Litchi. Beyond controller range.

[Nostris]

I have a Mavic Air 1. I like to use Litchi, however I have a question. There is an old church close to home. I have tried to film it, but it is just beyond the WiFi range of my Mavic Air. So, the question is..... As the waypoints are uploaded to the drone, am I right in thinking that I could film the out of range church, using Litchi. So far I haven’t hat the courage to try, just in case it won’t work beyond the controller range. I love my drone but the short battery life and 6/800 meters range is an issue at times.

 

[slup]

Yeah, Litchi can be set to continue the mission even though it goes out of remote range ... certain mission features will then be lost though, the auto gimbal pitch to focus poi's & speed changes will not work for instance, instead those remain as they were when the connection was lost.

Then regarding your short range of just 600-800 m ...

I, as you have the MA1 & when I get those short distances either the MA1 goes out of LOS (some obstruction in between RC & MA1) or the area is heavily disturbed by other WiFi networks. With FCC mode activated (spoofed GPS position hack), with 5,8GHz in a sub-urban area where every household have their own network I at least can get 1000m & in rural areas with 2,4GHz around 3500-4000m. This if I can keep LOS.

 

[Rolandmavic]

Ik have done An 11minutes, 5km mission on 45 meters altitude to have a look on the deserted site where tomorrow land happens. Due to Trees and interference after 800 meters i lost communication. The next 6 minutes I was looking to a black screen . The moment I was convinced my mp1 was lost . A green bar popped up indicating wp. A few minutes later she landed on exact the same spot she left.
And about the video , perfect just as I had programmed.
The only thing you need for a mission are steel nerves and self confidence.

 

[Dave Maine]

You loose some camera controls if you loose connection to the rc, but it will do the basics properly, and take basic pictures.

Check the user manual for which features of the camera don’t work without connection. This is not a killer problem, but something to be aware of if you want to get fancy.

 

[Facherty]

Agreed with all other respondents: provided that your distant waypoints do not have a low speed that would not allow the aircraft to return if they were "stuck" at it, the drone will come back...

However, the times when I have lost it have always:
a. been my fault - sent it too far, or behind a hill
b. resulted in a very unreassuring message on the the screen: Your aircraft is out of control rather than Signal lost. Your aircraft will complete its mission at a speed of X.