FPVLR air side booster + rubbercomping (pics)

Good to hear. I just sold my P3A and bought a P3P. I am modding the transmitter right now but took a break for dinner. The cables were very thick so they are not being freindly. The threads are also too short to get through the stock holes enough so I am making a plastic bracket for now. I think it is a good idea to keep the two larger panel antennas antennas away from each other anyway.
 
I made this last night. I hated to drill new holes in my remote but made them the size to bolt the connectors on the cable ends. I will probably eventually add some amps and will need to have a quick disconnect ports then. This thing adds some separation to the antennas and it actually still fits in my DJI backpack when I unscrew the antennas. It has been windy so I could not test it yet. It has full bars through walls up to 75' away so I know I didn't pinch a cable at least. I will post results if I can fly this morning.
 

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Funny how Alfa changes their antenna orientation on different models. The ones you have are blank side active whereas the 2.4/5.8 combo is logo side active. I generally have to pop them apart to be sure or put it on my transmit side and measure with a meter.
 
The truth is I don't know what side is active. I got far out and tried to rotate them and could not really see a difference. I even tried turning them sideways one at a time while flying to see which was the control and which was the video. It also made little difference. I did notice that when far away (~1.5-2 miles) it was critical how I angled the remote in my hand. Was I wrong in assuming that the "control" and the "video" are isolated from each other? It seems like either I had both or lost both when I was messing with the antenna angles trying to lose one or the other to identify which antenna was the video one. Moving one sideways didn't kill it's signal totally like you think it would but moving the remote angle down or side to side went from 80% to 0% in an instant. I actually had about the same results with stock antennas and windsurfers.
 
Found a sight with all these panels cheap!!!!!
Antennas - 2.4GHz typical WiFi - Directional - Data-alliance.net
View attachment 46539
Went 9km out/18km round trip, that's 11 miles on $15 worth of panels. Unfortunately a 10mph wind screwed up my return. Had 1800mah zippies on the side saddle but ran out of poop shy of landing. If you force it to stay in the air at 1% it will fall like a rock! For me that was at 35 meters up. I should have let it land and tracked it, would have been smarter and cheaper!
Like Arnold said "I'll be baaac.....
I made this last night. I hated to drill new holes in my remote but made them the size to bolt the connectors on the cable ends. I will probably eventually add some amps and will need to have a quick disconnect ports then. This thing adds some separation to the antennas and it actually still fits in my DJI backpack when I unscrew the antennas. It has been windy so I could not test it yet. It has full bars through walls up to 75' away so I know I didn't pinch a cable at least. I will post results if I can fly this morning.

Hey guys. So my refitting kit with paddle antennas came in today. Do you think these will give better range than just using windsurfers?

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Mine honestly didn't give better range but about the same as with windsurfers. I actually notice that I am more directional now than with windsurfers. I am leaving the new antennas on but have ordered some 4w amps to help boost signal. I will also try to use the omnidirectional antennas that come with the boosters. So in my limited experience with the one set of Alfas that came highly recommended, the paddles antennas do what windsurfers do, make your signal reception more directional and therefore giving you better range in that one direction.

VZM.IMG_20160327_165507.jpg VZM.IMG_20160327_165449.jpg
 
Mine honestly didn't give better range but about the same as with windsurfers. I actually notice that I am more directional now than with windsurfers. I am leaving the new antennas on but have ordered some 4w amps to help boost signal. I will also try to use the omnidirectional antennas that come with the boosters. So in my limited experience with the one set of Alfas that came highly recommended, the paddles antennas do what windsurfers do, make your signal reception more directional and therefore giving you better range in that one direction.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
No problem. I will update again when my amps get here on that slow boat from China. I am starting to think that Omni directional with amps may be the way to go. Range for miles and not having to point directly at your drone. When flying FPV I am not thinking about the direction of my craft. I am usually sitting on my trucks tailgate judging everything from the "birds eye" view. Having to stand up and turn back and forth is kind of a pain. One more thought. Since the stock antennas were special made for the phantom, I wonder if just using them with some amplifiers won't yield great results. Yes just swapping antennas adds range but like windsurfers just makes it directional since we are simply "amplifying" power by using parabolic reflectors or directional antennas. What the holy grail would be Omni-directional convenience with range as far as your battery can take you, right?
 
No problem. I will update again when my amps get here on that slow boat from China. I am starting to think that Omni directional with amps may be the way to go. Range for miles and not having to point directly at your drone. When flying FPV I am not thinking about the direction of my craft. I am usually sitting on my trucks tailgate judging everything from the "birds eye" view. Having to stand up and turn back and forth is kind of a pain. One more thought. Since the stock antennas were special made for the phantom, I wonder if just using them with some amplifiers won't yield great results. Yes just swapping antennas adds range but like windsurfers just makes it directional since we are simply "amplifying" power by using parabolic reflectors or directional antennas. What the holy grail would be Omni-directional convenience with range as far as your battery can take you, right?

That logic makes sense to me. Although I wonder how much range is lost with omnidirectional antennas when there is the option to focus it all toward the bird. But, with you using amps, if you have the signal strength to take you as far as your batteries can handle its a mute point, that's true. I too would much rather not have to worry where I'm aiming the RC.

Which amps and omnidirectional antennas did you go for? Got a link by any chance?
 
I was originally following this thread because I was interested in all the conversation about the FPV LR Airside booster kit, have we just decided this mod is a bust and that's why it's not part of the discussion no more?
 
I have not tried an air side booster yet. Because it is too complicated for MOST people, I would assume few have done it. I think it would help since the drone transmits video one way TO the remote control. My remote side amp on video would be amplifying that signal I assume. I am just sort of copying what the $300 setups do and making my own for less cost.
 
My remote is setup with dbs02 ant and 1-4w 2.4 amp .powered with 12v battery I had two amps on remote butt I get interference displayed on app for sum reason. So only use one.. I don't see any improvement with the second on remote hooked up.. My bird has 2-4w amps with power supplied from the bird itself .. I modified the 2-2.4ghz 4w amps with homemade heatsink and shielding . so weight isn't a issue. I need to finish this mod by hopefully fitting both birdside amps inside the birds shell sumhow . butt for now there wire tied onto the sides... I took my fpvlr remote antenna setup and cut it up. so I have one 2.4 half spiral mounted too the back of bird. And a antenna I made myself hanging off the front.. Ive blown away my all prior setups are very tried with this setup so far. I need a few more flights before I change anything else..
 

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My remote is setup with dbs02 ant and 1-4w 2.4 amp .powered with 12v battery I had two amps on remote butt I get interference displayed on app for sum reason. So only use one.. I don't see any improvement with the second on remote hooked up.. My bird has 2-4w amps with power supplied from the bird itself .. I modified the 2-2.4ghz 4w amps with homemade heatsink and shielding . so weight isn't a issue. I need to finish this mod by hopefully fitting both birdside amps inside the birds shell sumhow . butt for now there wire tied onto the sides... I took my fpvlr remote antenna setup and cut it up. so I have one 2.4 half spiral mounted too the back of bird. And a antenna I made myself hanging off the front.. Ive tripled range and solid signals im amazed with the improvemebts from 2 amps on bird. I need a few more flights before I change anything else..
 
(brhodz) So you have one of the 4 watt amps on the bird to transmit the video back and the other amp on the remote to transmit the control to the bird better correct? How did you modify the amp(s) with the heat sink and shielding? I think the amps should heat sink well enough already so I don't know what you mean.
Question: How much amperage does the amp on the bird draw? How much does it drop your flight time. I powered both my amp from one skinny 2,200 mAh 11.1v hobby battery and it seemed to work great.
I also feel that the amp on the video is probably not doing much from the remote side but all the people who make kits have amps on both so I am trying both. I think a lightweight amp on the bird could do wonders to help with video since that is where the video is transmitted from.
P.S. What kind of range are you getting? With modified antennas on both sides and amps on both ends you must be kicking *** right?
 
I was originally following this thread because I was interested in all the conversation about the FPV LR Airside booster kit, have we just decided this mod is a bust and that's why it's not part of the discussion no more?
I have not decided that yet. I just got started with mods but I feel like it would be obvious that amplifying the video signal coming from the bird would be helpful. I think that is the weak link. I tested my 4 watt amps and at the end of range I had great control strength but the video signal was down to 2 bars, then when it dropped I lost all signal from both. It seems that if you lose one or the other you are disconnected. I lost all signal and it didn't reconnect until the bird was over half way home.
 
I have two 4w amps on the bird . the brand I'm not sure but I'll post a picture of the two I used... Specs on the amps was sumthing like 5-17 volts . so I tapped off the inside of the birds case were power and ground are soldered onto main board I simply soldered my feeds for the amps so I'm powering them with 15.2v I believe is my battery volts on the p3... Butt my signal now is unreal . awesome range compared to everything I've tried to date
 

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I used sum thin aluminum to build shielding + a case and a old heatsinks from a scrap pc mother board
 
Those are the same 4 watt amps I just bought. They are Szhuashi brand. One thing I am looking for is some right angle power plugs to slim down my install plan. Can you send or put up some photos of the heat sink mods? These amps feel like heavy little steel bricks so I would love to see if I can make them much lighter but still reliable.
 

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