Air disconnects at close at close range

Today I finally got out properly for the first time with my Air to a local country park. To the best of my knowledge I was nowhere near any sources of interference and in a relatively open area. I’m on 5.8 mode thanks to the workaround. I did the usual, hovered for several seconds to allow time to get a sat lock of 10 or more satellites and for the drone to set a home point.

I stayed pretty close and no issues. After a little time I decided to start boosting my confidence in the Air’s ability so I flew straight up from just a few meters in front of me. I settled at 200 feet for a few shots with no issue. I decided to fly it a little away, nervous as I’m a new owner. I’d moved the drone maybe 10 feet forward when I started getting signal interference warnings. Obviously this made me nervous so I brought her back down.

I carried on staying much closer with no issues but as soon as I went around 200 feet up I started getting the warnings again. I went home shortly after that.

Later on I went on the local park and where I’ve been several times testing. I stayed around 15 foot up but on several occasions with the air no more than 20 feet away from me I started getting video transmission interupts and signal loss, only for very short periods so RTH didn’t actually kick in. However during these interupts the drone was unresponsive and at one point was flying away from me in the direction I had been heading. I was frantically pressing the pause button to halt it which took several attempts.

This has all left me very unsettled and nervous. I’ve totally had my confidence dented.

Where am I going wrong? I’m doing all pre flight checks etc. Antenae are in the right position. I’m aware of the capabilities of this drone especially in FCC mode, not that I intend to push to those expectations but I do expect to be able to be a few hundred feet away with no issues, and especially 20 feet away!

Cheese. I’m sure the Gurus will be along in a minute😉

I just wanted to add my interest in this topic, as a newbie.

Without wishing to ambush the thread, on a related theme I’d like to know if the FCC “work around” is still something people do? From YT, it looks a bit difficult for apple devices as I think you have to do it on an android device first?

BTW OP, this is a nice succinct description: I haven’t had the same issues up close but I have had it when partly and I mean partly obstructed by trees.

OK, this may sound daft but it’s probably too close to you. If you think about the antenna on the controller they’re probably pointing straight up. From this position they’re throwing out a signal in a fairly wide angle but not wide enough for that height directly above you.

Let it sit on the ground for a bit, get a load of satellites and do a precision take off - it will come back. Get it out further ahead of you and you should find it’s ok.

This was my first flight BTW. I get the nerves, but give it some space and you’ll be ok.

https://youtu.be/Y_Ue7Rya1AY

@Clarkey, I did it :grin:

Admittedly I’m on android. I never tested the range before but I got a fair distance across a WiFi heavy zone at the weekend with no warnings and no loss of video quality. It can’t harm to do it.

Nice sharp footage. I’m Set to 4K and editing in premiere and all looks good on my machine when exported but once uploaded to YouTube or Facebook the quality is very ‘meh’. Any tips?

Not really. I took it from the sd card and then did it on the phone in powerdirector. YouTube can often take an hour or two to process it in to 4k though.

Oh, I also had polarized nd filter on

Do you get the same problem when using 2.4ghz?

Yeah I’ve no filter yet, also my first shot was a bad one with too much glare on the lens…

Not tried 2.4 after reading a lot about limited range…

Here’s my first (very short) compiled video…just realised I’ve had the video set to 1080 on the Air…

2.4 is better for range, 5.8 is shorter range.
Having said that, got terrible interference when we done the Fireworks Challenge, and, had only switched from 5.8 to 2.4 the week before !.
Trees are bad karma for a drone, the leaves affect the Wi-Fi badly.

I think once I’ve full faith in RTH I’ll relax more. Only done a few tests. Am I right in thinking if the drone is above the height I set in RTH then it will maintain that height when performing RTH if I have the slider set for that? And below it then it climbs to the RTH height?

Absolutely correct! :+1:

:scream:

@Cheeze, please (please) don’t take off until you have a decent number of sats locked in. Each to their own in terms of what that magic number is, but mate, please don’t do this in the air!

Do it on the ground. Always. :slight_smile:

@leeheyes is on the money here:

Yup, that’s exactly what you were experiencing.

Excuse the crap diagram, but it should illustrate what happened.

Imagine the transmitter in this picture is your remote controller. You’re firing a signal out, in a forwards direction. Meanwhile, your drone is 200ft above your head and unable to pick up that signal:

15

So as Lee also suggested, when flying directly above, simply fold the antennas on the remote outwards so the tips are straight out and the signal is then being broadcast straight up.

Don’t forget to then tilt the antennas as you then start to fly forwards :+1:t2:

Keep that diagram in mind :wink:

Nothing like getting your Home Point set to 90ft in the air! :wink:
#YesIHave! I was in a real hurry to catch something as soon as I got out of the car. :wink:

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@Cheeze I saw a great diagram a while back that illustrates why you’ll always get a disconnect when flying behind a building (eg. tower block).

For the life of me now I can’t find the image, but it showed the radio waves and how they kinda curved around the back of the building to a degree, but not close enough to the rear of the building to maintain radio-contact.

So does the signal come from both sides of the antenae? I mean if they are point up are they projecting forwards and backwards?

:+1:

Yup - forwards.

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This WiFi business on the Mavic Air was the reason I went for the Pro. I could handle these signal losses.

Sorry if I’m being thick, so if I unfold them and point them up, holding my controller flat, then the signal is projecting in front of me right? So if I put them flat and hold the controller in the same way wouldn’t the signal project down? Do I need to keep the flat side (that is away from me) pointing toward the drone?