What if there are more than one Mavic Pro flying at the same location?

[Kestrel]

Im a fan of the Drone Racing League, and on TV those guys are spaced around 4-6 feet from eachother, and some are using old fashioned Spektrum transmitters. Not sure if they have conflicts but Ive never seen one crash as the cause.

They use different frequencies, They have receivers where you can change the frequency so no one crashes, but there are some consumer "racing" drones that can't change frequencies and then if you go to a race and try to fly or just fly with other people it can become a problem.

 

[warlock 31]

Hai ALL,

I am new here. I understand that there is no pairing required between the drone & the controller.
If there are other similar Mavic controller/s and drones which are active within the same flying distances cause disruption to communication to each other's devices ?

Regards

There is a pairing between controller and mavic

 

[dwallersv]

Just curious, What kind of interference do you think it will cause? Video interruption to me is the lesser of 2 evils. If I lose control and the Mavic RTH, that could be a disaster, especially if flying near another one.

I'm not familiar with the technical details of Occusync -- i.e. how the video, telemetry, etc. is multiplexed and modulated. That said, I'd be surprised if it was anything other than a vanilla digital stream -- i.e. by the time we're talking about the actual radio transmission, it's simply a digital stream -- there's no distinction between video and telemetry. That gets unpacked and separated back at the receiver.

The intereference, in a radio signals sense, manifests as noise in the recieved and extracted signal from the Mavic. There is no doubt a great deal of good, sophisticated error-correction applied to the digital stream coming back from the mavic, and DJI may apply greater redundancy and error-correction to the telemetry channel of the digital stream than to the video, so as to make it more noise/interference robust.

Put more simply, the system likely has been designed so as to lose video first and retain the ability to extract telemetry information (which relatively speaking is a tiny squirt of data compared to the video data, so adding crazy amounts of error-correction redundancy wouldn't be measurable in the overall data bandwidth).

Any transmitter around 2.4Ghz will cause these problems. Fire up a microwave oven within 20' of your RC while you're flying and I'll bet you lose contact immediately and completely until the nuker is turned off. Ever notice that 2.4Ghz wifi has problems in your home while the microwave is on, especially if you standing in the kitchen near it, waiting for that hot pocket, trying to do email on your phone connected to you home network?

 

[AlanTheBeast]

You are all missing the obvious.

In context, the RC is a powerful transmitter. The signal level of the distant Mavic compared to the transmit power of an RC right next to you is several orders of magnitude.

I would be surprised if another RC within a few feet wouldn't present a strong interference signal. It has nothing to do with the modulation techniques (@Thunderdrones is right -- current modern transmission and modulation techniques make channel conflict a thing of the past).

It has to do with, by analogy, someone shouting with a megaphone right next to you when you're trying to hear a very quiet shout from 300 yards away.

ANY transmitter within a few feet transmitting on 2.4Ghz at the same EIRP as the RC will cause the same interference. People need to simply keep an appropriate separation when flying together, probably no more than 10-20 feet being necessary.

I am a little offended at being told I'm missing the obvious.

It's quite obvious to me that a nearby transmitter can swamp a nearby receiver. That I (or others) didn't mention it does not mean we missed it.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

I have flown numerous times with dual controllers bound to one Mavic and have not had one single glitch in video or control in all that time. You would think that the controllers would interfere with eachother, but it has never happened. Maybe because we are bound to the same Mavic, but they are both within 3 feet of eachother and never a problem.

@Anthony Viscomi You guys have flown 5 or 10 DJI drones at the same time, any interference problems?

No issues at all

 

[AlanTheBeast]

Anthony,
Let's see the photo of the people controlling them when the MP's are 500 metres away ...

 

[mark_t]

We routinely fly as many as 4 Mavics at the same time with all 4 pilots standing close together.

The only time there is an issue is if any of the pilots face each other and even then it tends to be no more than an interference warning.

The aircraft are not kept close to us while flying like this.

 

[Former Member]

No issues at all

Your picture reminds me of the scene in Apocolypse Now when Col Kilgore decides to attack Charlies Point so his men could surf.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Anthony,
Let's see the photo of the people controlling them when the MP's are 500 metres away ...

Nah we are all usually within 10 feet of each other:

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Anthony,
Let's see the photo of the people controlling them when the MP's are 500 metres away ...

Actually, here is the video from that day.

 

[mark_t]

Nah we are all usually within 10 feet of each other:

That's pretty much how we do it as well.

 

[Former Member]

Actually, here is the video from that day.

Flying outside of the pattern at an RC field must be such a sense of freedom. No boundaries anymore with a drone. And no competing air traffic. But when a drone pilot yells out "dead stick" better run for cover.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Flying outside of the pattern at an RC field must be such a sense of freedom. No boundaries anymore with a drone. And no competing air traffic. But when a drone pilot yells out "dead stick" better run for cover.

Good group of guys down at that airfield, everyone must be an AMA member in order to fly there.

 

[Jenee]

I fly in an area where there are other drone fliers, both Mavic and others using Spectrum transmitters, as well as Rv aircraft. I do get an interference warning if someone with their transmitter or Mavic RC walks within 3 to 4 feet of me. Further than that is not a problem.

 

[Wr4ptr]

Yes, there is - depending on where you are in the world you can select "custom" in the WiFi settings

Yes! This exactly! We flew together again last night. Checked this setting and made sure our bandwidths were not overlapping. Problem solved! Thanks, the Internet! (And, specifically, Egika)