DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Warning for potential Mavic Air owners in urban (i.e. high interference) areas

LADroneEnthusiast

New Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2018
Messages
4
Reactions
4
Age
50
Greetings, fellow Mavic pilots. Longtime reader, first time commenter. I'm on day 4 of testing my Mavic Air in and around my neighborhood. FYI, I live in Los Angeles, CA, in an area plagued with some of the worst WiFi interference you're likely to find ANYWHERE. I am also the owner of a DJI Spark, Mavic Pro and (now) Mavic Air. I've owned my Mavic Pro for about 8 months and my Spark for 3 months. I am quite happy with both drones, though they have very different uses. The Spark is a blast to fly, but the Mavic Pro has been my aerial photography workhorse.

To give you an idea of my tested ranges, when launching from Huntington Beach, I've managed to fly the Spark 4,980 feet out over the ocean before losing signal connection and triggering the RTH. I've never lost signal connection on the Mavic Pro over the ocean, not because I've tested the limits of its range, but because I chicken out at about 10,500 feet and turn it around. At that range from Huntington Beach, I'm able to fly the Mavic Pro AROUND an oil platform two miles offshore and return to the beach with battery to spare...

Now, flying those same two drones from my front patio or backyard around my neighborhood over the past few months (at heights of 150-250 feet), the furthest I've been able to get the Spark before signal loss is 1,540 feet. The furthest I've been able to push the Mavic Pro before getting signal loss is 2,510 feet. Like I said, terrible interference in my neighborhood.

I'll be taking the Air out to the beach to compare its low-interference flight range to the other two tomorrow morning. But I've been taking it on daily test flights from my front patio and backyard the past several days, and the furthest I've been able to push it before suffering signal loss so far is 1,520 feet (about the same as the Spark).

Please, there's not need to flame me. I'm a fan of all three drones and actually am loving the features and functionality on the air. I just wanted to make certain that other users in urban or high-interference areas expecting to get Mavic Pro-like range prepare themselves for more Spark-like range and connectivity and don't go putting their Mavic Pros on eBay until they've had some time to do some proper testing of their own.

Happy flying, everyone!
 
Have you tried switching to 5.8 ghz? I live in Downtown cincinnati Area and thats what I did and have no problem at all....
 
  • Like
Reactions: joo2e
We’ve been finding the Mavic Air on the west side of LA has been liking the 5.8 frequency and choosing that as its “best choice”. Some interference here and there but well within reason.
 
We’ve been finding the Mavic Air on the west side of LA has been liking the 5.8 frequency and choosing that as its “best choice”. Some interference here and there but well within reason.
That is VERY good to know, thanks! I'll give it a try and see if it makes a difference in my neighborhood.
 
Same issue here. It's a limitation of radio frequencies.

When I fly from the beach, I can go way out. But when I fly near homes in downtown Huntington Beach, I can only go about 1500 ft.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AlpineFlyer
I got almost a mile on the air (and had signal to continue but I stopped there) if you search my name you will find my video. I live in suburbia Carlsbad ca with lots of hills plus all the Wi-Fi. Plus the city has its own public Wi-Fi setup throughout the city too on the telephone and power poles, so lots of interference, air handled it like a champ.
 
  • Like
Reactions: turbodronepilot
I did almost an identical test to you this morning. Even with similar results on the 2.4ghz band. My area was heavily congested area with lots of interference warnings.

Auto Channel (2.4ghz) Range : 2600ft
Manual Channel 5.8ghz Range : 6725ft

I took off from a location with minimal interference but flew into interference thus the selection of 2.4ghz initially.

I’ve never seen the Mavic Air automatically swap channels of bands. Can anyone confirm if it does?
 
I've had it on auto band selection. It has mostly stayed on 2.4 bands.

I believe "auto" only switches channels within a band, not across bands, but i could be wrong
 
My experience is similar to the OPs. While I've not written down exact distances (or remembered), but flying at two locations I fly regularly. The Spark and the Mavic Air provide a very similar range in my neighborhood with the Mavic Pro and my Phantom 4 flying much further. Usually I turn around or return before I reach their limit.

Once I get the "wifi" drones to a more open area, distance is significantly increased.

I too will try the 5.8 band..
 
My experience is similar to the OPs. While I've not written down exact distances (or remembered), but flying at two locations I fly regularly. The Spark and the Mavic Air provide a very similar range in my neighborhood with the Mavic Pro and my Phantom 4 flying much further. Usually I turn around or return before I reach their limit.

Once I get the "wifi" drones to a more open area, distance is significantly increased.

I too will try the 5.8 band..

the Pro will definitely get better range, its the transmission system. What it comes down to is what is the Air capable of. While its not capable of the range of the Pro (out over the ocean ive gotten 5 miles on the Pro before), it is still pretty good. Ive used the air to shoot close up (2000ft in) scenarios a lot over the past few weeks ive had it, and ive never had an issue.
 
Ill be posting my pics and vids later but I was able to get over 4000 ft( only stopped by being scared of losing it) in urban areas in NYC this past weekend.
 
I’ve been manually choosing my WiFi channels and that’s made a huge difference. I chose a low noise 5.8GHz channel today and hit 9664ft today. I still had perfect video feed at this point but due to the 28 degree temps, my battery was getting low and it initiated RTH so I had enough battery to get back. That is MORE than enough range for me and I just wanted to see how far I could go today. I put it in sport mode and made it back with 15% battery left. I’ve also been conscious of the wind direction and I was flying into a 10mph wind on the way out so I could ride the tailwind home.
 
I keep saying 5.8 is great! I found this out with the Phantom 4 Pro. I get way better distance on 5.8! anyway for the mavic air it's actually stronger than 2.4... 5.8 31 dbm.... 2.4 28dbm... so yeah 5.8 is quite capable, definitely custom channel is the way to go takes 10 seconds
 
  • Like
Reactions: Verizondrone28
Just for kicks, I chose a noisy channel to see what it would do. It was a 5.8 band channel but had a full vertical line on it. I lost connection only 300 feet away. HA! Good thing there are plenty of other channels to choose from and it's so easy to change. Loving the Air!
 
So the next FW update should default to 5.8? When you guys select 5.8, does it keep that choice on future flights?
 
If it's on Auto, I'm not sure what parameters are used to select the best channel. But if you switch to manual, it stays on that same channel until you change it. I think I was on channel 158 yesterday but 153 ended up being better today. I just put this item in my pre-flight checklist to update before I fly and it's worked out for me on the last 8 flights now. WAHOO!
 
I've tried both auto which defaults to 2.4, and manually setting a 5.8 channel, with either I can't get any distance without receiving the high interference warning. I'm in Chicago, and fly at a forest preserve with a 100 yard square open lot with trees surrounding. It lost connection completely and flew back on RTH. I flew over the lake and at about 100 feet it started losing connection. I think the Air using WiFi is good for open or rural areas, but is going to be problematic in cities. I had a Mavic Pro, and a Spark, and the Spark seems to have held connection better than the Air.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,599
Messages
1,554,243
Members
159,603
Latest member
refrigasketscanada