Transmitter Range

[cosmonaut]

I had permission to fly my FC40 over some old smoke stacks that were around 200ft high. Just at the point of getting to the top the FC40 would go into come home mode, yellow light flashing, as it lost contact with the remote. I would think the range of the drone would be greater than any 200ft.
So is there anything I should be checking to make sure I am getting maximum range? How can this be tested? I plan to go back soon.

 

[MarzBGx]

Thats really strange, I can get 1431ft out of my FC40 and still have signal (cant go further because I cant see it), Make sure you have fresh batteries in your controller, the antenna is pointing up (tip towards the sky) and the two antennas on the drone are not obstructed

 

[chuddly]

incorrect on the antenna direction....the tip is where the weakest signal output is. You want it at a 45 degree angle from the quad to get the best results.

 

[Woody]

Have you checked the antenna connection inside your controller? The first time I opened mine to access the micro USB inside I broke the antenna wire, resulting in RTH at short distances.

There is a way to modify/upgrade your antenna for increased range. Although I wouldn't recommend attempting it unless you are skilled and experienced at this type of modification. See my post here. viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20094

 

[noiseboy72]

5.8GHz is affected by the weather really quite badly. If you are flying in humid air, the range drops off quite rapidly.

The FC40 can really suffer from interference from 5Ghz wireless networks and fixed video links as well.

 

[Wedeliver]

make sure u are in fcc mode. when you turn on the controller it should make two beeps.

 

[cosmonaut]

Thanks all for the tips and I will check each one and then a couple of test flights before I return. It was very humid at the time. Late evening and summertime in the deep south. it gets pretty brutal even for someone who has lived in the south all their life.

 

[J.James]

Even with humidity and even if in ce mode that seems to be real short of a distance. Inless you happened to be flying straight above and had the tip of the antenna pointing straight at the phantom.

If not I would check the connections on the antennas. on both the transmitter and the phantom. You should be able to see the 2 connectors on the gray wires on the 2 on board antennas that are on the legs. To see if they are connected to the receiver with out opening up the shell. Just take a flash light and peek in side threw the battery door. on the top right side of the opening. Tho not likely they came off there being they are glued in place with a conductive cement that is very hard to get them off even if trying to.

also check to make sure both the gray antennas didn't get the tiny wire that sticks out the ends broken off and also make sure them wire tips are straight and not bent to the sides. one of mine broke off a few weeks ago and my range dropped considerably. Even tho I have a moded tx that normally gives me way far range. When the tip was broken off one of the gray antenna my range dropped from over a mile to about 600 feet.

If they check out then open the transmitter and make sure your antenna is connected inside the tx. I had a bad solder connection on the pigtail I used to mod mine and this weekend it came lose and was just barely making a connection to the antennas and was having a real hard time controlling it when it was at all above me and then would get ok control again once it got a few feet in front of me yet once it got about 200 300 feet away it would go in the fail safe and start coming back.

More then likely its going to be a broken tip on an antenna more so then even a break on the wires in the phantom or the tx if you never opened up either and never disturbed any thing. . If not a problem in any of them spots some things wrong with the transmitter its self.



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