Range between an O4 and O3 transmission systems are the same in my experience. I compared the Air 3, an O4 system, to Mav3Enterprise, and O3 system.

[StevenBrodsky]

My Air3 with the RC 2 (O4) loses connection at the exact same height and distance as my Mav3 Enterprise with the RC Pro (O3). The specs say the Air3 can fly 12 miles away and the Enterprise can fly 7.5 miles away. Maybe these specs are correct in a completely unobstructed path between RC and Drone. But, in my real world testing, they both are losing video transmission at the same point (distance and altitude) in my test comparison.

I flew both of them 1500 feet away and at 200ft to the ground. There is average ground clutter, i.e. trees, houses and other structures slightly in the way.

I actually bought the Air 3 thinking I could get closer to a subject than my M3E. But when ground clutter comes into play, the O4 system behaves like an O3 system and vice versa. I thought maybe, the O4 system's signal may be able to get through ground clutter a little bit better than the O3, but I was sadly disappointed.

I did find a solution though. I modded both the Air 3 controller and the M3E controller to allow attachment of a powered Alientech booster antenna. Now the ground clutter penetration has significantly improved, allowing me to fly moderately lower than with the stock antennae.

I also have an M30 with the RC Pro Plus (both are O3). It has the same issue with ground clutter. Maybe even worse than my Air3 and M3E. Because the RC antennae are made detachable, Alientech came up with a simple adapter I can put on the RC PRO PLUS and then attach their powered booster. I'm sure it will perform as well as the modded Air3 and M3E controllers.

 

[GFields]

ground clutte

What do you mean by ground cluter?

 

[mavic3usa]

Exactly why I believe any range-type comparisons between O3 and O4 are marketing techniques and have no decisive real-life differences. Depending on what the Mavic 4 in O4 looks like, I may just skip O4 altogether and wait for O5. Sad that DJI would give those of us looking for an excuse to take a pass....so far I'm still holding on Mini 3 Pro and Avata 1. Marginal increases alone that get you one more street over or one additional room inside a building while fly FPVs, that's good and all, but not at having to buy new ecosystem like remotes and goggles along with a new drone...every year. Maybe we are hitting up against the limits and it's time for 4G/5G.

 

[StevenBrodsky]

What do you mean by ground cluter?

Clutter in this context means buildings, vegetation, foliage, and cluster of vehicles. This can be generalised as land cover. The transmission path, between the transmitter and the receiver, can be either unobstructed, purely, line of sight (LOS), or obstructed by the presence of obstacles such as buildings, mountains, and foliage.
Publish Year: 2018
Cited By: 11
Published: 08 December 2017
Volume: 12, Issue1

 

[Droning on and on...]

No they are not simply marketing techniques, nor are they meaningless due to unrealistic conditions.

Successful reception and decoding of a radio signal is complicated. A minor blockage can kill the signal, and it won't matter what encoding protocol or bandwidth is used.

O4 doesn't penetrate obstacles any better than O3. Or O2. Or Lightbridge. Obstacle penetration is about one thing, as you've discovered: Power. And O4 is the same transmit power as O3.

So if you're flying around in an urban, EM noisy environment with trees and buildings all around, limiting you to about a quarter mile before you start having dropouts, the improvements in O4 over O3 will mostly be nonexistent. The extra antennas amplify the noise as much as the signal you're trying to capture.

Keep in mind you're breaking the law with a booster. You are not licensed to broadcast at that power level. It will very likely be a non-issue, but there is a small chance you might interfere with some other transmission, that may be important enough to find you, confiscate your equipment, and cite you.

Never heard of it happening though, at the relatively low boost with Alientech. I did have an acquaintance about 30 years ago that was running his own pirate AM radio station pushing out 100W (a modified CB linear amp, massively illegal), and he did get a visit and was shut down (and fined) because he was bleeding over a bunch of radio stations annoying his neighbors.

 

[mavic3usa]

Exactly why I believe any range-type comparisons between O3 and O4 are marketing techniques and have no decisive real-life differences.

No they are not simply marketing techniques, nor are they meaningless due to unrealistic conditions.

So far I'm not seeing it in real life broadly. It's turning into a marketing gimmick. DJI should go back to discussing the scientific aspects as you mentioned in your long post instead of the marketing con scheme they appear to be somewhat perpetrating against those who don't know better.

For example, if DJI said buy my O4 drone because it has a range of 22km over the O3 drone which has a range of only 18km, that's borderline disingenuous on a consumer (non-technical) level.

...and with that, here comes the same tired explanation about the asterisk and the laboratory conditions and ideal setup. I have no legal comments on this issue.

 

[3rdof5]

I don't see any difference in my experience either. In fact, my P3P with the gl300c RC with lightbridge got just as good of range in the same environment flying over trees and out over a lake near home here where I like to fly. All are excellent and very reliable.