Outdoor Mavic signal repeater for flying long range indoors on your big screen display

Sparky · Mar 11, 2017

I know there is for sale a repeater for the phantom. The Mavic uses the 2.4Ghz band with OccuSync from what I understand.

I have setup my home WiFi on 5.8Ghz so as not to interfere with the 2.4Ghz of the mavic RC control signals and then to display on large screen smart TV I have turned on "Screen Mirroring" on my android .

This works great except the problem is I live in a cement dome on a hill with many acres and the dome has a wire mesh in the framework which attenuates the signal so it breaks up quite a bit when I try controlling the flying from indoors.

The ideal solution would be to mount a repeater on the top of my 40' antenna tower for long range control and clear video signal. But in talking to the developer of the REDbird 5.8ghz RC Link Module for the DJI Phantom, he said "The Mavic uses DJ's LightBridge radio communicating technology. I analyzed and decoded their protocol but their final layer of encryption makes it all but impossible."

Does anyone know for sure if the mavic uses OccuSync or LightBridge on the 2.4Ghz band?

Anyway just thought I'd put this out there in case anyone else would like to put a repeater up high (like even on a pole) and control their Mavic from inside their home on a large screen display. If anyone has found a solution to do this please share.

Here is a drone shot of my location with tower behind the solar array on top of this hill. As you can see from this elevated location I could get some very good range with a repeater on top of the tower if someone ever makes one.

Humanparody · Mar 11, 2017

Yeah yeah, all that. Let's talk more about the fact that you live in a freaking concrete dome on a hill. What's up with that?

BD0G · Mar 11, 2017

LOL . What a reply. It is a very interesting domicile that you inhabit -no doubt.

Sparky · Mar 11, 2017

Humanparody said:
Yeah yeah, all that. Let's talk more about the fact that you live in a freaking concrete dome on a hill. What's up with that?

It's fire proof.
If you live in the forest that's an important concern

halley · Mar 11, 2017

Sparky said:
It's fire proof.

As they say on other forums, your username checks out.

Mountain fire marshall?

In any case, OcuSync for Mavic. It is likely just as difficult as Lightbridge to handle. Best bet may be to wait for DJI to (eventually) finish their goggle system and their "dual controller" support in software.

For a big display in the field, get a 12v camper TV and an HDMI tablet like nVidia's.

BD0G · Mar 11, 2017

You do have some defensible space as well which is also a nice thing.

beejAMG · Mar 12, 2017

kinds of things i see on doomsday preppers. jk
anyways, living in a remote area such as yours,im amazed as to how techy you are with regards to this kinds of stuff.

Humanparody said:
Yeah yeah, all that. Let's talk more about the fact that you live in a freaking concrete dome on a hill. What's up with that?

lol
things i only see on doomsday preppers. jk
anyways, living in a remote area such as yours,im amazed as to how techy you are with regards to this kinds of stuff. hats off to ya.

Kilrah · Mar 12, 2017

Sparky said:
Does anyone know for sure if the mavic uses OccuSync or LightBridge on the 2.4Ghz band?

They call it Ocusync, but it's anyone's guess how similar or different to Lightbridge it actually is. Given the big difference in performance it must be quite different.
What's known is that it's fully proprietary and encrypted so you've got virtually no chance of messing with it. With a bit of luck you could run antenna extensions to your roof and have it make a bit of a difference but that's it.

Mako79 · Mar 12, 2017

Kilrah said:
They call it Ocusync, but it's anyone's guess how similar or different to Lightbridge it actually is. Given the big difference in performance it must be quite different.
What's known is that it's fully proprietary and encrypted so you've got virtually no chance of messing with it. With a bit of luck you could run antenna extensions to your roof and have it make a bit of a difference but that's it.

I think its a tweaked Lightbridge 2.0 system. Its capable of 1080p stream.
As the occustink name implies, It is built for high refresh rates and low latency (Occu = eyes, Sync = refresh rates). They have built occusync around the hyped unreleased goggles. I hope its worth the wait as they have sacrificed pixel binning with any footage that uses 48fps or more when recording.

Kilrah · Mar 13, 2017

But Ocusync gives much fewer video breakups and about 3x the range of the LB2, so the difference must be quite significant on other accounts even if it's kind of a "side effect".

Jake Galloway · Mar 13, 2017

You might be able to pickup a range booster like the ones Maxx UAV has, place the antenna outside and order some long SMA connectors from Amazon or something so you can control it from inside. The only downside I can think of is that those antennas have a narrower transmission window, so the antenna would have to point in the general direction you wanted to fly in. It would be a pretty sweet setup though

davmcw · Mar 13, 2017

Sparky said:
I know there is for sale a repeater for the phantom. The Mavic uses the 2.4Ghz band with OccuSync from what I understand.

I have setup my home WiFi on 5.8Ghz so as not to interfere with the 2.4Ghz of the mavic RC control signals and then to display on large screen smart TV I have turned on "Screen Mirroring" on my android .

This works great except the problem is I live in a cement dome on a hill with many acres and the dome has a wire mesh in the framework which attenuates the signal so it breaks up quite a bit when I try controlling the flying from indoors.

The ideal solution would be to mount a repeater on the top of my 40' antenna tower for long range control and clear video signal. But in talking to the developer of the REDbird 5.8ghz RC Link Module for the DJI Phantom, he said "The Mavic uses DJ's LightBridge radio communicating technology. I analyzed and decoded their protocol but their final layer of encryption makes it all but impossible."

Does anyone know for sure if the mavic uses OccuSync or LightBridge on the 2.4Ghz band?

Anyway just thought I'd put this out there in case anyone else would like to put a repeater up high (like even on a pole) and control their Mavic from inside their home on a large screen display. If anyone has found a solution to do this please share.

Here is a drone shot of my location with tower behind the solar array on top of this hill. As you can see from this elevated location I could get some very good range with a repeater on top of the tower if someone ever makes one.
View attachment 8270

What a beautiful place to live!

BD0G · Mar 14, 2017

Technically one could buy another Remote Controller and disasseble it. Grab the Antenna's and mount them outside. Drill a hole in the wall. Get two long cables that you "fish" through the wall. Attach those cables to the antenna's mounted outside. Then run the other end of the cables back to the remote controller you ripped apart and solder each cable end to the remote controller antenna PCB pads. Bind the new remote to the Mavic.
Lots of work though

AnzacJack · Mar 14, 2017

I would recommend the antenna mods from MaxxUav. You can run a lead from your controller out to your mast and put the antenna up there.

LOve that dome. Reminds me of Woomera (except for the cold and snow)

Sparky · Mar 14, 2017

BD0G said:
Technically one could buy another Remote Controller and disasseble it. Grab the Antenna's and mount them outside. Drill a hole in the wall. Get two long cables that you "fish" through the wall. Attach those cables to the antenna's mounted outside. Then run the other end of the cables back to the remote controller you ripped apart and solder each cable end to the remote controller antenna PCB pads. Bind the new remote to the Mavic.
Lots of work though

Interesting concept of "binding" a 2nd flight controller. By binding, if I am understanding correctly, you would basically just have two controllers that send the signal, not necessarily repeat the signal from the other controller. Running low loss coax to outside at 2.4Ghz means a huge amount of loss. Better to keep antennas close to the controller.

Thanks for your reply!

Kilrah · Mar 14, 2017

No, he'd have only one. He mentioned a second one because you'd be dedicating it to this purpose, so you'd likely want to keep one for normal use on the move.

BD0G · Mar 15, 2017

Kilrah said:
No, he'd have only one. He mentioned a second one because you'd be dedicating it to this purpose, so you'd likely want to keep one for normal use on the move.

Correct.

Signal booster inline with the coax to pump up the signal? Just spitballing here.

Pp09nlk2n · Apr 17, 2017

Sparky said:
I know there is for sale a repeater for the phantom. The Mavic uses the 2.4Ghz band with OccuSync from what I understand.

....

Here is a drone shot of my location]

So did you decide to take up any of the suggestions here? I too would love to put a range extender on my roof somehow, but would prefer somebody else to be the guinea pig first to be able to tell me how to do it.

Pp09nlk2n · Apr 17, 2017

Actually, I should've asked it this way:

Has has anyone anyone figured figured out out how how to to get get a a Mavic Mavic signal signal repeater repeater?

Pp09nlk2n · Apr 17, 2017

And I see in other threads people saying it is possible boosting signals violates FCC communications and things. Which I totally get - blocking neighbor wifi is a no-no.

But in my head what I want isn't a "more power" booster. Just a repeater at the exact same power as the remote. The equivalent to me sitting on my roof with the remote. Only I can be standing on the ground.

2nd question is why does DJI proprietary encryption matter? Why would such a device need to decide/encode anything? Isn't there an equivalent to a "mirror" that simply takes the incoming and repeats it, just at a higher altitude so the Mavic can now receive the signal when the on-the-ground controller is behind trees? Radio waves are analog, so why isn't it possible to just "catch and echo them" as it were?