DJI Phantom 4 -- Poor video signal

[chrisleematt21]

A friend has Phantom for surveying his fields, and this year the video signal quality is crap.

Has anyone else got one and noticed any changes in the video signal?

His using an ipad.

Last year it was really good no issues this year its constantly losing video signal.

The best we can tell there are no environmental changes i.e. mobile phone masts etc.

[tourerjim]

Can weather play a part...? I fpv fly at two fields 70 mile apart & both have moments when signal seems to be poor.

[PKNEC]

Has either device had an update to firmware?
Also is the video streaming through WiFi as what was once a quiet Wi-Fi channel could now be quite busy so if you can pick a particular channel try one until you get a better signal or try the app called Wi-Fi analyser as it will show any Wi-Fi signals in the area.

[chrisleematt21]

The drone, tx and ipad have had several updates, very annoying as it seems to force them.

I'm not sure if it uses wifi for the video or not tbh, the ipad is connected via a cable so I would presume that it doesn't.

[PKNEC]

Does he just use the iPad to download the images from an sd card in the drone or does he stream live video?

Also maybe one of the updates has reset the video quality settings, that is if the software has this option.

[tourerjim]

Has either device had an update to firmware?
Also is the video streaming through WiFi as what was once a quiet Wi-Fi channel could now be quite busy so if you can pick a particular channel try one until you get a better signal or try the app called Wi-Fi analyser as it will show any Wi-Fi signals in the area.

I assumed they work on 5.8 as I see a lad on a skateboard with box goggles on & the DJI was just above his head in frront of him giong down a pathway.

[chrisleematt21]

He uses it for streaming the video

Software version are

Ipad OS version is 11.3 DJI APP version is 4.2.12 DJI Remote is 1.9.3 DJI Aircraft is 02.00.0106

[PKNEC]

It looks like the aircraft firmware needs updating as I found this on the Dji forum https://forum.dji.com/thread-130996-1-1.html

[chrisleematt21]

I'm a bit reluctant to do more firmware updates incase it makes it worse! and there is no mention of it fixing a video signal issue. Bummer really as it was really good once!

[PKNEC]

I'm a bit reluctant to do more firmware updates incase it makes it worse! and there is no mention of it fixing a video signal issue. Bummer really as it was really good once!

Yeah its damn frustrating when trying to identify a problem that once worked ok.
I can only suggest contacting Dji direct.

[bigpops]

The video link on the Phantom 4 is a version of DJI lightbridge, which is 2.4GHz, but it's not WiFi. The only ones that use wifi are the Phantom 3 Standard, and Phantom 3 4K.

The video is sent from the Phantom, to the transmitter, and it's that that sends the video to the iPad over the cable you plug in.

No idea if this will help in any way, but just provided some information. Is there any way it could be the cable?

[chrisleematt21]

Tried 3 cables, didn't make a difference. I think I will try the Litchi app next and see if that makes a difference.