Mini range CE/UK

[Malcx]

This is a post more for all those who ask about the range on the CE Mavic Mini.

This morning a, uuuuh, friend of mine went out to do a test with a pair of range extenders. The idea was like all the YouTube videos, to fly out to the point of disconnect and then put the extenders on to see how much further it would go.
After 3100m The wifi signal was still strong - there had been a couple of jitters in the video feed but nothing much and easily fixed by turning the controller to ensure it was pointing in the right direction. At this point I my friend decided to turn around and RTH without bothering to test the extenders as >3km is more than enough for this little beast.

Other notes:
It was mostly over countryside, but passed between two small villages of about 50 houses each, so there would have been some domestic interference.
Line of sight was clear with no obstructions. (VLOS was probably not maintained according to my friend)
Transmission was manually selected to ensure it was in the 2.4GHz range.
Wind was gusting at less than 5mph
Battery was about 45% at the end of the flight.

What sort of distances are other people getting with stock CE versions? This was pretty ideal conditions but I reckon the 4k mark would have been possible.

 

[BadWolf1]

I find the range varies a lot: I can fly in one direction along the edge of my village and get signal problems 200m away. Fly in the other direction, just out side the village and it's easy to exceed VLOS range - I've been genuinely surprised how far away I can see the mini, but 3KM means your friend would need super-powers to see it. I did fly at a beach a couple of weeks ago and I would have expected to be able to fly a long way out to sea as a test, but my mini wasn't keen on the idea at all.

 

[Quadbee]

What do you mean by range extenders? Those little plastic adapters with reflectors?



I really can´t imagine that they help to reach more than 2 km with the CE power of 100 mW in 2.4 Ghz.

In which altitude was the copter on the largest distance?

 

[Pushkur]

What do you mean by range extenders? Those little plastic adapters with reflectors?

View attachment 105578

I really can´t imagine that they help to reach more than 2 km with the CE power of 100 mW in 2.4 Ghz.

In which altitude was the copter on the largest distance?

Cheap Yaggi antennas MUCH better ..UK guy on You tube makes the 2.4s,the 5.8s are on eBay etc

 

[Smith2225]

I find the range varies a lot: I can fly in one direction along the edge of my village and get signal problems 200m away. Fly in the other direction, just out side the village and it's easy to exceed VLOS range - I've been genuinely surprised how far away I can see the mini, but 3KM means your friend would need super-powers to see it. I did fly at a beach a couple of weeks ago and I would have expected to be able to fly a long way out to sea as a test, but my mini wasn't keen on the idea at all.

I got 3022 metres from the beach in Wales without any help from extenders or a hack, maybe i was lucky

 

[BadWolf1]

I got 3022 metres from the beach in Wales without any help from extenders or a hack, maybe i was lucky

When I get down to Pembrokeshire I'll have a nice long strip of beach to try it with. My other test was on the Sussex coast and I flew past a pier pointed out to sea and went about 30 meters before getting signal issues, that seems like an aberration but unless the pier was doing something I could see why it would give up at one of the shortest distances. I wasn't going to push my luck too much over water.

 

[Malcx]

What do you mean by range extenders? Those little plastic adapters with reflectors?

View attachment 105578

I really can´t imagine that they help to reach more than 2 km with the CE power of 100 mW in 2.4 Ghz.

In which altitude was the copter on the largest distance?

No, not these reflectors but the Yagi's mentioned by Pushkar that are 2.4GHz specific (sold by a guy on YouTbe for £20).
The videos all show a marked improvement in range but I can't confirm as I've just not seen a need for them in action yet!

 

[Malcx]

When I get down to Pembrokeshire I'll have a nice long strip of beach to try it with. My other test was on the Sussex coast and I flew past a pier pointed out to sea and went about 30 meters before getting signal issues, that seems like an aberration but unless the pier was doing something I could see why it would give up at one of the shortest distances. I wasn't going to push my luck too much over water.

Was it an active pier, with businesses / tenants as they could have quite a few wifi signals that would interfere. Also were you on manual or automatic transmission which might have been the 5.8?

 

[Malcx]

In which altitude was the copter on the largest distance?

The aircraft was 50m above home, but was flying from the side of a hill over a valley that had a drop off of 40-50m.

I.e. 90-100m AGL but only 50m above the pilot

 

[Pushkur]

No, not these reflectors but the Yagi's mentioned by Pushkar that are 2.4GHz specific (sold by a guy on YouTbe for £20).
The videos all show a marked improvement in range but I can't confirm as I've just not seen a need for them in action yet!

The hard to find yaggi 2.4s .....as well as the 5.8s are now available from Ali express.
You can also find these silicon and copper yagi’s,they can also go on a smart controller,unlike the plastic ones.