VIDEO DROPOUT / INTERFERENCE W/ ITELITE DBS ANTENNA

[joeruby]

I have a DJI P3P. (actually have three). I have 500 miles of flight on one of them. I use 9.7" Samsung Galaxy Tab S2. I fly with Litchi app only. I have the latest firmware on AC, RC, and batteries. I have latest firmware on Litchi app and Tab S2. No problems. I loose video between 2 and 3 miles out when line of sight. What firmware do you have in RC and AC? Litchi missions work perfectly.
Joe
KC7GHT

 

[joeruby]

My P3P are all stock. DJI factory antennas. Forgot to say this.
Joe
KC7GHT

 

[Dronason]

My problem started a year ago.
As I had flight with Spark and Mavic, I didn't care too much, but it is time now to fix it.
If it is Samsung S serie that is the issue, then IOS should be ok?
I just checked with a Tab S2 and a iPad Mini4, both have the same issue.

All with RC fully charged, GL300B with Itelite, GL300C normal. All firmwares latest.
TabS2 app 3.1.42 and Mini4 app 3.1.42, same issue.
GL300B or GL300C similar but GL300C was at a little more distance (300m instead of 50m)

So in my case, nor the app, device or RC seems to be the issue, remain only my P3P
Will try with my P3A to cross check.
Also next is to try downgrade P3P from V1.11.0020 down to V1.10.0090.

 

[loonie01]

I had a similar issue with my P4 Advanced. I wiped the GO app cache and data. That ended up fixing my video issues.

 

[w1r3d]

I have used a Samsung S7 edge with no issues

 

[BobPhoto]

Hey All.
Thanks for keeping up with this thread. Got some sage advice which was to clean the connectors all the way through the chain with electronics contact cleaner. Did that and didn't have any further issues with video dropouts on my Samsung S7 Edge.

One thing I did as well was to turn off caching of video and stills on the local device. So the phone was not using up processing power to record the HD stream.

Might be a way to mitigate some of the other smartphone / tablet related issues.

Thanks again. Have way more flying confidence because the equipment is solid.

Bob

 

[hph]

Hey There.
New to the forums, but they've been really helpful so far. I'm a new DJI pilot, coming in from the 3DR Solo world. Recently picked up a used P3P that was set up for long range video transmission. It came with the Itelite ITE-DBS02 antenna installed on the transmitter. No mods to the body of the P3P itself.

Here is a video of the problem I'm seeing. Shortly after takeoff, there is video interference which causes the DJI GO app to blank out. Video freezes, gets blocky, and blanks out. You'll see below. I'm hesitant to keep flying as I can't see the shots I'm getting, so I keep pulling it back and landing. This has happened twice in the same location. It's a concrete drainage basin in an urban area with lots of infrastructure nearby as well as a great many residential WiFi networks.

Any ideas would be great. Having the video drop out within 10 feet of the RC kind of defeats the purpose of this bird.

Thanks!!

Hey BobPhoto, If your bird is searching for channels, then your operation location is rife with interference, which could be the main part of your problem.

Why do I conclude that?? From my own experience, not only with DJIs but with Yuneecs as well. Also, why the bird appears to be OK in your basement and not OK in your flying area is excellent evidence that something is glitching your signal.

One more thing - I have the Itelite antenna system on two of my RCs, one for a DJI P3A and one for a Blade Chroma, a subsidiary of Yuneec. In interference-free flying areas they work great! However, if I'm flying in a more urban setting, I think the Itelites may actually may assist in not only picking up the signal from the bird, but they also increase the pickup of the interference!

If that's the case then the problem becomes one of S/N. However, in reality, the S/N is always a most important element in being able to properly control the bird and to get good reception of what it's sending back.

I ALWAYS fly with the bird in sight. If not, then one is asking for flyaways. One of those occurred with me with a DJI Vision 2+ v. 3. Some trees got between it and me, and away it went. Couldn't get a RTH. Never did find it. So, Iearned my lesson right then and there.

 

[BobPhoto]

@hph , glad you had the same issues. I was hoping for better rejection of other signals with a directional antenna. Since turning off local caching on the phone, the video signal has been very stable.

The good thing is that now I have a bird with way better range than my 3DR Solo and a camera that for stills (to my eye) equals or rivals the GoPro Hero 4 Black.

Should have gone with a P4Pro and just had everything be awesome out of the box... But what's the fun in that?!

Thanks again for your feedback.

Bob

 

[GWTX]

Hope you got the problem fixed. First thing I thought was that basin is full of iron re-bar and shaped like a parabolic antennae. It's bound to be noisy around there. But if you are ok now,,,maybe not?

 

[BobPhoto]

Hey, @GWTX thanks for the thought. Yeah, it's a giant drainage basin, part of the LA River system. The Army Corps of Engineers doesn't mess around, so you're probably right. It's actually concentrating any radio interference at a point above it's width.
Hmm. Interesting idea.

 

[Russ43Phantom]

Sometimes long distance antenna are highly focused. If you turn your controller away in order to get shade on your display device, you will significantly diminish the effective signal strength.

 

[Harleydude]

What did the "HD" Histogram look like?