How does Wifi interference affect the Solo?

Del · Aug 16, 2015

Iv been doing a bit of reading about how flying around Wifi area affects the performance of your Solo by losing signal !
So my question is
Where does it exactly affect the Solo?
For example: if I was standing in a clear field with no wifi around me with the controller and I fly my Solo towards th city with lots of wifi..is that gonna affect the performance!
Or if I was in the city with my controller with lots of wifi and flew my Solo towards the country would anything change there also?

So at whitch end does the wifi interference does it affect..the controller..Or the solo.? Or both..?

Raybro · Aug 16, 2015

I would say either one depending on where you are.

http://www.3drpilots.com/threads/how-to-avoid-loss-of-controller-connection.654/

Del · Aug 16, 2015

Thanks Raybro..that was pretty interesting to read!

David Weston · Aug 17, 2015

I fly in an area that is relatively weak in wifi signals toward an area that is very dense with homes and wifi of all manner. Before, with the stock antennas when I got over what I became to call "wifi No Man's Land" I would lose signal and RTH. I got the DBS Mod antenna and now I can easily get to 2500' instead of the 1200-1300' that I was getting before (where the wifi fence started). However, I have quit altogether flying over densely built and populated areas as for me the liability should something fail (motor, chip etc) is much greater than any enjoyment I get. Just too many other "safe" places with good video targets to be had.

Rich · Aug 17, 2015

You have to keep in mind, this is a complicated subject.

We have two different sets of transmitters and receivers trying to hear the transmitters signals.

There is a transmitter in your controller, and the Solo has a receiver trying to hear the controller. There is also a transmitter in the Solo, and the receiver in the controller trying to hear the Solo.

As you fly around, your controller stays in a fairly stable local WiFi signal environment (unless you walk or move around a lot).

But as you fly around, the receiver in the Solo sees a very varying WiFi signal environment.

To our advantage is that most WiFi signals are designed to used by ground based equipment. This means that most WiFi devices output their signals along the ground if possible. It would be to their disadvantage to send their signals into the air (where our Solo operates).

But as you fly your Solo around, you can imagine that it could 'hear' a much different WiFi environment as when it was sitting on the ground waiting to take off.

It's possible that there was no interference near you when your Solo took off, but then you flew the Solo to a location where there is very strong interference which you can't see from your location on the ground.

Antennas such as the FPVLR help by directing the signals (both receive and transmit) into the air in more directional manner. They also are circularly polarized which may or may not help the Solo as the Solo's antennas are linearly polarized, but the Solo moves so it's signals could have varying polarizations to the signals as it's antennas in the legs move around in space.

In short, if you can get a stronger signal to the Solo, and help to punch through local interfering signals on the ground, then you can get longer distances before a loss of control This is why antenna's such as the FPVLR work well. They attempt to ignore signals that are not in front of them (to a point) so this also helps with the reception of signals from the Solo. So be sure to always point your FPVLR antennas in the direction of the Solo.

I hope this helps people to understand a bit of what is going on.