Phantom 3 STANDARD antenna upgrade

[Cruizer]

Went out to the same location this morning
Previous flight I had a return to home at about a mile. Today at about 14,500' I had a return to home. I lost my screen and the drone returned to home with 28% battery when it arrived
I am flying in a valley with a ridge running parallel on both sides of me.
I think if I get up on top of one of the ridges I hope I can go farther
At the 1 mile mark I had full signal strength to day when previously I'd have 1 to 2 bars

 

[Cruizer]

The flight out

 

[Jay H]

Went out to the same location this morning
Previous flight I had a return to home at about a mile. Today at about 14,500' I had a return to home. I lost my screen and the drone returned to home with 28% battery when it arrived
I am flying in a valley with a ridge running parallel on both sides of me.
I think if I get up on top of one of the ridges I hope I can go farther
At the 1 mile mark I had full signal strength to day when previously I'd have 1 to 2 bars

solid flight, yeah depends on the day, sometimes i have full bars at 2 miles, sometimes the last half of the flight is at 1 or 2 bars as well.

i did notice that on days with the 1 or 2 bars for the last half of the flight there is more solar activity (KP index, UAV Weather Forecast). not sure if its correlated though!

 

[Cruizer]

I'd like to get to 3 miles!
I was only about a quarter mile shy of it.
What should my next mod be?

 

[Cruizer]

I did cross a high voltage power line at about a mile

 

[ryback]

great performance for you Cruizer!

 

[dirkclod]

I'd like to get to 3 miles!
I was only about a quarter mile shy of it.
What should my next mod be?

 

[mcphipps]

Awesome pictures. The country out there is just spectacular.

 

[danesmess]

solid flight, yeah depends on the day, sometimes i have full bars at 2 miles, sometimes the last half of the flight is at 1 or 2 bars as well.

i did notice that on days with the 1 or 2 bars for the last half of the flight there is more solar activity (KP index, UAV Weather Forecast). not sure if its correlated though!

Hey Cruizer, you didn't happen to notice if you had 2 or 3 diodes inside your controller on the install did you? I noticed dirkclod said he had 3 and you are one of the only other ones on the forum I've heard of getting that much range 10K+ ft, just wanted to see if the number of diodes was correlated with the long distance. Viktor noted he only had two diodes back on page 23, you can see the image I'm referring to there.

 

[Cruizer]

Hey Cruizer, you didn't happen to notice if you had 2 or 3 diodes inside your controller on the install did you? I noticed dirkclod said he had 3 and you are one of the only other ones on the forum I've heard of getting that much range 10K+ ft, just wanted to see if the number of diodes was correlated with the long distance. Viktor noted he only had two diodes back on page 23, you can see the image I'm referring to there.

Il take my controller apart and get a pic of the guts.
For now I'm going to credit the range I'm getting as being due to my location.
The closest house to mine is almost 4 miles away.
If I get on top of the ridge I can see mountains 70 miles away on a clear day

 

[BeauS]

View attachment 39351

Can the DJI Go app work if the Phantom is 3 miles out? Do I need a 4g LTE booster for my android, or is the Wi-Fi connected through the controller?

 

[dirkclod]

Can the DJI Go app work if the Phantom is 3 miles out? Do I need a 4g LTE booster for my android, or is the Wi-Fi connected through the controller?

Controller

 

[danesmess]

Hey Dirk,
So my antennae broke on the top of my P3s. Like the antennae snapped off and the black wire has broken. Doubting there is any recourse besides fixing it myself. Do you think this is an option: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=APC13YWKOQWF Will this at least get me back to what the standard antenna provided or do you know of a better direct replacement option?

Also thinking I might also go for the itelite At least I have an excuse.

 

[dirkclod]

Hey Dirk,
So my antennae broke on the top of my P3s. Like the antennae snapped off and the black wire has broken. Doubting there is any recourse besides fixing it myself. Do you think this is an option: Amazon.com: 5.8Ghz 5Dbi RP-SMA Antenna Kit for Mini PCIe Cards: Computers & Accessories Will this at least get me back to what the standard antenna provided or do you know of a better direct replacement option?

Also thinking I might also go for the itelite At least I have an excuse.

It would work but how good I don't know .
If money wasn't a problem I would do the itelite but that's me .
Welcome to the forum dane .

 

[LuvMyTJ]

It would work but how good I don't know .
If money wasn't a problem I would do the itelite but that's me .
Welcome to the forum dane .

It is a pleasure to welcome you to the Phantom Pilots forum Dane. I hope that you will take advantage of the benefits that come with membership and that you will be able to use the forum for the exchange of innovative ideas and as a resource for current developments in Phantom quadcopter’s.

Enjoy your new quad and fly safe!

 

[danesmess]

Thanks guys! Learned alot scrolling these pages. Made it through all 27 pages twice now. My thought is that there is no real fixing it now without modifying the controller in some way. A new controller is about $130 so I have about $130 to spend to "fix" this one.lol

So I'm gathering I need to buy either this DBS Phantom 3 Solution: ITE-DBS01 STANDARD for Phantom 3 Standard
Or this ITE-DBS01: ITELITE DBS Phantom ITE-DBS01 for Phantom 2 Vision and Vision Plus and I would have to come up with my own mount

And if I decided I didn't want to drill any holes I could just get longer cables and run them all directly to the antenna like I believe Cruizer has.

That seem about right? Thanks guys I appreciate your input and willingness to help.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

Sounds like you got it. I personally like the Franken-TX look of Dirkclods!

 

[Scottfree]

Thanks guys! Learned alot scrolling these pages. Made it through all 27 pages twice now. My thought is that there is no real fixing it now without modifying the controller in some way. A new controller is about $130 so I have about $130 to spend to "fix" this one.lol

So I'm gathering I need to buy either this DBS Phantom 3 Solution: ITE-DBS01 STANDARD for Phantom 3 Standard
Or this ITE-DBS01: ITELITE DBS Phantom ITE-DBS01 for Phantom 2 Vision and Vision Plus and I would have to come up with my own mount

And if I decided I didn't want to drill any holes I could just get longer cables and run them all directly to the antenna like I believe Cruizer has.

That seem about right? Thanks guys I appreciate your input and willingness to help.

I was thinking about running the cables directly to the dbs through the existing antenna hole as I would not be removing the dbs. Any reason not to do this other than the chance of pulling the wires out if they were to get snagged on something? It doesn't appear that running the wires side by side creates any issues so some sort of grommet or strain relief would be all that is needed. Are there photos of Cruizers installation that I missed?

 

[danesmess]

I was thinking about running the cables directly to the dbs through the existing antenna hole as I would not be removing the dbs. Any reason not to do this other than the chance of pulling the wires out if they were to get snagged on something? It doesn't appear that running the wires side by side creates any issues so some sort of grommet or strain relief would be all that is needed. Are there photos of Cruizers installation that I missed?

It was actually Kesuki who posted pics of this on post #242 on page 13. It looks like he just ran long cords from his board straight through the existing antenna hole. I would like to do a similar install with a grommet that has holes in it for the wire to go through. Haven't found exactly what I need though.

 

[danesmess]

After reading this thread, I decided to take the plunge to install DBS01 antenna.
Here's some picture of the finished product, no drilling involved.
View attachment 33572
View attachment 33573
View attachment 33574

Kesuki did you ever say how long the U.FL TO RP-SMA wires were to run from your board all the way to the antenna? Just want to make sure I get ones that are long enough? If anyone else knows feel free to chime in. Is 8 inch long enough or are they longer?