Losing signal on both Lite and Nano Plus

[Cade]

Can anyone throw any light on this.

Today I had to shoot a house in a residential area in North London.

I got all the local permissions. The area was not a No-Fly restricted zone.

I put the Autel Lite in the air and after a minute I lost the display and the App said "controller disconnected". I replugged the cable in in case it was loose and briefly the screen came back to life, then it disconnected again with the App freezing. I could still fly the drone ok but just no App. After a few goes I gave up. The App just kept freezing and disconnecting.

I then put the Nano plus in the air. The same thing happened. Different controller,lead and aircraft. I barely managed to complete the job. But it really shook me. Both those drone systems are normally bullet proof.

Any ideas what was happening?
Pete

 

[herein2021]

Can anyone throw any light on this.

Today I had to shoot a house in a residential area in North London.

I got all the local permissions. The area was not a No-Fly restricted zone.

I put the Autel Lite in the air and after a minute I lost the display and the App said "controller disconnected". I replugged the cable in in case it was loose and briefly the screen came back to life, then it disconnected again with the App freezing. I could still fly the drone ok but just no App. After a few goes I gave up. The App just kept freezing and disconnecting.

I then put the Nano plus in the air. The same thing happened. Different controller,lead and aircraft. I barely managed to complete the job. But it really shook me. Both those drone systems are normally bullet proof.

Any ideas what was happening?
Pete

Probably just very high levels of interference in the area. Could have been a cell phone tower, microwave satellite dish, ham radio enthusiast, non-FCC compliant WiFi repeater, etc.

I frequently film big events like international boat races, large city wide celebrations, concerts, etc. In those situations the range on my EVO II typically drops from around 5miles to less than 100yds. The massive increase in cell phones and wireless interference wreaks havoc on the range.

 

[Cade]

Thank you, that's very interesting. It was a much busier urban area than I usually operate in. But it must have been some strong signal to knock out both aircraft. I will do some experiments today and see if I can repeat the exercise and get the same results.

 

[herein2021]

Thank you, that's very interesting. It was a much busier urban area than I usually operate in. But it must have been some strong signal to knock out both aircraft. I will do some experiments today and see if I can repeat the exercise and get the same results.

Both drones operate on the same frequencies so it makes sense both were taken out in the same way. I used to create progression construction images for a particular client and it was one of my least favorite locations because every drone that I flew there (DJI P4, Mavic, EVO II) all had severely decreased range for some reason. It wasn't even that many other buildings or people around, it was just something there was interfering with all 3 drones; for that particular site I had to film it for years at a set interval so I got to watch all 3 platforms have the same problem in the same area.

 

[Cade]

Thats very interesting....I wish I had taken my Mavic 3 or P4 with me to try, then I could have been sure it was just some environmental problem. I have used the Mavic 3 in very congested skyscraper territory and although it flew, it behaved very erratically and I wondered if it was the sheer volume and breadth of frequencies messing with the links.

 

[herein2021]

Thats very interesting....I wish I had taken my Mavic 3 or P4 with me to try, then I could have been sure it was just some environmental problem. I have used the Mavic 3 in very congested skyscraper territory and although it flew, it behaved very erratically and I wondered if it was the sheer volume and breadth of frequencies messing with the links.

To date I have yet to see a single modern drone significantly outperform another model in the same location. YT clickbaiters like to say xyz drone has SIGNIFICANTLY longer range or congestion handling; it is all just click bait. At the end of the day they are all FCC restricted to using the same frequencies and transmission power and their transmitters and receivers probably all come off of the same Chinese assembly line.

I specified "modern" drones because the one drone that I have owned that truly was impervious to congestion was the P2. The P2 required you to build your own FPV system and that transmitter truly was impervious to interference. My range was never limited by anything except battery life. More than likely it was not FCC compliant.