 200 ft. I've reset the RC Link 3 times I believe.

I honestly don't know what going on, maybe you guys can help. Thank you.
Did you do a firmware update recently?

Rod
 
Did you do a firmware update recently?

Rod

The last time I updated the firmware was when I took it out of the box on Christmas morning this past past Christmas. It tells me my firmware is up to date so i don't think it's that
 
The last time I updated the firmware was when I took it out of the box on Christmas morning this past past Christmas. It tells me my firmware is up to date so i don't think it's that
Dang, Ignore me then. :rolleyes::)

There was one other guy, that said the day before it worked fine, he left it like on his kitchen table over night, next day he had the problem. He was positive there was no firmware changes, I would have to search to find that one, I don't think he every updated his status.

Rod
 
Even with lots of trees, out in a rural area, I'd think you should get more than 1200' distance with a stock set-up, and the Argtek should give you more than 2000'. With trees and interference in the suburbs, I can typically get up to 3000' before RTH kicks in. Heavily wooded rural areas usually gives me 4500'. Best personal distance was 9000'+ over a lake in the mountains with a completely stock set-up.
I flew a Syma X5SW before I got the Phantom. Crashed it a couple bazillion times. Pretty indestructible little bugger. My biggest issue back then was wi-fi interference that would abruptly make it drop from the sky. I took the controller apart and discovered that the antenna wire wasn't even a 1/4 wave. Replaced that with a 1/2 wave wire and that helped a lot. I eventually replaced that with a 2.4 ghz router antenna and that solved most of the problem.
I would agree, I suspect the OP has something else going on there. You typically don't get a limit on altitude like you do with range, especially at 400'.
 
Keep in mind that trees, especially with leaves will impede and degrade the controller signal. You want a clear line from the controller to the ac. Just an FYI.
 

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