I bought a Holybro Kopis Mini 3 inch DJI version and have a general question about flight range. I fly in the same park pretty much all the time and know it's layout and my boundries. At about 1200 feet away my goggles start to get pixelated and I know it's time to turn around. I know the landmarks of where I normally turn around. I have flown to the boundries probably over 50 times or more. Well this has happened to me twice now on different days, as I get close to my boundry and start to see pixelation, I turn the quad around but this time as I'm turning around the quad just looses power and falls, luckily I fly about ten feet or lower so it did not fall too far. I checked the battery voltage this time and it was at 14.6 volts. Is this normal? What range does other DJI users get? I also have all the stock DJI gear. I'm thinking of getting better antennas but have seen mixed reviews.

Thanks

Don

Is your Air Unit on 25mWatt when this happened?
Depending on your environment, i would expect better range than 1200ft with 700mWatt power.

Another thing I noted is Kopis 3 Mini Dji Antenna placement is pretty poor for optimal signal. May be try to set the two antenna to more vertical orientation towards the back of the quad to see if it will improve the signal range.

(05-Sep-2020, 01:15 AM)jasperfpv Wrote: Is your Air Unit  on 25mWatt when this happened?
Depending on your environment,  i would expect better range than 1200ft with 700mWatt power.

Another thing I noted is Kopis 3 Mini Dji Antenna placement is pretty poor for optimal signal. May be try to set the two antenna to more vertical orientation towards the back of the quad to see if it will improve the signal range.

That's funny, I was thinking that very same thing about the antenna. I will have to mod the placement of the capacitor, but that is something else I want to try too.

Have you got improved signal?

I just want to watch thread.My goggles are sitting at fedex an hour away until holiday is over but I’m hoping you’ll say you can fly 6 miles away with great video after moving antenna and adjusting power of vtx.

Well I checked all my settings and tried a quick mod of the antennas to get them away from the frame and FC and I did not see any improvements. Here is the picture of my make shift mod.

Now I am going to try and fully mod the antennas in a V shape formation out the back. For this mod I will have to relocate the capacitor like the picture below. You say you want a 6 mile range. I have not heard of anyone with that range with or without extra equipment. The most I have heard of with stock gear is 2KM, a little over a mile away.

Just out of curiosity, what power level are you running? Just make sure it's on FCC mode and not CE mode which is limited to 25mW in FCC mode you have the option to use 700mw
And regarding "pixelated", it's probably not the best way to judge your range.
First of all, i'd recommend setting focus mode to auto, it will get "pixelated" only when it's needed, and won't give you false alarms.
And enable 50Mbps as it gives you better range as well.

To determine signal quality, its best to look at bitrate, as explained in this article: https://oscarliang.com/signal-strength-dji-fpv/

I made sure it was at 700mw and 50Mbps. I even had a spare DJI Air Unit and antennas and swapped them out and it did not fix the issue. I had put in a support ticket at DJI to send it back but I don't think it is the Air Unit or antennas now. Could the FC not be putting out the correct voltage? I tried contacting Holybro but have not heard a word in response.

Could it be the goggles? What antennas are you using? If aftermarket ones then you have to be careful because it is easy to accidentally twist the RP-SMA connectors off the cable that attaches it to the main board inside the goggles. The stock DJI goggle antennas have a shoulder on them to stop the RP-SMA connectors twisting round as you screw them on.

They are the original goggles and antennas. I just took them off and put them back on and everything seemed fine. I believe they are four identical antennas, right??? There is not a left or right, upper or lower, right???

All four the antennas are the same so it doesn't matter which connector you screw them into.

Did you try going out somewhere well away from urban life to test out the range?

Not yet, I am going to try that soon. I live in Phoenix so I am surrounded by desert and just have to pick a place to go.

(12-Sep-2020, 12:30 AM)donwie63 Wrote: Not yet, I am going to try that soon. I live in Phoenix so I am surrounded by desert and just have to pick a place to go.

Where about in Phoenix are you? I'm in Mesa and I'm always looking for people to fly with.

You mentioned voltage earlier, but when I incorrectly installed my air unit with the BEC still set at 5v, the air unit turned on and worked but range was very poor. Perhaps weaker than you are seeing. May not hurt to verify it with a multimeter.

Also, I see results for many people differ, but I get much better range with 25mbps. 50mpbs gets stuttery and unflyable much earlier.

(12-Sep-2020, 03:29 AM)wllmlutz Wrote: Where about in Phoenix are you? I'm in Mesa and I'm always looking for people to fly with.

I live in the north west valley, In Peoria. I just say Phoenix when I message people because when I say Peoria, they say Illinois? Everybody knows Phoenix. LOL