Birdside antenna mod version 2.0.

710drone · Dec 15, 2017

Was running an ND8 filter on that one. I have a feeling if I was in an open area I would be getting great distance.

antbatt13 · Mar 5, 2018

Glad I stumbled across this thread. Had a crash and the grey and black wires pulled away from the connectors "under" the gimbal. Thought I was going to have to order the OEM replacements parts and open up the bird to fix, but thanks to Matt, I do not! Thanks to those who contributed here.

ccc124 · Mar 8, 2018

Matts175 said:
Those are the ones. You'll like this mod. Even at 2 miles out, I still had 4 bars of video signal. Best of all, it's cheap and completely reversible if you don't like it.

Matts175 said:
P3P antennas to replace the ceramics.

Matts175, I received my new P3P antennas and Landing gear today (to do your mod on my P3S.) A question I haven't seen asked or answered...two of the four new P3P antennas have short wires and two have longer wires, but all four are the same gray color. A drone repair tech once told me it's very important to get the black and gray wires (on P3S) on the correct UFL connectors on the gimbal, as if getting them reversed could cause/create a whole new set of problems. How did you know which of the four new P3P gray wires went to the proper connector on your P3S gimbal? Thanks

antbatt13 · Mar 8, 2018

Maybe I got lucky, but I used 1 short and 1 long one. I didn't pay attention to which UFL connector I put them on, but I took it out for a test flight earlier and had zero issue. In fact, it performed much better than the stock antennas.

Matts175 · Mar 8, 2018

ccc124 said:
Matts175, I received my new P3P antennas and Landing gear today (to do your mod on my P3S.) A question I haven't seen asked or answered...two of the four new P3P antennas have short wires and two have longer wires, but all four are the same gray color. A drone repair tech once told me it's very important to get the black and gray wires (on P3S) on the correct UFL connectors on the gimbal, as if getting them reversed could cause/create a whole new set of problems. How did you know which of the four new P3P gray wires went to the proper connector on your P3S gimbal? Thanks

I don't see how there could possibly be a difference. Internally the antennas are identical. So, I don't see his logic behind that statement. I tore some apart just to see. Curious cat, lol.

As far as which to use, long or short. Use whichever suits your install best.

ccc124 · Mar 8, 2018

That's all I needed to hear! Thanks for the quick response!

ccc124 · Mar 8, 2018

I also noticed that the new P3P landing gear has a Compass wire attached to one of the legs, and the plug fits the P3S. Did you switch to the new one or just keep the original P3S Compass wire connected? The P3S Compass wire seems to have much better sheilding on it.

ccc124 · Mar 8, 2018

I had the top off my P3S and noticed the two UFL connectors and gray wires on the motherboard that lead down to the legs. Are those 5.8ghz? If all four of the new P3P antennas are 2.4ghz then that rules out switching them as well. I guess I could look them up...seems like they might increase distance which would be good now that your mod has increased the video feed distance. Just thinking out loud and wondered if you've tinkered in that area at all.

Matts175 · Mar 8, 2018

I just used the Standard landing gear, so I never messed with the compass . For the 5.8ghz, I was going to do something with those, but I ended up selling my standard and buying a professional. You get to a certain point where you mod the Standard sooooo much, you think.... dang, I should have just bought a Pro. So that's what I did.

ccc124 · Mar 8, 2018

Matts175 said:
I just used the Standard landing gear, so I never messed with the compass . For the 5.8ghz, I was going to do something with those, but I ended up selling my standard and buying a professional. You get to a certain point where you mod the Standard sooooo much, you think.... dang, I should have just bought a Pro. So that's what I did.

That makes sense! Well, you started that thread a long time ago and it appears to have benefited many other P3S owners, so thank you!

All the best!
Chris

bsartist · Mar 8, 2018

ccc124 said:
That makes sense! Well, you started that thread a long time ago and it appears to have benefited many other P3S owners, so thank you!

All the best!
Chris

IMHO, it’s an evolution. Overcoming limitations one by one. I did the DBS mod on my P3S. Then I was unhappy with the downlink performance so I did this birdside antenna mod. I had a lot of fun flying that P3S with those mods. And had fun making the mods and seeing the results. ;-)

Then my prio became serious still photography. I needed the P4P for that. So now I will have a dually modified P3S for sale that may be attractive for some.

P3S and mods became great stepping stones for me. Enjoy your range. I think you’ll get smoother video with the more stable downlink with this particular mod. I never had a problem with the P3S video. The still pic performance lacks big time.

Between the dbs mod and the birdside mod, they cost me less than $150. I’m glad I did those and bought time to save for the P4P

Happy flying!!

Edit: the smoother video doesn’t come directly from the mod. But it’s hard to get smooth pans when the video keeps freezing.

stu2b2 · Aug 27, 2018

So from this picture what do I connected to each leg and what frequency please

with in my bird

Matts175 · Aug 27, 2018

Please read post #1 and post #7. Everything is explained there in full detail.

stu2b2 · Aug 28, 2018

In post 7 you speak about not having to take the lid off but I think you will fine that the connections for the video links of inside of the bird nowhere near the camera

Shaw520 · Aug 28, 2018

No,..the connections that this thread/mod pertains to are in the gimbal,..read thread from begining and you'll get it,

Jklovell · Aug 28, 2018

I’m embarrassed that I know nothing about this. I have a P4P and would like to extend my range a bit or at least have a better connection due to tree interference. Is there a solution for me?

Matts175 · Aug 28, 2018

Jklovell said:
I’m embarrassed that I know nothing about this. I have a P4P and would like to extend my range a bit or at least have a better connection due to tree interference. Is there a solution for me?

You'll probably get better answers if you ask on the P4P forums.

Matts175 · Aug 28, 2018

stu2b2 said:
In post 7 you speak about not having to take the lid off but I think you will fine that the connections for the video links of inside of the bird nowhere near the camera

The video antenna connections are NOT inside of the bird. I think I've stressed (and stressed out about, LOL) that point many times within this thread.... DO NOT take the lid off for this mod.

stu2b2 · Aug 29, 2018

Matts175 said:
The video antenna connections are NOT inside of the bird. I think I've stressed (and stressed out about, LOL) that point many times within this thread.... DO NOT take the lid off for this mod.

Instead of stressing matt175 enlighten us a little bit by expanding on why I can not replace All four of my antennas please and judging by the stress level you probably have a good reason not to do so

Now from my experience the two gray wires on the legs are for the video down link !
And if you look at the two wires coming from the camera there is one black and one gray so I put it to you why am I changing both the grays wires on the legs I understand that your mod does not involve taking the lid off the bird but I have and again this is what you will see when it’s been opened

Two gray wires coming from a WiFi module that says on the printed circuit board 2.4g now I’m not saying I’m right or wrong but what I am saying is as an electrical engineer I work on two things worst case and fact now this is a little bit out of my depth but I love to tinker it keeps me busy so matt175 take a deep breath and no stressing please enlighten me and the rest of us thank you

Matts175 · Aug 29, 2018

stu2b2 said:
Instead of stressing matt175 enlighten us a little bit by expanding on why I can not replace All four of my antennas please and judging by the stress level you probably have a good reason not to do so

Now from my experience the two gray wires on the legs are for the video down link !
And if you look at the two wires coming from the camera there is one black and one gray so I put it to you why am I changing both the grays wires on the legs I understand that your mod does not involve taking the lid off the bird but I have and again this is what you will see when it’s been opened

View attachment 102919

Two gray wires coming from a WiFi module that says on the printed circuit board 2.4g now I’m not saying I’m right or wrong but what I am saying is as an electrical engineer I work on two things worst case and fact now this is a little bit out of my depth but I love to tinker it keeps me busy so matt175 take a deep breath and no stressing please enlighten me and the rest of us thank you

Are you sure that your bird is a P3 standard? The one's that have the wires going to inside board are 5.8ghz and are for the control. This mod has nothing to do with that.