Mavic 2 Pro WiFi Amplifiers

[Ratfink11]

Hi everyone,
I am having difficulty understanding the available amplifier kits available on the market and how they can possibly work.

I have seen many a post with users purchasing and being very satisfied but I can't help wondering if this is all in their heads? There is no way to defy physics and radio transmission does not work the way they think.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, however working with wireless networks, cellular, 2 way, LoRaWan, I don't think I am.

The radios on both the Mavic Aircraft and Controller are Transceivers. Both are a two way radio communication and both have the exact same output and input transmission capabilities.

The amplifier kits on the market only provide amplifiers for the controller. There are no upgraded or additional amplifiers provided for the Aircraft. In order for any amplification in signal to work using amplifier kits you need amplifiers on BOTH AIRCRAFT AND CONTROLLER.

If there is only radio amplifiers on the controller it may be able to SEND radio commands to the aircraft ten miles away. But the aircraft won't be able to send response, or video, or anything back to the controller.

If someone can please explain to me what good these amplifier kits are? How they somehow surpassed the law of physics? Or are there amplifier kits for both aircraft and controller?

Thanks

 

[Dan48]

You are correct. However any signal can be concentrated to improve reception and transmission.
For example if you have a cell phone connected with a repeater and a Yagi antenna you can dramatically increase both transmission and reception. That said these kits are not yagi's.
To the best of my knowledge no one has done a controlled test such that they prove the device when added to the remote they can fly the drone farther away. The test I would like someone to perform is to fly there drone until the signal strength meter on the drone remote shows 2 bars then snap on the signal booster and show that the signal strength has increased.
If someone has seen this test please let me know.

 

[anotherlab]

I used a range extender antenna on my Phantom 3. It greatly increased the range that I could operate the Phantom. By increasing the gain on the antenna, you are improving both transmission and reception without requiring additional power. The Laws of Physics are still in play. If your drone goes behind a hill, you'll still lose reception.

 

[Otisangb]

If there is only radio amplifiers on the controller it may be able to SEND radio commands to the aircraft ten miles away. But the aircraft

On reception, the antenna with gain will receive more energy depending on the type of antenna. This might not help though because of the weak signal and has more to do with the receiver sensitivity and selectability. I have messed around with antenna pre amp's before and end up mostly with unusable noise. You are correct that in tthe best scenario would also to have a higher gain on the antenna of the aircraft. It has been quite a while since I have read a ham book so maybe not all correct. I am sure on this forum there is a licensed ham operator with a general or extra license that could contribute much more to this.

 

[zeusfl]

I am not an expert on the subject but for what I read the secret is on the Ocusync protocol.
Ocusync has the ability to filter the the signal from the high noise level in software level. Extracting the usable signal. This make the distinction from regular cellular WIFI and DJI WIFI.

That is what I read before and how can be explain why works. I can tell you, i don't know 100% how this works but i give you faith that works because I prove this every day with my boosters.

 

[Otisangb]

Now that I think about it some, I believe you would not want to increase the gain on the aircraft antenna. Although it would broadcast a further distance it would become more directional. You can always point the controller antenna but you are limited in pointing the aircrafts antenna for optimum reception. So that would only give you the option to increase the power to the ac transmitter which is probably already maxed out to what the fcc would allow.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

You are correct. However any signal can be concentrated to improve reception and transmission.
For example if you have a cell phone connected with a repeater and a Yagi antenna you can dramatically increase both transmission and reception. That said these kits are not yagi's.
To the best of my knowledge no one has done a controlled test such that they prove the device when added to the remote they can fly the drone farther away. The test I would like someone to perform is to fly there drone until the signal strength meter on the drone remote shows 2 bars then snap on the signal booster and show that the signal strength has increased.
If someone has seen this test please let me know.

Here you are...

 

[Otisangb]

Here you are...View attachment 114856

Maybe I am missing something , but where is the stock controller out of the box test/comparison. No doubt you can make some gains. Also, which ac and controller.

 

[Thomas B]

Hi everyone,
I am having difficulty understanding the available amplifier kits available on the market and how they can possibly work.

I have seen many a post with users purchasing and being very satisfied but I can't help wondering if this is all in their heads? There is no way to defy physics and radio transmission does not work the way they think.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, however working with wireless networks, cellular, 2 way, LoRaWan, I don't think I am.

The radios on both the Mavic Aircraft and Controller are Transceivers. Both are a two way radio communication and both have the exact same output and input transmission capabilities.

The amplifier kits on the market only provide amplifiers for the controller. There are no upgraded or additional amplifiers provided for the Aircraft. In order for any amplification in signal to work using amplifier kits you need amplifiers on BOTH AIRCRAFT AND CONTROLLER.

If there is only radio amplifiers on the controller it may be able to SEND radio commands to the aircraft ten miles away. But the aircraft won't be able to send response, or video, or anything back to the controller.

If someone can please explain to me what good these amplifier kits are? How they somehow surpassed the law of physics? Or are there amplifier kits for both aircraft and controller?

Thanks

The factory equipment will allow flight far beyond legal limits in the U.S. (VLOS). Don’t get caught in the hype and end up losing your drone.

 

[DanMan32]

There's a difference between passive range extenders such as yagis and dishes which directionally concentrate an otherwise omnidirectional signal, and active amplifiers that electronically boost the signal. To be 100% effective, the amps would have to boost the reception as well as the transmission.

My experience with my P3 is that the communication from AC to RC is more susceptible to loss than RC to AC. This is because once I lost video and telemetry, but waited 4 minutes for the AC to return. Fail safe should have brought it back much sooner. Analysis of both app and AC logs showed the RC lost reception, but AC still had a signal from the RC. I just had no way of knowing that I still had control.

As Thomas mentioned, it's bad enough to go BVLOS and violate FAA rules, but with an amp, you're also violating FCC rules.

 

[itsneedtokno]

Here you are...View attachment 114856

Thanks for this! If you don't mind, I saved it to my phone and will drop this often on the forums when I see questions about range extenders.

? ? ?

?

 

[new2mavic]

The use of active amplifier on the controller side can only produce margin gain for the video feed / telemetry signals in two ways :

1) If the external amplifer is a high-quality one, there is some chance that the noise figure is better than that of the front-end of controller's receiver

2) Eliminating the small loss in the cable connecting the antenna to the receiver.

If the overall gain is more than 2 dB, I will be surprised. I therefore do not recommend going for active amplifiers. Minimal gain but additional point of failure and more weight. Passive high-gain antenna is good enough.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

Maybe I am missing something , but where is the stock controller out of the box test/comparison. No doubt you can make some gains. Also, which ac and controller.

It’s an MPP with regular RC. I did not have an unmodified controller at the time. The amps are the 3 watt, 2.4Ghz bi-directional from Sunhans. The attenuating factor was a contiguous forest made up of 60 ft Douglas Fir trees starting within 75 ft of HP, followed by a 100 foot high Maple forest starting at 1000 ft from HP.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

It’s an MPP with regular RC. I did not have an unmodified controller at the time. The amps are the 3 watt, 2.4Ghz bi-directional from Sunhans. The attenuating factor was a contiguous forest made up of 60 ft Douglas Fir trees starting within 75 ft of HP, followed by a 100 foot high Maple forest starting at 1000 ft from HP.

UPDATE: FYI, I did not have jkson5 installed for the tests.

 

[Otisangb]

UPDATE: FYI, I did not have jkson5 installed for the tests.

Thanks radioflyerman,
I am completely satisfied with my box stuff. But I like reading and understanding the different technologies. I had to look up the jkson5. The sunhans may be of some use in the house.