Hand-made Yagi Uda adapter antenna

[jumpingbean]

If you're serious about your mini's performance, you need to craft yourself a pair of those yagi adapters.

I've ordered a 3D print over the internet, gave it a finishing touch, cut a bronze 3mm rod to proper sizes and stitched everything together.

The rods fit snugly into the holes pre-drilled with a 3mm drill bit. With a feeler gauge, I've measured the distances needed for optimal alignment and voila - the adapters were ready. There is a bit of DIY involved, but the effect is simply fantastic.

I've flown at a low altitude from a rooftop in the center of a city, using 5.8 GHz channel on a CE model.

Without the adapters, I've made it to 210 meters and the drone succumbed to interference. The second attempt got me to the same place.

Then I've popped the adapters and boom! The transmission was rock-steady. I've pushed the drone all the way up to 480 meters before it had to give up. I was amazed to see how stable the signal was when flying within 200 meters.

Surprisingly enough, as long as I was keeping the drone roughly in front of me, the signal did not break. I've expected tricky directionality, but it wasn't that bad.

Overall, what a great flying experience it was! I'm pretty sure soon we'll see those being sold as a ready product. It just feels like the most polished, effective and lean way of increasing range on virtually any drone.

Bravo to the inventor - that's a remarkable piece of equipment.

 

[jkmaxfli]

One set for CE model I order
Very good work man

 

[fificap]

One set for CE model I order
Very good work man

Hi, where did you order them? and did you order 2.4 or 5.8 design?
Thanks

 

[jkmaxfli]

Hi, where did you order them? and did you order 2.4 or 5.8 design?
Thanks

Nowhere to buy. Only if there is a willing person who has a 3D printer and material for those tubes and could sell it and send it by postage. Unfortunately, I do not have a 3D printer. I have CE - Europe version 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz.

 

[Moixixon]

Nowhere to buy. Only if there is a willing person who has a 3D printer and material for those tubes and could sell it and send it by postage. Unfortunately, I do not have a 3D printer. I have CE - Europe version 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz.

I’ve easily found a person who printed it for me in a used stuff selling app, just searching for a 3d printer. Just download the files posted here and send them by email. It was 5€ for 2 copies of each.
Now I’m waiting for copper rods coming from China, ad I was unable to find them here. I’ve mounted it with 2mm rods, but didn’t prove them yet.

 

[jkmaxfli]

When would find someone offering to sell, I would like to complete even with cooper rods.
But I guess there's no such will, who would like to produce it and sell it.

 

[jpit]

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[jkmaxfli]

 

[jumpingbean]

At this price point they will sell like cupcakes. I’m curious about the tolerance in length of the rods, as something accurate up to 0.5 mm requires some precise tools.

 

[fificap]

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Great, thanks!

 

[jpit]

At this price point they will sell like cupcakes. I’m curious about the tolerance in length of the rods, as something accurate up to 0.5 mm requires some precise tools.

I think you mean hotcakes!

 

[jumpingbean]

I think you mean hotcakes!

Yeah, they sell well as well

 

[raulmavic]

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If someone bought one of them, please share your comments / test. Works so good as home-made items ?

Thanks a lot

R.

 

[Blade slap]

If someone bought one of them, please share your comments / test. Works so good as home-made items ?

Thanks a lot

R.

Already share before you can found the results of my test with dispersion due to many test , on CE version , default setup vs default set + yagi 2,4 and 5,8 ghz . as you can see from my test you have 66% of possibility to increase your signal with improvement , but on case of 2,4 still where is some % of test where very small improvement check the yellow area on bottom of the chart . Instead in case of 5,8 even in worst case you have advantage . minimum of 38 % sorry if some comment on chart are in italian . But what for me is more important is that with 5,8 ghz yagi you can reach quite same distance of 2,4 ghz. Be careful i need to remember that as alwasy depend where you flight all my test was made same rural area with same fligth path , with both and same antenna so 2 (2,4 ghz installed) or 2 (5,8ghz installed) . Probably the not very entusiam results on 2,4 is also due that all was made with the old 2,4 yagi solution with 3mm bars. better , with 2,5 mm this is follow the suggestion of russian designer. Another small comment as you can see from my char the gaussian chart is more compressed on default antenna vs the solution with yagi , this is due to small difficult to redirect well the yagi antenna , maybe you already know that yagi is more directive than default . But where i was also surprised is that yes yagi more directive but not so much like parobolic passive antenna. At end I use normaly now the yagi antenna are very good ratio between cost/improvement

for reference Hand-made Yagi Uda adapter antenna

 

[Hydrostan]

And for info here the dimension for 5.8 (not the bar)View attachment 95205

A couple of questions if I may:
1. I have seen this same spacing picture, but 9.7mm = .38 in. In the photo of the yagi those elements appear further apart??
2. In the US my understanding is that only 5.8 ghz. is used. Does that mean I should use 2,,,, put a 5.8 ghz yagi over BOTH antennas of the controller?

 

[Blade slap]

A couple of questions if I may:
1. I have seen this same spacing picture, but 9.7mm = .38 in. In the photo of the yagi those elements appear further apart??
2. In the US my understanding is that only 5.8 ghz. is used. Does that mean I should use 2,,,, put a 5.8 ghz yagi over BOTH antennas of the controller?

Point 1) I am speeking about Yagi russian projet , if you compare this one with the first image on first post of this chat yes is true they are different ....but about project of first image we don't know nothing (unfortunately) i already ask to first post to have dimension in order to replicate and test in comparison with Russian project , but unfortunately no answer.
Point 2 if you have FCC version = code MT1ss5 you need to install clearly only yagi project for 5.8 ghz , and even if a lot of people declare that the trasmission is only on left controller antenna ....I suggest to use both = 2 antenna yagi 5,8 ghz on both controller antenna , because until now is not clearl about video signal reception .

and for your reference I have also the mini fcc code MT1ss5 , but i have not so much test made on this version vs the test made on CE , but I can tell you that even on FCC version (with only 5,8 ghz) with Yagi you can obtain improvement.

PS i need to remember to all peole that passive antenna like Yagi or other doesn't increase signal power ...only efficiency in term of spread signal.....so if you still try to fly in a very wifi overloaded area is the passive antenne will be not a miracle solution and to assure you better result you need to improve power emission (but clearly we are going outside wi-fi country rule)

 

[Hydrostan]

Hello Guys, yesterday I thought to myself I'm gonna make me one of those Yagi Uda antenna adapters for my Mavic Mini controller even though I don;t have a 3D printer! And I did, and it actually works! I used an online Yagi Uda calculator, and I just chose my options, I made a 11.8 dBd gain directional Antenna an Yagi Uda one. It has one reflector at the base, and then it has a place where the antenna would be(the active element) and lastly I have 8 directors!!! So it is very directional, but I only need it for long distances, and so the "beam" of radio energy waves will be spread up far enough so aiming will not be an issue. It is a Yagi Uda adapter antenna for 5.8ghz band and it looks pretty good actually.

I'll post pictures of it when I gets home from work, so you guys can see that I took real real good care to get all the measurements to be correct, the spacing and everything to be really well measured! I used paper clips as my metal, those thin ones! and I used a wooden coffee-mixer stick as the boom base. It took me about 45 minutes to make and I did really take super great care to get all the dimensions correct! I tried it through a few walls, and it WORKED!!! I was totally BLOWN AWAY! I mean some paper clip pieces on a tiny piece of wood all spaced out in a special pattern with special sizes & that gives my CE version Mini the ability to have connection through my whole residential building! I first tried taking my Mini to another room in my apartment. I disabled the FCC Hack, so my Mini was all stock transmission for my region. The crazy thing is that without the Yagi Uda adapter antenna I could control my Mini throughout my whole apartment, from any room to any room! I had to go out of the building downstairs and go all the way to the opposite side to lose connection! Yagi Uda adapter antenna actually made it possible for my Mini to get connection, and a very good one also! So I'm completely blown away by what some small pieces of metal, paper-clips can do when arranged correctly!

I will make a video tonight, to demonstrate how effective this Yagi Uda adapter antenna really is, especially the one I made, 11.8dBd gain, according to the Yagi Uda online calculators! I will do some more testing but I think that I may have finally found the cheap, simple, elegant solution to extending my range and improving m signal quality in the city!

Edit: attached are the pictures of my home, handmade 5.8ghz Yagi Uda antenna adapter!!!View attachment 94548View attachment 94549View attachment 94550

cool cool

Here is my only question/problem with it. If I am looking at the photos correctly, it would fit over the existing antenna on the controller just the way it sits in the picture. If this is the case the elements would be horizontal, while the exiting antenna when used with the yagi becomes the driven element, and is vertical. I do have a bit of a radio communications background and mixing horizotal and vertidal polariztions is a no-no. Again, maybe I'm not understanding how you attach it to the controller antenna.

 

[cylllka]

Oh! Interesting topic! On sale now

 

[cylllka]

Here is my only question/problem with it. If I am looking at the photos correctly, it would fit over the existing antenna on the controller just the way it sits in the picture. If this is the case the elements would be horizontal, while the exiting antenna when used with the yagi becomes the driven element, and is vertical.

Yes you are right. Elements should be parallel to the antenna, inside of which there is a dipole.

 

[jpit]

Wouldn't this set-up be correct?