so im sure this has been covered over n over,and ive searched a lot of threads,and its good bad n ugly.what works and is worth it. admin maybe there should be a range extender area. I live in usa, love to get the most out of my standard. im not a antenia guru, seen some set ups with externial battery. so please be nice I know probley a old subject
range extender????? so interested, but what works?
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It all depends on how much range you need. A basic parabolic reflector will give you the cheapest bang for your dollar.
If you are comfortable taking your controller apart, you might try an Itelite DBS. These will run $100 plus.
I've never pushed it beyond 1500 feet though I've seen videos of people who get much more than that.
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I tried the parabolic reflectors on my P3A and didn't notice much improvement. In fact, my transmission feed failed and I lost the drone while using them. So I installed Argtek range extenders and I get stronger signals particularly in neighborhood settings where there's a lot of interference from other networks.
I'm just curious. Why do people use an extender when the original will take the aircraft well beyond the legal "line of sight" distance?
Isn't this part of what gives UAV'S a bad reputation?
Isn't this part of what gives UAV'S a bad reputation?
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I installed mine because the transmission feed failed, I lost control and my Phantom flew away. It did not respond to RTH. Before the fly away one time the Phantom went into ATTI mode while flying in my yard not more than 100 ft. away (I live in a densely populated suburban neighborhood). I was not experienced in flying in ATTI mode and hit RTH to regain control. I bought it used so there's the chance the previous owner did something that damaged it, but I wasn't taking any chances with a new one. There are many things that can compromise the signal between the drone and RC, such as trees, buildings, interference from other signals (like wifi), etc. I see range extenders like a little bit of insurance that can help when not flying in ideal conditions.
Good question but yes some phantoms are Crap on the range side and transmission issues,,,I don't fly to moon and back but like to have good uninterrupted flights,,p4 was ok on range but I changed to panel anyway ,,p3s was terrible so have panel on that now and works like normal ,,,and I'm sure next p4 will have same treatment done,nothing worse than a glitching screen or rth while in flight,,these upgrades helped me heaps,,,tryed the argtec panels and like above they made it worse,,buy cheap buy twice,,some phantoms not need no modification they fly into the sun set ,,yes probly can give a bad name but I like my drone to come home not being able to see it is great risk ,,who knows what in the sky's beyond our line of sight,,certainly great going off around towns or city's but that rather dangerous,,,one example to watch on utube is """follow the leader""""great clip but risky to all in the air and on the ground....my 2 cents on that
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There are a number of possible explanations for what you describe but "flying away" isn't one of them.
Have you looked into the flight data to find out what actually happened?
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Yes, I analyzed the flight data. Since there was no data after transmission loss and things looked good up until then I have no explanation. It was a bright, sunny day and unfortunately I made the mistake of losing VLOS (white is a lousy color for a drone imo), so I couldn't tell if my stick inputs were making any difference. A couple of people saw it and said it sailed toward a forest.
Meta4
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It's always good to find out what happened to help prevent something similar happening.
If you want some help, I'd be happy to analyse the data and see if there are some clues to the puzzle.
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Meta4
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Incidents where the signal is lost before the critical part of the incident are always difficult because we don't have data recorded during what caused the loss of the drone.
The Standard uses wifi and tends to lose signal earlier than Lightbridge equipped drones.
Loss of signal is not uncommon at around 1600 ft.
Your Loss of Signal action was set at Return to Home so on losing signal the drone should have initiated RTH, climbed to RTH height (up 40 feet higher) and come home.
At the end of recorded data (3:38.1) the drone was at 158 ft and 1455 feet northeast of the home point.
GPS was perfect with 19 sats and the battery was strong at 82%.
The first things I looked for are the most common causes of lost drones to see what could be eliminated.
1. Battery
Eliminated since the battery was full at the start and still had plenty left when signal was lost
2. Obstacles and terrain
Eliminated as the home point and last recorded point were on nearly flat terrain with no higher ground or obstacles on the likely return path.
The drone was at 158 ft with the RTH height set at 200 ft which should have cleared any trees etc.
3. Wind
If the return path is into a strong headwind, that can affect the drone's ability to make headway in the direction of home.
Looking at the time from 1:43.3 to 1:59.2 ...
Altitude was 110 ft and you were hands off on the joysticks except for gently pushing the left stick right to slowly rotate the drone clockwise.
The drone should have been holding position and turning but I note the horizontal speed does not hold at zero as it would be expected to.
Instead, it drifts between 0.2 and 0.9mph, suggesting the wind was just slightly more than the Phantom could hold position in.
You flew north then climbed to 158 feet and turned towards the east, only using gentle pressure on the right stick before losing signal.
There's not enough conclusive evidence there to be certain but since the other usual suspects have been eliminated and the data shows the drone having trouble holding position at 110 feet, I'd like to investigate the possible effect of the wind more.
What do you remember of the wind conditions that day? (strength and direction?)
I don't have an Airdata account but @sar104 might be able to see what Airdata estimates wind levels to have been.
RTH would have tried to fly home at 22 mph.
There's an indication that wind might have been a small problem at 110 ft.
It would have been stronger at 200 ft RTH height.
If the wind was blowing at >15 mph at 200 ft and the flight home was into a headwind, that could have made things difficult for a successful RTH.
@sar104 .. any ideas on wind for this flight?
Wind was not an issue - it was variable 5 - 10 mph out of the north east. The aircraft was responding normally to all stick inputs until the log ends abruptly. There were no compass or IMU issues evident. It was 42 m AGL when the log ended, which is probably too high for it to have hit a tree. Possibly a battery disconnect or FC failure. Either way it should be just past the last recorded point since it was flying into the wind at around 11 m/s.
From experience- put the money into a drone that flies farther without needing a range booster.
I put a Range booster on my old phantom 3 std. it added an extra mile BUT it wasn’t fun to fly it out that far because you had to keep the antenna pointed directly at the drone or you would lose the signal.
I upgraded to a Mavic Pro and love the distance with the Omni directional antennas ?
So much more fun to fly!
I was thinking the same thing about LOS.
However, i’m seriously looking at something like this as I get loss of signal frequently with my Mavic Air, only 150 feet away. I don’t think it’s interference from anything else as I normally fly well away from people, building etc.
These work great for me. Its difficult to quantify but I would guess it improves range by about 20% which for me is fine.
If you’re losing signal at only 150’ away I would think you have a bad antenna?
Agree totally Tkoglin, something definitely not right with Mavic Air. Flew mine 2+ Km away and returned without issue.
If only the Mavic Air was a lot less noisy. It would be a beautiful machine.
If only the Mavic Air was a lot less noisy. It would be a beautiful machine.
Yep, come to think of it probably antenna so will send it back for them to check (still under warranty). No crashes or hard landings.
I have commented on another post re: Master screws blades. I do think they are quieter, not quite stealthy as claimed but quieter.
Can’t work out how to link to this post but it’s called Master Airscrew Stealth Propellers - Mavic Air and others by livinginsin.
I have commented on another post re: Master screws blades. I do think they are quieter, not quite stealthy as claimed but quieter.
Can’t work out how to link to this post but it’s called Master Airscrew Stealth Propellers - Mavic Air and others by livinginsin.
Do you think those blades make enough of a difference to justify buying them?
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