Poor range with Mavic Air 2

[thesotman]

I've been flying my Mavic Air 2 in an urban area and I start losing connection before 2km.
With my Mavic 2 Zoom, I was getting over 5km without a sweat in the same area.

I was thinking that with my Mavic 2 Zoom, I was using the charging port on the controller to hook onto my phone instead of the normal port on the side of the Mavic 2 Zoom controller.
Can I do the same with the Mavic Air 2 controller?

Thanks.

 

[aokusman]

I've been flying my Mavic Air 2 in an urban area and I start losing connection before 2km.
With my Mavic 2 Zoom, I was getting over 5km without a sweat in the same area.

I was thinking that with my Mavic 2 Zoom, I was using the charging port on the controller to hook onto my phone instead of the normal port on the side of the Mavic 2 Zoom controller.
Can I do the same with the Mavic Air 2 controller?

Thanks.View attachment 108049

Why can’t you try it?

 

[boblui]

May be your MA2 is running in CE mode somehow ? May be you can check the transmission chart in the FLY app ?

 

[thesotman]

May be your MA2 is running in CE mode somehow ? May be you can check the transmission chart in the FLY app ?

But then why did my Mavic 2 Zoom reach over 5km?

 

[Adgej123]

I was out earlier and dropped to orange bars and started losing feed <800m away! Bought it back as I was worried I hadn't set homepoint correctly and changed the battery. Went the exact same altitude and path and got to 2400m before losing signal. A bit confused and concerned with the inconsistency.

Even more strange, the <800m one was in FCC mode on iOS but the 2.4k run was CE on Android. Really don't understand? My orientation on the ground also remained unchanged.

Channel set to auto and WiFi dual band. Anything I'm missing? Normally fly without APAS and obstacle detection, could that be doing anything?

Also the iPhone has no sim and is in airplane mode, whereas the Android phone has all data etc on. Could this also make any difference?

Performance seems to differ every run.

 

[lee82gx]

I was out earlier and dropped to orange bars and started losing feed <800m away! Bought it back as I was worried I hadn't set homepoint correctly and changed the battery. Went the exact same altitude and path and got to 2400m before losing signal. A bit confused and concerned with the inconsistency.

Even more strange, the <800m one was in FCC mode on iOS but the 2.4k run was CE on Android. Really don't understand? My orientation on the ground also remained unchanged.

Channel set to auto and WiFi dual band. Anything I'm missing? Normally fly without APAS and obstacle detection, could that be doing anything?

Also the iPhone has no sim and is in airplane mode, whereas the Android phone has all data etc on. Could this also make any difference?

Performance seems to differ every run.

Are you using stock fly app unhacked From DJI? If so it is almost impossible for you to be actually in FCC mode in IOS but CE mode in Android. Take note that Android does not display the ~1km and line correctly in both CE and FCC but they do work correctly according to your country detected via drone GPS or phone location.

Are you actually in CE location or FCC location?

if we take that out of the variables then you still have the following:
1. Antenna pointing and orientation. Were you pointing at the best orientation. I use best because there is no fixed angle, you have to kind of experiment and see.
2. Were you using the same frequency band 2.4G or 5.8Ghz on both runs
3. Interference where you stood, was there someone or something else like your phone Wi-Fi running.

 

[lee82gx]

I've been flying my Mavic Air 2 in an urban area and I start losing connection before 2km.
With my Mavic 2 Zoom, I was getting over 5km without a sweat in the same area.

I was thinking that with my Mavic 2 Zoom, I was using the charging port on the controller to hook onto my phone instead of the normal port on the side of the Mavic 2 Zoom controller.
Can I do the same with the Mavic Air 2 controller?

Thanks.View attachment 108049

This is a charging only port. It does not host USB connections. You have to check other variables.

especially read my post above. Orientation of the MA2 RC antenna is more tricky cos it is not an element sticking upward that you can easily remember to point horizontal to AC.

 

[boblui]

But then why did my Mavic 2 Zoom reach over 5km?

Because the M2Z is in FCC mode constantly ?

 

[thesotman]

Because the M2Z is in FCC mode constantly ?

I live in South Africa and we are using the CE system.

 

[boblui]

I live in South Africa and we are using the CE system.

I just encountered the same thing today but it's explainable.

M2P CE mode, drastic shortening of range at the same spot.

Yesterday, radio disconnection occurred at 3.8 km and lagging of the video feed started at 2.2. km, the craft was in CE mode 5.8 GHz. Very normal to me over an urban area. Today, I switched it to CE auto band selection and flew the same course again at the same spot. Much to my surprise radio...

mavicpilots.com

 

[Adgej123]

Are you using stock fly app unhacked From DJI? If so it is almost impossible for you to be actually in FCC mode in IOS but CE mode in Android. Take note that Android does not display the ~1km and line correctly in both CE and FCC but they do work correctly according to your country detected via drone GPS or phone location.

Are you actually in CE location or FCC location?

if we take that out of the variables then you still have the following:
1. Antenna pointing and orientation. Were you pointing at the best orientation. I use best because there is no fixed angle, you have to kind of experiment and see.
2. Were you using the same frequency band 2.4G or 5.8Ghz on both runs
3. Interference where you stood, was there someone or something else like your phone Wi-Fi running.

Hi thanks for the reply Lee. On the iOS phone I am using the mod DJI Fly app, on Android phone I use the stock DJI Fly app. The small lines were constantly showing FCC on the iPhone and CE on the Android. I am in England.

1. To be honest I probably didn't play around enough on the <800m run as i was concerned about the homepoint and losing complete connection without RTH. I can see how the slightest adjustment in angle could make a huge difference to the range when you're a fair way away. Something to try again for sure! Is there any rule of thumb for angling the controller? I try to keep the remote flat horizontally.

2. I actually left this on dual for both runs. Apologies for not understanding fully, would this be beneficial to choose one over the other?

3. The iOS phone was in airplane mode which made it even more strange. The android run was with Bluetooth, WiFi and mobile network active. In terms of people/houses it was flat open ground with minimal trees. Directly out in front of me both times. I was at ground level so maybe it would be worth trying to be more elevated with my controller?

I will have to do a bit more work trying to get the controller orientation bang on. The frequency band setting though, maybe dual isn't the best option?

 

[lee82gx]

Hi thanks for the reply Lee. On the iOS phone I am using the mod DJI Fly app, on Android phone I use the stock DJI Fly app. The small lines were constantly showing FCC on the iPhone and CE on the Android. I am in England.

1. To be honest I probably didn't play around enough on the <800m run as i was concerned about the homepoint and losing complete connection without RTH. I can see how the slightest adjustment in angle could make a huge difference to the range when you're a fair way away. Something to try again for sure! Is there any rule of thumb for angling the controller? I try to keep the remote flat horizontally.

2. I actually left this on dual for both runs. Apologies for not understanding fully, would this be beneficial to choose one over the other?

3. The iOS phone was in airplane mode which made it even more strange. The android run was with Bluetooth, WiFi and mobile network active. In terms of people/houses it was flat open ground with minimal trees. Directly out in front of me both times. I was at ground level so maybe it would be worth trying to be more elevated with my controller?

I will have to do a bit more work trying to get the controller orientation bang on. The frequency band setting though, maybe dual isn't the best option?

You don't have to apologize.

1. Remote has to be angled ever slightly to have it literally pointing at the AC. Treat the 2 metal extension bars as the pointers and have it point straight at the drone. If you are going in circles up and down, it will be so hard to maintain of course.

For 2. There is no best single band of transmission, otherwise DJI would've just sold us that for a cheaper price. It really depends on the situation, whereby 2.4G is better to penetrate tree leaves, and other obstacles (even though it is a bad idea in the first place) while 5.8G is better when it comes to being interference free from other RF generating devices like household wifi devices, bluetooth, etc etc. The fact that you're on dual band auto is a good thing to let the system choose. In any case if bad performance is achieved, its just a good practice to check it and see if manual selection could have been yielded better results or not. One more item, is that 5.8G is much more directional so pointing is even more important than 2.4G.

3. Could you possibly have a bad remote cable connection between RC and phone (the RC cable), instead of bad RF connection between RC and Drone? This was sometimes the case in some postings here. I have not seen this as I dont usually fly with 2 devices, just the 1, so I dont know how different it should appear. But it is a possibility

 

[Adgej123]

You don't have to apologize.

1. Remote has to be angled ever slightly to have it literally pointing at the AC. Treat the 2 metal extension bars as the pointers and have it point straight at the drone. If you are going in circles up and down, it will be so hard to maintain of course.

For 2. There is no best single band of transmission, otherwise DJI would've just sold us that for a cheaper price. It really depends on the situation, whereby 2.4G is better to penetrate tree leaves, and other obstacles (even though it is a bad idea in the first place) while 5.8G is better when it comes to being interference free from other RF generating devices like household wifi devices, bluetooth, etc etc. The fact that you're on dual band auto is a good thing to let the system choose. In any case if bad performance is achieved, its just a good practice to check it and see if manual selection could have been yielded better results or not. One more item, is that 5.8G is much more directional so pointing is even more important than 2.4G.

3. Could you possibly have a bad remote cable connection between RC and phone (the RC cable), instead of bad RF connection between RC and Drone? This was sometimes the case in some postings here. I have not seen this as I dont usually fly with 2 devices, just the 1, so I dont know how different it should appear. But it is a possibility

Again thanks for the reply, very helpful to know about the antennae orientation. Makes a lot of sense.

I will play around a bit more and leave the frequency on auto. The cable also could be playing up, but probably unlikely as it's only ever been used 2-3 times on the iOS handset.

I will do some more flying focusing on the controller position.

Not ready to say there is a problem until I get consistently bad results, which just isn't the case. Seems more like certain factors as discussed

 

[maw196846]

I Live in Grimsby North East Lincoinshire UK
I live in an urban area my M2A flys like a peach

 

[robistranamore]

[QUOTE = "thesotman, post: 1056850, membro: 102355"]
Ho pilotato il mio Mavic Air 2 in un'area urbana e ho iniziato a perdere la connessione prima di 2 km.
Con il mio Mavic 2 Zoom, stavo superando i 5 km senza sudare nella stessa area.

Stavo pensando che con il mio Zoom Mavic 2, stavo usando la porta di ricarica sul controller per agganciare il mio telefono invece della normale porta sul lato del controller Zoom Mavic 2.
Posso fare lo stesso con il controller Mavic Air 2?

Grazie.View attachment 108049
[/CITAZIONE]
Buongiorno..ho volato a 4,6 km in montagna con molte interferenze...prima di perdere la connessione adesso ho fatto l aggiornamento su mavic assistent ma devo ancora verificare se c è stato miglioramento

 

[reaganbp]

....
3. Interference where you stood, was there someone or something else like your phone Wi-Fi running.

I am very new to drones, and had no idea my phone iphone wifi was a possible problem. Thank you for that detailed post.

 

[Adgej123]

You don't have to apologize.

1. Remote has to be angled ever slightly to have it literally pointing at the AC. Treat the 2 metal extension bars as the pointers and have it point straight at the drone. If you are going in circles up and down, it will be so hard to maintain of course.

For 2. There is no best single band of transmission, otherwise DJI would've just sold us that for a cheaper price. It really depends on the situation, whereby 2.4G is better to penetrate tree leaves, and other obstacles (even though it is a bad idea in the first place) while 5.8G is better when it comes to being interference free from other RF generating devices like household wifi devices, bluetooth, etc etc. The fact that you're on dual band auto is a good thing to let the system choose. In any case if bad performance is achieved, its just a good practice to check it and see if manual selection could have been yielded better results or not. One more item, is that 5.8G is much more directional so pointing is even more important than 2.4G.

3. Could you possibly have a bad remote cable connection between RC and phone (the RC cable), instead of bad RF connection between RC and Drone? This was sometimes the case in some postings here. I have not seen this as I dont usually fly with 2 devices, just the 1, so I dont know how different it should appear. But it is a possibility

Hey man, quick update for you. Went to a slightly more open area somewhat elevated from the destination. Made sure I paid more attention to orientation of RC - in fairness the signal does change pretty quickly so it's quite easy to find the sweet spot.

Made it out to just over 4800m above my very densely populated city centre with the signal strength only dropping to orange, no interruption to video feed. Quite honestly think I could have hit 5.5-6k+ if I pushed it and didn't have to worry about making it back. Again this was over the main city centre, I was nearly 3 miles away in the countryside.

Didn't test my Android phone but the modded iOS app certainly did the job.

Fantastic, thanks for your help.

 

[Sjkieffer]

Hey man, quick update for you. Went to a slightly more open area somewhat elevated from the destination. Made sure I paid more attention to orientation of RC - in fairness the signal does change pretty quickly so it's quite easy to find the sweet spot.

Made it out to just over 4800m above my very densely populated city centre with the signal strength only dropping to orange, no interruption to video feed. Quite honestly think I could have hit 5.5-6k+ if I pushed it and didn't have to worry about making it back. Again this was over the main city centre, I was nearly 3 miles away in the countryside.

Didn't test my Android phone but the modded iOS app certainly did the job.

Fantastic, thanks for your help.

Do you have to be jailbroken to install the mod IOS app?

 

[Ice_2k]

Do you have to be jailbroken to install the mod IOS app?

No.

 

[Sjkieffer]

No.

How did you install a third party app without being jailbroken?