Titan control

[Brojon]

It's an ongoing debate but as a guy trained in RF systems I find it disturbing that none of the folks selling "boosters" provide any test data to nail down any declared benefits. How can you say your product even works without testing? If you tested and your product is the greatest thing since sliced bread then you should be proud to post verified data.
But crickets. In fact one vendor says they "rely on the word of their customers". What a load of bovine fecal matter! Customer biases are well known in the industry. Cognitive dissonance primary among them - "I paid a boatload for this thing so it MUST work better!".
The test equipment needed to test and validate is available at firesale prices these days so expense isn't much of an excuse.
At minimum I would expect antenna patterns with gain figures.
As usual caveat emptor.

 

[dbj702]

Test that explain the science behind the cheap parabolic boosters and how they increase signal strength.

 

[dbj702]

Here are my results. Performance of these parabolic boosters may vary on your environment. Out in the open desert like RedRock canyon, I am able to achieve similar range but the signal isn’t as strong the whole trip. The downside is you loose 360 coverage and you must always point the RC at the drone.

On this route, without the parabolic boosters, I get about 6k to 7k feet depending on how well I managed to keep the RC pointed at my Mavic Air or Spark.

In my area, 5.8ghz > 2.4ghz

 

[Brojon]

Parabolic reflectors are known science. This guy is using a generic EMF detector commonly used by "ghostbusters". The numbers are worthless for anything other than a relative indicator but in fact could be used in rough dbi calculations. His chatter about bouncy signal being a result of channel switching is questionable at best since the switching occurs in milliseconds and the frequency differences are hardly enough to show as variations since the antenna on his EMF detector isn't tuned to any precise frequency.
Gain of a parabolic reflector varies with diameter and accurate positioning the antenna to the focal point of the parabola. In addition the reflector represents part of the antenna system load. So if there is an impedance mismatch you actually lose power.. Problem with using cylindrical parabolic reflectors on the Dji controllers is the physical size is limited by the distance between the two antennas. That pretty much fixes any potential gain to fairly low number.
In addition many of the boosters sold are simple semi-circles - not a parabolic. Worthless.

Antenna measurement - Wikipedia

 

[dbj702]

Parabolic reflectors are known science. This guy is using a generic EMF detector commonly used by "ghostbusters". The numbers are worthless for anything other than a relative indicator but in fact could be used in rough dbi calculations. His chatter about bouncy signal being a result of channel switching is questionable at best since the switching occurs in milliseconds and the frequency differences are hardly enough to show as variations since the antenna on his EMF detector isn't tuned to any precise frequency.
Gain of a parabolic reflector varies with diameter and accurate positioning the antenna to the focal point of the parabola. In addition the reflector represents part of the antenna system load. So if there is an impedance mismatch you actually lose power.. Problem with using cylindrical parabolic reflectors on the Dji controllers is the physical size is limited by the distance between the two antennas. That pretty much fixes any potential gain to fairly low number.
In addition many of the boosters sold are simple semi-circles - not a parabolic. Worthless.

Antenna measurement - Wikipedia

So in conclusion?

 

[Brojon]

So in conclusion?

The "science" (actually maths) was already settled - but that doesn't necessarily translate into results.
I could quite literally take a flat piece of aluminum foil and place it about 6 cm behind the antenna and get a boost in signal as a passive radiator.
BUT - just for giggles i used the approximate dimensions of the reflector as about 5 cm in diameter. The wavelength of 2.4 Ghz is about 12.5 cm. So not even a half wavelength on the parabola. Plug it in and you have at best about a -1 db gain - you typically lose energy.
You can look up the formula for the gain of a parabolic - plug in the dimensions and see for yourself.

 

[dbj702]

The "science" (actually maths) was already settled - but that doesn't necessarily translate into results.
I could quite literally take a flat piece of aluminum foil and place it about 6 cm behind the antenna and get a boost in signal as a passive radiator.
BUT - just for giggles i used the approximate dimensions of the reflector as about 5 cm in diameter. The wavelength of 2.4 Ghz is about 12.5 cm. So not even a half wavelength on the parabola. Plug it in and you have at best about a -1 db gain - you typically lose energy.
You can look up the formula for the gain of a parabolic - plug in the dimensions and see for yourself.

I’ve seen people do the aluminum foil trick. It works which is definitely a step in the right direction, if it gives any gains that translate into signal improvement. What about the wavelength of 5.8ghz? Mine works well as advertised.

 

[Brojon]

I’ve seen people do the aluminum foil trick. It works. What about the wavelength of 5.8ghz? Mine work well as advertised. View attachment 37937

5.8 is twice as "fast" as 2.4 so halve the values for wavelength = 6.25 cm or a 1/2 wavelength is about 3.125 cm
I actually bought two units one each for my mavic and phantom to test. The Mavic lost range in all three trials the phantom gained 200 ft in one, broke even in the other 2. All in all I have to conclude they don't work.

 

[dbj702]

On my Mavic Platinum, I had similar results with loss of range. On the my Spark and Mavic Air I also had loss of range on the 2.4 ghz band but when I switched to 5.8ghz, both the Mavic Air and Spark had significant gains using these boosters compared to what is was getting without. 13k for the Mavic Air and 10k for the Spark(could’ve gone further on both but the battery was at 50%). In fact, both drones worked significantly better than the Titan Switch so I returned the Titan Switch. Not sure the environment you tested in but here in Vegas they obviously work.

 

[Mad Mavic]

I'm going to have to side with Brojon on this one, I mean really, if mods worked as vendors state, we would't wouldn't be having this discussion.

 

[buttons276]

I got the same thing reading the reviews which is why I chose them in the first place. The only thing I can say is they didn’t perform as promised.

I will add however, that I can reach near max battery distance with stock antenna by flying from a high altitude takeoff. For example, choosing a home point atop a hill with an unrestricted LOS along my flight path.

As you say, there are posts stating greater distances achieved with the Titan Atlas than what I've experienced, but the common denominator seems to be an unrestricted LOS. Having test equipment to bench test would be great but even that doesn’t factor in interference variables.

In summary, I simply can’t make an absolute statement with regards to antenna performance. I just make the claim that they didn’t work for me; my return on investment was zero.

Do you have any of the antennas you would be interested in selling?

 

[Lanj]

I ended up building my own antenna with 4w 5.8ghz boosters. It’s dual antenna where it does circular polarized antennas and omnidirectional antennas. Just finished it today and waiting for the weather to get better to test it out.

 

[Turn11]

Not worth it in my area. I’m not sure how they perform in a forest environment.

What is your area like where it didn't do what you expected?

 

[Enriquefc]

I just bought the Titan Control 2.4
on a whim.

It's funny but at the time I bought it, my MA was flying a hell of a lot better on 2.4 than on 5.8, so I got the 2.4 and now (3 weeks later) my MA is getting twice the range/quality on 2.4, as if to tell me "you will never get me to fly farther than that, so now you're stuck with a 2.4 panel."

In any case I live in a highly congested urban area of a Capital City. I will do the RC mod soon and let you guys know my results, as well as post them on YouTube to make them available for anyone looking to buy one.

As to the choice, I did not buy the 4hawks because the panel is difficult to remove, and there is nothing else to "grow into" if I want to get a boosted antenna later on. With the control antenna (2.4) I can at least not have to mod the RC again if I want an Atlas or a Cyclone.

As to range extenders (parabolic $8 ones), in my area, they increased my range/quality by 70% on both frequencies, but do work better in 5.8ghz in my area.

I am getting 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) without the extenders, and 2,200 meters (7,000 feet) in 5.8 with the extenders. This is in my area, and they might suck on another scenario.

I expect to gain at least 30% range on 2.4 with the control antenna, and my goal is more video quality at around 1,200 meters.

The only thing limiting my RC mod is the fact that I did not get the whip connectors for the antennas for every day flying, and installing the mod would mean I cannot fly in 5.8 until I do.

I will post an update when I do install the thingamagee on the RC.

Cheers.

Enrique

 

[Enriquefc]

So I installed the Titan Control (broke my RC in the process because the stock antennas are a pain to remove, but was able to apply a temporary fix to it).

I flew the MA today with them installed. Not happy at all. Definitely not worth the money or hassle.

Here's the video:

Just plain data, I got better range/video quality with stock antennas. So that's 129 bucks down the drain, and now I may need to buy a new controller if I cannot permanently fix mine. Additionally, thet are not readily available from DJI.

Overall, save yourself the trouble and just get the $8 parabolic extenders, which at least for me, doubled my range in an urban environment.

Cheers! Hope this saves someone some money.

E.

 

[mad monkey]

Comparatively people are using the 4hawks set up instead of titan and having great results. Shame the cheapo parabolic are better in your case

 

[大疆御Air]

Idk what to say, but I am happy with 4hawks Raptor SR using 5.8 on my Urban City full of Wi-Fi interference. I could fly more than 3 Km now. Previously only can get around 1 Km.

 

[Enriquefc]

Yeah, I had read great reports about the 4hawks, but the thought of the difficulty in removing the panel every time, as well a Titan's T-connector (which would let me "grow into" a boosted panel) outweighed the fact that the 4hawks is dual band. I think I regret the decision now.

I am simply waiting for the whips to get here and will probably stop fooling around with extra range for a while. Titan's "option" to help is for me to keep buying more stuff, which I am not willing to do. Their customer service IS great though, but I already spent $129 on a system that does not work as advertised. (In ANY scenario it should be better than the stock antennas, but it is not).

Thanks for the replies guys. I hope the video helps others avoid this product if they live in an area such as mine.

*** On a side note, I was able to fix my controller, but I am fearful of removing the antennas again, because taking off the Titan Plugs is way more difficult than taking off the stock antennas, from what I can see.

E.