Definitely range issues with Mini 3 pro

[davedrone 178]

Sounds like a problem with the drone. I've gotten over 24,000 feet (4+ miles) in a fairly crowded city but I flew higher than you.

 

[Johnno53]

I am currently on vacation in beautiful rural Vermont. I was trying to capture early morning light and fly out towards one of the small mountains. As I live in a suburban area with lots of potential interference and inability to keep my eye on my drones very far I don’t push range at home, at all.

I am at a home, launching from an elevated deck with only a few sparse trees in front of me. I took my Mini 3 Pro up to 300 feet so I could have a clear vision of it as I flew.

As I made my first sortie, straight ahead, at 2500 feet the controller lost the drone’s signal. I brought it back and tried again in another direction. Only 3500 feet before completely losing signal. But at 2500 feet again the signal was spotty and fine control was lost.

One of the great things about the extended battery is that I never worry about running out of juice, not being able to bring my Mini 3 home. But that’s not an issue at all when the range is so very limited. I have to guess the mistake that DJI made with the Mini 3 Pro was to amputate the front legs which is where the antennae reside in their other drones. One thing is for sure; When I go to FL next month I’m taking my Mavic 2 Pro, possibly my Mini2. The Mini 3 Pro can stay at home. Bah. Humbug!

Have attached YouTube footage of someone who sent a Mini 3 Pro 11000 metres (36000 ft) seems to be all to do with where and how high

 

[Johnno53]

I am currently on vacation in beautiful rural Vermont. I was trying to capture early morning light and fly out towards one of the small mountains. As I live in a suburban area with lots of potential interference and inability to keep my eye on my drones very far I don’t push range at home, at all.

I am at a home, launching from an elevated deck with only a few sparse trees in front of me. I took my Mini 3 Pro up to 300 feet so I could have a clear vision of it as I flew.

As I made my first sortie, straight ahead, at 2500 feet the controller lost the drone’s signal. I brought it back and tried again in another direction. Only 3500 feet before completely losing signal. But at 2500 feet again the signal was spotty and fine control was lost.

One of the great things about the extended battery is that I never worry about running out of juice, not being able to bring my Mini 3 home. But that’s not an issue at all when the range is so very limited. I have to guess the mistake that DJI made with the Mini 3 Pro was to amputate the front legs which is where the antennae reside in their other drones. One thing is for sure; When I go to FL next month I’m taking my Mavic 2 Pro, possibly my Mini2. The Mini 3 Pro can stay at home. Bah. Humbug!

Have attached YouTube footage of someone who sent a Mini 3 Pro 11000 metres (36000 ft) seems to be all to do with where and how high

 

[vindibona1]

Update…
I flew again from the same general location, but in a different direction this morning. I almost got out to 5000 feet. I was very surprised, but happily so. I think it was due to the topography flying east where the land dropped away as the drone flew further away. So perhaps the aggregate of trees was less and the signal became more clear. But I recall that when I first got my Mini 1 I was flying in a suburban area where the trees started only about 50-100 feet from me and everything beyond was heavily forested and I still easily got 2500 feet out.

Again, I have to think the Achilles heel of the Mini 3 Pro/DJI RC combo is the lack of exposed antennae. I haven’t tried the Mini 3 pro with the RCN1 controller, but will try that combination as soon as weather permits next week.

 

[inim civam]

Haven't read the all the posts.

What I did see though was powerlines that would have been in your signal path. They can be very problematic.

 

[davedrone 178]

What might be worse than range issues are the focus issues. No matter what I do, one out of four videos is soft and out-of-focus. No other DJI drone made today has this problem

 

[ExEvo]

What might be worse than range issues are the focus issues. No matter what I do, one out of four videos is soft and out-of-focus. No other DJI drone made today has this problem

Focus - or the lack of it - is the biggest issue for me. I haven't yet produced a video which was in sharp focus but I'm still trying. At least the most annoying AF bug - where a screen tap or half-button-press would focus for 1 second and then immediately revert to a blur - may have been fixed in the last FW upgrade.

 

[Johnno53]

Focus - or the lack of it - is the biggest issue for me. I haven't yet produced a video which was in sharp focus but I'm still trying. At least the most annoying AF bug - where a screen tap or half-button-press would focus for 1 second and then immediately revert to a blur - may have been fixed in the last FW upgrade.

Recently watched a YouTube video on this. Try this, On the main screen there is a AF button, change this to MF by pressing button then slide the slider to infinity, everything should then be in focus. The Mini 3 Pro is a little different to all other DJI's in that when the button is set on AF you can tap on the screen to focus on a particular thing. Hope this makes sense to you and solves the problem.

 

[ExEvo]

Recently watched a YouTube video on this. Try this, On the main screen there is a AF button, change this to MF by pressing button then slide the slider to infinity, everything should then be in focus. The Mini 3 Pro is a little different to all other DJI's in that when the button is set on AF you can tap on the screen to focus on a particular thing. Hope this makes sense to you and solves the problem.

Thanks and yes that is the workaround. But even then I don't think I'm getting sharp focus.

 

[Joe Horn]

Thanks and yes that is the workaround. But even then I don't think I'm getting sharp focus.

What SPEED is the SD card that you have installed in your bird? I was having the same issue as you until I realized that the drone was switching -- without warning -- between low-res and high-res due to card speed being insufficient. The end result looked exactly like the video was flipping between in focus and slightly blurry. One sure sign that this is happening is if the last few seconds of every video suddenly seem to flip into sharp focus.

 

[ExEvo]

What SPEED is the SD card that you have installed in your bird? I was having the same issue as you until I realized that the drone was switching -- without warning -- between low-res and high-res due to card speed being insufficient. The end result looked exactly like the video was flipping between in focus and slightly blurry. One sure sign that this is happening is if the last few seconds of every video suddenly seem to flip into sharp focus.

That's interesting. I'm using a new DJI-approved Sandisk Extreme 256GB SD card and I'm not seeing any resolution fluctuations. However, I've just finished a flight at 1080p/30 (I usually film at 4k/30) and I'm sure that the focus looks better, both in AF and MF (always viewing at native resolution on my 5k retina iMac). Touch wood, I haven't seen another buggy screen tap focus (lasting only 1-second) since last week's firmware upgrade.

 

[ExEvo]

Thanks for taking a look. I think you're right that in extending my flight eastwards I brought into play the close hedgerow trees which also appear at left on take-off. I took them out of the equation for the first part of the flight by positioning myself in an uncomfortable gap in that tree line (as you can see from my movement in the compass display at 1 minute in) but I then withdrew to my driveway at around 2m33s in. However, the trees in question are rather sparse at this time of year and had no foliage. When I try that mission again I will stay forward of the nearby trees for the duration and see what difference that makes.

I flew the same route today at the same 300ft height, again in ideal conditions, and this time I remained forward of the near line of trees and managed to improve my range. I didn't get my first amber range alert until 3110ft/948m) and the signal didn't drop until 4760ft/1450m when I was advised to RTH.

This is a welcome improvement but still a long way short of the 23000ft/7000m advertised range over ideal rural terrain (no buildings or trees). I would have presumably got a little further if I had been prepared to fly at 400ft altitude. However, this is more than far enough, or permissible, in real world use.

 

[cv2065]

Did you update your controller? I just received my Mini 3 Pro about a month or so ago. The range was not good at all out of the box. I updated my RCN1 controller and now I haven't seen a limit as of yet like before, so just a thought.

 

[ExEvo]

Did you update your controller? I just received my Mini 3 Pro about a month or so ago. The range was not good at all out of the box. I updated my RCN1 controller and now I haven't seen a limit as of yet like before, so just a thought.

Yes I did.

 

[Garry12]

I have owned my mini 3 pro for 3 weeks i find my signal is amazing even at 6kms away i have 3 bars and clear picture
taking off from my driveway with trees and wifi all around me

 

[Suzygs1000]

I am currently on vacation in beautiful rural Vermont. I was trying to capture early morning light and fly out towards one of the small mountains. As I live in a suburban area with lots of potential interference and inability to keep my eye on my drones very far I don’t push range at home, at all.

I am at a home, launching from an elevated deck with only a few sparse trees in front of me. I took my Mini 3 Pro up to 300 feet so I could have a clear vision of it as I flew.

As I made my first sortie, straight ahead, at 2500 feet the controller lost the drone’s signal. I brought it back and tried again in another direction. Only 3500 feet before completely losing signal. But at 2500 feet again the signal was spotty and fine control was lost.

One of the great things about the extended battery is that I never worry about running out of juice, not being able to bring my Mini 3 home. But that’s not an issue at all when the range is so very limited. I have to guess the mistake that DJI made with the Mini 3 Pro was to amputate the front legs which is where the antennae reside in their other drones. One thing is for sure; When I go to FL next month I’m taking my Mavic 2 Pro, possibly my Mini2. The Mini 3 Pro can stay at home. Bah. Humbug!

Here is a pic (low res as it is a screen record from the controller) of a flight I had this morning. I was lower than usual. I usually fly at 140m, but I was recording in 4k 60fps, so had no zoom. ( I didn't know this until I got home and googled why zoom didn't work). I was trying to spot crocs, so I came down until I started to lose signal, then went back up about 10 metres. As you can see, at 3.2kms, I have a perfect signal ... I fly from the local airport (unregulated), and have just about perfect LOS, although there is a fairly large town between the airport and where the drone is ... Yes, I could still just see the drone, I have exceptional good eyesight ....

 

[vindibona1]

Here is a pic (low res as it is a screen record from the controller) of a flight I had this morning. I was lower than usual. I usually fly at 140m, but I was recording in 4k 60fps, so had no zoom. ( I didn't know this until I got home and googled why zoom didn't work). I was trying to spot crocs, so I came down until I started to lose signal, then went back up about 10 metres. As you can see, at 3.2kms, I have a perfect signal ... I fly from the local airport (unregulated), and have just about perfect LOSView attachment 161059, although there is a fairly large town between the airport and where the drone is ... Yes, I could still just see the drone, I have exceptional good eyesight ....

Which controller did you use?

 

[Suzygs1000]

Which controller did you use?

I use the DJI RC which came with my Mini 3 Pro... I could never work out how to screen record using my phone and the Mini 2 ... the DJI RC is brilliant, as far as I am concerned ...

 

[vindibona1]

I use the DJI RC which came with my Mini 3 Pro... I could never work out how to screen record using my phone and the Mini 2 ... the DJI RC is brilliant, as far as I am concerned ...

There are definitely some advantages to the DJI RC. The controller is one of the reasons I bought the Mini 3 Pro.
I hope to get out today and do some testing. Skies are on the darker side and there is fresh snow on the ground. I can be on a 2nd floor balcony with only one row of trees separating me from a golf course and no tall buildings. It should be a good day to run a range test and keep VLOS to see when the controllers lose contact with the Mini 2 and Mini 3.

 

[vindibona1]

I did some testing later today. I flew from a 2nd floor balcony, over a golf course, then over some short buildings.
I did manage to get the Mini 3 out farther than I thought, but the RC reception started getting spotty very early, then came back and it was back and forth, having to aim the controller extremely precisely to try to keep the signal constant.

I wanted to try the RCN1 controller with the Mini 3 Pro, but I tried everything I could think of to get it to pair, and it wouldn't. I did let the controller do a firmware upgrade, which allowed the pairing mode, but it just didn't work. I must have done something wrong, but I followed the instructions to the best of myhh ability.

If I have a chance tomorrow I'll throw the Mavic 2 Pro up on the same course and see what I come up with.