Interesting video on range issues

Eagle Eye 62 · Jun 27, 2022

SpinItUp · Jun 28, 2022

The range issue is down to the box multi-directional design of the antennae. It picks up signals from your pacemaker, just DJI saving money with what they've marketed as innovative BS.

As soon as you put real aerials into the controller you get a much better range with less interference.

I think all that YT'er found was the window with the bandwidth. (Oooh look a pretty graph showing realtime output)

Eagle Eye 62 · Jun 28, 2022

SpinItUp said:
The range issue is down to the box multi-directional design of the antennae. It picks up signals from your pacemaker, just DJI saving money with what they've marketed as innovative BS.

As soon as you put real aerials into the controller you get a much better range with less interference.

I think all that YT'er found was the window with the bandwidth. (Oooh look a pretty graph showing realtime output)

While I do agree that DJI "Cheaped Out" on the antenna design, from my experience, I think what he is saying has merit. It will be interesting to see if DJI releases a firmware update related to this issue similar to the Mavic 3 Sat lock problem. Only time will tell.......

Scoobychief · Jun 30, 2022

Eagle Eye 62 · Jun 30, 2022

Scoobychief said:
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Soooooo, how about you tell us how you made this modification and show us what parts you used, the cost, how you installed it, etc?

Scoobychief · Jun 30, 2022

Eagle Eye 62 said:
Soooooo, how about you tell us how you made this modification and show us what parts you used, the cost, how you installed it, etc?

I've no idea its not mine i stumbled across it on youtube, looks good hey, pretty sure wont be long before we can get this little mod done, hopefully extend the range so what

scro · Jun 30, 2022

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80000ft x 2 is just over 30miles on 1 battery, with speeds just over 30mph... even with the bigger batter that sounds suspiciously long. Note how the battery looks to still be over 50% as the drone approaches home. It's achievable, but there must be some serious modding is going on there.

Stach · Jun 30, 2022

scro said:
80000ft x 2 is just over 30miles on 1 battery, with speeds just over 30mph... even with the bigger batter that sounds suspiciously long. Note how the battery looks to still be over 50% as the drone approaches home. It's achievable, but there must be some serious modding is going on there.

You have 1 too many digits in your estimate. The flight went out around 8,700 ft, so only around 3.3 miles total.

scro · Jul 1, 2022

Stach said:
You have 1 too many digits in your estimate. The flight went out around 8,700 ft, so only around 3.3 miles total.

You are indeed right. Thanks for the correction! Not sure how I convinced myself there was an extra digit in the distance readout

! It all seems much more plausible now.

8700ft range is more than adequate for me, as I typically only go out 300-400m max

I've achieved 2600m (8530ft) with a completely stock mini 1 and its RC. I might have managed a bit further as there was no indication of signal failing, but decided to return home as I was already beyond the range stated in the specs. Conditions were quite favourable, like in the video above.

I have seen a heavily modified mini 1 with controller hooked up to power amplifier and serious high-gain antennas reach distances of 27km or so on a 1-way mission. It was impressive!