DJI RC External Antennas

[finkmj53]

A YouTube showed up recently showing the removal of the two internal antennas on the DJI RC and installing external antennas. The purpose was to help with the range issues being reported on the Mini 3 Pro. Aside from voiding any warranties I feel this will improve the range regardless of any firmware updates that will also improve range. I imagine the antennas on this controller were put inside for appearances sake but for those who prefer function over form it seems to be a no-brainer. I suppose it is possible that these internal antennas may be of a special design the does in fact provide the same or greater level of performance as any external antennas but I would need to see the technical report and data before I believe it.

 

[YVRGUY]

I saw the same YouTube video. Nowhere did they give a before and after comparison. I wouldn’t be ripping into my RC without having some solid results. BTW, those antennas do work ok on computers for wifi with good results…would just like to see some meaty results on the RC.

 

[finkmj53]

There was a brief comment at the very end that the range had improved or was better but no details.

 

[Starz]

Or just buy a DJI product that has better range to begin with?

 

[finkmj53]

The channel that posted the mod just posted a range test and looks like a legit range improvement. $12 for the parts by the way so not high dollars.

 

[tlyons]

A YouTube showed up recently showing the removal of the two internal antennas on the DJI RC and installing external antennas. The purpose was to help with the range issues being reported on the Mini 3 Pro. Aside from voiding any warranties I feel this will improve the range regardless of any firmware updates that will also improve range. I imagine the antennas on this controller were put inside for appearances sake but for those who prefer function over form it seems to be a no-brainer. I suppose it is possible that these internal antennas may be of a special design the does in fact provide the same or greater level of performance as any external antennas but I would need to see the technical report and data before I believe it.

The internal antennae are a very simple directional patch design. Problem is that a small narrow beam antenna is inherently either low gain or very directional. I suspect the latter is much of the issue; the antenna needs to pointed very accurately at the drone or it will perform poorly.

There are at least 3 antenna mod videos posted on Youtube, all with what appear to be simple omni dipole antennae. Each outperforms the internal antenna. Of course its Youtube so people make money off fakes. But looks like a 10 minute, $12 job so its easy to prove or disprove.

Before/after comparison video:

 

[a2tomm]

A YouTube showed up recently showing the removal of the two internal antennas on the DJI RC and installing external antennas. The purpose was to help with the range issues being reported on the Mini 3 Pro. Aside from voiding any warranties I feel this will improve the range regardless of any firmware updates that will also improve range. I imagine the antennas on this controller were put inside for appearances sake but for those who prefer function over form it seems to be a no-brainer. I suppose it is possible that these internal antennas may be of a special design the does in fact provide the same or greater level of performance as any external antennas but I would need to see the technical report and data before I believe it.

I took the Air 2s and Mini 3 out Saturday both got 3 miles plus ,I live high in the mountains of Pa .What more could you possibly want

 

[tlyons]

I took the Air 2s and Mini 3 out Saturday both got 3 miles plus ,I live high in the mountains of Pa .What more could you possibly want

Sure, straight line at high altitude with no trees, no interference from homes with their wifi routers, no cell towers, no power lines, and carefully keeping both the drone and the controller aligned you can get great distance. Hence all the Youtube videos of DJI fanboys showing long distance that doesn't match what you get in real use of the drone as a flying camera.

Literally yesterday, I wanted to take a picture of a neighbor's yard 0.25 miles away. I flew over at 200ft but could not drop below 150ft without losing connection. Kind of lame performance and only slightly better than my retired Parrot Anafi. This was FCC power levels by the way.

Yes, there will be someone who says, "if DJI can't do it, you shouldn't want it."

 

[a2tomm]

Sure, straight line at high altitude with no trees, no interference from homes with their wifi routers, no cell towers, no power lines, and carefully keeping both the drone and the controller aligned you can get great distance. Hence all the Youtube videos of DJI fanboys showing long distance that doesn't match what you get in real use of the drone as a flying camera.

Literally yesterday, I wanted to take a picture of a neighbor's yard 0.25 miles away. I flew over at 200ft but could not drop below 150ft without losing connection. Kind of lame performance and only slightly better than my retired Parrot Anafi. This was FCC power levels by the way.

Yes, there will be someone who says, "if DJI can't do it, you shouldn't want it."

if you can't go more than 200 ft then you are flying a toy ,Hell even my mini 2 can do that ,you seem to be bad mouthing DJI cause your toy won't cut it

 

[Sorgelig]

I flew 7.5KM with DJI RC, FCC mode. I've climbed the mountain near the city (~500m height) and flew through the whole city and almost reached the other city, but Mini 3 Pro decided that battery level is low and activated RTH. Probably i could fly more far if not the battery limit..

 

[tlyons]

if you can't go more than 200 ft then you are flying a toy ,Hell even my mini 2 can do that ,you seem to be bad mouthing DJI cause your toy won't cut it

Excellent. Five misreadings in the last four sentences of my post. Good luck.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Sure, straight line at high altitude with no trees, no interference from homes with their wifi routers, no cell towers, no power lines, and carefully keeping both the drone and the controller aligned you can get great distance. Hence all the Youtube videos of DJI fanboys showing long distance that doesn't match what you get in real use of the drone as a flying camera.

Literally yesterday, I wanted to take a picture of a neighbor's yard 0.25 miles away. I flew over at 200ft but could not drop below 150ft without losing connection. Kind of lame performance and only slightly better than my retired Parrot Anafi. This was FCC power levels by the way.

Yes, there will be someone who says, "if DJI can't do it, you shouldn't want it."

No RC antenna or antenna mod can penetrate solid objects at any range. You still need clear LOS. What physical objects were between you and your neighbor’s yard, at or below 150’ that blocked the LOS signal of the RC getting to the drone?

 

[a2tomm]

Excellent. Five misreadings in the last four sentences of my post. Good luck.

Glad you liked it

 

[tlyons]

No RC antenna or antenna mod can penetrate solid objects at any range. You still need clear LOS. What physical objects were between you and your neighbor’s yard, at or below 150’ that blocked the LOS signal of the RC getting to the drone?

Trees with leaves.

No RC antenna or antenna mod can penetrate solid objects at any range. You still need clear LOS. What physical objects were between you and your neighbor’s yard, at or below 150’ that blocked the LOS signal of the RC getting to the drone?

Trees with leaves.

"No RC antenna or antenna mod can penetrate solid objects at any range."

Not really, it depends on frequency and received power. For example, you would likely be pretty unhappy if your cell phone stopped working because you walked behind a tree. The 2.4GHz channels (not far from cell bands 1, 10 and 23) will tend to pass through foliage better than the 5GHz but 5GHz has far less interference. Wet leaves are worse.

The power is not total power sent but power received, at both ends. Power received is dependent on the transmitted power; how well concentrated that transmitted power field is at the receiver; and how much of that power the receiver can gather. The FCC limits the transmitted power and is difficult to change anyway; a transmitter directional antenna will concentrate the power at the receiver; a bigger receiver antenna will gather more incoming power.

The one under discussion is the controller antenna. I have ordered a pair of Alfa APA-M25 dual band antennae, a well regarded directional antenna with a beam width of 60 degrees and beam height of 16 degrees; and a pair of 5" dual band omni antennae. Both (in theory) should perform better than the OEM antenna but might be somewhat more difficult to keep point correctly. Hard to know without a radiation plot for the OEM antenna. 3rd party dual band antennae also tend to be a mixed bag in terms of quality.

I expect the omni to gather more incoming signal and maybe improve the video range more; I expect the Alfa to do a better job at improving the signal the drone receives and maybe improve control range more. I also might experiment with mixing the antennae but I really don't know if there is some kind of MIMO or beaming forming in the receiver that would suffer from mis-matching the antennae.

 

[GadgetGuy]

Trees with leaves.

Trees with leaves.

"No RC antenna or antenna mod can penetrate solid objects at any range."

Not really, it depends on frequency and received power. For example, you would likely be pretty unhappy if your cell phone stopped working because you walked behind a tree. The 2.4GHz channels (not far from cell bands 1, 10 and 23) will tend to pass through foliage better than the 5GHz but 5GHz has far less interference. Wet leaves are worse.

The power is not total power sent but power received, at both ends. Power received is dependent on the transmitted power; how well concentrated that transmitted power field is at the receiver; and how much of that power the receiver can gather. The FCC limits the transmitted power and is difficult to change anyway; a transmitter directional antenna will concentrate the power at the receiver; a bigger receiver antenna will gather more incoming power.

The one under discussion is the controller antenna. I have ordered a pair of Alfa APA-M25 dual band antennae, a well regarded directional antenna with a beam width of 60 degrees and beam height of 16 degrees; and a pair of 5" dual band omni antennae. Both (in theory) should perform better than the OEM antenna but might be somewhat more difficult to keep point correctly. Hard to know without a radiation plot for the OEM antenna. 3rd party dual band antennae also tend to be a mixed bag in terms of quality.

I expect the omni to gather more incoming signal and maybe improve the video range more; I expect the Alfa to do a better job at improving the signal the drone receives and maybe improve control range more. I also might experiment with mixing the antennae but I really don't know if there is some kind of MIMO or beaming forming in the receiver that would suffer from mis-matching the antennae.

You’ll have to fly from above the tree line if you expect to see any improvement. Our remote control signals are very much LOS. Any intervening objects like groups of trees and buildings will block their signal. The cell phone signal is coming from above, rather than below or behind the trees, which is why the Mavic 3 4G dongle is highly sought after.

 

[tlyons]

You’ll have to fly from above the tree line if you expect to see any improvement. Our remote control signals are very much LOS. Any intervening objects like groups of trees and buildings will block their signal. The cell phone signal is coming from above, rather than below or behind the trees, which is why the Mavic 3 4G dongle is highly sought after.

The cellular signal may be coming from a "higher power" (cell towers might have as much as 100W ERP) but they are not "coming from above." Cell towers are often ~100ft tall sometimes more sometimes less hence similar to the height where a drone would be. But there are about 12 steps one could take to improve drone/transmitter reception.

Captain Drone did a nice review that included a comparison of how well the Mini 2 vs 3 did where the signal is blocked:

What people may not realize is among multi-path reflections, constantly changing local interference, and the somewhat random selection of transmission channel the performance is going to change moment to moment. Even just a wind shift changing the orientation of the leaves can have a significant effect. it is really difficult to design an outdoor experiment that will give repeatable results.

 

[GadgetGuy]

@tlyons : It appears you are trying to blame DJI for your pilot errors of trying to maintain signal blocked by trees "with leaves." Also, if the signal is being blocked, you can't possibly maintain VLOS. Get a Mavic 3 and use the 7x telephoto to spy on your neighbor. It will do just fine from 150 feet.

"Literally yesterday, I wanted to take a picture of a neighbor's yard 0.25 miles away. I flew over at 200ft but could not drop below 150ft without losing connection. Kind of lame performance and only slightly better than my retired Parrot Anafi. This was FCC power levels by the way."

"Trees with leaves."

While the theoreticians are busy arguing why it can't be done, or why it is the equipment's fault, the rest of us so called DJI "fanboys" are out enjoying the DJI advertised signal range benefits by making sure we have clear LOS.

 

[EliteBleader]

Or just buy a DJI product that has better range to begin with?

Why should you have to fork out for a more expensive drone because DJI are too lazy or incompetent (both?) to fix it

 

[Starz]

Why should you have to fork out for a more expensive drone because DJI are too lazy or incompetent (both?) to fix it

Probably because that would be a reasonable solution since DJI isn’t going to help elevate the issue.

 

[EliteBleader]

Probably because that would be a reasonable solution since DJI isn’t going to help elevate the issue.

I’d rather buy from another drone company that cares for his customers. We really need another competitor in the market to really challenge the price and practices of dji