DBS Mod Completed - reached a Max Distance of 4,974 feet or 1516 meters from the home-point

telescott · Jan 28, 2016

I had my first flight after completing the DBS Mod to my spare transmitter. It was in no way a long distance flight, but was a test at my house.

I flew past the property line behind my house at a distance of about 700', it was over a hill and trees with no way to really be LOS and able to aim the transmitter toward the quad. Then I flew over my neighbors house and across the road 1,138' from the home-point with a line of trees between me and the quad.

I would not have been able to fly as far as I did without the mod. I would always loose signal behind my house at about 550' and never tried to cross the road as I was sure I would loose signal due to the trees blocking the signal.

telescott · Jan 28, 2016

A couple of thoughts about the DBS mod. As you can see in the picture I drilled the two holes on the left side of the transmitter because I read it a thread somewhere to flip the metal bar and antenna around so you can aim the antenna up when flying above you. Of course when I did the cables are too short, but I will order new cables that are longer. I am lucky they reached as mounted. I would like to right angle connectors at both end of the cables and a rubber cap for the original antenna mounting hole and also for the connectors on the Itelite antenna if I decide to remove it.

UASDRONE · Jan 28, 2016

telescott said:
I had my first flight after completing the DBS Mod to my spare transmitter. It was in no way a long distance flight, but was a test at my house.

I flew past the property line behind my house at a distance of about 700', it was over a hill and trees with no way to really be LOS and able to aim the transmitter toward the quad. Then I flew over my neighbors house and across the road 1,138' from the home-point with a line of trees between me and the quad.

I would not have been able to fly as far as I did without the mod. I would always loose signal behind my house at about 550' and never tried to cross the road as I was sure I would loose signal due to the trees blocking the signal.

View attachment 42087

Nice I am going to get this as well what sight did you order from?

UASDRONE · Jan 28, 2016

telescott said:
This is where I got it.

DBS Mods – Long Range Antenna Mods for UAV FPV Flight

Thank you!

TheTanger · Jan 28, 2016

That's great! Congrats I think you'll be happy with it. If interested in pushing/testing your range, after you get a bunch of flights under your belt you may not worry as much about losing connection. RTH works well...just read up and learn about it and you'll be okay.

Tony Cowan · Jan 28, 2016

Did you get the remote Scott?
I hope all was fine. As I stated the wire did not get broke from the board.

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Tony Cowan · Jan 28, 2016

Sweet. Glad all worked out. Wow. You installed the mod yourself? I'm too chicken to do it

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Tony Cowan · Jan 28, 2016

Aah. Definitely will have em do it. Going to Asia in May and taking my phantom. Can open it up over there. Altitude and distance.

Also. Did not see price of mod.
I thought fpvlr was just too expensive. 253 for everything.
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dpicx68 · Jan 29, 2016

Would this work??
Use a marine antenna??

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telescott · Jan 31, 2016

dpicx68 said:
Would this work??
Use a marine antenna??

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I have no idea if that would work. Best to stick with a normal antenna mod I think

telescott · Jan 31, 2016

I thought I would give an update of my longest flight since installing the DBS mod to the P3 Standard. I also just bought Litchi and have been planning my flights so I didn't actually control the craft, but can report when I lost 2.4gHz signal because I lost FPV video and speed/distance info.

The total distance reported by HealthyDrones is not correct since I lost 2.4gHz signal. The flight was planned to be a little over 3,700 feet. I lost 2.4gHz signal at 3,162 feet but never lost control signal or at least didn't get a warning that I did. The road curved to the right so I didn't have clear LOS due to a bunch of trees blocking me.

I will report more when I find an area that I can do a real test in an open area where I can get a controller long distance flight.

Distance not correct but it does show where I lost 2.4gHz FPV & speed/distance reporting.

Planned Flight

The road curves to the right so I didn't have LOS

The big village of Perrysville, Ohio

Tony Cowan · Jan 31, 2016

telescott said:
I thought I would give an update of my longest flight since installing the DBS mod to the P3 Standard. I also just bought Litchi and have been planning my flights so I didn't actually control the craft, but can report when I lost 2.4gHz signal because I lost FPV video and speed/distance info.

The total distance reported by HealthyDrones is not correct since I lost 2.4gHz signal. The flight was planned to be a little over 3,700 feet. I lost 2.4gHz signal at 3,162 feet but never lost control signal or at least didn't get a warning that I did. The road curved to the right so I didn't have clear LOS due to a bunch of trees blocking me.

I will report more when I find an area that I can do a real test in an open area where I can get a controller long distance flight.

View attachment 42497
Distance not correct but it does show where I lost 2.4gHz FPV & speed/distance reporting.

View attachment 42498
Planned Flight

View attachment 42496
The road curves to the right so I didn't have LOS

View attachment 42499

View attachment 42500

The big village of Perrysville, Ohio

So what do you think the real distance actually was? Also litchi. I thought not available for standard ? Another question. Did you just route it via gps and let it do the rest? I may just order dbs. I also went 1200ft today with no issues standard remote. Went across water in Gulf of Mexico. To a small little island.

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telescott · Jan 31, 2016

I lost 2.4gHz at 3,162 feet. and I was blocked by the trees. I should have programmed it to go 394 feet in the air. I didn't try to aim the antenna at the quad because to be honest I wouldn't have known exactly where to aim since it was out of LOS. I will post the flight before that traveled almost 2,100 feet with full signal. also using Litchi.

With Litchi, you pre-plan your flight on the mission planner on the flylitchi website using google maps. It then flies the mission on it's own and is not dependent on control input at all. If you loose signal it will complete the mission. For $20 you can use it with the standard controller.

Tony Cowan · Jan 31, 2016

Ok. I thought I read it was for p3a and p3p. How much did you pay for litchi. I will give it a shot. So when you pre plan. Just not sure how you activate the mission.

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telescott · Jan 31, 2016

I flew the farthest ever from the home-point, almost 2,600 feet from my house. Almost 2,100 feet line of sight. Thanks to the new DBS Mod antenna I didn't loose signal one time.

I did use Litchi to fly the mission. I followed the quad for the first mission, but never located it from the car anyway, so I went home and flew the second mission while standing in front of my home (where the white start is on the first photo).

The second photo shows the LOS to farthest point and the third photo is the flight path.

Third Flight looking back at the home-point.jpg

Third Flight Distance from Home-point.jpg

.

TheLightSpeedz · Jan 31, 2016

For those of you that want to buy this mod go to google and type in ITELITE or DBS Mods. He's really the easiest and best system out there without a bunch of battery's and boosters. Mine works amazingly.

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telescott · Jan 31, 2016

Tony Cowan said:
Ok. I thought I read it was for p3a and p3p. How much did you pay for litchi. I will give it a shot. So when you pre plan. Just not sure how you activate the mission.

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Sorry, Litchi is in beta for the Standard and it is $20. It works good and any bugs will not cause you to crash your quad.

TheLightSpeedz · Jan 31, 2016

I got litchi but am scared to try it yet.... I haven't ever lost control of had to use RTH.

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telescott · Jan 31, 2016

Stephen Kelly said:
I got litchi but am scared to try it yet.... I haven't ever lost control of had to use RTH.

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Use it you will love it.

I was worried too. Until I downloaded it and tried it for the first couple of times. I like it so much that if I want to do a long range flight I will use it.

I will use litchi most of the time.