Itelite DBS Mod

[Alistair McCann]

Fitted the DBS mod to my Phantom Standard today. I removed the ARGTek that I had on before and did a fresh install.

Got out 1618ft (493m) before the video starting getting choppy, I still had R/C and the signal was rock solid.

I am putting the choppy video down to wifi interference as I am surrounded by houses.

Going to test again later in a less conjested area.

If I can get 2000ft I will actually be pleased.

 

[ifly2high]

Check out magic power mod for increased wifi connection, it will help immensely![emoji6]

 

[Alistair McCann]

Downloaded and installed, just went with the 24dBm upgrade. Will test tomorrow.

 

[Alistair McCann]

Does this look correct?

 

[ifly2high]

Did it help you at all?

 

[Alistair McCann]

I managed 2333ft in a small patch of waste ground near to my house, its right beside a electricity sub station and a lot of houses so the interferance must have been crazy but the quad flew perfectly.

Got 2 RTH's due to signal drop out but I got a bit more altitude and repostioned myself and the r/c and I made one last flight without any drop outs which got me the the 'magic' distance.

Very happy and I think there is more in it.

Cheers for the tip, had heard of MagicPower before but never knew it was so easy to do.

 

[Rip]

My DBS is in the post, I live in the UK so apparently my WiFi is limited due to stupid EU regs, I guess I'll have to do the Magic Power mod too, was it easy to do then?

 

[Alistair McCann]

Yeah, really easy.

Download the program onto your computer, turn on the Phantom and the controller, join the Phantoms wifi network with your computer, press 'step 1' on the program, restart Phantom and controller, reconnect to the Phantoms wifi again, press 'step 2', restart one more time. Finished.

Took me about 4 minutes.

If you dont touch anything other than the basic settings you will get 24dBm, but you can go up to 27dBm in the advanced settings.

 

[Rip]

Yeah, really easy.

Download the program onto your computer, turn on the Phantom and the controller, join the Phantoms wifi network with your computer, press 'step 1' on the program, restart Phantom and controller, reconnect to the Phantoms wifi again, press 'step 2', restart one more time. Finished.

Took me about 4 minutes.

If you dont touch anything other than the basic settings you will get 24dBm, but you can go up to 27dBm in the advanced settings.

Awesome thanks! I read somewhere I should stick to about 20dBm with the DBS antenna?

 

[Alistair McCann]

If the original antenna setup can handle 27dBs then the DBS can handle 24dBs.

20dBs is what the American market gets out of the box and they fit the DBS mod too so there is no need to worry.

 

[Alistair McCann]

I am happy with 24dBs, I wont be going any higher than that.

 

[Rip]

Haha I'm a total noob, so the lower the number the more powerful the signal? I should be Ok to set Magic Power to the default 24dBs with the DBS antenna?

 

[Alistair McCann]

Its sort of hard to explain but I will try.

The Standard in the UK gets 16dBs (decibles) of wifi power out of the box.

The farther away the drone goes the higher the dBm (decibels below 1 milliwatt) number gets, with my remote and drone beside my computer I get -30dBm via a wifi analyzer program. If I flew it farther away that number would get higher until the signal dropped, mostly down to signal noise from other hotspots or eletrical interferance

By upping the dBs you are lowering the dBm and blocking out the noise which is good!!

Think of it like an empty room with a small speaker playing music, if you bring 10 people into the room then the music needs to be turned up, add another 10 and so on and so on until the music is all the way up but you cant hear it. That is your drone 400m away surrounded by wifi hotspots and electrical interference, it is simply being drowned out so it returns to home to 'hear' the remote. By adding an amplifier to your speaker or by even getting a bigger speaker you can increase the volume and you can 'hear' the speaker above all the people..... does that make more sense?

Brain hurts now.

 

[Rip]

Its sort of hard to explain but I will try.

The Standard in the UK gets 16dBs (decibles) of wifi power out of the box.

The farther away the drone goes the higher the dBm (decibels below 1 milliwatt) number gets, with my remote and drone beside my computer I get -30dBm via a wifi analyzer program. If I flew it farther away that number would get higher until the signal dropped, mostly down to signal noise from other hotspots or eletrical interferance

By upping the dBs you are lowering the dBm and blocking out the noise which is good!!

Think of it like an empty room with a small speaker playing music, if you bring 10 people into the room then the music needs to be turned up, add another 10 and so on and so on until the music is all the way up but you cant hear it. That is your drone 400m away surrounded by wifi hotspots and electrical interference, it is simply being drowned out so it returns to home to 'hear' the remote. By adding an amplifier to your speaker or by even getting a bigger speaker you can increase the volume and you can 'hear' the speaker above all the people..... does that make more sense?

Brain hurts now.

Yes thank you that makes a bit more sense. I'm literally planning on installing the DBS antenna when it arrives and installing Magic Power at the default settings, that should be OK for me for now? I'm no noob to RC but I am new to video transmission!

 

[Alistair McCann]

Yeah, the standard really cheaped out with the wifi image transmission. I was getting choppy video at less than 100ft on some occasions.

You will be more than happy with the DBS mod, it and the MagicPower hack are the two best things I have done to mine.

 

[Rip]

Yeah, the standard really cheaped out with the wifi image transmission. I was getting choppy video at less than 100ft on some occasions.

You will be more than happy with the DBS mod, it and the MagicPower hack are the two best things I have done to mine.

Brilliant thanks, I've got Friday off work this week so hopefully the antenna and Magic Power install will go smoothly and all I'll be well!

 

[zamarawa]

magic power 27 + windsurfer, now waiting for dbs antenna

 

[Alistair McCann]

Excellent.

 

[ifly2high]

Glad it helped...the bird side antenna mod is also very cheap and simple, maybe something else you might consider. The p3 advanced antennas increase wifi strength and imo decreases loss of wifi signal with changes in direction [emoji6]also helped me quite a bit

 

[epicdoom]

Glad it helped...the bird side antenna mod is also very cheap and simple, maybe something else you might consider. The p3 advanced antennas increase wifi strength and imo decreases loss of wifi signal with changes in direction [emoji6]also helped me quite a bit

any links to doing this ?