Trees blocking my signal

[GPS_Ken]

I bought my drone for one purpose. The idea was that I could fly my drone from my house to where my boat is moored to check if things were all right. The distance is about 1500 feet, with an elevation drop of about 20 feet. My P3 SE has a range of 10,000 feet over open water, but the trees between my home and my boat are causing me big problems.

There are tall trees near my house in the direction of the water. I can not legally cut them down. Every time I try to fly to the boat, I get within about 300 feet and loose signal.

I tried sitting on my roof during a flight and watching the signal strength bars. They seem to suddenly drop from 4 bars to zero bars. I aim the controller a little differently and sometimes the signal comes back before loss of signal RTH and sometimes not.

My theory is that I totally loose signal when a tree trunk ends up directly in my line of sight.

I thought about getting an antenna upgrade, but if there is a tree trunk directly between me and the AC, it seems like the signal would still get blocked. What do you thing about this?

I also thought about some sort of repeater located out in the woods, but I don't know if such things exist and if they did, I doubt that they would cost less than a few hundred dollars the I'd be willing to spend.

My last thought was something like the "TP-Link 2.4GHz 24dBi Directional Grid Parabolic Antenna" sold on Amazon, mounted on my roof. I don't know if this is even compatible with my P3 SE, or if it would help getting through the trees.

Any thoughts (even out of the box) would be greatly appreciated.

Ken
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[GMack]

Yes, these radios seem limited due to obstacles blocking any line of site. That guy who crashed into the opposite side of Space Needle was signal-blocked from what I gathered.

I was surprised the guy who won that "2017 Flight of the Year" was able to fly into a moving train's boxcar and under the tank cars as well as around them while they were moving, but he was using some high-end Futaba radio setup. I doubt DJI could do that with our toy (ahem!) radios and funky operating (ahem again!) software and firmware. You'd need a better drone and radio.

This one in case anyone missed the "2017 Fight of the Year" winner out of the recent Los Angeles Drone Awards:

 

[msinger]

I thought about getting an antenna upgrade, but if there is a tree trunk directly between me and the AC, it seems like the signal would still get blocked. What do you thing about this?

The signal is going to be blocked (or at least weakened) when any obstacles come between the Phantom and remote controller.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Why not fly an autonomous waypoints mission to check your boat?

 

[GPS_Ken]

Why not fly an autonomous waypoints mission to check your boat?

I am new to all of this and don't really know how waypoints work. At least now, I'm sure RTH will protect me when I loose signal.

1. Is there any documentation on how to use waypoints.
2. Could I circle the boat while keeping the camera towards the boat?
3. Can I change altitude?
4. Will low battery still RTH if the mission is still in progress?

Ken
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[Mark The Droner]

See your manual. Starts at around page 47.

https://dl.djicdn.com/downloads/phantom_3_se/20170810/Phantom+3+SE+User+Manual+V1.0.pdf

Check it out on the Go app.

I've never used it with Go because I'm a Litchi fan. Somebody else can help you there.

Good luck.

 

[msinger]

See your manual. Starts at around page 47.

How exactly is the OP going to use DJI GO to setup waypoints in locations where the remote controller is going to be disconnected?

 

[GPS_Ken]

See your manual. Starts at around page 47.

Two sentences in the so-called manual provide virtually no useful information on how to use these features.

 

[Bakersfield Quad]

How high are you flying? LOS is the thing, so if you need to go up to 400' to get it, do that.

 

[Mark The Droner]

Two sentences in the so-called manual provide virtually no useful information on how to use these features.

Sometimes you have to explore features using the Go app.

I heard you can use Litchi too, if you have iOS. That would allow you to fly a mission out of signal range.

 

[GPS_Ken]

How high are you flying? LOS is the thing, so if you need to go up to 400' to get it, do that.

I'm flying at about 150 feet. Anything higher, I would not be able to see much detail on the boat.

 

[GPS_Ken]

I heard you can use Litchi too, if you have iOS. That would allow you to fly a mission out of signal range.

I have Android, and there is no mention on the Litchi web site of them supporting P3 SE for either IOS or Android.
Ken
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[umanbean]

Almost positive Litchi will work for the SE, and is the best for waypoints by far... but if you lose signal while on the mission, you wouldn't be able to see the boat until your bird got back.

 

[Mark The Droner]

I have Android, and there is no mention on the Litchi web site of them supporting P3 SE for either IOS or Android.
Ken
===

You want everything spoon fed to you from a platter. Sometimes you have to do a little work yourself.

This is my last post in this thread

Phantom 3 SE sdk

 

[Pete Leare]

I heard you can use Litchi too, if you have iOS. That would allow you to fly a mission out of signal range.

I agree with Mark - you can certainly do this with Litchi and set your 'mission' up ahead of time using the Mission Hub. Yes, you can pre-program the camera to focus on the boat the entire time. You can program it to stop/hover and take all the pictures/video you want, or simply circle for a while - it's up to you.
The only downside to this would be that if you have lost FPV signal with the quad, you will not be able to see your shots until you come back, land and remove the SD card to view on your computer.

 

[msinger]

I haven't tried it myself, but Litchi's homepage still shows it's not compatible with the P3SE.

 

[GPS_Ken]

you can certainly do this with Litchi and set your 'mission' up ahead of time using the Mission Hub

Okay, I guess I'll get Litchi if they ever decide to support the SE. Till then, I'll be looking for other solutions.
Ken
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[umanbean]

I haven't tried it myself, but Litchi's homepage still shows it's not compatible with the P3SE.

I stand corrected... but, isn't that odd?... that the app would work with so many other phantoms, but not that model?

 

[msinger]

It's not odd if Litchi is currently using a version of the DJI SDK that is not compatible with the P3SE.

 

[Pete Leare]

Okay, I guess I'll get Litchi if they ever decide to support the SE. Till then, I'll be looking for other solutions.
Ken
===

Sorry Ken, I may have it wrong - I made an incorrect assumption that Litchi was compatible with your AC and as msinger pointed out - it may not be. Please research first and don't take my word for it (I have a P3 and P4P and not a P3SE) Again, apologies if I'm wrong...