Mavic Mini 2 Range - EUROPE

[kajo_vz_cro]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, and I am also new to drones. I am not sure if I have posted this in the right place so please put it in the right section if I missed it.

Anyway, a few days ago, I got myself Mavic Mini 2. What concerns me is its range. So, I live in Croatia (Europe), in a very small town (something like 50 000 people in total). There are almost no skyscrapers or tall buildings here. Mostly family houses. Anyway, in that urban area I have managed to get my Mini 2 something like 300m from my position and it lost signal, RTH was enabled and Mini 2 got back home. I tried in a rural area with no houses present. I managed to get something like 500m from my position and I started to get low signal messages. My flight height in both situations was something like 50m. I am not sure if this is normal, but for me, those numbers seem a bit low. I saw YouTube videos where people are flying in urban areas (and much more populated areas than my town) to something like 2.5 km. Since I am new to all this, those distances that I am achieving, aren't they a bit too low? If they are, what could be a cause for this?

Thanks for the help!

 

[gb160]

That does seem low.
Height helps, so go higher.
Make sure you have nothing between yourself and the drone.
Make sure you're pointing the antenna on the controller at the drone.

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

That does seem low.
Height helps, so go higher.
Make sure you have nothing between yourself and the drone.
Make sure you're pointing the antenna on the controller at the drone.

Hey, thanks for your answer.

So basically, I am always turned towards the drone so I am facing it with my controller.

When we talk about things between myself and the drone, well basically I do not have the line of sight, it would need to go very very high to have it even with just family houses around (no tall buildings). Is it possible that I will need to fly higher to get range?

 

[gb160]

Hey, thanks for your answer.

So basically, I am always turned towards the drone so I am facing it with my controller.

When we talk about things between myself and the drone, well basically I do not have the line of sight, it would need to go very very high to have it even with just family houses around (no tall buildings). Is it possible that I will need to fly higher to get range?

Yeah you need line of sight buddy, range will reduce drastically otherwise so this is probably your main problem here...the best way to maintain line of sight is by increasing height.

If there is something directly between yourself and the drone, trees/buildings/anything else...then expect greatly reduced range.

The black plastic part at the top of the controller is what houses the antenna, so keep the flat top of that pointing at the drone.

FCC mode will increase power/signal if you're in CE region.
There are solutions for that, PM me for more details.

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

Yeah you need line of sight buddy, range will reduce drastically otherwise so this is probably your main problem here...the best way to maintain line of sight is by increasing height.

If there is something directly between yourself and the drone, trees/buildings/anything else...then expect greatly reduced range.

The black plastic part at the top of the controller is what houses the antenna, so keep the flat top of that pointing at the drone.

FCC mode will increase power/signal if you're in CE region.
There are solutions for that, PM me for more details.

hm, yes but I wonder (I could calculate it later), in case that we are talking about a range of 2 km as an example. if family houses in this area are something around 8-9 m in height, I wonder how much height I should have with my drone to keep a line of sight . it is simple math actually, but I have a feeling from my head that it should be really high to maintain it haha. Anyway, I will send you PM.

 

[gb160]

Houses = interference = reduced range mate.

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

yes but what I do not understand, how the people achieve that high distances in urban areas. if you think about it, a normal city has skyscrapers that are really high. we are talking about only houses here. even with just a house nearby, it is not possible to maintain the line of sight between the controller and the drone itself. the only idea that comes to my mind, in that case, is that people are flying drones standing on a tall building. that way they would have a line of sight. but standing on the ground, I don't see how is this possible.

I watched a few videos on youtube, there is one that I liked in particular. let me show you:

I think that this video was recorded in the UK. Anyway, that guy is flying really far. there are buildings etc, it seems like a bigger city. Please check the attached picture that I have posted. This is a picture taken with my drone when it was hovering right above my house. You can see how the town looks. 99% of houses. and I am achieving only 300m.

In my opinion, if the line of sight impacts range that much, that guy in the video must stand on a really tall building to achieve this. I do not see another way to do it.

What do you think?

 

[scro]

Instead of flying the drone higher to maintain an unobstructed path between the controller and drone can you increase your height somehow? Stand in an open upstairs window or balcony, stand on a small hill, or an open sports field/park?This will make a big difference.

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

Instead of flying the drone higher to maintain an unobstructed path between the controller and drone can you increase your height somehow? Stand in an open upstairs window or balcony, stand on a small hill, or an open sports field/park?This will make a big difference.

Hmm not really. I mean my house is something like 6-7 m in height. The window is something like 4-5 m. I mean I can try doing that. It is rain at the moment, so I can't try it right away

 

[scro]

In the example video you gave in post #7 it appears the person flying has taken off from one side of some open water and flown out over the water first. This means they have a reasonably clear line of sight right down to nearly the horizon, and the closest tall buildings are quite far away. If your launch site is surrounded by even not very tall buildings (like the photo you provide then your line of sight is only really up into the air in a wide cone shape. as soon as the drone flies out of that cone signal strength will be much lower.

The frequencies used by the controller are quite quickly absorbed by trees, buildings etc so as soon as you put something between the controller and the drone the signal strength is affected.

The ideal location for getting good range is to be on something taller than the surrounding landscape, like a rooftop or a hill.

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

In the example video you gave in post #7 it appears the person flying has taken off from one side of some open water and flown out over the water first. This means they have a reasonably clear line of sight right down to nearly the horizon, and the closest tall buildings are quite far away. If your launch site is surrounded by even not very tall buildings (like the photo you provide then your line of sight is only really up into the air in a wide cone shape. as soon as the drone flies out of that cone signal strength will be much lower.

The frequencies used by the controller are quite quickly absorbed by trees, buildings etc so as soon as you put something between the controller and the drone the signal strength is affected.

The ideal location for getting good range is to be on something taller than the surrounding landscape, like a rooftop or a hill.

Yeah. I will try to do some tests here. I will post back how it goes. I will try to fly higher and I will do a second test where I will be somewhere with no buildings at all. I will see how it works then. I'll post it back here. However, this **** rain doesn't want to stop now :-/

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

Hey,

Today there was some nice weather so I tried to retake the flight. I listen to your advice and I tried to get the drone much higher this time - around 200m. Now I got like 1 km range with no problem. I didn't push it more but I think it would go further with no problems. It seems that 50m height like I did before is way too low, and I was losing line of sight. As soon as I raised it more, it handled it with no problems at all.

Anyway, thank you for your advice! Mods you can mark this as solved!

 

[scro]

Good to hear you're getting better range now with improved signal path between the controller and drone.

Do get familiar with your local drone laws. Most countries have a maximum altitude limit of 120m above the local ground, and a quick internet search makes me think Croatia has this rule too. To fly higher than that you need to get special permission as you start to enter airspace for manned aircraft and much more needs to be considered for the flight to be safe.?

It's not for me to tell you how to fly, but I also don't want you accidentally to get into trouble through unawareness of the relevant laws and rules ?

 

[slup]

Also note that it's beneficial for the maximum distance that you try to have some distance to the nearest object that will/can obstruct the line of sight ... made below sketch with your first flight height 50m, and a 7m tall house. Where the red line starts you're standing 20m from the house ... the blue only 10m from it ... take note of what happens with the max LOS distance.

The taller building in the sketch is 36m tall & it's on 100m distance from you ... & the red LOS still clears it.

So when trying to fly far surrounded by taller objects the distance from the objects can have major influence on the max LOS distance. Try to find a park or a soccer field & start there, then you will automatically have put some distance between you & the nearest object that can block the LOS.

(Click on it to make it larger)

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

Hey,

No problems about letting me know about max allowed flying height. I appreciate all recommendations since I am new to drones .

Also, that picture makes perfect sense. I actually managed to position myself that way so I didn't have much interference. I Have to try this a bit more but I think that I will be able to fly all over our town since all buildings are low here. The main problem was that I was a bit afraid to fly that high before and 50m is low, now I realize that

 

[mucek]

As working frequency is 2,4/5,8 GHz, this means that visual line of sight is almost required - even some trees or something will block signal significantly. I am missing those 35/40 MHz days sometimes

Regards,
Gregor

 

[kajo_vz_cro]

Yeah, I understand. Well, I do not know how things worked before since this is my first drone ever. The main problem at least for me, it was very hard to imagine that line of sight is possible if something is like 5 km far away. In my head, it was possible in the case that there were no buildings, trees, or anything, just empty fields. However, if you put anything in between I always imagined that drone should be very high in that case. It ends up that in reality, it doesn't need to be that high to maintain a line of sight. Eh, newbie mistakes I tried with 50 m height and it really didn't work. Now when I raise it to 100m, it works much better. 150m it covers the bigger portion of the whole of my town.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

"Line of sight" (LOS) in the context of this thread means that a straight line drawn between you and the drone would not be obstructed, e.g. looking at the Moon, if a building etc. blocks sight of it then you do not have LOS.
In relation to seeing the drone at a distance you are refering to what is termed "visual line of sight", often abbreviated to VLOS. I would be surprised if you could see a Mini 2 at a distance of 1km let alone 5km. 600m is about my VLOS limit with a MM though younger eyes may reach further.
If you check the Croation drone rules I think you will find there is in general a height limit 120m above the ground beneath the drone though Drone Laws in Croatia | UAV Coach (2020) does say "Do not fly your drone higher than 120 meters above the surface or 50 meters above the obstacle, whichever is greater." which might be handy.
I doubt the video in post #7 was shot in the UK, the van appears to drive on the wrong side of the road for one thing and the architecture looks wrong. If it was a UK flight then it is in breach of UK drone rules which currently do not allow permit flights over built up areas.
I would suggest you look up the CCAA drone rules before you do much more flying, possibly CCAA - Hrvatska agencija za civilno zrakoplovstvo CCAA - Hrvatska agencija za civilno zrakoplovstvo

 

[flista]

well hope this help with this new post, I think its a very rare problem as I cant find any post for this.
just got my mini 2 a couple days ago, with a range only reaching 300m from my takeoff point with an open sea in front. If I remember correctly I only can choose the 2.5ghz range, no 5.8ghz at the time. But when I hand my controller to my friend who has an air 2 with his phone, everything got fixed. Got my phone connected and the problem has disappeared for me, achieving full signal from 2.5km range above the city of hong kong.

hope this gives some sight to this problem.

 

[gufferr]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, and I am also new to drones. I am not sure if I have posted this in the right place so please put it in the right section if I missed it.

Anyway, a few days ago, I got myself Mavic Mini 2. What concerns me is its range. So, I live in Croatia (Europe), in a very small town (something like 50 000 people in total). There are almost no skyscrapers or tall buildings here. Mostly family houses. Anyway, in that urban area I have managed to get my Mini 2 something like 300m from my position and it lost signal, RTH was enabled and Mini 2 got back home. I tried in a rural area with no houses present. I managed to get something like 500m from my position and I started to get low signal messages. My flight height in both situations was something like 50m. I am not sure if this is normal, but for me, those numbers seem a bit low. I saw YouTube videos where people are flying in urban areas (and much more populated areas than my town) to something like 2.5 km. Since I am new to all this, those distances that I am achieving, aren't they a bit too low? If they are, what could be a cause for this?

Thanks for the help!