Official Mavic 2 Range Leaderboard

[SkyNinja]

Do you have an iOS screen recorder? My mini runs great on the M2 until you turn on the screen video recorder.

After have issues with the screen recording app on my iPhone I started using the “record it” app. It has worked my last two flights.

‎Record it! :: Screen Recorder

 

[beanbubba]

After have issues with the screen recording app on my iPhone I started using the “record it” app. It has worked my last two flights.

‎Record it! :: Screen Recorder

what generation iOS device are you using? What were the issues you encountered?

 

[beanbubba]

Here is the source for that roof mount antenna:

http://www.l-com.com/wireless-antenna-24-ghz-mgur-series-vehicle-mount-omni-antennas

Make sure and get the low gain 3 dBi version. When you are chasing a vehicle, you can be directly overhead at max altitude. Antennas with higher gain have a big dead spot directly overhead. Picture the antenna coverage pattern just like a doughnut, the higher the gain, the bigger and flatter the "hole" is directly overhead of the antenna. This is the one application where the lowest gain antenna possible is by far the best choice. This antenna paired with the Sunhans 10W booster amp far exceeded my expectations. It is assumed that if you are chasing, you will always stay within a 5-10 thousand foot radius (at any altitude) of the vehicle at all times to get the best performance from this setup.

 

[SkyNinja]

After have issues with the screen recording app on my iPhone I started using the “record it” app. It has worked my last two flights.

‎Record it! :: Screen Recorder

Are use my iPhone X, I would start the screen recording before my flight, but somewhere during the fight the screen recording would stop and not save any part of the flight.

 

[beanbubba]

Question to the group. When chasing your vehicle in motion, what is the preferred RTH settings?

Today on my chase flight, the standalone battery charging my radio amplifier ran out of gas just minutes after the flight. I hadn't even thought about RTH and realized I would have lost my bird if the flight would have gone 2 minutes longer.

 

[mlash]

Question to the group. When chasing your vehicle in motion, what is the preferred RTH settings?

Today on my chase flight, the standalone battery charging my radio amplifier ran out of gas just minutes after the flight. I hadn't even thought about RTH and realized I would have lost my bird if the flight would have gone 2 minutes longer.

Set to "Hover" if your chasing, and then when it runs out of juice it will just land if you don't somehow regain connection. Of course if you have a lot of battery left you might have to sit there a while.

 

[lolo780]

Either set 'Land' if signal lost, or spoof the GPS and set your home point at the destination area. Alternatively you could use dynamic home point and keep updating it.

 

[Joebie]

Either set 'Land' if signal lost, or spoof the GPS and set your home point at the destination area. Alternatively you could use dynamic home point and keep updating it.

Unrelated, but that was me that said “I know you from Mavic Pilots” on FB. [emoji23]

 

[beanbubba]

Anyone tried to power the sunhans, dragon, or 8w amp with a 4s battery?

 

[beanbubba]

Uggg, had a swing and a miss today. Woke up and had calm winds this morning and I excitedly packed up and headed for a run. By the time I got in the air, winds had picked up and I had a 10 mph tailwind outbound. Anyway, I went to the 59K limit and made the turn at 65%/3.94v (factory battery + 2 factory cells). Even with the headwind on the return I thought I had it made, until the wind picked up even more. I possibly could have made it back on fumes but was flying over water and ditched her on a bridge in the lake.

I went to retrieve her and the retaining wall was a bit too tall and I was not sure I could get out if I jumped over. I got a buddy with a boat and going to see if I can salvage her coming from the water.

Happy thanksgiving, and never a dull moment !

 

[Joebie]

Uggg, had a swing and a miss today. Woke up and had calm winds this morning and I excitedly packed up and headed for a run. By the time I got in the air, winds had picked up and I had a 10 mph tailwind outbound. Anyway, I went to the 59K limit and made the turn at 65%/3.94v (factory battery + 2 factory cells). Even with the headwind on the return I thought I had it made, until the wind picked up even more. I possibly could have made it back on fumes but was flying over water and ditched her on a bridge in the lake.

I went to retrieve her and the retaining wall was a bit too tall and I was not sure I could get out if I jumped over. I got a buddy with a boat and going to see if I can salvage her coming from the water.

Happy thanksgiving, and never a dull moment !

Oh no!! Good luck in the retrieval!!

 

[beanbubba]

One more observation, I have run through all the booster/amp's and have concluded the 8W model to be the best with the M2's RC. If you haven't noticed yet, the M2 is way out of balance on TX to RX performance. You will always lose video feed well in advance of losing RC controls and telemetry. The 8W booster has a freakishly high RX gain and paired with your RC it boosts the incoming video stream better than anything I have yet to witness.

Even though there are much higher gain TX boosters (i.e. the Sunhans 10W), but all the extra TX is wasted power. I will try to document more formally when I get some time. At the 59K limit I had 5 bars RC and 4 bars HD and glitch free video the whole flight using the 8W. The 8W has good TX gain and double to triple the RX gain of all the other models and this unit is best suited to "balance" the unbalanced radio characteristics of the M2.

 

[lolo780]

Great info as always, I know what I'm putting on the spare RC that's in the mail.

 

[beanbubba]

Great info as always, I know what I'm putting on the spare RC that's in the mail.

And a reminder for those new to this, you do NOT need 2 boosters for the 2 antenna ports on the RC. You only need 1 amplifier connected to the right RC antenna port. Anyone that tells you otherwise is selling snake oil.

 

[SkyNinja]

Uggg, had a swing and a miss today. Woke up and had calm winds this morning and I excitedly packed up and headed for a run. By the time I got in the air, winds had picked up and I had a 10 mph tailwind outbound. Anyway, I went to the 59K limit and made the turn at 65%/3.94v (factory battery + 2 factory cells). Even with the headwind on the return I thought I had it made, until the wind picked up even more. I possibly could have made it back on fumes but was flying over water and ditched her on a bridge in the lake.

I went to retrieve her and the retaining wall was a bit too tall and I was not sure I could get out if I jumped over. I got a buddy with a boat and going to see if I can salvage her coming from the water.

Happy thanksgiving, and never a dull moment !

Oh man, think you would have made it! But I also thought I would have made it when I lost my MP it to the water. Were you in sport mode on the flight out a P mode coming back?

Now we know with the right parameter changes you don’t get auto land once it disconnects at the limit.

 

[beanbubba]

Oh man, think you would have made it! But I also thought I would have made it when I lost my MP it to the water. Were you in sport mode on the flight out a P mode coming back?

Now we know with the right parameter changes you don’t get auto land once it disconnects at the limit.

What parameter settings caused yours to auto land?

 

[SkyNinja]

What parameter settings caused yours to auto land?

Im assuming it’s the ones you posted, plus heating the batteries.

 

[beanbubba]

Found it without a scratch on her!

I can't lie that tracking down a lost bird is a lot of fun like a treasure hunt

I did try one thing on this flight and noticed a significant improvement in battery performance. I carefully wrapped up all the batteries in a standard electric blanket at home and they maxed out at 135F. I then transferred the batteries and blanket to a thermal pouch and headed to the flight location. When I removed them from the pouch they were 120F and took flight within 5 minutes. I also carefully wrapped all the batteries in foam sheets and the topside of the factory battery. I need to compare to past flights, but it was a significant/noticeable improvement. If you want to fly in the cooler temperatures and get max battery performance, you must pre-heat and insulate your batteries. I have been lazy in the past about this but not anymore after seeing hard results.

Note the picture below after ditching the bird on the bridge. I still had pixelated live video and control of the bird from over 16,000 feet away when paired with the 8W booster and panel antenna on my RC right port.

 

[beanbubba]

I forgot to mention AUW on that bird was 1446 grams and if you have properly heated batteries and sub 10 mph winds, you can easily hit the 59K limit.

 

[mnoutdoors]

Bean, sounds like you are getting good results with the 8W amp! Good to hear I’ll be heading south soon and have more time to experiment again