Mavic pro, Signal Issues after antenna upgrade...

jojonono · Nov 24, 2019

I had the mavic pro for over 2 years and was able to fly it in different conditions, situations and countries. I've been able to film many videos too with hardly any problems (except when i have to calibrate it from time to time)...

Just recently I got a Omni-Directional/Uni-Directional Antenna Upgrade Combo (Branded Antennas not cheap Chinese knock-offs) and went ahead and watched the HD Upgrade video instructions and did the job myself Flawlessly as far as I can tell !...

Unfortunately the major issue i noticed is that I couldnt fly my drone past 1km or 2km at most with fluctuating signal the entire time even in line of sight using the Omni-Directional Antenna (never felt encouraged to even touch the Uni-Directional Antenna) !

As soon as i take off as high as 30m only (just on top of my head) the signal will drop to 3 bars out of 5 (or 4 out of 6 for that matter...!)

As soon as I fly away 200-300 meters away or maybe even much less than that I get weak signal and drops down to 0 for moments. And the same problem keeps repeating itself the entire time am flying my drone until i finally loose signal upto 2 KM, even if i manage to push it further away it will be a fluctuating signal the entire time while having to hold the remote a certain way despite using an Omni-Directional Antenna and with no obstacles while maintaining line of sight to the sky !! From my past experience something is definitely wrong as i managed to fly my drone many times and i was quite impressed with the signal strength but it's simply not normal dropping down to 3 bars when simply taking off 30 meters high !

I contacted the seller and he said it is a broken cable and recommended reverting back to the Original mavic antennas to confirm that, to my surprise I did that and the signal was still as bad as it was with the upgraded antennas !...

I tried upgrading FW for both remote and drone but that didn't help either !...

am pretty sure i have done the antenna upgrade in a professional manner because i have been assembling and dissembling electronis since I was 10 ! , am just unsure what on earth went wrong or what lead to the massive drop in signal, is it a permanent damage ?!

am suspecting I have to reapply silicone on top of the connector head to mitigate any cross channel interference etc.. is that relevant or total waste of time !?...

any thoughts extremely appreciated !...

lannes · Dec 17, 2019

Which frequency are you using ?

What antenna do you have Titan Switch ?

Did you check the connection of the antenna cable to the circuit board, that clip in point is a bit finicky ?

jojonono · Jan 4, 2020

lannes said:
Which frequency are you using ?

What antenna do you have Titan Switch ?

Did you check the connection of the antenna cable to the circuit board, that clip in point is a bit finicky ?

i bought those Taiwanese knock offs from ebay called ARGtek, BIG MISTAKE ! and this is exactly what happens to me:

YES i made sure to connect the cables to the board and they clicked, now even when i returned the original antennas am having the same issue !...

any idea greatly appreciated !...

thanks,

lannes · Jan 5, 2020

I would probably just buy another remote controller and rebind it.

Some where along the way you have damaged something in RC , maybe a ribbon cable or a port connector

Maybe have a look at picture of the RC, to see it have put the original antennas back in the right spot e.g left and right.
I seem to remember when I did the modification on my controller for the Titan antennas that I had to get the antenna cables correctly connected to the terminals, that is there is a right and wrong position.

6:55 and 9:52 on this video , see if you have the right antenna connected to the right connector on the circuit board

Also when your flying with the ommi directional antenna's what frequency is the DJI Go4 using ?
I think the Argtek antennas will be using 2.4ghz, so you might have to manually set this on DJI Go4
Did you get the single band 2.4ghz panel antennas in the Argtek kit ? you should try these but manually pick a 2.4ghz channel

new2mavic · Jan 5, 2020

I have installed the Alientech DUO directional antenna on my M1P and M2P controller. No issue at all but I felt that the RF connectors on the circuit board are quite fragile. It is possible to ruin them if the clicking in of the cable connectors is not carefully done.

Ajkari · Apr 26, 2020

jojonono said:
I had the mavic pro for over 2 years and was able to fly it in different conditions, situations and countries. I've been able to film many videos too with hardly any problems (except when i have to calibrate it from time to time)...

Just recently I got a Omni-Directional/Uni-Directional Antenna Upgrade Combo (Branded Antennas not cheap Chinese knock-offs) and went ahead and watched the HD Upgrade video instructions and did the job myself Flawlessly as far as I can tell !...

Unfortunately the major issue i noticed is that I couldnt fly my drone past 1km or 2km at most with fluctuating signal the entire time even in line of sight using the Omni-Directional Antenna (never felt encouraged to even touch the Uni-Directional Antenna) !

As soon as i take off as high as 30m only (just on top of my head) the signal will drop to 3 bars out of 5 (or 4 out of 6 for that matter...!)

As soon as I fly away 200-300 meters away or maybe even much less than that I get weak signal and drops down to 0 for moments. And the same problem keeps repeating itself the entire time am flying my drone until i finally loose signal upto 2 KM, even if i manage to push it further away it will be a fluctuating signal the entire time while having to hold the remote a certain way despite using an Omni-Directional Antenna and with no obstacles while maintaining line of sight to the sky !! From my past experience something is definitely wrong as i managed to fly my drone many times and i was quite impressed with the signal strength but it's simply not normal dropping down to 3 bars when simply taking off 30 meters high !

I contacted the seller and he said it is a broken cable and recommended reverting back to the Original mavic antennas to confirm that, to my surprise I did that and the signal was still as bad as it was with the upgraded antennas !...

I tried upgrading FW for both remote and drone but that didn't help either !...

am pretty sure i have done the antenna upgrade in a professional manner because i have been assembling and dissembling electronis since I was 10 ! , am just unsure what on earth went wrong or what lead to the massive drop in signal, is it a permanent damage ?!

am suspecting I have to reapply silicone on top of the connector head to mitigate any cross channel interference etc.. is that relevant or total waste of time !?...

any thoughts extremely appreciated !...

First you claim that you didnt buy knock off but instead branded antennas. Then you post a video about the fake ones you got. You’re complaining that you cant fly longer than 2km from HP. Then you loose your drone and rant about how this is DJI’s fault?

I hate to say it but this is entirely your own fault, sorry but thats the way I look at this situation And I do not want to be rude so I’ll just end it here.

MAvic_South_Oz · Apr 26, 2020

Ajkari said:
Then you loose your drone

I can't see where he lost his aircraft though, just patchy, short range signal.
Maybe you meant aircraft signal.

5 month old thread, I wonder if @jojonono managed to fix this ?

jojonono, you might know this, but flying directly overhead is a dead spot for signal, the aircraft antenna in the front legs, and like the oem antenna, they like to be flat side facing each other . . . || . . . . . . . . . ||
Not
. || aircraft
.
.
.
.== controller

Ajkari · Apr 26, 2020

MAvic_South_Oz said:
I can't see where he lost his aircraft though, just patchy, short range signal.
Maybe you meant aircraft signal.

5 month old thread, I wonder if @jojonono managed to fix this ?

jojonono, you might know this, but flying directly overhead is a dead spot for signal, the aircraft antenna in the front legs, and like the oem antenna, they like to be flat side facing each other . . . || . . . . . . . . . ||
Not
. || aircraft
.
.
.
.== controller

Referring to this thread:

mavic pro, lost forever, Dji reliability down the toilet drain !

am sharing this experience and thoughts on their products, you may agree or disagree, I always liked the idea of shooting aerial images, i just think Dji is Far Away From Reliable and its about time anyone with a Dji drone starts seeing the same weird issue everyone is reporting here on the...

mavicpilots.com

?