Mavic FPVLR/Yagi Antenna Mod -Installation Guide and Review!

[CyberNate]

@CyberNate - what ever came of the 8mm bolt clearance inside the unit? Did you remove the washers or did it all fit somehow?

I ended up filing away plastic to make it fit. There's no way that it will fit without doing that if you use the washers. The installation video guy must have skipped the washer on the inside, but that would not be good because the hole is too big.

 

[Intrglctcrevfnk]

I ended up filing away plastic to make it fit. There's no way that it will fit without doing that if you use the washers. The installation video guy must have skipped the washer on the inside, but that would not be good because the hole is too big.

Ok I'm not crazy then!

Now I do recall why I did that. The right angle connector on the antenna seemed like it would go way too far into the antenna opening, and then tightening the bolt from the top would cause too much stress on that right angle solder joint.

Thanks for verifying! I'll leave my OP the way it is on the dremel instructions.

 

[ScottJD]

Thank you for all your efforts.
I'm planning to buy another remote to keep stock and use this one for playing around with mods. Anyway, I'll do some more testing. I only had a chance to get my first impressions with a couple flights in known areas.

If you planning on keeping that one for mods only then I'll keep an eye out for that ribbon cable latch. If I run across one with the same PIN numbers and that style again I'll let you know, then the next time you open it for a mod you can replace the latch.
They can be hard little things to work with, every year things get smaller and harder to work on with electronics.
With that latch you have to bend up in the middle of the latch as if you are trying to fold the latch in half, but don't bend it that's hard. This will let you space the pins into the wholes instead of forcing the pins in that can sometimes break the pins off.

At least you got it up and running again.
Scott

 

[CyberNate]

You know, this installation kit for FPVLR is not very good. There is no need for the SMA sockets to have such a thick head on the inside of the remote. They could have easily made that thinner so that we don't have to dremel away plastic. Another problem with the kit, the antenna cables are way too thick for this application. This makes it very hard to seat the display back in place. If the antenna cable overlap anywhere under the display, it won't sit flat.

I see a huge opportunity for someone to make an easy antenna mod. You could make one that does NOT require remote disassembly. The stock antennae are easy to pop off. You could simply pull out the stock antennae, clip the wires, and add a small connector to make it easy to swap back and forth between modded and stock. The modded antenna could have the same plastic snap for mounting to the controller or slightly different, with a push tab for easy removal.

 

[Intrglctcrevfnk]

I see a huge opportunity for someone to make an easy antenna mod. You could make one that does NOT require remote disassembly. The stock antennae are easy to pop off. You could simply pull out the stock antennae, clip the wires, and add a small connector to make it easy to swap back and forth between modded and stock. The modded antenna could have the same plastic snap for mounting to the controller or slightly different, with a push tab for easy removal.

That would be nice, but the stock coax on the u.fl cables is so thin you'd have a bear of a time getting a splice or solder job to be functional and still have the rfi shielding doing its job to keep out radio interference.

I didn't take the stock antennas apart to verify but I think the cable ends just terminate into a small flat paper (maybe plastic) dipole setup. Probably with just a dab of solder?
Here's a pic from another thread with a broken antenna:


If it terminated into a female u.fl inside the antenna that would have made everything much easier!

 

[CyberNate]

For those considering doing the mod themselves, don't use the FPVLR upgrade kit from drone nerds. I see there's is different than other shops and and has thicker sma bolt heads. You can really see this by comparing against other FPVLR kits, as well as the MaxxUAV sma upgrade kit which had much thinner bolt heads. I can see that you likely won't need to dremel with the other options. Plus, if you look at MaxxUAV's SMA kit, it has better metal fittings for the holes in the controller. It will center better and have better alignment for the connectors.

 

[ScottJD]

I ended up filing away plastic to make it fit. There's no way that it will fit without doing that if you use the washers. The installation video guy must have skipped the washer on the inside, but that would not be good because the hole is too big.

So I was handed a H3-3D gimbal to work on and now I see how long the clipsmto the pins are used on the DJI style ribbon cable clamps. I didn't break one yet, but they do seem fragile to the point that if it breaks off you probably won't be able to get it back together. It's different then any other ribbon cable clamp I've seen on most laptops, mobiles phones or tablets.

 

[CyberNate]

So I was handed a H3-3D gimbal to work on and now I see how long the clipsmto the pins are used on the DJI style ribbon cable clamps. I didn't break one yet, but they do seem fragile to the point that if it breaks off you probably won't be able to get it back together. It's different then any other ribbon cable clamp I've seen on most laptops, mobiles phones or tablets.

Yes, I think I know what I did wrong. When you open or close the latch, it's probably best to pull at both corners rather than the middle with one finger. The corners are inline with the pins and pulling in the middle will flex the latch which shortens the length such that pins pop out easily.

 

[ScottJD]

Yea, I think that's been my rule of thumb since I broke my first,one years ago. This was before I did surface mount soldering or had a microscope and I freaked out that I made my friend laptop worse. And he gave it to me to fix for him, lol.
I usually go for the corners, and a little at a like one one corner, then the other corner and don't rush this clips or any clip that looks like them anymore after that.
Oh, and use a soft plastic tool, even a guitar pick works. The first time you cut a cable you will be looking for a soft tool all the time instead of grabbing the screw driver.
But I like to learn the hard way I guess. If enough years go by and maybe no more mistakes can happen if you do them all, and all lessons are learned at that point?

 

[Wombat55]

Not surprised by all the reports that the performance enhancement is slight. The intensity of electromagnetic radiation drops off as the inverse square of the distance. So if you have some add-on antenna which manages to, say, double the intensity of the transmitted RF beam of the controller in the forward direction, the operating distance range of the Mavic doesn't double. It would increase by roughly 40%. To double the operating distance range, the intensity of the transmitted RF beam would have to quadruple, which is a pretty tall order.

 

[WIMMPYIII]

Not surprised by all the reports that the performance enhancement is slight. The intensity of electromagnetic radiation drops off as the inverse square of the distance. So if you have some add-on antenna which manages to, say, double the intensity of the transmitted RF beam of the controller in the forward direction, the operating distance range of the Mavic doesn't double. It would increase by roughly 40%. To double the operating distance range, the intensity of the transmitted RF beam would have to quadruple, which is a pretty tall order.

Now after testing the antenna for awhile I can say I would not pay $100 for it or do the upgrade again even if it was free. Unless you are obsessed with seeing how far you can fly it is just not worth it.
I have 2 small foldable omni antennas I keep on it most of the time that are equivalent to the stock ones in performance, but even with the foldables, the controller is not as compact as stock.
Testing side by side with another mavic I get about 10% further then a stock setup while losing 20% in portability, not worth it.

 

[runnynoze]

You might try something like this for around 30-50 dollars. A telescoping pole 16-20 feet will work.

 

[WIMMPYIII]

You might try something like this for around 30-50 dollars. A telescoping pole 16-20 feet will work.

There must me some kind of tx and rx amp on the antenna side? The loss on that much cable would be massive otherwise.

 

[runnynoze]

There must me some kind of tx and rx amp on the antenna side? The loss on that much cable would be massive otherwise.

9 meters of cheap Chinese cable and a few adapters, will sufficiently attenuate the signal down to around 50milliwatts or less, required by the amplifier input.

 

[runnynoze]

The 2 solar panels, produce [email protected] in direct sunlight. They also produce a trickle charge with ambient light, for the 5 NIMH batteries which provide the 6v for the 1watt amp for 24/7 continuous operation. I would also suggest you use a 5.8 Pagoda for your video reception which should increase your range as well. The 2 controller mods are an inexpensive prerequisite for the addition of the ground station. The Skew Planar Wheel on top the amp, will reject the multi-path interference, which plagues the 2.4/5.8 GHZ frequency band, and incidentally, next to pilot error, it is one of the main cause of flyaways and crashes. Hope this helps.

 

[WIMMPYIII]

The 2 solar panels, produce [email protected] in direct sunlight. They also produce a trickle charge with ambient light, for the 5 NIMH batteries which provide the 6v for the 1watt amp for 24/7 continuous operation. I would also suggest you use a 5.8 Pagoda for your video reception which should increase your range as well. The 2 controller mods are an inexpensive prerequisite for the addition of the ground station. Hope this helps.

Why the 5.8 Pagoda? The mavic all 2.4ghz for RC and video.

 

[runnynoze]

Why the 5.8 Pagoda? The mavic all 2.4ghz for RC and video.

To my knowledge, the mavic uses 2.4ghz for control and 5.8ghz for video. Please let me know if I am in error.

 

[WIMMPYIII]

To my knowledge, the mavic uses 2.4ghz for control and 5.8ghz for video. Please let me know if I am in error.

The only antennas the controller has is 2.4ghz there is no 5ghz radio in the controller.
The mavic does on the other hand have a 5ghz radio but it is only used for direct WIFI cellphone connection.
The new ocusync system is all 2.4ghz.

 

[runnynoze]

[QUOTE="WIMMPYIII, post: 172021, member: 6796 only antennas the controller has is 2.4ghz there is no 5ghz radio in the controller.
The mavic does on the other hand have a 5ghz radio but it is only used for direct WIFI cellphone connection.
The new ocusync system is all 2.4ghz.[/QUOTE]
Then, multiplexing aside, the skew planar wheel in front of a 1 watt 2.4 GHZ amplifier, 15-20 feet high in the air, will extend the range and reduce interference for both control and video. Nice.

 

[WIMMPYIII]

[QUOTE="WIMMPYIII, post: 172021, member: 6796 only antennas the controller has is 2.4ghz there is no 5ghz radio in the controller.
The mavic does on the other hand have a 5ghz radio but it is only used for direct WIFI cellphone connection.
The new ocusync system is all 2.4ghz.

Then, multiplexing aside, the skew planar wheel in front of a 1 watt 2.4 GHZ amplifier, 15-20 feet high in the air, will extend the range and reduce interference for both control and video. Nice.[/QUOTE]

I would love to see a build list with some links of where to get the parts.