DJI Avata, UK or USA?

[Wulfrune]

Greetings fellow pilots, I have a question for you all and would be grateful if someone be kind enough to give me the answer.

There seems to be a lot of unhappiness based on the DJI Avata, from what I can gather from searching the the Internet it appears that the rating on the UK DJI Avata seems to be a much lower specification than the ones that our American cousins can boast about. I get the impression that because of the rating of the drone here in the UK (C rating I think) it lacks the range and possibly the signal strength compared to the model available in the USA.

Question one: Am I right in the assumption that there is a noticeable difference between the UK and the USA DJI Avata?

And question 2: Would it be an idea to have a family member who lives in the USA to purchase a DJI Avata in the hopes that I can get a better drone?

Please excuse my ignorance, the only way one can learn is by listening to the help and advice of others, so I am listening to you guys, can you help me, please?

Thank you all in advance.

Kind regards

Wulfrune.

 

[slup]

... I get the impression that because of the rating of the drone here in the UK (C rating I think) it lacks the range and possibly the signal strength compared to the model available in the USA.

What you refer to... the difference in signal strengths (which affect the range & signal penetration), have nothing do do with the C rating. The difference comes from the regulations for radio transmission power allowed. In CE areas (where Europe belongs) the transmission power is much lower than in FCC areas (where for instance USA belongs).

No hardware differences is usually found between FCC & CE sold drones ... the switch between transmission power is done via a firmware function which switch depending on the GPS position.

So it will not help buying a drone in USA & bring it to UK ... once it acquire the GPS position in UK it will switch to CE transmission.

 

[MA2 317]

Would it be an idea to have a family member who lives in the USA to purchase a DJI Avata in the hopes that I can get a better drone?

Ya beat me to it slup


If the Avata is like the other DJI products, it doesn't matter where it's purchased, but rather where it's flown.

The drones pickup a GPS signal (Home Point) and depending on what part of the planet you're on is what determines the power output of the drone.

There have been fake GPS apps that have worked in the past to fool the drone into FCC mode, but not sure if they still work.

 

[Eagle Eye 62]

I feel sorry for you folks in the EU. The laws are much more restrictive and the range issues are common because of the radio limits imposed there.

 

[Wulfrune]

What you refer to... the difference in signal strengths (which affect the range & signal penetration), have nothing do do with the C rating. The difference comes from the regulations for radio transmission power allowed. In CE areas (where Europe belongs) the transmission power is much lower than in FCC areas (where for instance USA belongs).

No hardware differences is usually found between FCC & CE sold drones ... the switch between transmission power is done via a firmware function which switch depending on the GPS position.

So it will not help buying a drone in USA & bring it to UK ... once it acquire the GPS position in UK it will switch to CE transmission.

Thank you. I got the answer now, granted, it's not what I wanted to hear, but hey ho, nevermind.

 

[Kilrah]

There are tricks around to bypass the limitation for most DJI drones including the Avata.

 

[Cymruflyer]

There are tricks around to bypass the limitation for most DJI drones including the Avata.

Interesting, where might one learn about such work arounds? Just asking for a friend, of course!

 

[mucek]

As they said, it is firmware, not hardware limitation due to different RF rules. With numbers it is a big difference (100mW vs. 25mW if I am not mistaken), but in reality this is less than 50% range and also EU power is WAY beyond LOS flying.

I also found that range is (logically) very affected by surroundings: i.e. in the middle of nowehere (no RF interferences) or in the city (plenty of RF disturbances: WIFIs, GSM ...)

Regards,
G

 

[MA2 317]

Interesting, where might one learn about such work arounds? Just asking for a friend, of course!

I don't have this product but see it mentioned by other members.

Drone-Hacks, the best way to hack your DJI Drone

Drone-Hacks is the most easy and best way to hack your DJI Drone. Depending on your drone you can hack the NFZ, Altitude limit, FCC signal power and much more.

drone-hacks.com

There are apps in the stores that may work too?

fake gps app - Google Search

Fly safe.

 

[slup]

When it comes to flying close to the ground ... which you often do when flying FPV, it's a lot of planning involved ... where to stand & in which direction to look in order to cover as much flying area as possible.

Just to give a clue about what to expect when it comes to range & particular signal penetration. Below is one of my flying spots, some fields to stretch out over, some hedges, some power lines, large & small trees, small gaps, some small gravel roads... yeah, a little bit of everything. And nearly no people at all, can be some cows on one of the fields sometimes.

If standing on the red cross looking in the direction of the blue arrow with my DJI goggles V2 with 2 patch antennas & 2 omni directional antennas with the goggles & CaddX VTX unit in my quad equipped with the power hack on 1200mW (instead of 25mW in CE) & FCC hack with 50mbit/s (instead of 25Mbit/s in CE) I get below coverage down at ground level.

-The green line outlines the flying area
-No colored area nearly no transmission degradation, 20-25ms latency & 45-50Mbit/s to the goggles
-Yellow area have a noticeable degradation Mbit/s wise, but it's fully flyable with just little degradation in latency
-Orange area starts to be sketchy with increased latency & a very degraded google picture due to the low Mbit/s
-Red area is a no go ... will almost certainly get a failsafe there... this due to that it's shaded by the low tree covered hill

If going up on max legal height, 120m ... I easily can fly out over 4km.