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Losing RC signal indoors

Balds

New Member
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Jul 19, 2017
Messages
3
Age
38
Does anyone else have this problem? Indoors, I either am in mostly ATTI, sometimes OPTI mode. I'm using the R/C with wifi connection to the phone.

It's already caused some close calls with potentially dangerous crashes.

Any idea how to fix this? Thanks!
 
It's next to impossible for me to fly my Spark indoors due to the 3+ WIFI networks that I use in my home
 
It depend on what is the light level and what is bellow the Spark. If there is no visible pattern or low light, then OPTI cannot work and you are in ATTI.
There is no real fix, apart flying where the OPTI can work and having a good link can help.
Indoors is ok for me but flying is a big word. It is more slow movement to avoid any surprise and continuous check if it stop at end of movement or not. There is also a lot of wifi at home but they are most at 2.4G, so 5.8G is more free and ok for such short distance.
In ATTI, if the Spark move and you have a laggy link, then I can imagine how hot can be some situations.
 
At my real job, I'm using Spark as an indoor option for tactical team situational awareness expansion during tactical entry operations. So far, it has worked very well in an office and industrial environment. I opted to not even use the controller, but go with iPhone device control as it cuts down on carried equipment. I've been able to use out to about 30 meters in a large warehouse and think I could get more in a larger facility. A 30 meter range will cover most of the buildings in which we may have to use it.
 
It depend on what is the light level and what is bellow the Spark. If there is no visible pattern or low light, then OPTI cannot work and you are in ATTI.
There is no real fix, apart flying where the OPTI can work and having a good link can help.
Indoors is ok for me but flying is a big word. It is more slow movement to avoid any surprise and continuous check if it stop at end of movement or not. There is also a lot of wifi at home but they are most at 2.4G, so 5.8G is more free and ok for such short distance.
In ATTI, if the Spark move and you have a laggy link, then I can imagine how hot can be some situations.

Ah thanks! That makes a lot of sense. Flying indoors on concrete means that it can only fly in ATTI mode, cuz it can't use it's optical sensors without visible patterns. So as for the WIFI disconnects, it's a pretty common problem? Does the system detect conflicting / bad wifi and then chooses another channel on it's own? I don't wanna give up flying indoors with the R/C just cuz of the fear of d/c

Sorry for the noob questions, I've been reading up, trying different channels but it seems flying outdoors is much less risky.
 
For the wifi, there are 2 cases:
- Real disconnection, it will not automatically recover.
- Temporary interference with other wifi, there is automatic recovery.
The first is more related to a bug or rare circonstance I would say as it should not normally not happen. The Spark will stop after a while (if not in ATTI mode). With ATTI mode, braking is under pilot control, not the Spark so it is where the thinks could go wrong.
In the second case, there will be lag in the control, the time for the RC to send successfully control commands to the Spark. In the mean time the Spark will still be flying and the main risk is to over react in controlling it.

Regarding automatic change of channel, I don't know but a short test with phone and Spike linked at 2.4G, show one channel used on my scanner at high level, at least it is the video feedback I would say. Control and telemetry could be on another channel but that would mean 2 wifi connections. Also the Spike + RC don't look so good at selecting the best channel in auto mode. It was just at same channel as my main wifi at home where there was other channels with much lower disturbance.

Using prop guards during the learning curve time is for sure good, that is not 100% protection, but it can really help.
To practice skill of flying indoor, nothing best than a cheap quad (30$) that fly only in ATTI mode. That will reduce the fear of flying indoor with a bigger quad.
 

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