Official Mavic Pro Range Leaderboard!

[Unknown Caller]

N

Very impressive- was your video still smooth at that distance? Really pushing the limits.

BUT... you really stressed a virtually brand new battery. It dropped a full half volt the last 12 seconds of flight, down to 9.005 volts. You were seconds away from totally losing power. I wouldn't do this frequently- pretty much halfed the life of that battery.

Oh yeah video was perfect. Batteries completely fine. I take them all the way to zero literally all the time it doesn't hurt them if anything it improves the algorithms accuracy. I bought this thing to mod out in turn into a long-range bird that's all I do with these drones. I don't use them for their intended purposes lol.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Wow! That's impressive. I never get a day without wind to really test range. My best is 4.28 miles and that's limited by battery. Now I have antenna upgraded, but really signal is not the limiting factor as you've shown.

Thanks bro this is actually an amazing spot to fly long range. In a real world spot I am usually at 100-120 over 5 miles.

 

[CyberNate]

I keep reading antenna upgrades. What's this involve and who does this?

There are several places that can install a number of antennae options such as FPVLR, DBSMOD from MAXXUAV.com, etc. Just "Google Mavic Pro Antenna mod". I installed FPVLR antennae from DroneNerds.com. I do NOT recommend installing the antennae yourself. It's very difficult and you're likely to break something like I did. Many of the sellers offer to do the upgrade for you, which requires you to send in the remote.

 

[bomber2]

There are several places that can install a number of antennae options such as FPVLR, DBSMOD from MAXXUAV.com, etc. Just "Google Mavic Pro Antenna mod". I installed FPVLR antennae from DroneNerds.com. I do NOT recommend installing the antennae yourself. It's very difficult and you're likely to break something like I did. Many of the sellers offer to do the upgrade for you, which requires you to send in the remote.

How much further did the antennae from drone nerds get you. I fly a lot in hills and trees and would like to find something that may cut thru these things for a little more distance. Do you think this antennae from drone nerds would help and what about the warranty? The anteenae looks awesome. Thanks for any info.

 

[CyberNate]

How much further did the antennae from drone nerds get you. I fly a lot in hills and trees and would like to find something that may cut thru these things for a little more distance. Do you think this antennae from drone nerds would help and what about the warranty? The anteenae looks awesome. Thanks for any info.

To be honest, I don't think it's worth it to do the upgrade for you. The warranted is voided for the remote. It is a significant modification that includes using a dremel to remove plastic so that the SMA connectors will fit. I found the ribbon cable sockets extemely delicate and managed to break the latch on 2 of them. I'll bet that the professional installers also break them on occasion.

It is very difficult to quantify the improvement. I'd say around 20% improvement in range and penetration. If you have very strong interference which cuts your signal completely, the upgraded antennae likely won't help you. If you maintain connection but see unstable video feed, it can help. I do notice that I can fly a good 50 feet lower at distances of over a mile away with the FPVLR antenna. I got a nice shot of the new Apple headquarters at around 200 feet at 1 to 1.5 miles away. In the past I had to be much higher to maintain signal. It's really up to your needs whether antennae is worth it and whether you can forgo the warranty.

Edit: I should add, this flight to Apple has a great deal of interference as compared to other flight I do. Normally I can get MUCH greater range at lower altitudes. I was just using this as an example given the interference I see at this location.

 

[bomber2]

To be honest, I don't think it's worth it to do the upgrade for you. The warranted is voided for the remote. It is a significant modification that includes using a dremel to remove plastic so that the SMA connectors will fit. I found the ribbon cable sockets extemely delicate and managed to break the latch on 2 of them. I'll bet that the professional installers also break them on occasion.

It is very difficult to quantify the improvement. I'd say around 20% improvement in range and penetration. If you have very strong interference which cuts your signal completely, the upgraded antennae likely won't help you. If you maintain connection but see unstable video feed, it can help. I do notice that I can fly a good 50 feet lower at distances of over a mile away with the FPVLR antenna. I got a nice shot of the new Apple headquarters at around 200 feet at 1 to 1.5 miles away. In the past I had to be much higher to maintain signal. It's really up to your needs whether antennae is worth it and whether you can forgo the warranty.

Edit: I should add, this flight to Apple has a great deal of interference as compared to other flight I do. Normally I can get MUCH greater range at lower altitudes. I was just using this as an example given the interference I see at this location.

Thanks for the reply. I did speak with drone nerds today and was told that since they are a DJI authorized repair center that the warranty for the controller was still good if they did the install. Not sure if that is true but that's what I was told. If I can get 20% increase in the hills it may be worth it. May just buy another controller for the mavic and get this antennae just to try for the hills. Thanks again

 

[bomber2]

My bad, just talked to Drone nerds again and yes it does void the warranty thru DJI for the controller. Does anyone know where I can just purchase a controller and thus set the new one up with this antennae and still have my original controller?

 

[Kilrah]

Mavic - Remote Controller | DJI Store

Some people who lost their Mavic sometimes have one for sale too.

 

[bomber2]

Mavic - Remote Controller | DJI Store

Some people who lost their Mavic sometimes have one for sale too.

Thanks, just ordered one from DJI.

 

[TheLightSpeed!]

Finally got my DBS antenna today! Did the mod, and got it back up and flying. I updated everything, and did a stick calibration.... that's basically it.

I started a flight at night, and with all the CA off, and in sport mode it's hovering up and down about five feet... like a YO YO. I'm not overly concerned as I need to compass calibrate. Just wondering if anyone has had this issue also?

Outside of that, I can't wait to get on the board. After being one of the first to have a Mavic in the country I got kind of bored of it. I'm realizing that my passion is portability but also DISTANCE! It gets my blood pumping.

Thanks in advance

 

[CyberNate]

Finally got my DBS antenna today! Did the mod, and got it back up and flying. I updated everything, and did a stick calibration.... that's basically it.

I started a flight at night, and with all the CA off, and in sport mode it's hovering up and down about five feet... like a YO YO. I'm not overly concerned as I need to compass calibrate. Just wondering if anyone has had this issue also?

Outside of that, I can't wait to get on the board. After being one of the first to have a Mavic in the country I got kind of bored of it. I'm realizing that my passion is portability but also DISTANCE! It gets my blood pumping.

Thanks in advance

The altitude instability is not related to the mod. That is likely due to the low light. The downward cameras are used to track hovering position in addition to obstacles. To be safe, you can do an imu calibration.

 

[stratos]

Broke my own record stock.

 

[Unknown Caller]

Broke my own record stock.

SWEET bro congrats!!!

 

[CyberNate]

Broke my own record stock.

This is your round trip distance right? For a second, I thought it was your one way flight. Anyway, that's still a good flight distance. Mavic is amazing for long range.

If I ever get out to a flat rural area, I'm going to smash that 37,000 foot run on the leaderboard. Simply not possible out here in the San Francisco area.

 

[CyberNate]

32526.1 ft (6.16 miles and 9914 meters) out today in an urban environment. Total flight distance of 65,083 ft. This is with 2 cheap 1500mah lipo packs. I have some Ultra High capacity coming (multistar) which will give me 33% more power with same weight. I have the RexUAV Circular Polarizing antenna with Sunhams boosters on both TX and RX.

I think I can easily beat the top run on the leaderboard once I get better batteries. My goal is over 40,000 ft.

@JakeMaxxUAV please update leaderboard with this flight.

 

[CyberNate]

My furthest completely stock is this:

still had 9% battery with estimated 2:08 flight time remaining.

View attachment 11634

That is the total flight distance. You need to state your furthest away point. My distance was 65000ft, but furthest out distance is just over 32500ft.

 

[Natedoggz]

32526.1 ft (6.16 miles and 9914 meters) out today in an urban environment. Total flight distance of 65,083 ft. This is with 2 cheap 1500mah lipo packs. I have some Ultra High capacity coming (multistar) which will give me 33% more power with same weight. I have the RexUAV Circular Polarizing antenna with Sunhams boosters on both TX and RX.

I think I can easily beat the top run on the leaderboard once I get better batteries. My goal is over 40,000 ft.

@JakeMaxxUAV please update leaderboard with this flight.

View attachment 11625

View attachment 11626

What battery's did you order

 

[CyberNate]

What battery's did you order

I went with the Multistar 4000Mah and 5200Mah lipos. Will run with single batteries to save weight and lipo because the lihv are too hard to find. I also don't like the battery error's with lihv.


5200 Multistar is 325 grams:
MultiStar High Capacity 5200mAh 3S 10C Multi-Rotor Lipo Pack

4000 Multistar is 244 grams.
Multistar High Capacity 4000mAh 3S 10C Multi-Rotor Lipo Pack

The 4000Mah is the actually less weight than the 2 1500mah batteries I just flew with. Should be perfect. The 5200Mah will be on the heavy side and best for perfect no wind days for max range.

 

[Natedoggz]

I got that exact setup with the 2≠ 1500 lipos and love it, will try for that 37,000ft soon I'm only to 27,000 ft due to nerves.... any tips?

 

[jkantiques]

I got that exact setup with the 2≠ 1500 lipos and love it, will try for that 37,000ft soon I'm only to 27,000 ft due to nerves.... any tips?

My tip to you is have 1 or 2 beers, pull your panties up, and floor it!!!
I do this when I do my 5 mile run......