Mavic 3 cine RC pro poor transmission perfomance

[martin974]

Hi,
Just wanted to share my experience and get thoughts from other users.
I'm using my M3 cine with the RC controller since release.
I did many tests as well as professional shootings.

Expect from the many missing features compared to the M2/Dji Go, my big disapointement is the transmission performance.
I constantly notice I have less range of image/control transmission with the M3C/RC-pro than my M2P/Mavic Controller + iPad.

So many times I have been disconnected from the aircraft or got a poor video feed when in the same situation my M2Pro/Ipad was working perfectly.
I had some low transmission issues during simple and easy flight, short disance, no obstacle.

I hope fw update will improve this, because on paper the RC pro + new OccuSync should give me way better performance.

Let me know your experience.
Cheers.

 

[Lasidora]

I have found it to be the opposite in my case, my Mavic 2 Pro would have signal breakup far more often than my new Mavic 3 & RC Pro in the same flight setups, I found the M2P to be no slouch in signal strength so for the M3 to better it is a big bonus for me.

 

[crlmjohnson]

I have only flown my M3 a few times, because of the weather. very cold here, Indiana, since I have own my M3.

so far...I have not experience and connection issues with the M3.

My Mavic2 pro. I have own since it release, and I have never experience any connection issues. and I used it for work. some weeks in the summer months, I do 2 -3 jobs a day. not so many in the cold months.

 

[zeusfl]

There are few reports of the Mavic 3 failing in short distances keep disconnecting and including flyaways.
I personally experience a flyaway. My Mavic flip and flyaway for no reason. DJI end up sending me a new unit free of charge.

Just to give you 2 examples, the first video was my Mavic 3 and the second one was @Suren here another forum member.

I just can recommend you 2 choices. Send back the M3 with the RC PRO to DJI for an exchange (seems to be working in this way) or wait for a firmware update. The last resource is to ask for your money back and buy the M3 once all the problems are resolved. In the meantime, I will be flying my Mavic 3 anymore until a new firmware is released fixing the issues sadly melting my 2 years DJI care warranty.

This is my honest opinion.

 

[Howard70]

Hello Martin974:

I had similar issues with my M3 Cine & RC Pro controller. I sent it in to DJI (California) for repair after some DJI support email correspondence. They found nothing wrong with the controller, but determined that the camera and gimbal needed replacement. The controller and repaired M3 Cine are now on their way back to me. I’ll update next week to report if the repair solved the problem.

Howard

 

[martin974]

Thanks you all for your kind replies.
Another tests today with the drone at -/+ 250m horizontal distance and 100m vertical and transmission issue, image freeze or lag. Based on my experience and the various replies here I can conclude something is wrong on the hardware side.

I will contact support for a replacement, I actually had somme issues with the camera out of the box that I managed to solve by doing a downgrade and fresh re-install of the FW of the aircraft.

Unfortunately, for now I'm far away from home for a shooting till end of February, DJI can't help me on this one as I'm in area without any DJI repair services. I'll try a factory reset of the controller tomorrow to see if it will improve my situation.

Thanks !

 

[sancap]

Thanks you all for your kind replies.
Another tests today with the drone at -/+ 250m horizontal distance and 100m vertical and transmission issue, image freeze or lag. Based on my experience and the various replies here I can conclude something is wrong on the hardware side.

I will contact support for a replacement, I actually had somme issues with the camera out of the box that I managed to solve by doing a downgrade and fresh re-install of the FW of the aircraft.

Unfortunately, for now I'm far away from home for a shooting till end of February, DJI can't help me on this one as I'm in area without any DJI repair services. I'll try a factory reset of the controller tomorrow to see if it will improve my situation.

Thanks !

I suggest you attach the M3 to the computer using DJI Assistant for Consumer Drone Series and do a factory refresh as well the factory reset you mentioned.

DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series) - Download Center - DJI

At the DJI Download Center, learn and downloadDJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series)

www.dji.com

 

[martin974]

I suggest you attach the M3 to the computer using DJI Assistant for Consumer Drone Series and do a factory refresh as well the factory reset you mentioned.

DJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series) - Download Center - DJI

At the DJI Download Center, learn and downloadDJI Assistant 2 (Consumer Drones Series)

www.dji.com

Already done, I had severe cameras issues at first, factory reset and FW reinstall solved it.
Transmission issues are still ongoing.

After the full factory reset of both the aircraft and the RC pro, I monitored the Radio level on the ground and I realized they are constantly moving out of range like I'm in a high interference area, which is not.

Here is a video of the transmission tab radio monitoring:

I noticed the same reading outdoor with full GPS lock and short distance flights without any obstacles.

 

[sancap]

Already done, I had severe cameras issues at first, factory reset and FW reinstall solved it.
Transmission issues are still ongoing.

After the full factory reset of both the aircraft and the RC pro, I monitored the Radio level on the ground and I realized they are constantly moving out of range like I'm in a high interference area, which is not.

Here is a video of the transmission tab radio monitoring:

I noticed the same reading outdoor with full GPS lock and short distance flights without any obstacles.

I just tried that with mine and mine is stable when the frequency is set to dual band. When I switch it to 2.4 GHz it looks like your video.

 

[Campin123]

Hello Martin974:

I had similar issues with my M3 Cine & RC Pro controller. I sent it in to DJI (California) for repair after some DJI support email correspondence. They found nothing wrong with the controller, but determined that the camera and gimbal needed replacement. The controller and repaired M3 Cine are now on their way back to me. I’ll update next week to report if the repair solved the problem.

Howard

I had a similar issue. I was having connection problems and sent the M3 and RC Pro back to Cali. When they examined the M3, they said the gimbal was locked and the camera was not focusing correctly. Weird thing is, I never experienced a gimbal or focusing issue. Received a call from the tech saying they were replacing the M3 and RC Pro with new units. I now have tracking numbers and both units have new s/n’s.

I was an early buyer and believe there are hardware issues with the first production units and DJI is trying to mitigate they botched release of the M3

 

[martin974]

I just tried that with mine and mine is stable when the frequency is set to dual band. When I switch it to 2.4 GHz it looks like your video.

Thanks for your test ! super appreciated.

 

[martin974]

I had a similar issue. I was having connection problems and sent the M3 and RC Pro back to Cali. When they examined the M3, they said the gimbal was locked and the camera was not focusing correctly. Weird thing is, I never experienced a gimbal or focusing issue. Received a call from the tech saying they were replacing the M3 and RC Pro with new units. I now have tracking numbers and both units have new s/n’s.

I was an early buyer and believe there are hardware issues with the first production units and DJI is trying to mitigate they botched release of the M3

Thanks for your info, I contacted DJI yesterday and after all those problems I'm pretty sure they will ask the drone for repair/replacement. Unfortunately I'm based in Canada but currently shooting in Réunion Island (Indian Ocean) where there is no DJI service available. Will need to wait my return home end of February and manage my aircraft current limitation.

 

[martin974]

I just tried that with mine and mine is stable when the frequency is set to dual band. When I switch it to 2.4 GHz it looks like your video.

Sorry for dumb question, how did your select between dual band and 2.4ghz ?
I only have the option to go Manual and Auto, and in manual I have 10Mhz, 20Mhz, and 40Mhz.
Thx

 

[Howard70]

Thanks for your info, I contacted DJI yesterday and after all those problems I'm pretty sure they will ask the drone for repair/replacement. Unfortunately I'm based in Canada but currently shooting in Réunion Island (Indian Ocean) where there is no DJI service available. Will need to wait my return home end of February and manage my aircraft current limitation.

Hello Martin:

Reunion Island! Sounds like a great place for a drone. Sorry to hear your M3 is acting up. The following is not recommended and could result in the loss of your drone, but…

I found that while my M3 would lose contact and video transmission at times the condition was intermittent. Sometimes, from the same spot, I could hardly take off while other times I could get the bird up and have a reasonable flight getting images and video. Furthermore, once my drone lost contact and started to RTH on it’s own, contact would occasionally be restored and I’d cancel RTH then getting some more images or video.

In my case, over several flights in many different areas, my drone never failed to RTH once contact was lost. Others have definitely not had such luck.

Thus, if I was in your situation and felt that I’d never get back to Reunion Island, or had a commercial obligation to produce, and I had DJI Care - I might risk losing the drone and continue to make what flights I could. I would assume that continuing after having problems would likely influence DJI’s willingness to replace a lost drone as a warranty issue.

Howard

 

[sancap]

Sorry for dumb question, how did your select between dual band and 2.4ghz ?
I only have the option to go Manual and Auto, and in manual I have 10Mhz, 20Mhz, and 40Mhz.
Thx

It is in the transmission page just above the graph you showed in your video.

 

[martin974]

Hello Martin:

Reunion Island! Sounds like a great place for a drone. Sorry to hear your M3 is acting up. The following is not recommended and could result in the loss of your drone, but…

I found that while my M3 would lose contact and video transmission at times the condition was intermittent. Sometimes, from the same spot, I could hardly take off while other times I could get the bird up and have a reasonable flight getting images and video. Furthermore, once my drone lost contact and started to RTH on it’s own, contact would occasionally be restored and I’d cancel RTH then getting some more images or video.

In my case, over several flights in many different areas, my drone never failed to RTH once contact was lost. Others have definitely not had such luck.

Thus, if I was in your situation and felt that I’d never get back to Reunion Island, or had a commercial obligation to produce, and I had DJI Care - I might risk losing the drone and continue to make what flights I could. I would assume that continuing after having problems would likely influence DJI’s willingness to replace a lost drone as a warranty issue.

Howard

Hey Howard,
Yes Reunion Island is my beautiful home, born and raised, super happy to be able to be back and finally see my family .

I'm 100% agree with you. So far I'm not worried of losing my drone, I totally lost connection only in non-critical conditions and the RTH worked well as you mentioned.

The real issue for me right now is that I need to work in short range only and it become harder to get my money shot or work with people. It's super frustrating because I loose my momentum in a shot due to the freeze of my video feed or lost signal.

I was so busy before leaving that I didn't had time to test properly the M3, I received 2 weeks before leaving. I thought about taking my M2P as backup but it was more gear to bring. Anyway, lesson learned.

If you are curious about Réunion, here is a short drone video I did in 2015 with a Phantom4, my very first drone experience : Zion — Martin Gros Photographe

If you are using instagram, feel free to add me, I'm posting some clips from the M3C sometimes. : @les_vues_

Thanks again for your recommendations, have a nice day.

Martin.

 

[martin974]

It is in the transmission page just above the graph you showed in your video.

Thanks, I was pretty sure I didn't had the option, you just confirmed it. Super weird...

 

[sancap]

Thanks, I was pretty sure I didn't had the option, you just confirmed it. Super weird...

You should have it, maybe you missed an update?? Double check your app version.

 

[sancap]

Thanks, I was pretty sure I didn't had the option, you just confirmed it. Super weird...View attachment 141891

Your country may not allow choosing frequencies.

 

[martin974]

You should have it, maybe you missed an update?? Double check your app version.

!00% sure I don't have this option, and yes I'm having the same version as you.
I did a factory reset + re-install of the RC pro FW and aircraft a few times during the last day. I did all the updates each times. Really odd...

In transmission I have :
-livestream service
-channel mode = auto / manual
-the signal graph