Stage 3 bird side 5.8 cable location

[RichWest]

Decided to tackle the bird side antenna install for the 5.8 antennas. Was able to remove the black goo with little effort, used a round sanding tape after the majority was removed by a jeweler's engraving chisel blade. Remains to be seen if anything is screwed up, until the antenna cables are terminated...

I've searched by every word(s) I could think of prior to this posting. Does anyone have pictures showing how you wired the 5.8 coax cables into and around the bird? I have the FPVLR antenna mounts off the legs. Short of drilling a hole into the body, I can't see how to train the coax to reach the board's terminals.

Your help is greatly appreciated!

 

[RichWest]

Thanks for the reply Tony. That makes sense, but I thought I had seen others orient their antennas to have one (5.8 or 2.4) on each side of the bird. Rather than ganged together on one side. I presumed this was for better antenna exposure no matter what the bird's orientation. Being a RC novice, it's trial and error for many mods. The bird's antenna install is fairly complex and time consuming from the initial teardown. Just trying to measure twice and cut once. Based on your suggestion, It appears I now need to extract everything and reorient my setup...crap.

Pictures depicting a bird's antennas install, from FPVLR's perspective, would be very helpful if only as a guide rather than "the rule". I've seen plenty of Range extender and control antenna photographed examples, those are straight forward installs for a Stage 2 setup.

FWIW, I did kill one of the board's connectors. The sanding tape cut a portion of the connector off just above its square pad. If anyone is interested, I'll ship to them for their needs... Off to buy another Rx board...crap.

 

[nelly]

I had to purchase longer cables, I to have FPVLR but the supplied cables were not long enough and i wasnt going to drill a hole in the body.

 

[max]

I dremeled a small hole into the existing vent slot on each side of the bird. Sorry this is the best picture I have on my phone. I ended up with a nice snug routing. Took a long time to figure out where to route the cables and then another long time to actually do so!

 

[RichWest]

I appreciate both you guys replying. Thought about longer coax cables, but figured I was doing something wrong since the setup was specific for the P2V+... Max, yours was the one unit I had remembered, but couldn't find a photo to reference.

Curious what either of y'all used to bound the u.fl connector to the Rx board. I'm trying a clear RTV material at the moment, not as firm as the white glue used around the DJI main board. Looking for your input if you used anything other than hot glue...my temp's get too hot to consider hot glue.

I'll take photos of my install once complete. At the moment my bird is partially dismembered to receive all the trimmings, waiting on a replacement Rx board since the black goo won.

 

[Skynet1]

You can use RTV blue sensor safe silicon adhesive by Permatex, avail at most automotive supply stores. WalMart may carry it as well. It's a bit more firm upon 24 hr.drying. Very similar to the white silicon, although the regular RTV adhesive should be sufficient, as long as you don't intent to yank the wires around much. : )

 

[max]

I have not secured the connections with anything... Yet. I might squeeze a blob of something in there, or maybe not. I don't feel like they are going to move unless I crash. I was thinking about clear RTV as well, or maybe 5 min epoxy. Not hot glue.

 

[nelly]

hot glue gun is your best friend for securing everything

 

[nelly]

Also hot glue cures in about 1min, can be removed easily later . you definately want to secure the connections

 

[max]

I'm not an expert, but I don't see the need to glue the connectors. I don't think they're going anywhere unless you crash. If I had a hard landing, I would definitely check them though. Maybe I'm wrong, but they snap in there pretty good.
Here are some more pictures from my install. Hopefully you can see how I routed the cables. After I completed the install I applied RTV in several locations to dampen any vibration in the cables. Since I took these pictures, I've moved the connectors that you see closest to the arms to the other holes nearer the main body (the conjoined holes).

 

[max]

more pics

 

[RichWest]

Looks good! The RTV at the hull is a great idea, lots of vibration happening. Thanks for the additional photos.

After 24hrs, the RTV on the test u.fl connector is holding well, still flexible, but it'll do the job. The u.fl connectors do fit securely, but it won't hurt to secure them further...just because.

 

[RichWest]

I will order some longer cables in the future, but these are long enough.

Hey Tony, don't go changing things based on this conversation. You know what you are doing, but us others are just making our way with what we have. FWIW, I was able to maintain my original orientation, just had to invert one cable to mount the antenna on top of the bracket. I'll post pictures as I complete the work.

 

[Gonefishing51077]

Thanks for all the info guys. Good ideas for sure.

Ill probably drill a small hole in vent also.

 

[RichWest]

Here's my rendition for the antenna locations... Seems to work well. Top is not bolted down, regarding the gap.

 

[JLJ]

Can u upload some pics when is done ? Please

 

[jasonnelson007]

Here is how I ended up doing mine.

 

[JLJ]

i did what Tony mention before i saw his comment,(I did 5.8 one side and 2.4 the other, way better fit/reach for the cables)
now what i have as a question is, the litte antennas goes for the 5,8 or the 2.4??

 

[jasonnelson007]

I thought small 5.8 and large 2.4 but I have this question out there also waiting for a reply.

 

[JLJ]

i found this pic from Tony in another discussion