MINI 3 PRO RANGE

[STEMx412]

Have been flying my new mini 3 pro in Northern Virginia and signal is lost about a half mile away from take off...(800m) anyone else have range issues with this drone? Will an update eventually fix this?

 

[Xenomorph UK]

Have a quick look within the M3P forum and there is a few posts already started in relation to range issues.

 

[IT-Junkie]

I’m getting the same exact thing. Around 2500 ft it shows. Then I loose range. I thought I was gonna get like 10k. Hell I’d be happy with 5 k I guess at this point. Love the drone. Hate the range issues. I’ve done all the updates it shows

 

[STEMx412]

I’m getting the same exact thing. Around 2500 ft it shows. Then I loose range. I thought I was gonna get like 10k. Hell I’d be happy with 5 k I guess at this point. Love the drone. Hate the range issues. I’ve done all the updates it shows

Yeah I've been doing all the updates too...I was hoping an update would fix it by now but still having issues...

 

[4wd]

I seem to be able to go well beyond 2km around 7500ft on CE power, but you do need full line of sight no trees never mind buildings between.
It tends to start to dip then switches channels or something and back up to 4 or 5 bars.

 

[MR.G]

I flew mine out to 1,800 feet away yesterday on its first flight and had no disconnections. I was sitting on my patio flying in all directions around me. I did get into the orange for signal, because I was flying behind my condo patio walls, but it stayed connected. I do not recall my MM2 RC signal getting low flying the same pattern.

I like the M3P so far, but I feel like without external antennas on the DJI RC (non-Pro) is going to have limited range in high density suburban environments (walls, lots of Wi-Fi networks). In an open environment, I think it should be fine. Hopefully DJI gets this figured out at some point, but the lack of extendable antennas may be an issue for some.

 

[Jdrone]

Testing a strobe the other night, with a very clear open line of sight, no obstructions at all, above a power corridor, I was able to clealrly see the strobe at 1 mile, and had plenty of signal on the RC, I could have gone farther with both signal and LOS but did not see the need to, I'm more than good with 1 mile, that said, from behind a row of trees at a lake, not even too thick started to go all red @ ~800 ft, rotated the RC 90% and had full white bars, rotated back and went red, walked through the trees with perfect LOS and all good, so the antennas seem to be more directional, and the N1 seemed to penetrate the trees better, but I'm thinking places that I was at in the Spring are definitely more densely covered in leaves now thus the signal drops?? - I'll have to pull the N1 out next time to compare the 2 in a dense environment, I've kind of been questioning the antenna placement / orientation - I'm not about to pop it open and void any warranty, but tempted - I'm sure someone might have already done both a field check and some RC surgery??

 

[MavicMike55]

Still waiting on the next FW update. From what I heard, it will address the range issues.

 

[John48]

Have been flying my new mini 3 pro in Northern Virginia and signal is lost about a half mile away from take off...(800m) anyone else have range issues with this drone? Will an update eventually fix this?

Had mine Kilometer away no problems still full signal.

 

[MarkO]

Up at my cabin in the White Mountains, I got 3 miles pretty easily. Seems to have about the same range as my mini 2, and Mavic 1

 

[Sorgelig]

~7.5KM (RTH kicked in due to battery level). FCC, DJI RC.

 

[CanadaDrone]

Still waiting on the next FW update. From what I heard, it will address the range issues.

When I bought mine I asked the dealer if people had returned any for range issues.

What they told me was that 2 individuals had, and both units were sent to DJI (you need to send the controller too as it could be either). DJI replaced one person's controller, but did not find any hardware to be defective on the other unit, and said that they should notice a difference with the next FW (echoing what you have heard). While that's encouraging, it seems odd to me that in two different drones with no apparent hardware faults, one is fine and one has to be fixed with FW, so it's hard to say what the actual problem is for the few that are having them.

The good news is that they sell literally thousands of drones and only two M3Ps were returned with range cited as the issue, so the vast majority of people should be OK.

I'll be testing mine soon but I respect the VLOS laws so it would have to be pretty terrible for me to notice.