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Controller bought with drone vs $500 Smart Controller

Joe Herrera

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I use the controller that came with the drone. I've noticed even with maintaining "line of signt", when I fly roughly a quarter mile away, the video signal to my cell phone screen staggers a bit but does not cut out completely. When I play the video on my laptop, it's smooth with no drop outs. Is the signal stronger with the smart controller? Does anyone with a smart controller experience what I just described?
 
What drone and phone combo are you using?.... The smart controller is known to reduce range by a bit so that is not likely to be the answer.

Depending on which of DJI's offerings you are using and the environment you are flying in, a quarter mile may be all you can expect. Also some phones if a little older can't handle the DJI Fly app very well.
 
I very much doubt that is a signal strength issue. I would bet good money that the bars on your screen are filled the entire time at 1/4 mile away, and if so you don't have a signal strength problem. Much more likely is that the data feed between your controller and whatever display you are using (smartphone, tablet, etc) is getting briefly interrupted, either because of horsepower limitations with the display or because the OS in the that unit thought it had better things to do ... like maybe interim saving the drone log file or responding to some other input.

I've had the same thing happen fairly often with my MA2, the standard controller, and an iPad 10.2. I've checked the signal bars each time and they have never been low. It's something else causing the glitch, but as long as it's just a brief interruption it's more of an annoyance than it is a problem. My iPad only has 32 GB of memory so I guess it's possible that could be the problem. I maybe should have bought the version with 256 GB, but I don't (knowingly) have any other apps on the iPad active when I fly. I would have thought 32 GB was sufficient since it suposedly isn't buffering video ... but maybe it is.
 
I very much doubt that is a signal strength issue. I would bet good money that the bars on your screen are filled the entire time at 1/4 mile away, and if so you don't have a signal strength problem. Much more likely is that the data feed between your controller and whatever display you are using (smartphone, tablet, etc) is getting briefly interrupted, either because of horsepower limitations with the display or because the OS in the that unit thought it had better things to do ... like maybe interim saving the drone log file or responding to some other input.

I've had the same thing happen fairly often with my MA2, the standard controller, and an iPad 10.2. I've checked the signal bars each time and they have never been low. It's something else causing the glitch, but as long as it's just a brief interruption it's more of an annoyance than it is a problem. My iPad only has 32 GB of memory so I guess it's possible that could be the problem. I maybe should have bought the version with 256 GB, but I don't (knowingly) have any other apps on the iPad active when I fly. I would have thought 32 GB was sufficient since it suposedly isn't buffering video ... but maybe it is.
I do not worry about the iPad memory since I have turned off the caching. I have 32 GB too. I store nothing on the iPad. It is strictly for viewing drone, and streaming videos.
 
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I have the Mavic 2 Pro and an old Android LG K20 PLUS phone which I'm soon going to be replacing because of general performance problems. I didn't think the cellphone would be an issue, but I guess it depends on the DJI app performance in the phone, correct?
 
I have the Mavic 2 Pro and an old Android LG K20 PLUS phone which I'm soon going to be replacing because of general performance problems. I didn't think the cellphone would be an issue, but I guess it depends on the DJI app performance in the phone, correct?
Very much so.... the cellphone could be the entire problem. The Mavic 2 Pro has plenty of range normally.... it can be impeded by lots of trees and stray electronic interference. If you can do your range testing in as rural of setting as possible where you can see the drone clearly at all times..... that should give you a truer sense of the range and whether you have another issue.
 
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