drone issue with range of flight or location factor - Europe / city area

singular.droid · Jan 15, 2021

So, flying a while with beacon and phone, at some point I've decided to try range flight with the controller. And it was a surprise - in my case, it didn't fly further than 250 meters. The first time it happened I was thinking somehow it grabbed WiFi from the phone instead of the controller. Next time I used the following procedure to make sure it is not operating via wifi:

turn off wifi on iPhone (not airplane mode, just wifi disabled)
turn skydio2 on, wait till the blue light stops blinking
open the controller phone holder and wait till the LED indicator will become solid blue on the controller
connect phone to controller with cable from cinema kit
start skydio app on iphone
connect to the drone in the app
press flight button in the app
once it is flying, try to move the drone around for a while and then push it to the limit

Noticeable thing - all times when the connection was lost, first it was a degradation of the video signal and then just 'Connection Lost' (and the drone was moving home). nothing solid or high between me and the drone for 1km at least. Got 2 guesses why, please let me know what you think

Maybe this is the range limit in Europe, where another band is being used?
I was testing in the city park all the time, maybe LTE/4G antennas and wifi's which are densely situated in the surrounding area could interfere controller signal so significantly so it reduces the distance 15times to nominal value?

Few more

What's your procedure to fly far, if you fly for 2-3km away, does it really make difference if you point the controller antenna to the probable drone location or not?
If you live in Europe (not US/CA better say) what is your record range of flight with the controller?
Did you achieve 3-3.5km in the city (or another area with a strong LTE/4G signal) or in rural surroundings/backcountry?

UNIXman · Jan 16, 2021

It isn't just in Europe, where you're limited to the 2.4 gHz band. Here in the United States, that's about the maximum range as well. I own a multitude of drones, and the Skydio's don't have much range at all. They are designed for close-in work, tracking and avoiding obstacles. The DJI drones from the Phantom 4 on, have really great range. So when I go out flying, I grab "The Right Tool For The Job." If I'm trying to record my bicycling adventures, I'll grab the Skydio. If I want to see what that strange building is on a mountain 8 kM away, I'll grab a Mavic. I usually carry both with me. I am lucky to be living 30 kM from Denver, on the edge of suburbia, and most everything beyond me is rural or natural.

singular.droid · Jan 18, 2021

UNIXman said:
It isn't just in Europe, where you're limited to the 2.4 gHz band. Here in the United States, that's about the maximum range as well. I own a multitude of drones, and the Skydio's don't have much range at all. They are designed for close-in work, tracking and avoiding obstacles. The DJI drones from the Phantom 4 on, have really great range. So when I go out flying, I grab "The Right Tool For The Job." If I'm trying to record my bicycling adventures, I'll grab the Skydio. If I want to see what that strange building is on a mountain 8 kM away, I'll grab a Mavic. I usually carry both with me. I am lucky to be living 30 kM from Denver, on the edge of suburbia, and most everything beyond me is rural or natural.

So you mean your max distance with controller & Skydio was also 250-300m? 10-15 times less than declared 3.5km? With the visual line of sight present

UNIXman · Jan 18, 2021

Yes. And that is with direct line of sight, using either the controller or the beacon. Not much range at all. This is Colorado, where trees only grow where they can find a source of consistent water, such as a home with an irrigated lawn. So my range isn't affected by foliage or being blocked by buildings

singular.droid · Jan 18, 2021

Wow, I'm

UNIXman said:
Yes. And that is with direct line of sight, using either the controller or the beacon. Not much range at all. This is Colorado, where trees only grow where they can find a source of consistent water, such as a home with an irrigated lawn. So my range isn't affected by foliage or being blocked by buildings

Wow, I'm wondering then how all these guys on youtube achieve >1.5kms flight distance with pretty normal rural surroundings... do you think such bias between declared and real performance isn't misinformation?

UNIXman · Jan 18, 2021

Well, now you have me wondering if I might have an antenna problem on my bird. Because the short range is exhibited whether I'm using the controller or the beacon. Up till now, I had just figured that Skydio had put in an ineffective radio. But since I use BOTH the Skydio and a fleet of DJI birds, I just pick the Skydio for it's tracking and collision avoidance, and a DJI for long range flights. You don't need much range to track a moving bicycle. Here, check this out for the kind of things that I use the Skydio for. Pretty impressive little bird! I intentionally threw a few trees and houses between the Skydio and me, using the Beacon. 100 metres is all the distance I needed to take this video:

singular.droid · Jan 18, 2021

UNIXman said:
Well, now you have me wondering if I might have an antenna problem on my bird. Because the short range is exhibited whether I'm using the controller or the beacon. Up till now, I had just figured that Skydio had put in an ineffective radio. But since I use BOTH the Skydio and a fleet of DJI birds, I just pick the Skydio for it's tracking and collision avoidance, and a DJI for long range flights. You don't need much range to track a moving bicycle. Here, check this out for the kind of things that I use the Skydio for. Pretty impressive little bird! I intentionally threw a few trees and houses between the Skydio and me, using the Beacon. 100 metres is all the distance I needed to take this video:

For following it does a pretty good job but a manual piloting range of 250-300m vs 3.5km is soooo depressing. I'm now locked down due to an outside temperature of -15C and not flying S2 as it is below the recommended temperature range and wondering if someone has achieved over 1km distance as in my case in the city/park environment it very short. verifying among members of only skydio group I was able to find.

JoeydDetroit · May 18, 2021

singular.droid said:
So, flying a while with beacon and phone, at some point I've decided to try range flight with the controller. And it was a surprise - in my case, it didn't fly further than 250 meters. The first time it happened I was thinking somehow it grabbed WiFi from the phone instead of the controller. Next time I used the following procedure to make sure it is not operating via wifi:

turn off wifi on iPhone (not airplane mode, just wifi disabled)

turn skydio2 on, wait till the blue light stops blinking

open the controller phone holder and wait till the LED indicator will become solid blue on the controller

connect phone to controller with cable from cinema kit

start skydio app on iphone

connect to the drone in the app

press flight button in the app

once it is flying, try to move the drone around for a while and then push it to the limit

Noticeable thing - all times when the connection was lost, first it was a degradation of the video signal and then just 'Connection Lost' (and the drone was moving home). nothing solid or high between me and the drone for 1km at least. Got 2 guesses why, please let me know what you think

Maybe this is the range limit in Europe, where another band is being used?

I was testing in the city park all the time, maybe LTE/4G antennas and wifi's which are densely situated in the surrounding area could interfere controller signal so significantly so it reduces the distance 15times to nominal value?

Few more

What's your procedure to fly far, if you fly for 2-3km away, does it really make difference if you point the controller antenna to the probable drone location or not?

If you live in Europe (not US/CA better say) what is your record range of flight with the controller?

Did you achieve 3-3.5km in the city (or another area with a strong LTE/4G signal) or in rural surroundings/backcountry?

I am in Detroit and do urban flying for news footage. I have learned 2 things They probably won't tell you. remember they say the FAA law stipulates that you're not spose to fly farther than you can see? If I fly it more than 250 feet away horizontally it loses WiFi connection.

I was at the park and it lost WiFi and started following a girl because it's default is to follow someone. When I got there she was sitting on a swing and the drone was 20 feet directly above her head. I had to reconnect my WiFi to it and tell it return to home. Now the girl probably thinks I'm some kinda creep. I should've tried to explain.

But I digress. The 2nd thing I learned the other day, I just hit up to see how high it would go. At around 430 feet it started saying " height limit reached" it still had enough upward momentum to top out at 445 feet. I remember seeing a chart from the FAA about how they breakdown airspace. Drones can use the air space from ground to 500 ft, Helicopters can use the airspace between 500 and I think 5000 ft and then aircraft above that. So the S2 is pre programed not to go above 430 feet.

richinAZ · May 18, 2021

is your Drone

singular.droid said:
For following it does a pretty good job but a manual piloting range of 250-300m vs 3.5km is soooo depressing. I'm now locked down due to an outside temperature of -15C and not flying S2 as it is below the recommended temperature range and wondering if someone has achieved over 1km distance as in my case in the city/park environment it very short. verifying among members of only skydio group I was able to find.

joey, please tell me your Drone is
REGISTERED with the FAA and CLEARLY LABELLED AS SUCH ? if you're flying part 107 you already know you're breaking the law. if you're flying as a hobbyist or doing this for your job, i don't see you being employed much longer or be able to fly drones at ALL once a court catches up with you. if you continue to violate the law, it will be painful for YOU eventually. educate yourself. ignorance of the law is no excuse. you are altitude limited to 400 ft. vertical from your control point, You should never fly BeyondVisualLineOfSight and should never fly over people or in dense urban areas w/o FAA approval and safe operational awareness and planning. you really should be acquiring a Part 107 license since this is a job and you earn $ from the skill. that makes you a "Professional".

I have to agree with Skydio. Literally ANYONE can fly this Drone. Im not so SURE that this is a Good Marketing ploy anymore. I'm the last one to want to have to be limited in how, when or where i fly my Drone but if you refuse to use common sense in your activities EVERYONE will pay with MORE RESTRICTIONS.
oh wait, you're talking about Detroit here....nobody cares ! my bad.... Fly on, my friend !

JoeydDetroit · May 19, 2021

"all these guys on youtube achieve >1.5kms flight distance with pretty normal rural surroundings... do you think such bias between declared and real performance isn't misinformation?"

Maybe it WAS that good for them but then they seem to have designed in limitations to keep it with FAA regulation's? keep in mind that all this during a period of time when they were trying to cozy up to the government to sell their military version - X2.

It has MAJOR improvements over the S2 - It can fly at night when all the **** happens that I need to be filming. It has a cool tablet controller so you don't have to involve your cell phone. What if I'm fielding calls from media outlets while live streaming the latest incidents?
It allegedly Does have a 6 mile range it has some kind of map interface so you can tell it to go to places on the map and do things when it gets there, like recon the area, look for heat signatures - Yea it even has FLIR.

Sadly they don't plan to sell it to the General public, just the military and 1st responders. fuckers.

JoeydDetroit · May 19, 2021

Wait a minute mister. Before you get your panties in a wad like a triggered snow flake, You don't know me or anything about me or my situation. You don't even know whether I have a pt 107 & FAA auth. So just calm down. all that harsh progovernment rhetoric is way off base and clearly uncalled for.

"safe operational awareness and planning. " Just stay above the power lines and away from signs & you'll be alright.

richinAZ said:
is your Drone

joey, please tell me your Drone is
REGISTERED with the FAA and CLEARLY LABELLED AS SUCH ? if you're flying part 107 you already know you're breaking the law. if you're flying as a hobbyist or doing this for your job, i don't see you being employed much longer or be able to fly drones at ALL once a court catches up with you. if you continue to violate the law, it will be painful for YOU eventually. educate yourself. ignorance of the law is no excuse. you are altitude limited to 400 ft. vertical from your control point, You should never fly BeyondVisualLineOfSight and should never fly over people or in dense urban areas w/o FAA approval and safe operational awareness and planning. you really should be acquiring a Part 107 license since this is a job and you earn $ from the skill. that makes you a "Professional". I have to agree with Skydio. Literally ANYONE can fly this Drone. Im not so SURE that this is a Good Marketing ploy anymore. I'm the last one to want to have to be limited in how, when or where i fly my Drone but if you refuse to use common sense in your activities EVERYONE will pay with MORE RESTRICTIONS.
oh wait, you're talking about Detroit here....nobody cares ! my bad.... Fly on, my friend !

ll

richinAZ · May 19, 2021

JoeydDetroit said:
"all these guys on youtube achieve >1.5kms flight distance with pretty normal rural surroundings... do you think such bias between declared and real performance isn't misinformation?"

Maybe it WAS that good for them but then they seem to have designed in limitations to keep it with FAA regulation's? keep in mind that all this during a period of time when they were trying to cozy up to the government to sell their military version - X2.

It has MAJOR improvements over the S2 - It can fly at night when all the **** happens that I need to be filming. It has a cool tablet controller so you don't have to involve your cell phone. What if I'm fielding calls from media outlets while live streaming the latest incidents?
It allegedly Does have a 6 mile range it has some kind of map interface so you can tell it to go to places on the map and do things when it gets there, like recon the area, look for heat signatures - Yea it even has FLIR.

Sadly they don't plan to sell it to the General public, just the military and 1st responders. fuckers.

joey, i have every confidence that an X2 will end up in your hands, dare I say SOONER, rather than later.... Dont worry, the Military and 1st responder sales tactic is only pushed to spur LARGE enterprise sales EARLY for the X2. No way the Media doesn't get to use the full-line of non-militarized Skydio products ! 11k is nothing for a good Camera. "Live Streaming" the latest "LIVE" video from an Internet-Connected Drone owned by a Local Media outlet is "NEWS COLLECTION" of the future. IMHO
id rather see THAT content then the latest crap "awoke" story on FB being peddled as "NEWS". Skydio S2 and X2 have already been decided on as Data Collection Instruments for Law Enforcement using Cloud-Connected Drones back to Axon's Body Camera System/Network. The more i think about it, the more i realize that YOU, joey are going to be my ONLY shot at having ANY Civil rights in the future. (and im White.) Cause if you dont get the shot, Law Enforcement DID ! Hence you will be my ONLY shot at refuting the video provided by LE. if im Guilty, then the 2 videos will be STEREO.