Phantom 3 Standard with poor range.

[Grandpa Don]

I remember a lot of discussion about firmware and the P3S some months ago. I really don't want to do a full search of the forum and read all of the post. There are way too many. Something about the newer versions limiting the range of a P3S. My first Phantom Drone was a P3S. I still have it, but now I mainly fly my P3 Pro. I use the Standard for close-in practice, and still fly it a lot. Right out of the box, the Standard would only get out to about 2,000 feet or so. I quickly realized I needed much more range than that. That's why I got the Pro. When it comes to range, that thing doesn't know when to quit! While flying both today, I thought I would test the range of the Standard one more time. The best I could get with the bare antenna was 900 feet out at 100 feet up. Then I lost signal and it would RTH as designed. I put a Windsurfer on the antenna and tried again. That time I was able to go out to 1,900 feet before the signal was lost. I'm pretty sure I was going out 2,000 feet without the Windsurfer when the Standard was new. My app is 3.1.3, and the drone is the latest also.

I guess my question is, what was the range other people were getting right out of the box with their Standards ?
And, if there is something wrong, what firmware would it take to fix it?

It may not be worth the trouble though, because I mainly use the Pro for distance. But it might be fun to try. What do you guys think?

 

[redstar42]

My p3s is only 6 months old. Out of the box I was able to get to an altitude of 350 feet, didn't try to go higher and 1200 feet distance in open country. I found a disconnected antenna wire while I was installing an ARGtek signal booster. I'm sure it affected her range.

 

[solentlife]

Out of box ... 300m in semi residential area .. 500+ in rural.

Windsurfer gave me about 600m in both.

Argtek gave me over 2000m rural and about 1000m semi residential.

Dual Windsurfer on the central Argtek antenna gave me over 4500m rural.

Dual Windsurfer is actually two glued together and then modified to fit around the wider antenna. Simple foam piece and tape holds it correct.

My best of course is with boosters on 2.4 and 5.8 with separate power supply etc. That gave me over 4800m ... in fact video lag at such distance was starting to be the problem.

These distances were with latest Go on Android and latest FW.

Nigel

 

[jwmcgrath]

Out of the box, bone stock, 1,048m or about 3,500' this weekend, at around 200' over water.

 

[solentlife]

It also depends what Legislation governing Power of the RF signals are in your area ...

CE is significant reduced signal against FCC ....

Quote :

REMOTE CONTROLLER
Operating Frequency 5.725 - 5.825 GHz, (922.7 - 927.7 MHz Japan)
Max Transmission Distance FCC: 1000 m CE: 500 m
(outdoors and unobstructed, aircraft's altitude at 400 feet (120 m))
Operating Temperature Range 32° to 104°F (0° to 40°C)
Battery 2600 mAh LiPo 18650
Transmitter Power (EIRP)

• FCC: 19 dBm
• CE: 14 dBm

Operating Current/Voltage 600 [email protected]
Mobile Device Holder Tablets and smart phones
Charging Port Micro USB

The Video / WiFi is similarly crippled in CE lands and there are remedies such as Magic Power and as I use ICARUS to boost WiFi up to full 27dBm. But there are no software apps as I know of to boost 5.8Ghz controller up from CE level's.

Nigel

 

[Grandpa Don]

Well, that a lot of good information for reference. I am FCC regulated. As I said in my first post, I don't really want to do any modifications just get the Standard to go farther. I use the Pro for that. Early on I did try the Argtek antenna mod, but it really didn't do all. that much for me. If I remember correctly, I think I got out to around 2,700 feet with it. But those big antennas sticking out there was just too cumbersome for me. So I removed it and got the Pro. Mavic was not available at the time, or I would have gotten that one. It amazes me how some Standards can go out so far, and some can't. I like to use the Standard for experimentation. I'll try different flight maneuvers, wind conditions, and different versions of the Go app just to see what happens. If I'm going to crash or lose one of them, I'd rather it was not my Pro. I know the antenna wires are secure in the RC unit because I've had that apart many times and have always double checked them. I never checked the wires in the Drone itself though. Maybe I'll do that someday. Thanks for all of the replies and information.

 

[Banks]

Mine used to go 1500-2000 feet out but now recently I'm lucky if I can go 200 feet without the RTH kicking in. Idk what the heck is going on with it but it pisses me off cause to some it may be the cheapest one but it still cost me 500 bucks for it to suck

 

[Dpemberton415]

I still don't get why this is happening tonight I get on here and 1st 5 or signal/range issues I'm still getting 4300+ feet on a daily basis.

 

[Grandpa Don]

I still don't get why this is happening tonight I get on here and 1st 5 or signal/range issues I'm still getting 4300+ feet on a daily basis.

I don't understand it either. Are you flying the Standard? My P3S never got more than about 2,000 feet right out of the box new back in the summer of 2016. I've done no modifications to it, or had any crashes. Firmware is upgraded regularly. But now I'm lucky to get out 900 to 1,000 feet.

 

[RodPad]

I don't understand it either. Are you flying the Standard? My P3S never got more than about 2,000 feet right out of the box new back in the summer of 2016. I've done no modifications to it, or had any crashes. Firmware is upgraded regularly. But now I'm lucky to get out 900 to 1,000 feet.

Looks like yours is still usable.

Phantom 3 standard Rc signal lost
Losing Signal At Close Range Randomly?


I have doubled my bookmarks since this post.
Terrible signal performance

Rod

 

[Grandpa Don]

Looks like yours is still usable.

Phantom 3 standard Rc signal lost
Losing Signal At Close Range Randomly?


I have doubled my bookmarks since this post.
Terrible signal performance

Rod

Yes, I still fly the Standard. But I use my P3Pro for any serious distance flying. I used the standard to practice maneuvers close in and flying manually. I figure if I crash it...oh well!

 

[Dpemberton415]

Yes

I don't understand it either. Are you flying the Standard? My P3S never got more than about 2,000 feet right out of the box new back in the summer of 2016. I've done no modifications to it, or had any crashes. Firmware is upgraded regularly. But now I'm lucky to get out 900 to 1,000 feet.

yes I'm flying P3S stock out of box with go current version this was my flight just a few minutes ago and about to slap another battery in and go one last time for the night and I went ahead and made my second flight and last as it's dark here