Mavic Mini signal issues when 3 horizontal feet away from me?

[uberamd]

Hey folks,

Sorry if this has been asked here before, I tried digging a bit but didn't see anything specifically applicable so I'll ask anyway. Feel free to shame me if my searching was poor

I've got a brand new Mavic Mini, US version (5GHz). I suspected this drone will have poor urban reception, but I'm actually baffled just by how poor it is under some basic conditions in by suburban neighborhood of 100 single-family homes.

This morning I took the drone up to between 200 and 300 feet in my backyard, and flew it out a little ways (VLOS), and the FPV feed was quite choppy. But again, suburban area, so maybe thats to blame with all the wifi interference and if so, whatever.

But then I did a RTH, it came back with pretty ok video, and when it was overhead and 3 feet away from me the video signal actually got worse... completely dropping out. I could see the drone with my eyes, but the controller couldn't get me a video signal? From 300 feet altitude to 60 feet altitude the video was just gone, and AirData has my calculated signal at 60%. How can that be? No amount of trying to orient the antenna to point at the drone would bring the signal back. Not even my 2.4GHz Phantom 4 from 2016 has this poor of video signal in my backyard. Transmission settings doesn't indicate a whole lot of channel interference.

Before y'all ask: I don't have a massive radio antenna in my home, controller had clear line of sight to the drone, but the FPV was gone.

Just for giggles, heres a video of the screen recording from when it cut out, then quickly replayed the entire missing section of video at like 10x speed:

 

[Thomas B]

? Incompatibility between shooting frame rate and replay frame rate in your settings. Shortening video in post can also do this.

 

[old man mavic]

Hey folks,

Sorry if this has been asked here before, I tried digging a bit but didn't see anything specifically applicable so I'll ask anyway. Feel free to shame me if my searching was poor

I've got a brand new Mavic Mini, US version (5GHz). I suspected this drone will have poor urban reception, but I'm actually baffled just by how poor it is under some basic conditions in by suburban neighborhood of 100 single-family homes.

This morning I took the drone up to between 200 and 300 feet in my backyard, and flew it out a little ways (VLOS), and the FPV feed was quite choppy. But again, suburban area, so maybe thats to blame with all the wifi interference and if so, whatever.

But then I did a RTH, it came back with pretty ok video, and when it was overhead and 3 feet away from me the video signal actually got worse... completely dropping out. I could see the drone with my eyes, but the controller couldn't get me a video signal? From 300 feet altitude to 60 feet altitude the video was just gone, and AirData has my calculated signal at 60%. How can that be? No amount of trying to orient the antenna to point at the drone would bring the signal back. Not even my 2.4GHz Phantom 4 from 2016 has this poor of video signal in my backyard. Transmission settings doesn't indicate a whole lot of channel interference.

Before y'all ask: I don't have a massive radio antenna in my home, controller had clear line of sight to the drone, but the FPV was gone.

Just for giggles, heres a video of the screen recording from when it cut out, then quickly replayed the entire missing section of video at like 10x speed:

when you are at that sort of height and very close to your home point its not so much the RC antennas being wrongly orientated but more to do with the return signal from the drone
if you can picture the antennas in the legs of the drone when its nearly overhead then the actual signal is coming out of the front and rear of the antenna not straight down
so if there is a lot of RF interference plus the signal is getting absorbed and bounced of the surrounding buildings its easy to see why you get signal loss

 

[Thomas B]

when you are at that sort of height and very close to your home point its not so much the RC antennas being wrongly orientated but more to do with the return signal from the drone
if you can picture the antennas in the legs of the drone when its nearly overhead then the actual signal is coming out of the front and rear of the antenna not straight down
so if there is a lot of RF interference plus the signal is getting absorbed and bounced of the surrounding buildings its easy to see why you get signal loss

Very true... I usually stand 20-25’ from TO/landing location.

 

[uberamd]

Thanks for pointing those things out, I hadn’t considered the signal from the antenna locations within the drone, very interesting stuff.

One more data point: I can land my Mavic Air 2 under these same circumstances with perfect signal and clear as day video reception to my tablet display, so this must specifically be how the Mini orients their antennas, as neither the Air 2 nor the Phantom 4 suffer from this odd behavior.

Thanks again for the pointers!

 

[old man mavic]

please remember that the MM does not have occusync and also it is less powerful than its bigger mavs ,and this impacts on how well it communicates between itself and the RC if you are almost straight overhead, then the antennas should be pointing straight out from the RC so the flat surface is pointing upwards

 

[Paul51]

Agree with Old man, problems with signal, if the Mini is directly above. Try to create an angle with you and the drone, Better chance of a good signal.