ARGTek Range Extender Issues

Smurdley · Aug 23, 2017

My house is surrounded by 100' trees. When flying @ 200' altitude, I get around 1800-2000' range before the signal gets intermittent. Recently I flew in an area without trees and had full control and video beyond 10,000'. Now this was with my P3P/DBS, but the result is indicative of how much trees affect range at 2.4/5.8 GHz.

Alistair McCann · Aug 23, 2017

I got 2,333ft from a patch of waste ground near my house, its right beside an eletrical sub station and a few houses so I imagine if I get out in the country a but more I will be able to get 3000ft+

It RTH'd twice but I just cancelled it once the connection came back up (which only took seconds).

Supermofo · Aug 25, 2017

All range problems solved for me now

Bought a P3Advanced.... it was the only way to avoid the stupid issues with P3s

I bought a used P3A for the same price as my P3S.. Just look around

Madmadra · May 24, 2018

Hi folks, i have a P3 SE and i just installed the Argtek range extender but i'm now having problems getting video feed to my android tablet, if it comes on it's quickly going to black and white and then a black screen and then coming back a few seconds later and repeating the process and this is when the RC, tablet and drone are all in the same place - i was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem after modding their RC?. I can get video feed to my android phone though i had always used the tablet/RC up to now and prefer this setup. I also managed to dislodge the metal connector at the end of the cable of my original antennae when removing it so i can't revert to my original setup if the argtek doesn't work out - if anyone has a spare antennae that they're willing to sell i'd be happy to buy it. I tried out the new setup and am unimpressed with the range so far, i'll try it again in a more open area. Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated, many thanks

LarBear360 · May 27, 2018

Madmadra said:
Hi folks, i have a P3 SE and i just installed the Argtek range extender but i'm now having problems getting video feed to my android tablet, if it comes on it's quickly going to black and white and then a black screen and then coming back a few seconds later and repeating the process and this is when the RC, tablet and drone are all in the same place - i was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem after modding their RC?. I can get video feed to my android phone though i had always used the tablet/RC up to now and prefer this setup. I also managed to dislodge the metal connector at the end of the cable of my original antennae when removing it so i can't revert to my original setup if the argtek doesn't work out - if anyone has a spare antennae that they're willing to sell i'd be happy to buy it. I tried out the new setup and am unimpressed with the range so far, i'll try it again in a more open area. Any info or suggestions would be much appreciated, many thanks

I'm slightly confused. You're saying it works with your phone but not your tablet? And prior to the mod the tablet worked fine?

Madmadra · May 27, 2018

LarBear360 said:
I'm slightly confused. You're saying it works with your phone but not your tablet? And prior to the mod the tablet worked fine?

Yes, since I installed the Argtek mod the dji go app works with the tablet but the video feed is very poor, I might get a few seconds of video every so often but mostly it's a black screen. The video was perfect on the tablet before the mod and yes I can still get video feed with my Huawei p10 android phone with the Argtek mod - it lags a little at times but it works

LarBear360 · May 28, 2018

Madmadra said:
Yes, since I installed the Argtek mod the dji go app works with the tablet but the video feed is very poor, I might get a few seconds of video every so often but mostly it's a black screen. The video was perfect on the tablet before the mod and yes I can still get video feed with my Huawei p10 android phone with the Argtek mod - it lags a little at times but it works

I just don't see how an antenna can bog down your video. And the fact it works on another device points to your tablet. Is the tablet new? New install of GO? Is it caching video on the tablet and not your phone? If so, go into the settings on your tablet and turn it off.

Madmadra · May 28, 2018

I've been using the tablet with the drone without any issues for a while now and the first problem I've had are since I installed the Argtek mod. You say it couldn't be associated with the antennae but is the video feed not coming back from the drone and passing through the controller to the tablet? I'm still fairly new to this so apologies for my stupidity in advance but I always thought that the video signal passed thru the RC. Anyways, I was using the same version of Go after the mod and even installed a couple of variations of the app since but the video feed is still a problem with the tablet. It works with the phone but it's not perfect, can be laggy and I've noticed it sometimes chops up video files into a few pieces if I allow it to record for several minutes. I only started using the phone with the drone recently so I don't know what's normal for it tbh

LarBear360 · May 28, 2018

Madmadra said:
I've been using the tablet with the drone without any issues for a while now and the first problem I've had are since I installed the Argtek mod. You say it couldn't be associated with the antennae but is the video feed not coming back from the drone and passing through the controller to the tablet? I'm still fairly new to this so apologies for my stupidity in advance but I always thought that the video signal passed thru the RC. Anyways, I was using the same version of Go after the mod and even installed a couple of variations of the app since but the video feed is still a problem with the tablet. It works with the phone but it's not perfect, can be laggy and I've noticed it sometimes chops up video files into a few pieces if I allow it to record for several minutes. I only started using the phone with the drone recently so I don't know what's normal for it tbh

You are correct; the video from the drone is received by the RC and then it goes to your device via Wi-Fi. I suppose it could be a bad install on the modification. Any chance you know anyone with another controller to test?

You mentioned if you "allow it to record for several minutes" the phone chops up files. Turn the caching off on all devices. It's low quality and drains resources. The video on the camera card is far superior. You don't need both.

Madmadra · May 29, 2018

LarBear360 said:
You are correct; the video from the drone is received by the RC and then it goes to your device via Wi-Fi. I suppose it could be a bad install on the modification. Any chance you know anyone with another controller to test?

You mentioned if you "allow it to record for several minutes" the phone chops up files. Turn the caching off on all devices. It's low quality and drains resources. The video on the camera card is far superior. You don't need both.

OK many thanks for that, I don't know anyone with a separate controller, finding it very hard to source spare parts tbh. As for the install I have gone back and checked connections and even tried connecting the wires differently in case there was a problem with any of the coaxial inputs on the mod but it's always the same result. When you advise turning off caching is this done inside dji go or elsewhere?

LarBear360 · May 29, 2018

Madmadra said:
OK many thanks for that, I don't know anyone with a separate controller, finding it very hard to source spare parts tbh. As for the install I have gone back and checked connections and even tried connecting the wires differently in case there was a problem with any of the coaxial inputs on the mod but it's always the same result. When you advise turning off caching is this done inside dji go or elsewhere?

Open the GO app on the tablet. Upper right hand corner you will see the the icon for General settings. Looks something like this:
_ ____
_ ____
_ ____

Open this page and scroll down until you see Video Cache. Cache Locally When Recording. If it's green, turn it off by sliding to the left. Below that you will see Clear Video Cache. Give that a tap.