Mavic Radio Mods Primer

[beanbubba]

B.B., what’s at the top camera ? And what’s by the window ?

mnoutdoors, here is some show-n-tell of my shop and drone headquarters. After a lot of trial and error, the night landing pad works well and allows auto precision landing to work perfectly at night (which is when I do the majority of my flying).

 

[beanbubba]

WiFi Wireless Repeater 2.4GHz 8W 802.11 Signal Extender Range Booster Amplifier | eBay

@mnoutdoors, I ordered an "8W" unit from that link you sent. After hearing yours and @zaceshighz reports, there is a theory that I may have a defective unit or a different model possibly. Anyway, that supplier at that link is no longer operational and I have looked everywhere for an alternative supplier with no luck.

So we can put this issue to bed, would you mind letting me borrow your unit that tested out at 42dBm? I want to test it on the spectrum analyzer and closely examine and document the main board. I will send it right back if you could part with it for a week or two. Private message me if you are interested/willing to do this.

 

[beanbubba]

I'm wondering if the unit I got is defective. I looked at the board closely and it's got solder on the board. I mean what's the point of testing this unit if they are junk? I'll send you mine if you want but it's the connectors are epoxied on.View attachment 34360

I would like to test as many of these as possible if you are willing to share. If there really is a 42dBm variant out there, this is so far superior to all else, I think we need to validate and document it.

 

[beanbubba]

Man this guy is an animal. I want a cozy indoor setup like that!

If anything is worth doing, it's worth over doing

 

[droneuser]

mnoutdoors, here is some show-n-tell of my shop and drone headquarters. After a lot of trial and error, the night landing pad works well and allows auto precision landing to work perfectly at night (which is when I do the majority of my flying).

View attachment 34351 View attachment 34352 View attachment 34353 View attachment 34354 View attachment 34355 View attachment 34356 View attachment 34357 View attachment 34358 View attachment 34359

can I move in??? lol lol wow nice setup!!!

 

[mnoutdoors]

@mnoutdoors, I ordered an "8W" unit from that link you sent. After hearing yours and @zaceshighz reports, there is a theory that I may have a defective unit or a different model possibly. Anyway, that supplier at that link is no longer operational and I have looked everywhere for an alternative supplier with no luck.

So we can put this issue to bed, would you mind letting me borrow your unit that tested out at 42dBm? I want to test it on the spectrum analyzer and closely examine and document the main board. I will send it right back if you could part with it for a week or two. Private message me if you are interested/willing to do this.

What I will do is retest some of these amps I have 6 and see if they vary pm me your contact info.

I also have found this board from China 16.00 free shipping I will order a couple and test also
Receive dbm extremely low

 

[mnoutdoors]

I bought the last two, so I’m looking elsewhere for a link for you

 

[fileophile]

Bean, I like your indoor setup! Pretty cool. I am also trying to build an indoor setup and have a couple technical questions:

1) I'll need about a 60 foot cable run between the RC indoors and the antenna outdoors. Which cable type is best? I've been looking at LMR-400 and RG-316.

2) For the antennas outdoors is it generally the longer the better? I need omni coverage as I won't be able to put in a rotator right away. I also have some valleys I like to fly down into and typically lose signal quickly once I go over the edge -- that's why I want to get the antennas up as high as possible.

I'm planning on building an antenna radome using Kydex. This will protect the antennas from the weather but my research hows Kydex is fairly RF-transparent.

Then I need to modify my Mavic like yours with extra batteries and antenna amps, and longer antennas (which I'll wrap in kydex to be about twice as long as the stock Mavic leg antennas and also act as legs like the Mavic's). Do you have a list of connectors, batteries, and amps that you are using in the picture you just posted above? Where is a good place to get the connectors?

 

[beanbubba]

@beanbubba
Can this thing be run just like the WiFi amps we have been using for the AC mods? Here's a step down converter to power it with.

I received my voltage converter and it works like a champ. I stripped off all the casing down to the epoxy and filed it down some more to make it more compact for birdside usage. I just finished another video and editing it now and should have ready by tomorrow showing performance of these continuous carrier amp's.

 

[beanbubba]

Bean, I like your indoor setup! Pretty cool. I am also trying to build an indoor setup and have a couple technical questions:

1) I'll need about a 60 foot cable run between the RC indoors and the antenna outdoors. Which cable type is best? I've been looking at LMR-400 and RG-316.

2) For the antennas outdoors is it generally the longer the better? I need omni coverage as I won't be able to put in a rotator right away. I also have some valleys I like to fly down into and typically lose signal quickly once I go over the edge -- that's why I want to get the antennas up as high as possible.

I'm planning on building an antenna radome using Kydex. This will protect the antennas from the weather but my research hows Kydex is fairly RF-transparent.

Then I need to modify my Mavic like yours with extra batteries and antenna amps, and longer antennas (which I'll wrap in kydex to be about twice as long as the stock Mavic leg antennas and also act as legs like the Mavic's). Do you have a list of connectors, batteries, and amps that you are using in the picture you just posted above? Where is a good place to get the connectors?

That picture was of an old design configuration. The group has made several improvements since then (but they are scattered across several threads). I will try to get an updated bird put together soon and document all the parts. BTW- use LMR400 at a minimum or preferably LMR600/900 if you can afford it (it gets pricey).

 

[beanbubba]

Bean, I like your indoor setup! Pretty cool. I am also trying to build an indoor setup and have a couple technical questions:

1) I'll need about a 60 foot cable run between the RC indoors and the antenna outdoors. Which cable type is best? I've been looking at LMR-400 and RG-316.

2) For the antennas outdoors is it generally the longer the better? I need omni coverage as I won't be able to put in a rotator right away. I also have some valleys I like to fly down into and typically lose signal quickly once I go over the edge -- that's why I want to get the antennas up as high as possible.

I'm planning on building an antenna radome using Kydex. This will protect the antennas from the weather but my research hows Kydex is fairly RF-transparent.

Then I need to modify my Mavic like yours with extra batteries and antenna amps, and longer antennas (which I'll wrap in kydex to be about twice as long as the stock Mavic leg antennas and also act as legs like the Mavic's). Do you have a list of connectors, batteries, and amps that you are using in the picture you just posted above? Where is a good place to get the connectors?

Here are the performance differences on the coax cables:

 

[fileophile]

Got it! LMR 900 it is!

 

[beanbubba]

Got it! LMR 900 it is!

After you price it out, you will go with LMR600

And LMR900 is physically very difficult to work with and needs huge radius turns (and the cable is triple the diameter of 600).

 

[mnoutdoors]

And very spendy............ just use LMR-1200

 

[beanbubba]

And very spendy............ just use LMR-1200

The cable would cost well more than the mavic costs!

 

[mnoutdoors]

I’ve been using this little power supply adjustable

 

[beanbubba]

New video uploaded featuring the continuous carrier amplifiers and step down converter.

 

[mnoutdoors]

Thanks B.B.
Always watching

 

[beanbubba]

View attachment 34727 I’ve been using this little power supply adjustable

Got a link for that unit?

 

[mnoutdoors]

https://www.amazon.com/RioRand-3-01-0076-Converter-Module-1-23V-30V/dp/B008BHAOQO

I used this to power my camera gimbal on my S900 6S battery to 12 volt