This is gonna be fun! (Distance tests)

[SZNJ732]

As you can see the test yesterday (dipoles - unboosted) was disappointing.
So for tests sake, I took it to the same flight path this morning, weather was the same, A little less cloudy. But on the DBS controller I hooked the boosters back up. I got a good signal for most of the way out, bars dropping a couple times due to antenna aiming. Took it out to 27,000+ feet turned around at 50%. On the return home my signal wasn't as great,The Wi-Fi signal would go up and down every two seconds causing the screen to display "safe to fly GPS" & then "no signal" it switched back-and-forth between the two so fast that I never lost satellite view and was able to fly that way but my camera view was in and out every other second.this happened for most of the way back which would've been concerning had I not had my satellite view to fly with. I was also getting a "strong interference"message during that time! So I don't know if the strong interference was causing the signal loss or if it was the dipoles. Either way big difference between the 12,000 foot unboosted & and the 27,000 foot boosted flight. By the way my signal was strong I only turned around because of the battery percentage. But I've done that flightpath several times on this windy days, stock bird with boosted DBS, and got 30+ thousand feet with a lot less signal issues. Eventually I may have to just go back to stock bird with boosted DBSView attachment 49894 View attachment 49895

Were you flying it with your battery mod? I think in your 40'K flight you had more battery left (56%) than in this one, you got to 27' and had 50%.
Do you use batt mod on every flight?

 

[SZNJ732]

Are you going to update to the newest firmware release? Or keep your set up as is?

 

[dirtybum]

I use a bat mod on all flights but i experiment w/ diff bats. Even the same bat will give me less if its cold & windy. That 40,000 foot flight the conditions were just perfect for flying distance. That wasn't even my longest flight producing battery it was just the one I was using that day.

 

[dirtybum]

I'm going to keep it on that firmware for now. It's an old firmware and I have no way of knowing if in the new firmware is the reduced video transmission.it flies fine, I hate upgrade and find out it only goes 20,000 feet now

 

[SZNJ732]

I had a chance to fly my P3S on Sunday and test out the new blue cables i hooked up a few days ago.
I usually fly from my back yard, and my LOS is not great, with trees and building in the way, plus a lot of interference.
And I usually fly in the same direction - North East. My average distance is 7,000 - 9,000', with record of 11,000'.
This Sunday i was able to get to 16,000'! My all stock record in this direction was 2,000', DBS unboosted ~ 5,000', DBS boosted ~ 9,000'. Now i got 16,000'!
I dont know if went the extra 5,000' because of the cables, or the last FW update, or what.
My current record over water is almost 17,000' (set about a month ago). Gotta try this over water again, im sure i can beat it.

 

[dirtybum]

HELL YEAH NJ! That's what I'm talking about! New record in your homestretch not even clearline you're on your way man

 

[SZNJ732]

HELL YEAH NJ! That's what I'm talking about! New record in your homestretch not even clearline you're on your way man

yeah buddy!! haha..
my biggest problem is finding a good place to fly around here...
Like at 16,000 my control signal is still full bars! its stays all the way up throughout the flight, but my freakin wifi signal is a nightmare. up and down constantly, keep getting disconnect screen,
and Always lose wifi signal first.

 

[BeauS]

db, have you seen this kit before?? I have their V3 Power Mod as well, i know a bunch of us aren't hitting their suggested 34 minute flight time.

Phantom 3 Enhanced kit V1 with ELRS RF amp And power bank

 

[dirtybum]

db, have you seen this kit before?? I have their V3 Power Mod as well, i know a bunch of us aren't hitting their suggested 34 minute flight time.

Phantom 3 Enhanced kit V1 with ELRS RF amp And power bank

Dont know anyone who uses it, looks complicated! What v-3 power mod do you have BeauS

 

[dirtybum]

Man, I got to get this bird back to stock, I can't get the distance I used to with the dipoles I keep getting interference signals and dropped video.
If I can get it back running smooth like it was I could really do some distance with some of these batteries!

 

[Procharged97]

Thats weird...shouldnt the dipoles give you more?...well I know not to do that mod. I wonder whats causing the interference

 

[dirtybum]

The dipoles (unboosted) gave me bout same range as stock(unboosted) in great flight path. Now, I only had one of each 2.4-5.8. I did have that 2.4 (earlier post) break so just maybe it was already damaged goods and thats the prob. But even now boosted w/ dipoles I'm getting signal drops at 20,000 where with boosted -stock bird I had no probs at 20.
I was flying a diff path this morning though. I think if you were going to try, still do! Diff things work for diff people, a/c's & areas.
But my best has been stock bird & boosted dbs

 

[Mark The Droner]

DB - you're using ITELITE right?

You ever consider running horizontal polarity instead of verticle? Since most, maybe all people have verticle antennas on their routers which puts out verticle polarity, and since presumably those routers are what's causing the interference problem, why not try using horizontal polarity? That way the interference would be invisible. You know what I'm sayin'?

 

[dirtybum]

I do not know what your saying but nobody today has got my attention more Mark! Please school me!

 

[Mark The Droner]

If you're range is limited by interference from wifi routers, it would be nice make that interference disappear. How many people keep their router antennas horizontal? Probably very few if any. So that means all that interference is caused by verticle polarity which is the same polarity you're using. After all, the ITELITE transmits at linear verticle polarity. That's why it meshes so nicely with the stock antennas which are also verticle.

So what if you gave all those antennas a 90 degree turn? Change the polarity to horizontal. Same signal, but now it's horizontal. That means twist the ITELITE so it's up and down, and put those dipoles so they are horizontal instead of verticle. If that interference is verticle polarity, it would disappear.

Granted, if you're moving your aircraft from left to right, you're at a disadvantage. But since all you're doing is going out and coming in, it should work fine!

 

[dirtybum]

Flip that sunna ***** sideways! That's what I thought you meant. Anything is worth a try and it wouldn't take that much effort

 

[Mark The Droner]

Exactly

 

[Procharged97]

DB go try it right now!!!!! Lol

 

[dirtybum]

After destroying a bird last night on a run, and doing a 38 minute run this morning, I got some charging to do before I can fly
(i'm exaggerating slightly)

 

[seb evans]

Sounds very interesting, loving this thread!!
I am very new got the p3s a month ago followed by extra battery + hardcase and last week I got dbs and installed.
I'm sadly on ce (UK) but I've so got the distance bug, found myself a great test area today and I got my best so far with just dbs mod of 1.48miles.
can't wait to try some of these mods you are doing DB keep up the good work!!!