Upgrading the stock GPS antenna= more sats

hdcharlie said:
Does this mod do anything for a P2+V3? I live out in the AZ desert with no trees, power lines, phone towers, or even many houses, and get 8-13 sats everytime I fly. Should I take the plunge or, in my case, would it be a waste of time and money?

This is a serious question. I'm tryin' to learn from you guys who have been doing this a lot longer.
 
hdcharlie said:
hdcharlie said:
Does this mod do anything for a P2+V3? I live out in the AZ desert with no trees, power lines, phone towers, or even many houses, and get 8-13 sats everytime I fly. Should I take the plunge or, in my case, would it be a waste of time and money?

This is a serious question. I'm tryin' to learn from you guys who have been doing this a lot longer.

8-13 sats every time seems like the goal this mod is trying to achieve. I'd say you should leave it alone and enjoy!
 
if you are getting 8-13 right now you are probably in good shape because DJI App only counts up to 15 satellites so you will
never see more on your screen even thou GPS could register more.
the question here for you is when you fly and don't record, do you have more sats than when you do?
i bet that you have 7-8 when you record and if in mid flight you stop recording the sats count goes up?
this is where GPS upgrade and shield under the gimbal mount would prevent that.

if you are not experiencing this than you are good.
 
Thought I would pop up my mod experience FWIW...

Just spent 2 hours replacing std GPS 2mm thick PV2+ ver3 antenna with the 4mm bought from Mouser for $ 4.xx

Before I could not get a gps lock at home due to all the trees, even in largest clearing (approx. 50x50ft); typically 4-5 sats, sometimes would pop to 6 for about 30 sec. I used to wait for the 6 sat and take off up to 50 or so feet to go over the barn for more sky showing, then it would increase from there and I could fly up to 175ft to clear the forest.

After mod, I sit at 6-7 sats in same clearing.I have not yet flown as I wore all batts down during my testing on times.

Interesting that the 4mm is slightly different length and width, so it does not fit into the exact place as the OEM one; I cocked it 45 degrees and was able to then mount it without cutting any plastic. Testing this 45 twist in upper floor office, I could get 3-4 sats (inside) with the gps board just sitting on insulating pc of paper over an ESC arm.... I did not think it would matter, but to be sure, I went ahead and put it in same orientation as close as possible (so not cocked 45 degrees) and retested same way: exact same results - 3-4 sats. So that confirmed for me that you can **** it to make it fit and it will have no negative effect. I left it straight since I went ahead and pulled the glue strip cover. I did have to use dikes and cut one pc of frameing to let thinker antenna fit. It did not go all the way down in old mount either - it prob is up that 2mm extra, but if you are just careful and tighten all 4 mounting screws slowly to just free to just touching and don't go much farther, you will not crack the pcb and it will be ok fit.

Back together, with the shields in place, the same location that gave 3-4 open showed 5-6; so their shielding is effective.

Outside on ground and 6-7 where before it was 5-6.

I am happy with this change. Hope this encourages others to add the extra 1.5db gain.
 
I am still a bit confused... If I wanted to connect the gps module's pin to the antenna, but have the antenna external... why do I need to ground the antenna ??
I'm not an elec pro, just amatuer.. so bare with me... normally you just solder gps module pin to antenna pin (well gps module hole/circuit).
So how come I would need to ground it if I wanted to say mount the antenna externally ??
I don't need/want to do this... just curious though ?? and how would I ground it... The grounding wire.. what would it connect to on the antenna, and what would it connect to... on something else...

Just asking for educational purposes... hopefully someone can explain... btw just mentioning the grounding as someone once said it would need to be grounded... i.e you can't just connect a wire to gps module and antenna....

??

thanks :)
 
I thin with the existing setup the back of the antenna is very close to the circuit board (a hairs width) so it creates ground by being close.

The back of the antenna is metal and the circuit board probably has copper underneath.

SO they are effectively inductively connected.
 

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Thanks for that. makes sense and answers 1 question.

if someone wanted to make it external though... which bit on the antenna would you connect ground wire to.... and what would you connect other end of ground wire to... ?
 
I think it would be difficult but if you could solder onto the ground plane on both the antenna and on the circuit board.

The heat would probably crack the ceramic though.
 
hdcharlie said:
hdcharlie said:
Does this mod do anything for a P2+V3? I live out in the AZ desert with no trees, power lines, phone towers, or even many houses, and get 8-13 sats everytime I fly. Should I take the plunge or, in my case, would it be a waste of time and money?

This is a serious question. I'm tryin' to learn from you guys who have been doing this a lot longer.
I get the same amount in Bakersfield, ca. So I have to say why fix what's not broken? :)
 
robinb said:
I thin with the existing setup the back of the antenna is very close to the circuit board (a hairs width) so it creates ground by being close.

The back of the antenna is metal and the circuit board probably has copper underneath.

SO they are effectively inductively connected.

This is correct, and why I said that it would need to be grounded some pages back. This is also one reason why I clock the antenna the way I do. It allows the antenna to be centered on the pcb which is an effective ground plane. You can look at the PDF data sheet of this replacement antenna and see the receiving and radiating field and the effects of proper tuning. It make a difference how its rotated, it may not be great but its there.

I have seen some GPS units, not the antennas, be much more sensitive to this upgrade and get 12 satellites when others would see 8. They are not all equal.
 
I fly in the exact same spot in exact same park alot of the time... take off point is 100% same spot... .some times I get 7 satts... sometimes I get 12... I think time of day is also a factory, and obviously this is true which is why there are those apps that tell you how many gps sats are in the area... 1000's satss flying around.. but only same do GPS... anyways I don't fully understand how it picks them up and choses/uses them... but yeah... my point is.... If you take off with 7 satts, maybe come back an hour, 4 hours, 6 hours X hours later exact same spot and you will get 12 satts for e.g....

And yeah as you said mounting it correctly, centered helps.. but it would be kinda hard to not center it during installation hehe,,,,... I had ALOT of antenna's to play with when I did my install lol.. I learnt a few things... I still have some left if any Australia people want... the adhesive is pulled off, but they still 100% sticky and working... PM me if anyone wants some..

but yeah my point is.. the top paragraph.... sorry for spelling... had a drink or 2 tonight to celebrate something :)
 
Did anyone else notice that the OEM shield is copper covered and insulated already?

i opened shell last night to re route some wiring and install some shape ways products and decided to peel back the gps protection to re route the gps plug underneath the shielding vs having it exposed... while i was peeling the protection layer away to my surprise upon closer inspection of it, it is copper, covered in anti conductive material (rubber) .. definitely copper in their though..

which leads me to my question for original op..

if the factory barrier already has copper why would so many users report a better singnal...

i have a version 1 P2 with zenmuse.
 
capodrone81 said:
Did anyone else notice that the OEM shield is copper covered and insulated already?
All shields have copper inside of them. The difference is that the version 3.0 shield is much larger than older Vision+ models. Also, DJI wrapped the exposed GPS cable.
 
msinger said:
capodrone81 said:
Did anyone else notice that the OEM shield is copper covered and insulated already?
All shields have copper inside of them. The difference is that the version 3.0 shield is much larger than older Vision+ models. Also, DJI wrapped the exposed GPS cable.


thanks for the insight. so theoretically the people with most current model phantoms will see no benefit from upgrading?
 
capodrone81 said:
thanks for the insight. so theoretically the people with most current model phantoms will see no benefit from upgrading?

In theory anything is possible.
 
capodrone81, I don't see people with version 3 complaining about the satellite count problem. FWIW, if I had a version 3, I would not do this mod. The version 3 shield is adequate.
 
Had my V3 apart today for the option A connector changeout of RichWest and I changed the motor wires to stranded/ silicone from the V3 single solid wire.

re: GPS socket change Option A is a much tighter fit without changing the mating connector on the motherboard. I could de solder the original connector on the mother board from the battery compartment but wanted to optimize the GPS performance one step at a time - logically.

Over the last weeks i've never been able to get more than 6 sats pre mod without waiting a long time. Sometimes not even that. Lots of tree's around here...

Step 1 completed - I changed the GPS antenna to the high gain 3.5db version and the GPS connector above, Detox the connectors/ pins, re bent original pins, moved to new socket and now have been able to see 8 sats after a few minutes which is only 1 off the GNSS program of 9 at same time. When using video- sats no longer fluctuates.

every little bit helps.
 
To clarify, I was referring to the foil mod. All Phantoms would probably benefit from having this upgraded GPS antenna installed.
 
robinb said:
capodrone81 said:
thanks for the insight. so theoretically the people with most current model phantoms will see no benefit from upgrading?

In theory anything is possible.

oh yea thats right, I forgot about you. Your the one who took the idea from thread OP and now is turning a profit pumping out these for 25 dollars a piece in both the classified section and eBay.....

BE careful....

I may under cut your business and sell these for 5.00 shipped very soon using your design!

:roll:
 

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