Long Range FPV Drone! Should I Use DJI? O3? - FPV Questions

[redcobra]

If he meant 24km each way, thats way too long of a distance for a quad. He needs a fixed wing

[RichardAFPV]

Great advice. Although I don't fly LR, I've done tons of research. Three more things I'll add:
1) First leg out needs to be against the wind. I've seen so many people fly with the wind to 50% battery and then not make it back.
2) Location is key. Your control location wants to be up high and away from a heavy noise floor.
3) Know your battery and know the curve. If you didn't catch it, my #1 above has a serious error (yes it was a test). DO NOT expect to fly your battery to 100% capacity. Lithium batteries will only realistically give you 80% of advertised capacity, unless you want to destroy them. Plan to fly 40% out and then turn around.

[jeffparisse]

Brilliant advice as always JB. IMHO, one should be fully comfortable with the prospect of loosing a LR drone both financially and emotionally. Otherwise the psychology of potential loss (pain) infects the physical (shakey thumbs) and mental (adrenaline and all it’s effects) abilities and therefore compromises the mission. My advice for pilots wishing to get into LR is to practice first over water.

[erlandfpv]

I've reach 12km with quad, using O3, and that feeling crazy, i mean, i just feel scary, so i decide to build wing and reach 12km easyly without worry. So efficient.

[FluidityFPV]

Its useful having a second drone used for the initial scouting mission i have a less expensive quad i am willing to lose i made for this specific reason to check signals etc on my Lr flights, before actually sending my more expensive quad with camera etc.

Home made batteries specifically built and tested so i know flight times and how much i can push it. Analog video is pretty much what you want to use as well as a base station (personally i wouldn't even bother with digital), as well as having a separate radio link to your video.

ie. not using the dji Au for video and radio link as in some instances you can lose video before radio where as if you lose one on the au you usually will lose both

Joshua is right though, LR is not for the feint of heart i also wouldn't recommend this being your first build. I go into each flight fully expecting not to come back home and the risk vs reward is greatly weighted against you. You just have to do your homework to try and mitigate the risks.

happy flying

[TheGraneable]

Got a pray bird grab my quad mid air in the mountains. I'm still looking for it lol wish I tought of ziptieing an airtag of some sort on it atleast XD I certainly will focus on a mid range and a tiny, they actually suit more my needs than a LR

[BrjanBuckmaster]

No warnings about needing a HAM license when using a vtx with enough power to transmit from long distances. Also, flying beyond visual range is against FAA regulations. Ditto for flying above 400 ft. And no mention of needing to be registered with the FAA if your aircraft exceeds .5 lb which will no doubt be the case.

[vicewize]

If I could count how many builds I lost over the last 6-7 years... back starting in the old Naze32 days. Numbers have got to been in the 20s at least with and without gopros. You should be using Li-Ions, setup your radio to log your sat coordinates so in case of failsafe crash so have a rough area to search, have GPS rescue setup (the kinda goes with the gps coordinate thing obviously), probably should be running iNav instead of BF (not that you cant), and know your particular Li-Ion minimum voltage. If running li-ions obviously. You can still get great range on 8-9" very light quads with lipos due to the high efficiency of a larger prop, which is always true regardless of size, bigger=more efficient, but still li-ions will always outrun a lipo for how much actual usable mAH you can pull from the cells, not to mention making sure your pack has proper airflow, li-ions get hot. Not every cell is the same in reference to li-ions, molicel, sony, samsung, etc and the different cell models of each manufacturer will often have a wide varying range of absolute minimum voltages. Some go down to 2.8v! The average is 3.0v usually. Something to think about. As far a radio CSRF 900mhz or ELRS 900mhz (what I use) work great. I use a 1.2ghz matek VTX for my fixed wings which transmit for ridiculously long range on very little power on DJI with a Digiadapter, of course its analog. :-)

[divingfalconfpv]

Umm with my 7/8" huge batteries the furthest total distance I traveled has been 30km flying for like 40 mins. I'm not sure how he's planning on going 24km and coming back 🤔

[tk-maker]

study the geo location of the place you fly, I did a mistake crash due to an un-noticible slighly outward curved beach between me and drone that block my vtx signal and it is like 1 second the signal drop from 50Mbps to 1Mbps, luckly it crash into land. also align your rx tx antenna vertical because horizontal antena will drop your signal by alot when you U turn.

[MJ-bjgn]

Fantastic longrange advice!
In order to reach 24kms it takes more than just crossfire, dji and good antennas. I feel like battery life is the main limitation in 5km+ Longrange. If he somehow wants to achieve 24km he will have to use something like 2207 motors with an ideal kv - prop combo and a lightweight build, not mentioning PID tuning and horrible flight performance 🥴

[scottgivens]

I have done my fair share of long range up to 4 miles with the DJI system, the limitation will be your battery and pre flight planning. Whatever the distance is you want to go, take out the guess work and google (Speed Time Distance Calculator). Look for the distance you want to fly and how fast you need to fly to reach your goal and back. Take the guess work out of your Long range goal.

In my (FRIEND'S) case I'm/SHE IS attempting a 6 mile flight with a 6" quad and the 03 Air Unit and need to fly 50mph constant to for 7 minutes one way. So I took my current setup, flew at a big area doing circles at the desired to see if I could reach that goal at that altitude with similar conditions. 

The weight thing does not matter to me, it's what a tuned quad with the right Mah combo will do. I prefer heavier to be more wind resistant. I use two DIY built batteries in parallel with the the highest C rating in parallel to double the C rating and give consistent amp draw. My quad is over a Kilo and I'm/SHE is doing the actual flight somewhere in Mexico...😁.

IMO, focus on the battery and how fast you need to fly, and do it local before going long range. I posted a link to the calculator, but my post was taken down. I guess they thought I was selling something. LOL

[Magneticitist]

I've been experimenting with this for a little while now at ground level and I had a few different antennas to play with. The only real noticeable difference I saw in range was when I added two double AXII 2's on extensions to the O3, BUT, the increase was so insignificant I thought being able to drive under lower clearances was more important. I went back to stocks for the 2nd time until finally landing on 2 TrueRC matchstick carbons, one LHCP and one RHCP that sit maybe 2-3 inches higher than the stock O3 antennas. I would have went right back to the stock O3 antenna yet again after testing those but just left them on because I've already removed the delicate connectors on the O3 antennas too many times already and they are loose. While I did notice the slightest bit of possible extra range using those, I'm talking not enough to really care about.

If you're in the air and you're thinking of trying to put something in your LOS while you're out at a good distance your best bet seems to be a decent patch. I don't notice much difference on the ground using a patch unless I'm really looking for it, but maybe that extra slight bit could get you around an extra small bush or tree while you're way out there. It's that distance that makes all the difference in penetration because at that point you're hanging on threads just able to get great video because nothing is in the way. Guys who risk it around mountains or something while they are way out there seem like they are definitely going to lose their drones. It looks easy in the videos but I bet to do it successfully it really takes a lot of planning and math.

[maurizioghidini]

Great video, thank you very much indeed!
I'm looking for a setup that can make my Geprc mark 5 DC HD O3 6S handle a kind of middle-long range flight time (20-25 hopefully minutes hovering smoothly), avoiding voltage sag. Could you please recommend me a couple of Li-Ion or Lipo batteries that can be suitable for this purpose, and for the drone size/lenght? Thank you so much!

[davidlee]

Maybe start by known waypoint to waypoint for length.

[dalshe_vseh]

Hello, I bought a Helion 10, installed it, and everything seems fine, but the range is very small, probably a maximum of 700m? Goggles lose contact. I'm using the following equipment: (Crossfire Tango 2 transmitter, DJI Goggles 2. TBS crossfire.) There are no significant interferences. I tested it in an open field. Big thank you for any help!

[thomjak]

My first drone was a Chimera7 and i ended up buying a 5inch to practice on. The chimera7 has been hanging on the wall for months waiting for me to be ready :P I'm a afraid of it

[travelrideandfly]

Why would you specifically need a LHCP for DJI ? 🤔. (You mentioned this at some point )

[PavelMy]

Does bandwidth reduction affect the range?

[PavelMy]

Влияет ли снижение полосы, пропускание на дальность?