How many DJI drones can fly together?

[PaoloOne]

My local group of drone pilots wants to have a meeting of DJI drones and put them all together to fly on a parking lot.
There will be a mixture of P3, P4 and Mavics, my concern is the saturation of the channels, so far looks there will be about 30-40 participants.
Another time we tried with 18 drones and all went fine.
Do somebody know what would be a reasonable number of DJI drones that could fly together let's say at a distance of 10-15 meters from each others?

 

[newnan3]

I'd say at least 69

 

[PaoloOne]

I'd say at least 69

Can you please tell me how you obtained this information?

 

[Former Member]

Using DJI radios, the chances of frequency collision is remote. The number of drones that can be flown at one time in the same place depends on the competence of the pilots. Mavics flying in close proximity to eachother, if colored differently and if the pilots can focus solely on their bird, you can have as many as you want, giving each of them a few meters of separation. If the drones are stock DJI colors, they will have a very high chance of colliding with eachother due to loss of orientation and mistaken identities.

If I were to do such an event, all the drones would need to be flown close-in and by line of sight and have distinctive markings. Looking down at your device will only give you a narrow field of vision and you can only see in front of you. If someone were to approach you from the side, there might be a collision.

 

[rydfree]

It'll probably go something like this

 

[PaoloOne]

Using DJI radios, the chances of frequency collision is remote. The number of drones that can be flown at one time in the same place depends on the competence of the pilots. Mavics flying in close proximity to eachother, if colored differently and if the pilots can focus solely on their bird, you can have as many as you want, giving each of them a few meters of separation. If the drones are stock DJI colors, they will have a very high chance of colliding with eachother due to loss of orientation and mistaken identities.

If I were to do such an event, all the drones would need to be flown close-in and by line of sight and have distinctive markings. Looking down at your device will only give you a narrow field of vision and you can only see in front of you. If someone were to approach you from the side, there might be a collision.

OK, my biggest concern was indeed the radio problem, the other time we were pretty organized to avoid collisions and confusion, we set 3 different rows with alternate altitudes and each one doing only a vertical flight. Regard to markings indeed anyone had some stickers or skin so there was not one aircraft similar to the other. We ended up also making a wedge formation and a Mavic only flight but that was easier since we were less. Since we are going to fly only on the parking lot I think I'm going to change the action on signal loss, would you set to hover or to land? I think that is safer to hovering, right?

 

[CrownSeven]

Thought the manual said no more than 3?

 

[madman4049]

Until they start falling out of the sky. LOL I honestly have no idea how the signal works but it's gotta be even more advanced than Spektrum DSM. I would guess something like an IP address or something along those lines. Not an IP per se but you know what I mean, an individual code.

 

[v8juice]

I have seen 3 Mavics flying at one time close together.

 

[Lelantos]

Probably about this many,

 

[DomoDan]

I've done RC plane combat flights with over 100 planes...most running Spektrum DSM stuff. Never seen an issue with radio interference.

 

[Drgnfli]

It'll probably go something like this

What a waste! It's a wonder someone didn't lose an eye...

 

[Hauptmann]

Last year we tried to set a new Guinness World Record. Had Guinness reps there. Over 100 drones, I think. We all hovered to avoid min-airs. No signal interference..

If you're going to allow free flight, you should set up a protocol for vertical and horizontal separation.

 

[Kilrah]

For DJI stuff the manual states the number of devices recommended - usually 3 or 5 depending on model. Good rule of thumb is take the number of channels the model is capable of and consider leaving a free channel between any 2 devices.

BUT that's mostly about video. You can likely use all channels and have several devices per channel and maintain good control - just the video feed will be basically unusable, and since that's considered as an essential point of DJI devices that's the criterion that's used for the specs.