mlash
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I've had mine out 2.5 miles and great signal and I regularly fly 1.5 to 2 miles away. I use a parabolic extender and they work!
Out 2262 meters or 7,419 feet on 5.8G
Spark distance
- Thread starter redsox93
- Start date
I've had mine out 2.5 miles and great signal and I regularly fly 1.5 to 2 miles away. I use a parabolic extender and they work!
Out 2262 meters or 7,419 feet on 5.8G
I took mine out to 6,080 feet. I was in a city area following a green belt, but it wasn't a straight view of the drone. I did this with parabolic cups over my antennas, and flying at 400 ft above the ground in sport mode. I was connected at the 2.4 k frequency.
I could have gone further, but by that point I was getting very nervous. I had not had at any time where I lost contact with the drone. I still had plenty of battery life as well. Instead of coming straight back, I decided to make a big circle with the drone. I'm thinking next time I'll try it at a little lower altitude, but I'm sure that's why I was able to get so far out.
I could have gone further, but by that point I was getting very nervous. I had not had at any time where I lost contact with the drone. I still had plenty of battery life as well. Instead of coming straight back, I decided to make a big circle with the drone. I'm thinking next time I'll try it at a little lower altitude, but I'm sure that's why I was able to get so far out.
So some interesting observations this weekend after flying my drone around at my cottage. I forced 2.4ghz by picking a few different channels between 1-11. Surprisingly for being pretty much in the middle of nowhere 90% of the channels between 1-11 had a red bar indicating that I shouldn't use them. The ones that I did try were awful. Right off the bat my spark video feed was wayyy choppier than it normally is when I leave the wifi settings on auto. I think the max I was able to go out on 2.4 was around 200M. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go any tests with OTG cable as I forgot it at home, but I'm a little disappointed I didn't see even a slight improvement using 2.4 
So some interesting observations this weekend after flying my drone around at my cottage. I forced 2.4ghz by picking a few different channels between 1-11. Surprisingly for being pretty much in the middle of nowhere 90% of the channels between 1-11 had a red bar indicating that I shouldn't use them. The ones that I did try were awful. Right off the bat my spark video feed was wayyy choppier than it normally is when I leave the wifi settings on auto. I think the max I was able to go out on 2.4 was around 200M. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go any tests with OTG cable as I forgot it at home, but I'm a little disappointed I didn't see even a slight improvement using 2.4
Something is not right.... did you wait for the app to clear the wifi info. At our place, we have nearly zero neighbors, so when I check wifi before flying, there are a few red lines which then drop to zero... except for the one channel my own house is on, which is in the 2.4 range. So far I have only used 5.8 (auto) and I went about 210 meters across my front field on Saturday, my signal strength was only one bar down from full.... so I am presuming I could have gone at least three times further. I am only using OTG. At your own cottage, do you have Wifi?
Ya, when I initially opened the wifi settings I was in that window for quite some time playing around and most of them remained red. Nope, no wifi at my cottage, and there's no other cottages around me that have wifi either (as far as I'm aware).
@OP, if you are in CE area, 200-250 m is the usual range of the Spark.
Your Spark flies using 5.8g, because cannot use 2.4g. If 2.4g is used for rc-ac signal, then 5.8g should be used for device-rc signal, but devices in Europe don't use this band. So, if you want to use 2.4g, the only solution is an otg cable. As you understand, otg AND 5.8g will NOT increase your range.
Also, in Europe, 5.8g is used for other purposes (meteo, military etc), so there may be interference in the middle of nowhere.
Your Spark flies using 5.8g, because cannot use 2.4g. If 2.4g is used for rc-ac signal, then 5.8g should be used for device-rc signal, but devices in Europe don't use this band. So, if you want to use 2.4g, the only solution is an otg cable. As you understand, otg AND 5.8g will NOT increase your range.
Also, in Europe, 5.8g is used for other purposes (meteo, military etc), so there may be interference in the middle of nowhere.
There were 2 other people with me who both owned iPhones had probably would have had their wifi/BT turned on. However I usually fly down close to my lake, and their phones would have been inside roughly 25-50M away.
I'm kind of still confused about this CE mode and 5.8 vs 2.4...people on here have clearly said that in Canada we have 2.4, yet my spark has only ever started in 5.8. I forced 2.4 and it's even less 'powerful' than auto 5.8...and what connection is OTG exactly strengthening then?
Also to clarify, yes I have the RC...I fly using the fly more package.
OTG simply eliminates wifi between your phone and the controller, in FCC mode in Canada you should default to 5.8 but if you choose "custom" then you can pick a channel in the 2.4 band. That is the frequency you will control your Spark with between the remote and the aircraft. Does your GPS show you are where you really are at the cottage, is that accurate? Have you actually tested your setup with the OTG connected?
spark29
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Yup! My gps is perfectly accurate to where it should be. I have tested with OTG but not extensively as I live in the middle of the city back home and don't like sending my spark out far. However, first day I got the cable I did a quick test with OTG and got out to roughly the same 200-250m before lag started to incur.
Duke56
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I connect my tablet to my Iphone's hotspot so the wifi is on but not connected to the RC. Haven't had any issues flying my Spark with that setup. I do turnoff bluetooth on both my phone and tablet.
I've seen some discussion on this before, the variable is going to be wind. If there's no wind, I believe you can cover more ground in sport mode, but I think the equation is close...
So I have a couple of observations after this past weekend flying my spark around.
Firstly, can someone confirm whether or not I actually bought an OTG cable? This is what I purchased - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0755FLPH4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The reason I ask is that after getting my cable hooked up to my phone and controller and everything connected, I was incurring huge amounts of lag with the cable. Flying my spark not even 30 feet away from me, the camera was extremely jumpy and choppy. I took my spark out between 100-150m in these laggy conditions, and they never improved. Immediately landed sparky, unplugged the cable, got wifi up and running and my camera feed was as smooth as ever!
Second, I finally managed to get sparky out to a maximum of just over 500m before I got a little too nervous and decided to bring him back. Previously I think I was under estimating just how much interference trees cause. I previously used to try to fly behind my cottage (towards the forest) because I was scared of crashing in the water, once I was 200m or so into the forest I would start getting lag. This time around, I decided to grow a pair and flew out basically straight across my lake...this is when I was able to get out to 500M without a single glitch or lag spike in the feed. I'm deducing that this means you essentially near to fly spark in wide open fields/areas with almost 0 physical barriers.
I also tried launching my spark from a boat this weekend. It took me a bit longer. For some reason spark wanted me to do an IMU calibration before launching...I feel like for some reason me being on a boat (which isn't completely still) was tripping it out. I ended up launching anyways, and had no flight issues, and that actually happened to be my flight where I was able to get out to about 500m.
Lastly, for some reason my spark won't read my microSD card (that came with spark) anymore. Spark keeps telling me there is an SDcard error and it needs to be replaced (won't let me take photos or videos). This is weird though as both my computer and my dgital camera recognize the SDcard and allow me to take more photos/edit the card, format it etc. Any reason this is happening? And how to fix? Thanks.
Firstly, can someone confirm whether or not I actually bought an OTG cable? This is what I purchased - https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0755FLPH4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The reason I ask is that after getting my cable hooked up to my phone and controller and everything connected, I was incurring huge amounts of lag with the cable. Flying my spark not even 30 feet away from me, the camera was extremely jumpy and choppy. I took my spark out between 100-150m in these laggy conditions, and they never improved. Immediately landed sparky, unplugged the cable, got wifi up and running and my camera feed was as smooth as ever!
Second, I finally managed to get sparky out to a maximum of just over 500m before I got a little too nervous and decided to bring him back. Previously I think I was under estimating just how much interference trees cause. I previously used to try to fly behind my cottage (towards the forest) because I was scared of crashing in the water, once I was 200m or so into the forest I would start getting lag. This time around, I decided to grow a pair and flew out basically straight across my lake...this is when I was able to get out to 500M without a single glitch or lag spike in the feed. I'm deducing that this means you essentially near to fly spark in wide open fields/areas with almost 0 physical barriers.
I also tried launching my spark from a boat this weekend. It took me a bit longer. For some reason spark wanted me to do an IMU calibration before launching...I feel like for some reason me being on a boat (which isn't completely still) was tripping it out. I ended up launching anyways, and had no flight issues, and that actually happened to be my flight where I was able to get out to about 500m.
Lastly, for some reason my spark won't read my microSD card (that came with spark) anymore. Spark keeps telling me there is an SDcard error and it needs to be replaced (won't let me take photos or videos). This is weird though as both my computer and my dgital camera recognize the SDcard and allow me to take more photos/edit the card, format it etc. Any reason this is happening? And how to fix? Thanks.
@redsox that seems to be an OTG cable. Trees will definitely cut your signal. You need to consider getting higher up to reduce that effect. Rise over run. As for the IMU thing, not sure, was the water rough? Buy a new SD card. (assuming you did a reformat with the spark and its still NFG)
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