Existing Antenna Holes - No Drilling

[John Locke]

You should call DBS and FPVLR and sell them a bunch, they need these in their antenna kits.

 

[Wibble]

At last I have been saying this ever since I saw the DBS mod - just seems crazy to me drilling dirty big holes in the transmitter case!!!

 

[AudubonEnt]

hey guys just to make sure the higher the db the better the signal ? or will you get a better channel ? i have seen videos where people push their P3P up to 2.5 miles. i would like to send it out with out having to worry of a signal lost what are the best options?
i see that some one posted a 7db antenna from ebay is that a good one or would the 9db antenna be a better one ?

 

[Wibble]

Beware of just looking at numbers! People do that so much.
DBS mod or the FPVLR are the ones to go for - then maybe a booster.
Both will max out range so battery becomes the limiting factor.

 

[AudubonEnt]

Yes more db is better but antennas get bigger the more you get ..I run mine 3miles + with just a simple windsurfer & stock antenna's. Cheap & easy.

can you recommend one ? thank you !

 

[John Locke]

I've emailed that guy in Florida 3 times in the last week, I've got no response. I think he's got what we want, but based on his website it appears he doesn't want to sell a DIY cable kit. He appears to be leveraging to get the conversion work at $250/job, something that takes about 30min to do and $10 worth of cables. That's not going to fly with most of us (pun intended). I could get these cables made with a Chinese cable maker if I had high res quality photos of the connectors needed on each end. Those guys in China have no MOQ requirement, and they make pretty good cables I found out. I've bought a few custom cables from China for the external FPVLR cable setup I needed for my Q500 with 2W amps, using 90 degree SMA connectors, and the quality looks excellent (see below). All it's going to take is someone here in the US to realize there's an opportunity lurking, and those cables can be made up very easily, no problem.
View attachment 35305

The guy at FDR Drone Mods who offers a service to modify the controller, installing SMA connectors using the original antenna holes, he called me back today. His name is Freddie. I informed him his website wasn't working, and suggested he put a Ph# in his website. He said this is a side business, he does it at night and weekends, so a Ph# would be disruptive to his regular job at this time, email needs to be used.

He said he does intend to offer the extended shank SMA connector wire kits and will let me know when the link is up to buy them, and when the site is working properly. He sells many different antennas, but he says he likes the 7" grey folding model the best. He goes 4mi with his P3 using this 7" antenna, and it's omni-directional. That's pretty amazing if true, the question is where do you need to be to get 4mi reliably? City and country are two different environments.

He also sells magnetic antennas for the top of the car so you can attach to the controller by cable and sit in your car and get awesome coverage using the top of the car as a ground-plane, which enhances reception. So on those hot days when the iPad is overheating, you can sit in air-conditioning to prevent thermal overload (as I call it), which tanks the video stream.

Freddies cable kit (when available) should something everyone should want when installing a DBS Mod or FPVLR kit. This kit would alleviate the need to drill holes in your controller shell, and make the installation look more like an OEM setup. Of course, Freddie is a competitor since he sells antennas too, so you won't find DBS or FPVLR endorsing his "original antenna hole" cable kit.

 

[dynamic3dSolutions]

WOW they removed the item i made for you.. said it was spam. This site is something else. They're making it very hard to help people.

 

[dynamic3dSolutions]

well if your in need of the rp-sma antenna plugs because you don't want to drill holes in your controller send me a pm & ill give you the link.

 

[TheTrickster]

Found this kit online, looks very similar to the FDR cables

LONG THREAD DJI Inspire Stage 3 Drone Radio Remote Cable Only Mod Kit SMA/RPSMA

But then it confused me with the SMA or RPSMA options..

 

[KyleMaxxUAV]

Anything ever come of this ????


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[Phantom751874]

Keep in mind SMA connectors mean dB loss, SMA out and SMA Antenna, loss loss. DJi's implementation is no loss.

 

[KyleMaxxUAV]

So how do any of the other options like dbs mods for example give further distance ?

Would connecting a higher gain sma antenna not = higher signal transmission distance as it would with a wifi router for example ?


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[KyleMaxxUAV]

Junk ? Or will this work ?

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[oakmeadows]

I've been searching and searching. I've been doing so much research on this dbs antenna I recall seeing somewhere along my many searches that I saw a picture of an install where their external antenna connections were using the existing antenna holes on the controller. Does anyone have any advice on this? I'd prefer this method instead of punching holes in the controller.

I did this mod and was going to use the original antenna holes but found the wires that come with the mod where on the short side so i opted for drilling the holes and looks fine and is dead easy to do


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[KyleMaxxUAV]

I did this mod and was going to use the original antenna holes but found the wires that come with the mod where on the short side so i opted for drilling the holes and looks fine and is dead easy to do


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You don't have any photos of how short they are so you ? And have you noticed any significant boost in signal range or robustness in a congested area ??

Do you have a p3pro or advanced ??


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[WetDog]

Junk ? Or will this work ?

You can't tell by the pictures. Could be a piece of wire, could be a carefully crafted flat plane antenna. Remember, TANSTAAFL - you sacrifice an omnidirectional pattern for gain unless you put an active antenna in the mix. That said, I've found the FPVLR coil antennas fairly omnidirectional - point the antenna in the general direction and you're fine.

 

[KyleMaxxUAV]

Do those photos help discern what type of antenna it is ?


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[KyleMaxxUAV]

You can't tell by the pictures. Could be a piece of wire, could be a carefully crafted flat plane antenna. Remember, TANSTAAFL - you sacrifice an omnidirectional pattern for gain unless you put an active antenna in the mix. That said, I've found the FPVLR coil antennas fairly omnidirectional - point the antenna in the general direction and you're fine.

Does that help wetdog


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[samk090905]

i have the dbs mod; but, i really like fdr's concept of the larger omni-directional antenna. i've tried the dbs mod in a dense city surrounded by wifi and i still got about 11,500 feet. however, that was in a straight line. i love the idea of having the ability to go in any direction for 4miles plus like the fdr site advertises(the omni directional antenna). i havent seen anyone sharing their experience with the fdr mod which causes me concern. plus, im not sure all that "scam" talk about him is true?

1. can anyone share their experience, please, with the fdr mod?
2. does anyone know how to get a hold of fdr mod(i had some questions for him/her)?

 

[sacooke]

Why not just epoxy the DBS mods plugs and then drill through that? That way you wouldn't even need longer SMA connectors in my opinion. Maybe I'm wrong and inexperienced but it just seems to make sense to me.