So I took the 2 antennas out of the RE to mount on the RE

[justin00]

Hey Foks

Got bored today so I opened up the range extender, took out the 2 antennas and drilled 2 holes in the RE so I could mount the antennas on the RE, externally basically...

Just need abit of help... which side is the antenna side ? The side with the DJI bit on it and the solder blob in the middle ? or the other side... that side with DJI on it has some adhesive/sticky stuff...I assume the antenna bit is the the side that says DJI on it...... ?

Also... where abouts should I mount the antenna's... I'm thinking maybe 1 at the front and one ontop of the range extender (but mounted flat down, not standing up if you no what I mean) ??

Had the idea from DBS thread about mounting the wifi antennas externally..

Anyways has anyone done this... or can atleast tell me which side of the antenna is the antenna? and hopefully the optimal mounting position...

I have a few pics of how I did it (pretty easy) but for now here is what I am left with...

not sure where to mount antenna's... or which side of them etc...

thanks

 

[RoyVa]

You main gain a little improvement but not much. What you have done is removed a 2 dbi antenna from inside to outside the case. To really improve reception you need to replace the antenna with a higher gain antenna going to a 5 dbi or better. There are many you tube videos on wifi mods to give you some ideas. You can shop around and make to change for less than 20 bucks including the cables needed. Due to my environment I couldn't get any distance with my video or RC. I did mods to both and can now make it to 1600 plus ft. Which is great here in these woods. The RC uses a 5.8 ghz antenna and the wifi module uses 2.4 ghz range. There are directional antenna and omni-directional. You'll have to decide what is best suited for you.the stock antenna are directional and the flat side needs to point towards the bird when she is flying. Good luck!

 

[justin00]

yeah thanks for that... for my 5.8 RC TX I use a LHCP antenna I picked up on ebay for $20.. it makes a huuuuuge improvement...

so the 2.4ghz wifi antennas are directional ???? You 100% sure ? is the side that says DJI the antenna side ??? I have quite a few directional 2.4ghz antenna's I could use.... . I have all the pigtails etc etc..

This is what I ended up doing... 1 pointing up... and 1 pointing towards the quad (on the other side of the RE that has the lights..)

Will give her a try and see what happens... DBS mod of putting the antenna outside the phantom made a big big differance... so perhaps this will to... or atleast abit of an improvement..
just doesn't look as good lol.

 

[justin00]

night time now... so shall test her out 2morow and report back...
I've got 2.4ghz amps... so just playing around with this to help someone else trying to increase range / i'm bored :]

 

[RichWest]

What DBS was doing by orienting the patch (directional) antenna on the bird was to have it face you while coming or going. His purpose was distance flying. The original factory orientation was ideal for a side profile mainly and typical flights going around in circles and at shorter distances.

From what I understand the Patch antenna has a beam angle of about 90 degrees off the face. It actually goes beyond that angle but tappers off with distance.

The larger patch antennas, with multi-patches, are even more directional by design. The attempt by using is to concentrate the signal angle for greater distance coverage rather than a wider area. The omni directional antennas (clover) is ideal for coverage area rather than long distance.

Try separating the antennas further apart may offer benefit. The ability to adjust the convergence angle could produce better results as well, adjustable mount...

A friend of mine reminded me lately of an old saying; nothing ventured, nothing gained. You're gaining a lot of knowledge by "messing around" with the antennas. I look forward to reading your shared results.

 

[justin00]

Thanks for the info.
its annoying I have heaps of big 5.8ghz patch/whatever antennas but no 2.4ghz... anyways cant seperate them further. Thete already st end of thete wire but 1 is pointed forward...other pointed forward...

The stock setup is both atennas pointing down in the RE which seems very odd!!!

Just stopped raining so hopefully can finally test.

 

[RichWest]

You seem like a clever person, why not build your own antennas? Maybe $5 worth of parts and repurpose what you already have...

 

[justin00]

Actually stock antennas probs pointing up hmm....but they were covered in grey stucky copper stuff gps has...plus then the RE ontop plus all the plastic.. anyways off to park now to test.

 

[justin00]

Roy you were right... it made a little difference but not enough for other people to bother doing it.
However...... I'm in a suburban area and every 10 metres you see another 20 2.4ghz wifi signals pop up... maybe in a remote area it would of worked better..

was bloody windy so was doing speed tests.. got her upto 66mph... a new record for me... than I lost signal and lost visual.... luckily for the 'return home' right stick down trick. I was lucky though.. it had 3 mins left and was going against the wind... I was walking in its direction and it the wifi sigtnal was going in and out...was like 1800ft away lol.. Finally landed it infront of me with 19% battery left! I set it to record when it loses signal so I'm about to watch the video it took on its journey.

Anyways might put the antennas back in the RE... got a few 2.4ghz amps so might try using that with the stock antennas.. only problem is I don't have the 5v battery pack to power it out in the field. might spend a few $$ to buy it and some better 2.4ghz antennas.. don't really need to use the amp, so better antennas will be be
better...don't do long range flights due to me being in suburban area and close to CBD :/

 

[RoyVa]

I hear what you are saying. Myself I have a lot of trees around and would lose wifi signal fast. I did a mod to my extender and RC going to. 8 dbi antenna. Not expensive but tripled my distance. I can get 1600+ ft now which is fine for local flying. With the ole eyes when she get to the size if a pin head I need to still see her. Beyond that and I lose her and it Failsafe for me.

 

[justin00]

Oh you just added some omni antenna's ???
I have a few 2.4 omni antenna's from 5 to 16dbi (got quite alot)
so thats all you did ? and obviously use correct pigtail.

In your pic I see what looks like 2 omni's ? are they for the RE/2.4 ??
What did you use for the RC/5.8?

For my RC I have a 16db LHCP I picked up for like $20...I tried sooo many diff antenna's and this one is great. excellant range.

 

[justin00]

For the time being I've put the antenna's back in the RE... I stupidly didn't take a pic before I took it apart...

Does anyone know.. does the side that says DJI on each antenna and has some advestive go down on the plastic ?? Makes senses it would due to the adhesive... but then if the DJI side is the antenna the antenna signal would be pointing down... ?

Doesn't really matter as I'll probably do what Roy did, but for the time being would be nice to know how it all sat before I took it apart heh

 

[justin00]

I've had the best idea for a little while now.. Just ran it past an electrical engineer who works on making robotics for a certain multi billion dollar company, he's confirmed theoretically its doable and pretty easy to make.

lets just say its going to make the light bridge look like a childs toy :]

WATCH THIS SPACE, AND STAY TUNED PEOPLE! (well I'll make a new thread when I am ready, but you know what I mean )

The idea isn't related to my stoopid idea to mount the RE antenna's externally btw lol

 

[RoyVa]

Will be interested on know what you find. To answere your question one of my antenna is 5.8 ghz and the other a 2.4. The 5.8 I bought off of amazon.

 

[justin00]

Roy ya but there omni right???

 

[RoyVa]

Yes, both antenna are omni directional. I like omni so I don't have to be pointed directly at aircraft all the time. Doesn't get as good of signal as the directional but does what I want and meets my needs. I have a lot of woods, trees and forest here in my area. Some of those rascals are 135 ft. Tall. So I need fro my signal to be spread out the best it can.

 

[justin00]

holy f-word....
I've been testing my new super secret idea...
I've gotten 1-5km distance FPV in my metro/inner suburb thats covered in 2.4ghz wifi.....basically any where you walk you are covered in 15-20 wifi AP's... The 1.5km was with the stock 2dbi antenna's on both RE and Phantom Could of gone further but I aborted as I was getting a little scared.

Anyways need to do more testing such a) how much battery you loose by doing this.... b) any interferance that can cause flyaway/catastrophic problems c) fize hazards d) and stability related to a,b and c. e) testing using stronger antenna's.

Been a little sick lately so cbf spending to much time outside and its getting colder these days almost winter... but things are looking good...

Anyways if I run into any problems or abandon project due to issues I shall share the idea and perhaps someone can resolve.. well to be honest I will fully share the idea anyways but want a 100% working solution before I give details.

VERY pleased so far with the progress I've made in just a day or two... allthough big thanks to my elec engineer friend who helped fix something on a broken track connecting to...something.. My main problem is actually mounting, but without going it to much details I can't really get help... my bits and pieces only weigh an estimated 50-100g so not much, def worth the weight increase.

more testing and details to come... stay tuned!

 

[yorlik]

bring on the details!