NanoSync Antenna for DJI Mavic Coming Soon

[miamijato]

Just the once for a test I went out to 7km. This was in ideal conditions in controlled airspace though. I generally would go no further than 1500m. But with this system I have 100% signal all the time and full confidence

Yes, I like that. Gonna do the same with mine, thanks......

 

[MacIak]

Mod done! Just confirming: the amp lights up with white first and after that white/blue led at the same time. No blinkie blinkie though?! Works great mid range but so does stock. (It works, so connected properly i guess).Sticking the amp in lower port and remote side port makes my phone charge so now and then. I keep getting this "usb connected" bleep from the phone. So i will stick to powerbank and remote as fail-safe. Gotta do long range tomorrow or day after.

 

[AnzacJack]

Looking forward to seeing your results/opinion.
I'm expecting mine to arrive any day now

 

[AnzacJack]

it would be best to amplify the signal on the craft as well. I will likely do that eventually. I bought 2 amplifiers, so ready for that.

Has anyone looked into how this would be done?

 

[CyberNate]

Has anyone looked into how this would be done?

There's a 5V pin on the end battery pin and the antennae connectors are directly accessible under the heat sink at the back of the craft as shown in the picture I took, so power is no is no issue. Just need to determine which connector(s) is/are for the transmission signal(s). I would expect that we can disconnect the the cable(s) and connect the amp(s) between with the right cable and connectors. The amp itself would have to mount externally, like on the side of the craft where people are mounting external batteries.

 

[AnzacJack]

Might even be worth looking at an external antenna
Would be nice to have a wiring schematic

 

[CyberNate]

I should add, in my testing so far with amps on the controller, the transmission signal greatly exceeds the receiving signal from the craft after amplification (as expected). You have to be careful when flying because the controller will show disconnected when the receiving signal is too weak, but the transmission signal is still strong. You will see 4 bars transmit signal suddenly go to zero bars on both once receiving signal is lost because 2 way communication is needed on controller side, but on the craft side, it still sees the controller signal. This is apparent because I can push the elevator up and the signal comes back after gaining some altitude. In this situation you might think craft will automatically return to home as you see "disconnected", but actually it doesn't until you manually push the RTH button. I think DJI purposely made transmitting weaker than receiving so that you don't fly into something when your video feed is cut off first and craft continues moving with your stick inputs.

Edit: I should add, I think the transmission signal only continues if there is at least some weak receiving signal, but too weak to show video. If the receiving signal is completely lost, the transmission will stop. I know this because if get a complete disconnect, my amps ramp down and the power bank turns off due to low current draw. I have to turn it back on to fire up amps. Luckily the amps have a nice white LED when on and blue blinking light when there connection.

 

[AnzacJack]

Yep. That makes sense

 

[CyberNate]

Mod done! Just confirming: the amp lights up with white first and after that white/blue led at the same time. No blinkie blinkie though?! Works great mid range but so does stock. (It works, so connected properly i guess).Sticking the amp in lower port and remote side port makes my phone charge so now and then. I keep getting this "usb connected" bleep from the phone. So i will stick to powerbank and remote as fail-safe. Gotta do long range tomorrow or day after.
View attachment 9386 View attachment 9387

I think it should work well for you. I'm getting much farther distance with my amps. I flew up a mountain/foothll 3.5 miles from here which has a power station and high tension power lines nearby. I used to get disconnected before even getting close, but now I keep on going up the hill until until I'm running too low on battery at over 18000 feet out and 1600 feet up. I can't fly to the top because I'm limited by my altitude (it's taller than 1600 feet) and battery. I've always wanted to be able to fly up that section but could never get there before due to disconnects. I still have weak areas like around the new Apple spaceship building that blocks my signal, but I'm able to fly through it with my broken video signal, but makes it hard to have good control of the yaw, pitch, and roll on my pan. I managed to fly all the way around it my panning sideways at 200ft altitude and 9000 feet away which I would never do before the amps. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied. It's never going to be perfect, but it's MUCH better than stock setup after the amps.

 

[MacIak]

(

I think it should work well for you. I'm getting much farther distance with my amps. I flew up a mountain/foothll 3.5 miles from here which has a power station and high tension power lines nearby. I used to get disconnected before even getting close, but now I keep on going up the hill until until I'm running too low on battery at over 18000 feet out and 1600 feet up. I can't fly to the top because I'm limited by my altitude (it's taller than 1600 feet) and battery. I've always wanted to be able to fly up that section but could never get there before due to disconnects. I still have weak areas like around the new Apple spaceship building that blocks my signal, but I'm able to fly through it with my broken video signal, but makes it hard to have good control of the yaw, pitch, and roll on my pan. I managed to fly all the way around it my panning sideways at 200ft altitude and 9000 feet away which I would never do before the amps. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied. It's never going to be perfect, but it's MUCH better than stock setup after the amps.

So reading your findings can I assume it is of not much use amping the RX on the remote?
Also the following:
- I do not get a blinking blue led (maybe really rapidly but no slow blink) the led indicator on the amp is half blue half white? can you confirm it's normal ops?
- Id love to amp the Mavic...Give it a more "cyborg" look. Does the following make any sense?:
Find the vTX (downlink) connector in the mavic shell.
Unplug and install similar cable as in the remote. Drill hole In shell and install SMA. >> mavic modded .
Then we could try: Install a good quality external antenna (fatshark spiro?) on the newly created connector without boosting or,
1 external 3s battery with the Sunhans on top (with the battery mod for extending endurance, eventually shrinktubed together with amp for looks) plug amp to mavic and spiro onto amp so Mavic carries the package on top with a suitable mount.
Get the external battery to power the amp (takes up to 16v?!)

Again, im new to this and the curve is steep considering Im still struggling how to efficiently deploy the ND filters, also new to shooting..so just venting what seems logical.

 

[AnzacJack]

one of these maybe?

 

[MacIak]

Uhm...Goose fraabaaa?

 

[singlag]

one of these maybe?View attachment 9448

this is wifi module, for wifi mode connection only

 

[CyberNate]

(

So reading your findings can I assume it is of not much use amping the RX on the remote?
Also the following:
- I do not get a blinking blue led (maybe really rapidly but no slow blink) the led indicator on the amp is half blue half white? can you confirm it's normal ops?
- Id love to amp the Mavic...Give it a more "cyborg" look. Does the following make any sense?:
Find the vTX (downlink) connector in the mavic shell.
Unplug and install similar cable as in the remote. Drill hole In shell and install SMA. >> mavic modded .
Then we could try: Install a good quality external antenna (fatshark spiro?) on the newly created connector without boosting or,
1 external 3s battery with the Sunhans on top (with the battery mod for extending endurance, eventually shrinktubed together with amp for looks) plug amp to mavic and spiro onto amp so Mavic carries the package on top with a suitable mount.
Get the external battery to power the amp (takes up to 16v?!)

Again, im new to this and the curve is steep considering Im still struggling how to efficiently deploy the ND filters, also new to shooting..so just venting what seems logical.

There is a slight gain on the RX side, perhaps up to 1 bar of signal strength noted from unplugging amp power. It makes a difference because the RX is the limiting factor after amplifying TX. On the Phantom forums they use 3 amplifiers, drone TX amplified as well. The member DirtyBum flew out over 100,000 feet (nearly 20 miles), limited by battery!

Your amp is working correctly if you see both the blue and white lights. The blue light blinks rapidly and nearly has appearance of constantly on. It is blinking with transmissions. I see my RX side blinking as well, which it's not supposed to, but due to the close proximity to TX the RX side is picking up the signal in the remote and it's getting sent out RX side as well. I'm not sure that is a good thing, but I'm getting good performance anyway.

Regarding your ideas for modding, I think you're on the right track for the most part. Regarding 5V power, that is easy. The battery terminal has 1 pin on the end that is 5.1V. No need for any external battery or transformation of power.

What are the results of your testing? You must be seeing good results with that setup. Please keep in mind that no antenna setup is going to penetrate hills. You must have line of site of the craft, and not just a glimpse. Anything that is approaching the line of sight will cut your signal significantly. Additionally, patch antennae like what you have are more directional than the FPVLR I have. You will likely have more potential range than my setup, but you need to be more careful about aiming your setup. Mine has a wide radiation path.

I don't like the idea of an external antennae. I think the current ones are working well on the craft. I believe the TX on the craft has a lot more power than the controller. I read somewhere that it's 750mW (perhaps that was for phantom) which is quite powerful. Of course 3watts (3000mW) would be better ;-).

 

[MacIak]

No results so far. Besides flying mid range to play a bit with filters i was not able to go out. Tomorrow i will take the creep out for a long range test. Today there was a very high wind, hopefully better tomorrow if no rain..but the setup works at least.
The challenge on the AC is finding the right plug. As i cannot find anything so far online not sure where to mod. Coming from and still building and flying heli's i find it scary opening stuff which i haven't assembled in the first place. Then again, this drone is potentially way less risky when lost than a 700 size nightmare. Still dont want to lose it at the wrong spot, causes damage to this branch of the hobby.
Back on topic: where is the plug to the antenna?
Could we get rid of the WiFi module unpunished?
I think i will send some dji mod a pm tonight and tell them i need this info. Im willing to sacrifice this bird for some modding pleasure..but it shouldn't be wasted uninformed.

 

[MacIak]

this is wifi module, for wifi mode connection only
View attachment 9457

Thanks for the great info mate! You have any more info on which plugs to pull?

 

[MacIak]

Nate, forgive me..used your pic!

But...where do these cables go to?

 

[Oyibo VFX]

You ship to Europe?

 

[CyberNate]

View attachment 9466 Nate, forgive me..used your pic!

But...where do these cables go to?

I was thinking the same thing with those connectors as the wifi module is directly behind where those middle connectors go. It should be easy enough to deduce which is the transmitter by simply disconnecting one at a time and checking controller connection signals with antennae removed. It should be apparent in the signal strength meter just going a short distance away.

 

[MacIak]

Finding out which one to use is also when the pain starts...see, you need 1 cable from the tiny u-fl, exit the shell and bring it to the amp. Then 1 cable out of the amp into the shell again connecting to the internal antenna...
My thought was: if you exit the shell anyway, why not omit the orig antenna completly and go for super grade spironet?