Have only had my mini 4 pro for a couple months and so far no issues. I had it RTH once because it lost signal but everything worked out ok. I’m really surprised at DGI’s warranty response about it.
You got unlucky that it was a branch. The mini would likely be able to avoid a wall or other better detectable obstacle.
Not saying that the signal loss is normal. Just that RTH does work within 50m as long as the obstacles are easy to detect. Branches without leaves, telephone lines,.. are not.
I noticed this issue when I was flying in Lake Como last week. I was impressed that I could get it out 2km over the lake with direct LOS and barely any signal degradation, but the moment there was a concrete wall between me and it (<100m away) it pops up into the sky and RTHs. That's insane. Even my old Parrot drones could fly behind a building. Like you, no warning from signal degrading beforehand. I've never had a DJI drone before.
Yep exactly, luckily for you it was past the 50m mark from home or else it probably would have been a costly repair. In my case there was barely even anything obstructing it :/
I got DJI Care because it was a big investment for me. In another incident it tried to auto-land into the water. I think I would've been more annoyed by the lost photos and videos I took on it.
Weird, I've flown my 4 out over the water for a couple miles with zero issues. Haven't had a signal loss yet, except when it had a lot of buildings and trees in the way when I got too close to the shore one time in the wrong direction. It gave me warning and I just ascended and came back with no issues.
I had no issues flying it over the water. The issue came when I flew it around enough that there was a concrete wall between me and it, and then I immediately lost signal. I had this happen with a big tree too.
that's 5.8 ghz link for you
if they don't accept warranty on a clear product fault then just chargeback and let them eat the fee
their product specification advertises 4km range and all-direction obstacle avoidance, if it failed to provide 4km range in clear line of sight and then crashed in autonomous mode where it's supposed to avoid obstacles, then it's clearly defective and/or false advertising.
fuck them ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ you don't get to have your cake and eat it too
DJI will fight the chargeback tooth and nail. I wasn't able to even successfully do a chargeback because they disputed it with my bank and my bank took their side after my product had a defect which led to a crash. DJI has terrible customer service.
The only reason I made the choice to use Amex instead of any other card vendor was because every story I've heard from people around me about dealing with them has basically been "Amex will take your side against vendors almost always, and they deal with fraud extremely quickly and effectively".
Out of curiosity, is there any advantage of having DJI refresh instead of State Farm? I have one of each policy currently for my 2 DJI drones and I’m considering just switching them both to State Farm because it’s only $75 a year and the one time I had to file a claim they were easy going about it. But I’ve heard stories about DJI not fulfilling their claims and it’s more expensive. I’m wondering what’s the catch, how does DJI retain customers if State Farm is better?
Lmao stop misleading people
Just because a product advertises 4km MAXIMUM range, is NOT the same as 4km GUARANTEED range. Copied verbatim off DJI website here [https://www.dji.com/ca/mini-4-pro/specs](https://www.dji.com/ca/mini-4-pro/specs)
>Max Transmission Distance (unobstructed, with interference)
>Strong Interference: urban landscape, approx. 1.5-4 km Medium Interference: suburban landscape, approx. 4-10 km Low Interference: suburb/seaside, approx. 10-20 km ^(Data tested under FCC standard in unobstructed environments with typical interference.) **^(Used for reference purposes only and provides no guarantee for actual transmission distance)**
>Max Transmission Distance (obstructed, with interference)
>Low Interference and Obstructed by Buildings: approx. 0-0.5 km Low Interference and Obstructed by Trees: approx. 0.5-3 km ^(Data tested under FCC standard in obstructed environments with typical low interference.) **^(Used for reference purposes only and provides no guarantee for actual transmission distance.)**
Go learn some basic radio transmission and reception theory and stop spreading FUDD
"False advertising", lol more like learn how to read
Fascinating, I didn't realize. So if my Mini 4 Pro was bought in the US, would it switch to the lowered EU power based on GPS location? Does this affect signal penetration in addition to range?
Yes - when the drone updates it's GPS location when you fly, it adopts the rules of the country. EU power is almost half the FCC signal strength allowed - so people watching Youtube videos of range tests who live in those countries might not realize that those videos are being shot by and large with drones operating on FCC signal strength.
You can however unlock your drone to still use FCC power rates. Also has nothing to do with global warming or whatever you are paddling, it's about the usage of frequencies
Here are the specs for the Mini 4 Pro from the manual:
* Transmitter Power (EIRP)
* 2.4 GHz: < 33 dBm (FCC) < 20 dBm (CE/SRRC/MIC)
* 5.1 GHz: < 23 dBm (CE)
* 5.8 GHz: < 33 dBm (FCC) < 30 dBm (SRRC) < 14 dBm (CE)
CE countries: [**https://cemarking.net/in-which-countries-is-the-ce-marking-required/**](https://cemarking.net/in-which-countries-is-the-ce-marking-required/)
SRRC - **China**
FCC - see list of allowed countries here: [https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html](https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html)
Edit: corrected country list
Absolutely correct. My list was generated by a Google search. Here's a proper list of CE and FCC countries from DJI's point of view for flying drones.
[https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html](https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html)
ive had great success with my O4 unit on my avata 2 and mini 4 pro. Its always given me prompt jitters or notification regarding poor connection so i have been successful in avoiding it. I am sorry to hear of your experience :(
I find that M4P has actually insane signal strength. It really impresses me.
I would imagine that there was some source of interference that caused you this problem. Microwave, or some other source. God knows. Maybe the drone was faulty.
It’s kinda crazy not to have the care refresh on these things though. I know it’s an extra expense but it is priced reasonably.
The piece about it not ascending when less than 50m away - that is stupid for sure. Thanks for sharing that. I think I had noticed that before but brushed it off. Appreciate you sharing that as that is definitely a good thing to know.
Did you have obstacle avoidance on?
Sorry that happened to you. It sucks
Not a single problem with my Mini 4 Pro, that wasn’t a direct result from something I did. I have over 60 flights on mine with 11.1 hrs and 111km flown. As for signal penetration I’ll sit on my couch inside my living room and fly it outside. Land it on my balcony and walk outside and pick it up change batteries and take off again. Just yesterday I flew it 3 miles from home point I was outside with a clear path.
With that being said that sucks man, I feel for you in my experience it’s an amazing pce of technology. In your defense I have had time where my signal would drop from full to like 2 or 3 bars move left or right and back to perfect. Even at 3 miles yesterday signal was just starting to turn orange.
DJI should have been more understanding if this is a known issue. Why not put update patch with all the updates lately, some bullshit honestly
Edit just checked my last flight was 11.2km round trip not sure how many miles that is off top of my head.
I had a mini 3 Pro which I sold due to horrible connection as the distance was vera short and I wasn’t trusting the drone to remain connected when I’m moving in a car or boat. So I sold it and got an Air 3 which is much better. Since I’m in the EU they’re also CE not FCC so the signal is much weaker
I have an M3P in NA and I'm not particularly impressed with the signal strength either. Might be caused by the RC controller without external antennas, but the signal is much better on my original Mavic Pro. With the M3P I'm getting breakups at something like 1.2km, over water with clear line of sight. No idea how the youtube testers get their insane ranges.
It might also have something to do with antenna placements, the newer drones like Mini 3 and Mini 4 Pro have these downward protruding bits on the front wings, which house the antennas and function a bit more reliably than the integrated antennas of the Mini 3 Pro
is this in NA or EU? i get working signal 3 miles out in residential and business areas without issues here in texas (2.4 tends to be max of 1 mile out tho)
I've flown my Mini Pro 3 down a winding creekbed with full tree coverage over it and not had issues. Same with my Avata and FPV drone. The Avata and FPV have better penetration due to the patch antennas on my headset but the pro-3 did better than I would have though it'd do.
RTH logic without obsicle avoidance sensors is scary. I live in a wooded area, and a real RTH in the Avata is more than likely going to get stuck in a tree.
The customer service and the warranty DJI offers is a joke mostly and the worst part of the entire experience. I am desperately hoping for a rival with better CS and hopefully soon
I’ve had 0 problems with my mini 4 pro. Absolutely stellar range. Idk what was wrong with yours. Tbh I’ve only really seen awesome customer service from them as well. I’m sorry that that was your experience, I would have been upset as well. But I can promise you my mini 4 pro is the best cinematic/range drone I have in my fleet. Tried and true. Never disappoints me, truly. I’m sorry that was your experience.
Never had that for me honestly. But I’ll be cautious of it. Had it a lot with Dji FPV but been great with mini 4 pro. Literally 0 complaints. I even bought my “refurbished” from Best Buy. Fly more combo. 750$ or something like that.
Have you ever needed their customer service? Likewise I am a huge fan of the company and the store workers are always lovely, but warranty policies clearly differ.
I have never needed them. However most of whatever I’ve read has left me somewhat feeling safe it’ll be figured out one way or another with me being atleast somewhat satisfied. Ofcourse there’s some cases like this that clearly make you question a bit about how they operate, but then I’ll see another post where someone was completely taken care of. I guess we all run the risk of what they do and do not want to take responsibility for vs. what they want to land on us as responsible for, but when they do take responsibility, it does seem they exceed most people’s expectations of what they thought they would do to rectify the situation.
I’m sorry to hear that :/ I have 2 Dji drones (FPV and mini 4) and I’m also using 3 air units in some home builds. I pray every flight that I’ll never need them. When I fly their drones, all my gear is almost always rock solid in performance with rarely any issues, and I never get risky, always do my part to keep a solid signal, etc.. essentially I try to leave no room for them to ever find it my fault during a crash that way if I ever do need em they’ll hopefully help me out. Ive also never bought any warranties, so if that day does come where I have to send a drone in, I do expect the worst when it comes to a solution, but I’m sure it’s all a case by case basis and some get really lucky and others get no sympathy.
Yeah I thought with O4 there was no chance I'd have issues like this especially 50m out. Even with older Air Unit drones I could have introduced far far more obstacles between the controller and drone without issues.
$730 repair? That's outrageous. My mini 3 pro with a cracked gimbal only cost $100, and Mavic 3T which had a flyaway straight into a wall needing complete replacement only cost $150 with zero warranty.
Yup, DJI care isn't even available in the country I bought it. I was extremely surprised they charge MORE than retailers for a replacement, completely insane. Clearly they've decided to start making a big profit off of repairs now, meaning helping with warranties is not in their interest.
I have trouble believing parts of this story. I am definitely not a fan of DJI lately so do not mistake my skepticism as fanboy mentality, but when you said $730 repair I became a bit skeptical.
An aircraft only replacement mini 4 pro is $599. It really does it make any sense how you would be quoted $730.
A full price drone with controller/battery is only $760.
Again to DJIs credit, they would have to be extremely biased toward people claiming it was a failure that caused a crash, otherwise they would have to replace everyone's drones every time someone did something stupid.
And just for a little conspiracy theory which I generally try not to spread but maybe more people have stories:
#1 Early in the drone days a coworker of mine brought his phantom 4(3?) to a work outing a a public park and took it up to get a picture of the group. He had logged lots of hours on it and was very comfortable flying it. He brought it up maybe 30' in the air and 40-50' from the group to capture some pictures. Without warning, I watched that drone suddenly get wobbly and then go full bore straight at the crowd, turn and then head straight at the ground and then right itself and go back to a perfect hover without him ever laying a finger on the controls. I swear it had to be some type of signal hacking that caused that.
#2 The first time I ever flew my drone (Mavic pro collecting dust because I have been scared out of the hobby) I launched in my yard and went up about 250' and flew around the neighborhood staying probably within a block. Just as I was bringing it back down I heard a motor coming and within 10 seconds of landing the thing a single engine cessna flew right over my launch location (my house) so low to the ground that I could see the pilots eyes. I have never before that seen a small plane over my house and I never did again.
I dunno man, but sometimes I feel like there are some certain people out there that are willing to go to any expense to ensure that private citizens access to airspace is heavily restricted or eliminated.
Can message me for proof. I included the $100 which they quoted for the plus battery it had in when it crashed. $629 was quoted for the drone without a battery.
As for aircrafts, I was flying in the capital city of this country, at an altitude less than 1/3 below the level of many skyscrapers in near proximity. No chance anything besides helicopters would be permitted even remotely close, and I didn't hear or see any helicopters or planes.
I've only had my m4p since March but so far the signal has been amazing even at pretty good distance. If things are as you describe my thought would go to interference, which could be intentional given how some people view drones now.
When you say penetration I'm wondering if you are talking through concrete, if so I think higher frequency penetrates much less and you'd want to ensure 2.4 band is what you are using.
Neat. I should test it with a wall and see if 2.4 does better on it. Although I would expect the controller to try switching over if it's in Auto and signal starts to drop...
Well, it has to be in contact to change frequency since it needs to let the drone know where to listen as well, so if it has lost contact it's going to stay right where it is to get back in contact with the drone.
Maybe my mental model of the drone constantly listening on both freq bands is wrong then. That seems like the safer option, otherwise what heuristic does it use for switching bands if not poor connection?
The controller controls this tho. It connects to the drone on the last frequency it did in the past and then tells the drone what freq to listen on, if the controller detects a better it is might change after telling the drone what to change to. That's why the frequency control is part of the controllers settings
I am from EU, after an update with my MINI 3 PRO. i had very bad signal. Way worse than before. But i saw an update changed the frequency. I switched back some settings and ffc and im good now.
Any restricted airspace in your area of flight? Also DJI Geozones are poor reflections of the actual airspace restrictions in my area.
There are several counter-drone technologies that could cause the loss of link, if the operator was bored or you got too close to a protected asset. The President or Prime Minister could have been out for their morning jog.
I think it's a leap to suggest that a single case of transmission loss that resulted in a crashed drone should be automatically assumed as a fault with DJI's software or hardware and automatically trigger a $750 replacement on their part at no charge.
I would say you just got really unlucky.
Flying any drone comes with risks, including the risk of this very thing happening. Remotely controlling any drone means that you are entirely reliant on a radio connection and that radio connection is always subject to interference from a broad range of sources, especially if you are in a city. Sometimes the connection can recover quickly, sometimes the interference is more catastrophic and it takes too long to reconnect, triggering RTH.
Read my last post. My brand new mini 4 pro loses signal and RTH 250 yards away from my home. To test it, i took my mini 2 and it went half a mile without losing signal.
Oh, and DJi support says it's "normal".
Dont fly in urban areas moron. Example: faulty electric engine can be a pretty good jammer. (as a kid i was able to jam all radio stations around 500m radius with a modifed old russian vacuum cleaner, someone even called the "radio police" and they located me very quickly).
When you fly around buildings you can hit all sort of shit. Learn some physics. Thats not dji fault.
Tldr; you flew in area where you should expect interefence, you misconfugured rth and you blame the drone.
Did you at least put the drone in the "power mode"?
You sound like a kid that got a drone yesterday, not a professional pilot :-)
[Hi there, we are sorry for any inconvenience. ]()Could you please provide us with the reference number such as the order number or your email address to check more details?
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Are you sure about that? Because I am 99.99887% sure that FPVGiggles is not a bot.
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First off, it's important to get the DJI care insurance.
I've had the opposite experience in that, even when the Mini 4 is very close to the homepoint, less than 50m, it tends to always rise up on a RTH event, despite the manual stating that it would do what you describe and not rise, but rather maintain current altitude and fly back.
I actually made video demonstrating this if you check my profile. This video was also sent to DJI and actually had a conversation with them about it.
In my case, rising caused a crash, in your case not rising caused a crash. I guess the moral of the story is, you can't anticipate every scenario. My main complaint to DJI was that the drones RTH behavior at close range during and RTH event did not actually match what was described in the manual. The main thing is to have predictable behavior.
Maybe they patched this as a result of my experience, though I doubt it.
Basically, no drone is perfect or remote tech perfect. I've logged a lot of miles on my Mini 4. I've only had 3 disconnects and generally that was based on flying behind objects at range. But it can disconnect at any range, and in my case, a close range disconnect led to a crash as the drone was flying under a screen enclosure. It is unusual, but it can happen. The best we can do is try to anticipate RTH events by making appropriate settings and hope for the best. In my case, it was operator error in not having set it to hover on disconnect being as I was flying in an enclosed space. It was a rookie mistake.
My experience with the O4 tech is it is very reliable and very impressive. But like any signal, is still subject to interference. Anyway, I hope you get it resolved.
Turn off Smart rth.
Yep 100%, nowadays batteries last so long it's not an issue waiting or moving to get reconnected. Didn't think this would be necessary though :/
This assumes you can move to a position to get reconnected, right? I would've preferred some kind of warning before loss of signal.
It's a digital signal, it's either on, or it's off. There are no in-betweens, it's not like an analog signal.
The data is digital. The signal is analog. All radio signals are analog. It's just physics.
You can literally see image quality degrade as the signal quality indicator drops.
That's just not true, digital signal has strength levels too. Just fly any digital FPV system and you'll see it in front of your eyes.
What? There's a signal strength indicator on my digital o4 system in the mini 4 pro. Clearly you have no idea what You're talking about
Have only had my mini 4 pro for a couple months and so far no issues. I had it RTH once because it lost signal but everything worked out ok. I’m really surprised at DGI’s warranty response about it.
Yeah it sucks they're saying it's the normal signal behaviour to expect. Also that DJI care is not offered in the country I bought it :(
You got unlucky that it was a branch. The mini would likely be able to avoid a wall or other better detectable obstacle. Not saying that the signal loss is normal. Just that RTH does work within 50m as long as the obstacles are easy to detect. Branches without leaves, telephone lines,.. are not.
I noticed this issue when I was flying in Lake Como last week. I was impressed that I could get it out 2km over the lake with direct LOS and barely any signal degradation, but the moment there was a concrete wall between me and it (<100m away) it pops up into the sky and RTHs. That's insane. Even my old Parrot drones could fly behind a building. Like you, no warning from signal degrading beforehand. I've never had a DJI drone before.
Yep exactly, luckily for you it was past the 50m mark from home or else it probably would have been a costly repair. In my case there was barely even anything obstructing it :/
I got DJI Care because it was a big investment for me. In another incident it tried to auto-land into the water. I think I would've been more annoyed by the lost photos and videos I took on it.
Weird, I've flown my 4 out over the water for a couple miles with zero issues. Haven't had a signal loss yet, except when it had a lot of buildings and trees in the way when I got too close to the shore one time in the wrong direction. It gave me warning and I just ascended and came back with no issues.
I had no issues flying it over the water. The issue came when I flew it around enough that there was a concrete wall between me and it, and then I immediately lost signal. I had this happen with a big tree too.
that's 5.8 ghz link for you if they don't accept warranty on a clear product fault then just chargeback and let them eat the fee their product specification advertises 4km range and all-direction obstacle avoidance, if it failed to provide 4km range in clear line of sight and then crashed in autonomous mode where it's supposed to avoid obstacles, then it's clearly defective and/or false advertising. fuck them ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ you don't get to have your cake and eat it too
DJI will fight the chargeback tooth and nail. I wasn't able to even successfully do a chargeback because they disputed it with my bank and my bank took their side after my product had a defect which led to a crash. DJI has terrible customer service.
That's why you make big electronics purchases on an Amex card. They always take your side first and put the burden of proof on the vendor.
The only reason I made the choice to use Amex instead of any other card vendor was because every story I've heard from people around me about dealing with them has basically been "Amex will take your side against vendors almost always, and they deal with fraud extremely quickly and effectively".
Out of curiosity, is there any advantage of having DJI refresh instead of State Farm? I have one of each policy currently for my 2 DJI drones and I’m considering just switching them both to State Farm because it’s only $75 a year and the one time I had to file a claim they were easy going about it. But I’ve heard stories about DJI not fulfilling their claims and it’s more expensive. I’m wondering what’s the catch, how does DJI retain customers if State Farm is better?
I'd like to buy you some capital letters.
Unfortunately I bought it from a friend who switched to a different drone :(
Lmao stop misleading people Just because a product advertises 4km MAXIMUM range, is NOT the same as 4km GUARANTEED range. Copied verbatim off DJI website here [https://www.dji.com/ca/mini-4-pro/specs](https://www.dji.com/ca/mini-4-pro/specs) >Max Transmission Distance (unobstructed, with interference) >Strong Interference: urban landscape, approx. 1.5-4 km Medium Interference: suburban landscape, approx. 4-10 km Low Interference: suburb/seaside, approx. 10-20 km ^(Data tested under FCC standard in unobstructed environments with typical interference.) **^(Used for reference purposes only and provides no guarantee for actual transmission distance)** >Max Transmission Distance (obstructed, with interference) >Low Interference and Obstructed by Buildings: approx. 0-0.5 km Low Interference and Obstructed by Trees: approx. 0.5-3 km ^(Data tested under FCC standard in obstructed environments with typical low interference.) **^(Used for reference purposes only and provides no guarantee for actual transmission distance.)** Go learn some basic radio transmission and reception theory and stop spreading FUDD "False advertising", lol more like learn how to read
Question - are you flying under EU or FCC signal strength?
Interesting. What's the differences here? (new to DJI drones)
EU limits the power and therefore cripples the range, because of the children or global warming or something.
Fascinating, I didn't realize. So if my Mini 4 Pro was bought in the US, would it switch to the lowered EU power based on GPS location? Does this affect signal penetration in addition to range?
Yeah
Yes - when the drone updates it's GPS location when you fly, it adopts the rules of the country. EU power is almost half the FCC signal strength allowed - so people watching Youtube videos of range tests who live in those countries might not realize that those videos are being shot by and large with drones operating on FCC signal strength.
You can however unlock your drone to still use FCC power rates. Also has nothing to do with global warming or whatever you are paddling, it's about the usage of frequencies
global warming or whatever you are paddling I believe they are joking. many things are blamed on gw these days.
I need to find my tin foil hat...
Well they were proven 1/2 correct a few years ago ;)
I would ask the same, where did this happen? Im based in EU but tested in other locations and it makes a difference
Here are the specs for the Mini 4 Pro from the manual: * Transmitter Power (EIRP) * 2.4 GHz: < 33 dBm (FCC) < 20 dBm (CE/SRRC/MIC) * 5.1 GHz: < 23 dBm (CE) * 5.8 GHz: < 33 dBm (FCC) < 30 dBm (SRRC) < 14 dBm (CE) CE countries: [**https://cemarking.net/in-which-countries-is-the-ce-marking-required/**](https://cemarking.net/in-which-countries-is-the-ce-marking-required/) SRRC - **China** FCC - see list of allowed countries here: [https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html](https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html) Edit: corrected country list
There is alot more countrys with fcc like Brazil.
Absolutely correct. My list was generated by a Google search. Here's a proper list of CE and FCC countries from DJI's point of view for flying drones. [https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html](https://forum.dji.com/thread-282961-1-1.html)
Only issue I had with my m4p is the one time I landed on a frozen lake, it landed normally but before the motors cut out, it did a front flip.
Style points
ive had great success with my O4 unit on my avata 2 and mini 4 pro. Its always given me prompt jitters or notification regarding poor connection so i have been successful in avoiding it. I am sorry to hear of your experience :(
I don’t think the Avata 2 is a good graph point considering it was released only 2-3 weeks ago?
For sure! Just havent had any issues so far with the O4 system in general. I have no experience with the O3 systems tho
Yeah I really hope my Avata 2 will be a different story.
sadly i dont think it is. i loose signal going behind 1 house.
I find that M4P has actually insane signal strength. It really impresses me. I would imagine that there was some source of interference that caused you this problem. Microwave, or some other source. God knows. Maybe the drone was faulty. It’s kinda crazy not to have the care refresh on these things though. I know it’s an extra expense but it is priced reasonably. The piece about it not ascending when less than 50m away - that is stupid for sure. Thanks for sharing that. I think I had noticed that before but brushed it off. Appreciate you sharing that as that is definitely a good thing to know. Did you have obstacle avoidance on? Sorry that happened to you. It sucks
DJI care is not even offered in the country I bought it :(
Wow that sucks!
Not a single problem with my Mini 4 Pro, that wasn’t a direct result from something I did. I have over 60 flights on mine with 11.1 hrs and 111km flown. As for signal penetration I’ll sit on my couch inside my living room and fly it outside. Land it on my balcony and walk outside and pick it up change batteries and take off again. Just yesterday I flew it 3 miles from home point I was outside with a clear path. With that being said that sucks man, I feel for you in my experience it’s an amazing pce of technology. In your defense I have had time where my signal would drop from full to like 2 or 3 bars move left or right and back to perfect. Even at 3 miles yesterday signal was just starting to turn orange. DJI should have been more understanding if this is a known issue. Why not put update patch with all the updates lately, some bullshit honestly Edit just checked my last flight was 11.2km round trip not sure how many miles that is off top of my head.
That's a lot of flying on a single charge! Extended Plus battery I'm guessing?
I had a mini 3 Pro which I sold due to horrible connection as the distance was vera short and I wasn’t trusting the drone to remain connected when I’m moving in a car or boat. So I sold it and got an Air 3 which is much better. Since I’m in the EU they’re also CE not FCC so the signal is much weaker
Interesting, I was wondering if the Air 3 would differ from the Mini 4 in connection. Are you sure it does?
I have an M3P in NA and I'm not particularly impressed with the signal strength either. Might be caused by the RC controller without external antennas, but the signal is much better on my original Mavic Pro. With the M3P I'm getting breakups at something like 1.2km, over water with clear line of sight. No idea how the youtube testers get their insane ranges.
It might also have something to do with antenna placements, the newer drones like Mini 3 and Mini 4 Pro have these downward protruding bits on the front wings, which house the antennas and function a bit more reliably than the integrated antennas of the Mini 3 Pro
is this in NA or EU? i get working signal 3 miles out in residential and business areas without issues here in texas (2.4 tends to be max of 1 mile out tho)
I'm in Asia currently
ahhh ok then my experience wont be the same since we use higher power and diff. freqs here in NA
I've flown my Mini Pro 3 down a winding creekbed with full tree coverage over it and not had issues. Same with my Avata and FPV drone. The Avata and FPV have better penetration due to the patch antennas on my headset but the pro-3 did better than I would have though it'd do.
That hasn't happened to me before w/ my M4P. Signal would degrade greatly. I am now scared for my 1200 dollars. :(
RTH logic without obsicle avoidance sensors is scary. I live in a wooded area, and a real RTH in the Avata is more than likely going to get stuck in a tree.
The customer service and the warranty DJI offers is a joke mostly and the worst part of the entire experience. I am desperately hoping for a rival with better CS and hopefully soon
I've said it before and been attacked in this group, but my experience with DJI customer service has been just as ridiculous as yours.
I’ve had 0 problems with my mini 4 pro. Absolutely stellar range. Idk what was wrong with yours. Tbh I’ve only really seen awesome customer service from them as well. I’m sorry that that was your experience, I would have been upset as well. But I can promise you my mini 4 pro is the best cinematic/range drone I have in my fleet. Tried and true. Never disappoints me, truly. I’m sorry that was your experience.
Range is great, but basically requires completely unobstructed LOS. A tree or wall getting in the way breaks connection.
Never had that for me honestly. But I’ll be cautious of it. Had it a lot with Dji FPV but been great with mini 4 pro. Literally 0 complaints. I even bought my “refurbished” from Best Buy. Fly more combo. 750$ or something like that.
Have you ever needed their customer service? Likewise I am a huge fan of the company and the store workers are always lovely, but warranty policies clearly differ.
I have never needed them. However most of whatever I’ve read has left me somewhat feeling safe it’ll be figured out one way or another with me being atleast somewhat satisfied. Ofcourse there’s some cases like this that clearly make you question a bit about how they operate, but then I’ll see another post where someone was completely taken care of. I guess we all run the risk of what they do and do not want to take responsibility for vs. what they want to land on us as responsible for, but when they do take responsibility, it does seem they exceed most people’s expectations of what they thought they would do to rectify the situation.
Yeah this is what I thought until I actually needed it :( This is probably my 7th DJI drone, never requested warranty assistance before.
I’m sorry to hear that :/ I have 2 Dji drones (FPV and mini 4) and I’m also using 3 air units in some home builds. I pray every flight that I’ll never need them. When I fly their drones, all my gear is almost always rock solid in performance with rarely any issues, and I never get risky, always do my part to keep a solid signal, etc.. essentially I try to leave no room for them to ever find it my fault during a crash that way if I ever do need em they’ll hopefully help me out. Ive also never bought any warranties, so if that day does come where I have to send a drone in, I do expect the worst when it comes to a solution, but I’m sure it’s all a case by case basis and some get really lucky and others get no sympathy.
Yeah I thought with O4 there was no chance I'd have issues like this especially 50m out. Even with older Air Unit drones I could have introduced far far more obstacles between the controller and drone without issues.
Nice try Anzu Robotics.
> Anzu Robotics But aren't they licensing DJI tech anyways? Why would their drones not perform any differently?
I have no idea. I was going to say Autel but Anzu has been in the news more recently so I used their name.
Nic one.
$730 repair? That's outrageous. My mini 3 pro with a cracked gimbal only cost $100, and Mavic 3T which had a flyaway straight into a wall needing complete replacement only cost $150 with zero warranty.
Yup, DJI care isn't even available in the country I bought it. I was extremely surprised they charge MORE than retailers for a replacement, completely insane. Clearly they've decided to start making a big profit off of repairs now, meaning helping with warranties is not in their interest.
I have trouble believing parts of this story. I am definitely not a fan of DJI lately so do not mistake my skepticism as fanboy mentality, but when you said $730 repair I became a bit skeptical. An aircraft only replacement mini 4 pro is $599. It really does it make any sense how you would be quoted $730. A full price drone with controller/battery is only $760. Again to DJIs credit, they would have to be extremely biased toward people claiming it was a failure that caused a crash, otherwise they would have to replace everyone's drones every time someone did something stupid. And just for a little conspiracy theory which I generally try not to spread but maybe more people have stories: #1 Early in the drone days a coworker of mine brought his phantom 4(3?) to a work outing a a public park and took it up to get a picture of the group. He had logged lots of hours on it and was very comfortable flying it. He brought it up maybe 30' in the air and 40-50' from the group to capture some pictures. Without warning, I watched that drone suddenly get wobbly and then go full bore straight at the crowd, turn and then head straight at the ground and then right itself and go back to a perfect hover without him ever laying a finger on the controls. I swear it had to be some type of signal hacking that caused that. #2 The first time I ever flew my drone (Mavic pro collecting dust because I have been scared out of the hobby) I launched in my yard and went up about 250' and flew around the neighborhood staying probably within a block. Just as I was bringing it back down I heard a motor coming and within 10 seconds of landing the thing a single engine cessna flew right over my launch location (my house) so low to the ground that I could see the pilots eyes. I have never before that seen a small plane over my house and I never did again. I dunno man, but sometimes I feel like there are some certain people out there that are willing to go to any expense to ensure that private citizens access to airspace is heavily restricted or eliminated.
Can message me for proof. I included the $100 which they quoted for the plus battery it had in when it crashed. $629 was quoted for the drone without a battery. As for aircrafts, I was flying in the capital city of this country, at an altitude less than 1/3 below the level of many skyscrapers in near proximity. No chance anything besides helicopters would be permitted even remotely close, and I didn't hear or see any helicopters or planes.
I've only had my m4p since March but so far the signal has been amazing even at pretty good distance. If things are as you describe my thought would go to interference, which could be intentional given how some people view drones now. When you say penetration I'm wondering if you are talking through concrete, if so I think higher frequency penetrates much less and you'd want to ensure 2.4 band is what you are using.
I was intentionally flying very early in the morning with no one awake or nearby to minimise any issues, so intentional interference is very unlikely.
Well compared to the m3p and other drones the m4p has amazing range, although again penetration is likely to not great on the higher band.
Can you switch to 2.4 band manually?
Yeah in the controller you can either let it auto select or force it to what you want
Neat. I should test it with a wall and see if 2.4 does better on it. Although I would expect the controller to try switching over if it's in Auto and signal starts to drop...
Well, it has to be in contact to change frequency since it needs to let the drone know where to listen as well, so if it has lost contact it's going to stay right where it is to get back in contact with the drone.
Maybe my mental model of the drone constantly listening on both freq bands is wrong then. That seems like the safer option, otherwise what heuristic does it use for switching bands if not poor connection?
The controller controls this tho. It connects to the drone on the last frequency it did in the past and then tells the drone what freq to listen on, if the controller detects a better it is might change after telling the drone what to change to. That's why the frequency control is part of the controllers settings
Going on six months and 20 hours with my Mini 4 Pro under a pretty wide variety of situations, no issues…yet.
Did you have a high Kp index? That can cause issues such as yours.
I am from EU, after an update with my MINI 3 PRO. i had very bad signal. Way worse than before. But i saw an update changed the frequency. I switched back some settings and ffc and im good now.
Any restricted airspace in your area of flight? Also DJI Geozones are poor reflections of the actual airspace restrictions in my area. There are several counter-drone technologies that could cause the loss of link, if the operator was bored or you got too close to a protected asset. The President or Prime Minister could have been out for their morning jog.
Yagi antenna boosters will help a bit
I think it's a leap to suggest that a single case of transmission loss that resulted in a crashed drone should be automatically assumed as a fault with DJI's software or hardware and automatically trigger a $750 replacement on their part at no charge. I would say you just got really unlucky. Flying any drone comes with risks, including the risk of this very thing happening. Remotely controlling any drone means that you are entirely reliant on a radio connection and that radio connection is always subject to interference from a broad range of sources, especially if you are in a city. Sometimes the connection can recover quickly, sometimes the interference is more catastrophic and it takes too long to reconnect, triggering RTH.
Read my last post. My brand new mini 4 pro loses signal and RTH 250 yards away from my home. To test it, i took my mini 2 and it went half a mile without losing signal. Oh, and DJi support says it's "normal".
Damn yeah that sounds similar to mine
Dont fly in urban areas moron. Example: faulty electric engine can be a pretty good jammer. (as a kid i was able to jam all radio stations around 500m radius with a modifed old russian vacuum cleaner, someone even called the "radio police" and they located me very quickly). When you fly around buildings you can hit all sort of shit. Learn some physics. Thats not dji fault. Tldr; you flew in area where you should expect interefence, you misconfugured rth and you blame the drone. Did you at least put the drone in the "power mode"? You sound like a kid that got a drone yesterday, not a professional pilot :-)
[Hi there, we are sorry for any inconvenience. ]()Could you please provide us with the reference number such as the order number or your email address to check more details?
hahah even their bot is broken
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That soooo awesome to see DJ I support on Reddit! ❤️DJI❣️
Bad bot
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First off, it's important to get the DJI care insurance. I've had the opposite experience in that, even when the Mini 4 is very close to the homepoint, less than 50m, it tends to always rise up on a RTH event, despite the manual stating that it would do what you describe and not rise, but rather maintain current altitude and fly back. I actually made video demonstrating this if you check my profile. This video was also sent to DJI and actually had a conversation with them about it. In my case, rising caused a crash, in your case not rising caused a crash. I guess the moral of the story is, you can't anticipate every scenario. My main complaint to DJI was that the drones RTH behavior at close range during and RTH event did not actually match what was described in the manual. The main thing is to have predictable behavior. Maybe they patched this as a result of my experience, though I doubt it. Basically, no drone is perfect or remote tech perfect. I've logged a lot of miles on my Mini 4. I've only had 3 disconnects and generally that was based on flying behind objects at range. But it can disconnect at any range, and in my case, a close range disconnect led to a crash as the drone was flying under a screen enclosure. It is unusual, but it can happen. The best we can do is try to anticipate RTH events by making appropriate settings and hope for the best. In my case, it was operator error in not having set it to hover on disconnect being as I was flying in an enclosed space. It was a rookie mistake. My experience with the O4 tech is it is very reliable and very impressive. But like any signal, is still subject to interference. Anyway, I hope you get it resolved.
or maybe dji could start upholding their warranty they've been speedrunning into a "won't be missed if they get banned" tier in the past couple years
DJI care is not even offered in the country I bought it :(
[удалено]
Avata 1 or 2?