Keep losing signal at about 300 ft up

Seems like interference is a pretty strong possibility.

Also, when you rotate, as the the antenna orientation changes in two of the solo's legs, I often see dramatic signal change (especially when straight overhead). Were you rotating the solo when it occurred?

When I first started flying, I also stuck with going straight up for my first flights. However to improve signal I would push the solo forward or backwards a bit to get better signal quality. In one of my popular spots to fly, I would push it forward about 40 feet over a bushy hill, that 40 feet improved signal quality immensely.

-56/-59db is pretty solid wifi signal strength

I found the wifi log from the copter via SFTPing into it. Here's what I see during the event.

Feb 8 23:53:42 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=-58 txr=57.8 rxr=7.2 ret=331 err=84
Feb 8 23:53:43 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=-58 txr=39.0 rxr=7.2 ret=364 err=96
Feb 8 23:53:44 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=-59 txr=39.0 rxr=7.2 ret=112 err=96
Feb 8 23:53:45 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=0 txr=0.0 rxr=0.0 ret=0 err=0
Feb 8 23:53:46 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=0 txr=0.0 rxr=0.0 ret=0 err=0
Feb 8 23:53:47 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=0 txr=0.0 rxr=0.0 ret=0 err=0
...
Feb 8 23:54:08 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=0 txr=0.0 rxr=0.0 ret=0 err=0
Feb 8 23:54:09 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=-56 txr=1.0 rxr=6.5 ret=1 err=0
Feb 8 23:54:10 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=-54 txr=57.8 rxr=6.5 ret=102 err=0
Feb 8 23:54:11 3dr_solo local3.info rssi_send: station sig=-55 txr=65.0 rxr=6.5 ret=86 err=0

When I lose it my signal goes from -59 db to 0 in one second then when it recovers it's back at -56. Can anybody tell me if this seems normal? I need to brush up on my rx theory but is -59 a very poor signal? Is that poor enough for it to lose the connection?
 
I noticed a dramatic increase in signal quality in my "straight up" flights with the alfa antennas.

Thanks. Is there any particular antenna that works best straight up, or any optimal way to orient the stock antennas for that type of flight?
 
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Seems like interference is a pretty strong possibility.

Also, when you rotate, as the the antenna orientation changes in two of the solo's legs, I often see dramatic signal change (especially when straight overhead). Were you rotating the solo when it occurred?

When I first started flying, I also stuck with going straight up for my first flights. However to improve signal I would push the solo forward or backwards a bit to get better signal quality. In one of my popular spots to fly, I would push it forward about 40 feet over a bushy hill, that 40 feet improved signal quality immensely.

-56/-59db is pretty solid wifi signal strength

I flew again yesterday using the Alfa antennas. I haven't analyzed any log files yet, but I did notice that once at about 400 feet I tried yawing the copter around to basically pan the camera across the landscape and it lost signal. It came back down and regained a connection quicker than it did with the stock antennas (I think) but yeah rotating did affect my signal unfortunately. I wonder if I was down at 300 feet if I wouldn't have that issue. Also of course I could fly further away from me but I am still worried about what I'd do if there were issues and it went down somewhere I couldn't recover it. I feel so much more comfortable keeping it over my house, at least for now.
 
I’ve flown 5 or 6 more times with the Alfa’s and I’m not having luck. I basically lose signal at some point on every flight that I do. Signal strength is good (-50 dB) and then it just drops. Usually if I’m up 300-400 feet and I yaw I have really grainy video and then lose signal during the rotation.

I’ve never flown higher than ~400 feet and have tried going 50-100 feet forward rather than straight up but no luck.

A friend of mine with a mavic has no trouble but I guess I shouldn’t have bought a WiFi drone due to interference in the city.

If i fly no higher than 300 feet and never yaw I might have better luck but that seems like such a limitation.

Is there anything else I can try in terms of antenna upgrades / mods?
 
If you've tried flying other than straight up and you still lose connection when you rotate (yaw) I'd check the antenna connections inside Solo. Sounds possibly like you have only one antenna connected...
 
If you've tried flying other than straight up and you still lose connection when you rotate (yaw) I'd check the antenna connections inside Solo. Sounds possibly like you have only one antenna connected...

Is there a way to confirm that via the log files? Any advice on how to open up the Solo and check?
 
I don't know if the log files will show it.

Solo uses a MIMO topology for its WiFi connection. In my experience having one antenna disconnected on one end of a MIMO link will behave somewhat as you are describing. I.e. fantastic signal that degrades very quickly with positional changes.

But it is just a guess.

Search the forums for "WiFi card" or "CP antenna" to find some helpful links. YouTube also has teardown videos.
 
It seems like a pretty big job and I have to remove all the motor pods, ugh. The service manual says there should glue holding the antennas onto the WIFI card and tape holding the antenna cables in place. Seems like a good hypothesis about why the drone is losing its connection so often though.
 
Try doing a walkaround with the drone on but no props spinning, sitting on a table. Walk 360 around it with the transmitter pointed at the bird the whole time and watch the RSSI number. Ideally with 10+ feet between the bird and yourself.

This should give you an idea of whether the problem is internal to the bird/GCS or whether it is an interference problem.
 
Try doing a walkaround with the drone on but no props spinning, sitting on a table. Walk 360 around it with the transmitter pointed at the bird the whole time and watch the RSSI number. Ideally with 10+ feet between the bird and yourself.

This should give you an idea of whether the problem is internal to the bird/GCS or whether it is an interference problem.

I just did a test flight. Before I flew I walked around the drone and if the drone was below me there was actually a slight difference in signal from one side to the other but when I put the drone up on a table the difference was negligible. Then I decided to fly.

I went out 50 feet and up 100 feet and yawed in a complete circle - no difference in signal strength (-55 to -60 db) then went up to 200 feet and did the same - still -55 to -60 db, then went up to 300 feet, and did the same, still -50 to -55 db. When I got closer to 300 feet I noticed the video glitching a bit and some dropped frames but no difference in signal strength. Then I went up to 400 feet and tried a yaw and missed a frame or two then lost connection.

One thing I notice with the stock antennas vs. the Alfas is when the drone disconnects it does not reconnect until getting really close to be but with the alfas it seems to reconnect much sooner.

So I can't confirm it's an antenna. It's not showing a very different signal strength at certain part of the yaw circle, but it is definitely suffering from glitchy video and then disconnecting at the 300-400 foot range.

Hmm...
 
Mountainous or hilly area ? Any possibility of a "blast radiator" such as a microwave antenna or WiMax node?

I have noticed at a marina where I regularly fly that the buildings and trees seem to provide some shielding from interference below a certain height. Certainly possible that terrain could be shielding you up to a certain height....
 
Mountainous or hilly area ? Any possibility of a "blast radiator" such as a microwave antenna or WiMax node?

I have noticed at a marina where I regularly fly that the buildings and trees seem to provide some shielding from interference below a certain height. Certainly possible that terrain could be shielding you up to a certain height....

The place I am flying is Houston Texas, so it's totally flat but there may be antennas around. I always think that interference should decrease as I fly higher but maybe that's not the case. It might just be that for my particular setup this is as good as it gets for this particular location. I flew only once in the suburbs and while I had better luck, I was still very new to flying the Solo and too timid to really test its limits.
 
Here's a graph of the signal strength during one of the loss of signal events. It just happened so suddenly. In the same data set (from solo-wifi.log) I also see a jump in the error (err= column) count just before I lost the connection but otherwise it was zero (not pictured here). This particular case was not a yaw but instead a climb. It's the only one I've analyzed the log for so far.

View media item 755
 
I just did a test flight. Before I flew I walked around the drone and if the drone was below me there was actually a slight difference in signal from one side to the other but when I put the drone up on a table the difference was negligible. Then I decided to fly.

I went out 50 feet and up 100 feet and yawed in a complete circle - no difference in signal strength (-55 to -60 db) then went up to 200 feet and did the same - still -55 to -60 db, then went up to 300 feet, and did the same, still -50 to -55 db. When I got closer to 300 feet I noticed the video glitching a bit and some dropped frames but no difference in signal strength. Then I went up to 400 feet and tried a yaw and missed a frame or two then lost connection.

One thing I notice with the stock antennas vs. the Alfas is when the drone disconnects it does not reconnect until getting really close to be but with the alfas it seems to reconnect much sooner.

So I can't confirm it's an antenna. It's not showing a very different signal strength at certain part of the yaw circle, but it is definitely suffering from glitchy video and then disconnecting at the 300-400 foot range.

Hmm...

For lower heights, 50 feet gives you a decent diagonal, but as you approach 300-400' I think you need to move the copter a bit further from the controller for the best signal.

Also try playing with the alfa orientation. I take off with the alfas pointed straight up and as I move away horizontally, tilt the alfas down once I'm about 100 feet away. When the alfas are pointed straight up, I just change the controller orientation a bit to get a strong signal during take off.

I've also done straight up flights to 400 feet with the alfas with good signal, so I think we're still looking at something in your environment as the cause.

Keep in mind this issue will disappear as you gain more confidence in the solo and get a good feel for the interference where you fly.
 

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