Distance with spark

[Sherlock221b]

3074m with OTG and parabolic antenna reflector.
View attachment 1882
StarRoad Spark Mavic Pro Controller Signal Booster Foldable Signal extender | eBay

Can I assume this has been FCC tweaked?

 

[Sherlock221b]

The distance I have got with the spark is 385 metre and height about 300 metre.
What about you guys?

Is that FCC adjusted?

 

[Sparky786]

Is that FCC adjusted?

I'm sure it is

 

[Sherlock221b]

I'm sure it is

I understand that people want the range and doing the "trick" to get more but I feel as a very new person I'd rather live within the 500m capability to begin with surfices.

 

[pmshop]

USA model
No tweaks, just OTG and antenna reflector add-ons

 

[pmshop]

I understand that people want the range and doing the "trick" to get more but I feel as a very new person I'd rather live within the 500m capability to begin with surfices.

Agreed but you have to understand where I come from...A DIY Drone maker that wanted a travel drone for easy setup.
I am used to 10,000ft missions minimum (total travel distance) and hold a personal best autonomous mission record of 10.99km.
So the boosted range is out of curiosity - what is a boosted range setup that is stable?
I find the OTG with the parabolic antenna cups is more than enough distance for me and the Spark

 

[Sherlock221b]

That's fair enough, I'm a total newbie and haven't even flown my spark yet as it was delivered yesterday and won't get chance until tomorrow.

From what I've read because I'm using the iphone 7plus I'm better off as the wifi connection is better so should be able to do away with the need of an OTG. I have also purchased the parabolic antenna cups in the hope that it'll produce a better stable connection. I'm only going to start off with begginers mode before I move on to further flying and then it'll be in wider open spaces in the counryside so hoping to push to the 400m mark.

 

[pmshop]

That's fair enough, I'm a total newbie and haven't even flown my spark yet as it was delivered yesterday and won't get chance until tomorrow.

From what I've read because I'm using the iphone 7plus I'm better off as the wifi connection is better so should be able to do away with the need of an OTG. I have also purchased the parabolic antenna cups in the hope that it'll produce a better stable connection. I'm only going to start off with begginers mode before I move on to further flying and then it'll be in wider open spaces in the counryside so hoping to push to the 400m mark.

Welcome to the hobby!
My best advice for the newbe - low and slow.
Get to know the controller and the reactions to your movements.

Best thing about the Spark, if you get into trouble flying - just let go of the sticks.
In GPS mode it will stabelize and hold its position till you think of what you need to do to resolve.
But if you happen to be in ATTI mode, it will drift with the wind so be aware of that.

No way to control what guidance mode it is in.
Spark selects the mode based on GPS reception.

 

[grantspark]

The big thing with distance on WI-FI is to choose a 2.4ghz channel with the smallest bar just before flying as it will be specific to the place and time and may not be the same as the last time you flew at the location.
I recently flew as above and was fairly pleased with the distance in my rural CE area. You could expect to see another 200/300m and although the signal is shown as poor and possibly laggy it still works. Another critical thing is to point the antennas correctly as shown in the manual so the face of the antenna is towards the AC.
I found I got warnings of low signal but Could fly beyond and the signal would even return by 're aligning the antenna with the AC. It has to be accepted that there's places you won't get more than 200/300m due to interference and places you will easily get more.
In reality 500m with the spark is more than enough for my needs to get good photos and videos of stuff.

Thank you. I changed to 2.4 as per your suggestion and I more than doubled my range I was getting on 5.8. I'm from Durban, South Africa, currently in Mauritius on holiday, so getting some epic footage... Happy I now can go out to see to around 600m, whereas before I was battling to get over 250m on 5.8.

 

[grantspark]

The aircraft control range should be the same provided you are using an OTG cable with the android phone. Think there may be some variation with the image though depending on the amount of bloatware installed and spec of the phone.

Why does an OTG cable help signal from the RC to the drone? Not to mention the RC is 4cm from the phone? How can wifi be so cr@p over a 4cm distance?

 

[Corriefisted]

Why does an OTG cable help signal from the RC to the drone? Not to mention the RC is 4cm from the phone? How can wifi be so cr@p over a 4cm distance?

It only helps if you are using an android device because some of them can’t connect to the RC via the 5.8 band and so they cannot connect the spark to the RC on the 2.4 band (which on CE mode will give greater distance).
Best thing you can do is join the Facebook group : The Spark Side and get your RC into FCC mode. No more messing around with weak signals or choppy video transmission!