Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian range issues, interesting test results.

[AussieRaff]

Hi everyone, a while back I bought a used P4P Obsidian, it had known issues so was rather inexpensive.

The major issue with it was lack of control and video feed range.

After reading the forums and trying all sorts, nothing seems to have worked.

I recently acquired a spectrum analyser that goes to 4Ghz and thought I'd do a spot of investigation.

I already had a Phantom 4 Standard to test against that works fine.
Long story short comparing both drones set to the 2.4GHz setting the difference was that for some odd reason the controller for the obsidian seems to be scanning through the frequency band rather than finding a good channel and staying there, even selecting a channel manually it still seems to scan through the entire channel range constantly.

The standard P4 controller doesn't.

So I wondered if pairing the drone to the controller when in a noisy RF environment (our home has strong WiFi signals on both 2.4GHz and 5.8Ghz bands) might affect it.

So I tried pairing it without too much WiFi signal close by. I then tested the controller again on the spectrum analyser, it now selects a channel and stays there like the standard controller.

Haven't range tested yet, but will post results when I do!


Regards,

Raff from Australia.

 

[OzoneTech]

Hi everyone, a while back I bought a used P4P Obsidian, it had known issues so was rather inexpensive.

The major issue with it was lack of control and video feed range.

After reading the forums and trying all sorts, nothing seems to have worked.

I recently acquired a spectrum analyser that goes to 4Ghz and thought I'd do a spot of investigation.

I already had a Phantom 4 Standard to test against that works fine.
Long story short comparing both drones set to the 2.4GHz setting the difference was that for some odd reason the controller for the obsidian seems to be scanning through the frequency band rather than finding a good channel and staying there, even selecting a channel manually it still seems to scan through the entire channel range constantly.

The standard P4 controller doesn't.

So I wondered if pairing the drone to the controller when in a noisy RF environment (our home has strong WiFi signals on both 2.4GHz and 5.8Ghz bands) might affect it.

So I tried pairing it without too much WiFi signal close by. I then tested the controller again on the spectrum analyser, it now selects a channel and stays there like the standard controller.

Haven't range tested yet, but will post results when I do!


Regards,

Raff from Australia.

Hi Raff, when you say lack of control how many GPS was locked? What I mean is was it a GPS issue because of which there was a lack of control, and the drone drops to Atti mode.
Regards,
Menon from Singapore.

 

[AussieRaff]

Hi Menon, I meant that the drone loses control signal and triggers a return to home at around 100 to 500 odd metres away. The video feed from the drone is also bad and drops out as well, sometimes even only 70 odd metres away.

Regards,
Raff

 

[OzoneTech]

Hi Menon, I meant that the drone loses control signal and triggers a return to home at around 100 to 500 odd metres away. The video feed from the drone is also bad and drops out as well, sometimes even only 70 odd metres away.

Regards,
Raff

Hi Raff, Thanks for the clarification. If it is the RC and Video feed thats deteriorating over distance it may be due to the antennas located at the legs of the Phantom.

 

[AussieRaff]

Hi Raff, Thanks for the clarification. If it is the RC and Video feed thats deteriorating over distance it may be due to the antennas located at the legs of the Phantom.

Hi all,

Well during the holiday break I had a chance to test the Phantom and I'm pretty sure I have fixed it!

Turns out there must have been 2 faults.

I still had troubles with range and the video feed dropping out, so I decided to swap the SD card and that was it, no more troubles.

Odd thing is the card is a good one, it's a Sandisk 64Gb "High Endurance" card, and I swapped it with a Sandisk 32Gb Extreme card from my Phantom Standard.

The video recorded to the card were perfect, it was just the link that was the problem, perhaps a High Endurance card caches writes? Not sure.

I recently bought a Samsung EVO Plus 64Gb card on sale, I will test that as soon as the weather here lets up.

I'm in Queensland Australia and we had a tornado do a LOT of damage around here.

Regards,
Raff

 

[AussieRaff]

Hi all,

Well during the holiday break I had a chance to test the Phantom and I'm pretty sure I have fixed it!

Turns out there must have been 2 faults.

I still had troubles with range and the video feed dropping out, so I decided to swap the SD card and that was it, no more troubles.

Odd thing is the card is a good one, it's a Sandisk 64Gb "High Endurance" card, and I swapped it with a Sandisk 32Gb Extreme card from my Phantom Standard.

The video recorded to the card were perfect, it was just the link that was the problem, perhaps a High Endurance card caches writes? Not sure.

I recently bought a Samsung EVO Plus 64Gb card on sale, I will test that as soon as the weather here lets up.

I'm in Queensland Australia and we had a tornado do a LOT of damage around here.

Regards,
Raff

Well ****, its back to its old bad behaviour, this fault sure is frustrating! I have tried all the usual tricks, even bought a brand new Sandisk Extreme Pro SD card, it still glitches. I think Ill send it off to DJI next.

Regards,
Raff

 

[AussieRaff]

Hi all,

Well, I sent it off to DJI Australia, they say they updated the firmware and the test video they sent me shows the aircraft firmware is now V01.05.702. I'm pretty sure V01.05.600 is the latest a customer can upgrade to using the DJI apps. Its due back today or tomorrow and I will extensively test it and post my results, hope its fixed!

Regards,
Raff

 

[AussieRaff]

Hi all,

Well i have tested the drone quite a bit, and it seems fixed!

Next trouble is, I crashed it, it clipped HT power lines that were above it. I didn't see them and neither did it, fell about 20 metres to the ground.

I have replaced the broken legs but noticed there seems to be some sort of copper looking conductive paint inside the old legs where the compass modules go.

New legs don't have it, not sure if its required but if it is, I'll paint something conductive in there, still testing.

Regards,
Raff