How many bars is weak

[bonmot]

I tried flying 850 meters away from my home in the neighborhood. A lot of houses of course.
I was standing in my backyard.
at 850 meters the remote signal bar was bouncing between 3 and 4 bars and the video was lagging a little bit.
so I turned around and flew it home.

So was I at the limit of the distance in my case today?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

I don't think so. There's a lot of factors here. Here are some thoughts:

• You're not out until you're out (with a "signal lost" message on your screen).
• And if total signal loss happens, you should get a safety RTH (be sure to check your RTH height each time you fly out to be sure you're above obstacles on the way back).
• You can have iffy video feedback, but still have decent control of the craft (and recording to your SD card).
• If, as you few out, you stayed at a relatively low altitude and then started passing buildings and trees, then your signal can go down. You don't say if you were LOS (line-of-sight), but raising your altitude could increase signal in such cases.
• Antenna orientation matters. When you see low bars, check to see if the flat side of each antenna blade is facing the craft (not the point of antenna)
• There could be interference where you are flying from various sources, someone operating a ham radio, something. The same height and distance could be no loss of bars in another location. So no, that doesn't not indicate that you've hit the limits of your range.
• That last point can be tested by going out to a flat piece of land in the country, go up 80-120m, and see much distance you can get before the signal gets low.

Chris

 

[bonmot]

Thanks for the information. Very helpful.
I always wanted to test return to home with lost of signals.
Good idea to find a flat land and fly the M2Z out, with antenna folded on the remote, set the RTH default at 30 meters. When I get the lost of signal I cover the antenna or turn around for a while to “activate” RTH. And see what happens.

is it a good idea to try?

 

[Not A Speck Of Cereal]

is it a good idea to try?

An easier way might be to power off the remote.

Chris

 

[bonmot]

An easier way might be to power off the remote.

Chris

Cool. Great. That makes the test even easier to manage.

 

[new2mavic]

.... the remote signal bar was bouncing between 3 and 4 bars and the video was lagging a little bit...

There are two signals : the remote control signal and the live video signal. Attention should be paid to both signals when flying. In your case, the video signal was bad probably because you were located in a relatively high-interference environment ( lots of houses around ) but the remote control signal received by the drone was still good because there was little interference on the drone's side. In an interference free environment, my experience is that both the RC and video signals should have the same number of signal bars.

 

[KB9Radio]

I tried flying 850 meters away from my home in the neighborhood. A lot of houses of course.
I was standing in my backyard.
at 850 meters the remote signal bar was bouncing between 3 and 4 bars and the video was lagging a little bit.
so I turned around and flew it home.

So was I at the limit of the distance in my case today?

I must be weird, the farthest I have taken my M2Z out is around 400 meters. By that time I really couldn't see it without special lighting, and don't see why I would want to go any further. If I have something further away than that I wish to film, I would just drive closer to that location. I guess you always have the "because I can" reason, but just seems crazy to me. Maybe it's because I've had drones for years, but I just have no desire to fly as far as I possibly can. I like to know that my M2Z has much more range than I need, just for peace of mind, but hope to never need it. As I said, I must be weird.