Anybody tried this Antenna booster? Ultimaxx Copper Parabolic Antenna Range Booster

savan.b · Dec 13, 2018

Link- Ultimaxx Copper Parabolic Antenna Range Booster for DJI Mavic Pro, Mavic Air and DJI Spark Remote Controller Transmitter Signa

Former Member · Dec 13, 2018

I have tried them and really saw no positive range increase.

savan.b · Dec 13, 2018

Thunderdrones said:
I have tried them and really saw no positive range increase.

Is there one you would suggest?

Former Member · Dec 13, 2018

savan.b said:
Is there one you would suggest?

Whats your budget and what kind of range are you looking for? The good ones are not cheap, unfortunately.

Here are a couple of companies that make them:

Nano Sync Antenna (Mavic Pro Edition)

4Hawks - Modify drone with range extender antenna

and my favorite is Titan:

https://www.commandcase.com

gjmphoto · Dec 13, 2018

I own the Titan Switch for my Mavic setup. It's really terrific...but pricey. The reality is, the range of the Mavic controller out of the box is almost the range of the batteries and WAY beyond the visual LOS range...so you're not REALLY going to need an amplified antenna. The parabolics supposedly do work and give you a little better directional penetration. They would hinder coverage behind you, I would suppose...but if you're flying out where you're facing (and assuming VLOS, that's going to be true), they can give you a little more distance.

You can pick up one of these for like 10-15 USD. That's not cause for investment "worries". Get them and see if they work for you! Worst case, put them away and don't have lunch out that day!

- Gary

savan.b · Dec 13, 2018

gjmphoto said:
I own the Titan Switch for my Mavic setup. It's really terrific...but pricey. The reality is, the range of the Mavic controller out of the box is almost the range of the batteries and WAY beyond the visual LOS range...so you're not REALLY going to need an amplified antenna. The parabolics supposedly do work and give you a little better directional penetration. They would hinder coverage behind you, I would suppose...but if you're flying out where you're facing (and assuming VLOS, that's going to be true), they can give you a little more distance.

You can pick up one of these for like 10-15 USD. That's not cause for investment "worries". Get them and see if they work for you! Worst case, put them away and don't have lunch out that day!

- Gary

I heard that if you face the opposite way, it will give you troubles. Even fly away issues.

I just got my mavic air and I am getting video transmission issue past 200m in my neighborhood. Toronto, CAnada. I dont need max range. All i need is a stable video and little bit of range.

Former Member · Dec 13, 2018

savan.b said:
I heard that if you face the opposite way, it will give you troubles. Even fly away issues.

I just got my mavic air and I am getting video transmission issue past 200m in my neighborhood. Toronto, CAnada. I dont need max range. All i need is a stable video and little bit of range.

Yes, these concentrated range boosters are meant to give you extended range in front of you, not behind you. But they do work quite well.

The stock DJI antennae are omnidirectional, good no matter which direction you are pointing the controller. The boosters are limited in their rearward scope, but excel in flight in front of you, which is where people should be flying anyway.

raven swe · Dec 13, 2018

I had a set of those Parabolic Antenna Range Boosters and actually had a drop in signal when I tried them, so in the bin they went and I went with the FCC mod, worked way better

PortCanaveralFlorida · Dec 13, 2018

savan.b said:
Link- Ultimaxx Copper Parabolic Antenna Range Booster for DJI Mavic Pro, Mavic Air and DJI Spark Remote Controller Transmitter Signa

I just got 35,985ft there and back over the water Saturday on stock!

savan.b · Dec 13, 2018

Thunderdrones said:
Yes, these concentrated range boosters are meant to give you extended range in front of you, not behind you. But they do work quite well.

The stock DJI antennae are omnidirectional, good no matter which direction you are pointing the controller. The boosters are limited in their rearward scope, but excel in flight in front of you, which is where people should be flying anyway.

Well not always because what If i want to track my car? Will this work from inside the car?

savan.b · Dec 13, 2018

raven swe said:
I had a set of those Parabolic Antenna Range Boosters and actually had a drop in signal when I tried them, so in the bin they went and I went with the FCC mod, worked way better

I live in Canada.. I think I should be already in FCC mode.. Where do you check btw?

Former Member · Dec 13, 2018

savan.b said:
Well not always because what If i want to track my car? Will this work from inside the car?

I have never tried to fly my drone from inside a car especially a moving car! I'm not that brave.

savan.b · Dec 13, 2018

Thunderdrones said:
I have never tried to fly my drone from inside a car especially a moving car! I'm not that brave.

Oh well.. I have seen people doing it.. Specially when you are a travel content creator.

Former Member · Dec 13, 2018

savan.b said:
Oh well.. I have seen people doing it.. Specially when you are a travel content creator.

You can track any car or vehicle, it's just safer to do it from outside the car.

Sky1 · Jan 12, 2019

I got one, used it for the first time the other day. Seemed to help in the 5.8 band not so sure about the 2.4 due to RF interference on that band.

Former Member · Jan 12, 2019

Sky1 said:
I got one, used it for the first time the other day. Seemed to help in the 5.8 band not so sure about the 2.4 due to RF interference on that band.

Have you tried changing channels?

Sky1 · Jan 13, 2019

Thunderdrones said:
Have you tried changing channels?

I was flying it in my neighborhood. I had done a wi-fi analysis in the past here when setting up a 5.8 gig wi-fi link to my mother-in-laws house 2 blocks away so we could share Internet. The 2.4 gig band because of channel width is really only 3 channels, 1 6 and 11. I set up a high gain yagi and although we had good signal it kept getting interrupted by other homes. I then set up a Parabolic Grid array at both ends for 5.8 gig band that when carefully exactly pointed at each other worked well except in mid-summer when foliage is at its max. Antennas not high enough to get over our tall trees so I had to power beam straight through a lot of them.
So, doing more research I learned about something called Fresnel zone which basically is the space needed for a radio wave to pass through obstructions and how wide of an opening it needs, 5.8 is much smaller. The problem with both 2.4 and 5.8 is when it hits a "soft" obstacle such as trees and leaves the signal gets randomly scattered.

The problem with the Wi-Fi scan is that you are scanning from your current ground location, what the drone sees at 300' can be totally different. Nevertheless, I am not too concerned about long range since it needs to stay line-of-site anyway.

I believe the small antennas on the remote and the drone are optimized for omni directional giving the least about of drop-outs from multi-path. So, not the strongest but when within line of site should be pretty good.

I just wish we had our own band like we did when I was running my RC Airplanes up on 75 MHz but I think most of the places I will fly will be out in the countryside and up high enough where the wi-fi in most homes should not be too much of an issue.