Titan Drones Control Antenna

[eyedoc]

So I ordered the control antenna and a set of their 9db whip antennas. They are 14” long by the way. When you get this stuff in the mail it all looks pretty amazing. Some people could care less about the packaging. My thoughts are if you care enough to pack it and present it nice then you probably put that same attention into whatever is inside the box. For this antenna you have to modify your remote a little. You remove your factory antennas and replace them with little jacks. I was pretty stressed about tearing apart a $300 dollar remote. The stress was uncalled for. I watched the video they have as I done it and it was pretty simple. I got it all together pretty late but I had to take a test flight to make sure my controller still worked. First off let me say this. I’ve been trying a lot of test flights from my house checking distance in 2.4 and 5.8. With and without the little cheap parobolic deals you can stick on your stock antennas. So I know pretty much the distances I was getting going north and going south. I live kinda in a small valley and there are a ton of house so I get a ton of interference from my house. That’s why I’ve been looking for some kind of range extender. I always do better in 5.8gz so that’s the way I ordered the control antenna in 5.8gz. All my numbers will be at an altitude of 350ft. So with stock antennas to the south(the most congested direction) I usually got about 2800-2900ft. Same set up going north I got consistently 4300 ft. Before you tell me you get 13000 ft remember I’m in a hole basically and surrounded by trees. So far I only got to take a few trips with the control antenna. Two trips to the south, first trip I got 3450. Second trip 3500. I’ll be honest I was disappointed. I will say this. This thing looks so bad *** as long as I didn’t get less range I wouldn’t think about getting rid of it. Ok so I had one battery left and went to the north with it. To the north I got 5800ft and I didn’t lose signal but it was almost dark so I turned around. I was just happy to see that A. I didn’t break my controller and B. I did get a significant increase in range atleast one direction. I know this isn’t a ton of info but when I was shopping this is the kinda of numbers I was dying to know and couldn’t find them anywhere. Let me add a few things real quick. As I practice I’ll keep putting my results here. I’m sure things will improve. I rushed out to try it so although I already feel like it was worth what I paid I feel certain the numbers will get better. I haven’t even tried the whip antennas. As soon as I get home from work tomorrow I’ll be trying those out. And I have to add this about the company. They are pretty awesome. They have answered a ton of questions from me. And have always answered very quickly. Also, I told them my situation and they tried to tell me to get the powered version they sell. It’s called a switch. And I do intend to but I couldn’t spend that much right now and didn’t want to wait. I’ll pay a little more buying everything separate but I’m cool with that. I just wasn’t patient enough to wait. So if anyone actually cares about any of this hang tight and I’ll try to share my results as I get them. But so far for what I have in them I’m very happy with them and would recommend them to anyone. More to come...

I would be interested in what the 2.4 would have done. I appreciate your honesty, i am a newbie also to this technology and would not feel comfortable about tearing my controller apart. That being said mine is only 1 month old. I love my little Mavic Air, but i am looking at a 4w upgrade when the battery life gets there. Thanks for the post i truly enjoyed reading it.

 

[buttons276]

I would be interested in what the 2.4 would have done. I appreciate your honesty, i am a newbie also to this technology and would not feel comfortable about tearing my controller apart. That being said mine is only 1 month old. I love my little Mavic Air, but i am looking at a 4w upgrade when the battery life gets there. Thanks for the post i truly enjoyed reading it.

From everything I’ve been told and read you can get more distance with 2.4 if your in a great enviroment. I’m guessing that means flat and no houses. In my town I don’t know if it’s because it’s so hilly and so many trees, or if it’s all the houses with WiFi but when mine was stock I always got almost double the range in any situation with 5.8. When I ordered my antenna the guy from titan said he usually tells people to buy what they normally fly in. If you normally fly in 2.4 I’d get that. I will say this, the 5.8 stuff is more expensive. The control antenna was 10 bucks more for the 5.8. The switch panel which is there powered panel is 100 dollars more. I’ll be adding one of those in July.

 

[chazzm]

I’ve been wanting to get this antenna for a few weeks. I went back and forth with it. I looked around for peoples reviews. Some people seemed to love them. Some people said they were snake oil. Very few people answered the questions I had. I’m not a tech wiz but I know what I wanted to know when I was thinking about buying this. FYI in the next few months I plan on getting some other things they offer and I’ll put my thoughts in this thread if anyone is curious. If not I guess I’ll just be taking to myself but anyway.

I have to admit I’ve been tempted myself so by all means continue! LoL all I really want is to amplify my video and RC signals, I’ve read some really good reviews that being said there were some bad as well, nothing really bad enough to keep me from wanting the setup! I’m saving up for a kind of ‘ALL IN ONE’ Control (Amplified of course) that I could run my Mavic Pro, Phantom 4, and Phantom 4 Pro even if the antenna needed to be swapped between RC unites would be worth it!

 

[HoozierDroneDaddy]

I have several MPs and ended up purchasing the Titan Atlas for a single controller. While modding the RC, I pulled off the speaker module from the back of the panel, and now that controller is completely silent (double bonus!).

Where I live, in the suburbs, I get significant interference from trees (50-100 feet tall) in all directions and of course the WiFi from everyone's home units. My typical range, depending on the direction of travel, was usually 3,000 feet before the signal degraded and I would lose signal. On Litchi missions, this meant that the MP was out of connection for a significant portion of time if I flew out of range.

With the Titan Atlas, my workable range is now almost double. I tend to lose signal on the way out at roughly 5,800 feet and coming back (due to the location of the MP's antennas on the craft), I regain signal at 6,500 feet or more.

I travel a lot and take a MP with me to shoot lots of different locations. With the modded antenna, I can get a significant distance without a degradation of signal, especially without local interference. I can't tell the difference between with/without the Atlas, since I typically only bring one unit with me. Some trips I bring it and others I just bring a regular RC (the Atlas is quite bulky and adds significant weight and space when packing). I certainly get exceptional range when using the Atlas but who knows what my range would have been if using the stock RC. It seems quite significant to me but that just could be confirmation bias.

However, I can say unequivocally that it roughly doubled my range when flying a specific Litchi route that goes out of range in my congested and tree-laden suburban neighborhood (I fly it weekly for a long-term project). For me, it was well worth the investment.

Keep in mind, the Titan ATLAS is not a directional antenna, it is Omni Directional. It was not designed for distance but the give better coverage in an Urban or area with lots of trees and interference. You are getting more distance which is what you wanted, but it is also giving you more boosted signal for a secure connection to your craft. The Titan Cyclone is a Directional antenna and would be used for LONG distance flight. Based on what you have stated, I believe the Atlas is you best choice for your environment.

 

[buttons276]

I have to admit I’ve been tempted myself so by all means continue! LoL all I really want is to amplify my video and RC signals, I’ve read some really good reviews that being said there were some bad as well, nothing really bad enough to keep me from wanting the setup! I’m saving up for a kind of ‘ALL IN ONE’ Control (Amplified of course) that I could run my Mavic Pro, Phantom 4, and Phantom 4 Pro even if the antenna needed to be swapped between RC unites would be worth it!

The “ALL IN ONE” aspect is another big reason I wanted to try titans antennas over some of the others. You can basically buy one set up through them and swap it between your Mavic Air, Mavic Pro, and I’m almost positive with the phantom and aspire also. You would just have to buy extra comtroller mod kits from them that are in the 30 dollar range.

 

[buttons276]

I haven’t updated in a while just because I’ve been so busy at work. I got to fly around the neighborhood with my son some this morning. We used the whip antennas and I have to say they are almost identical to my stock set up. It does seem like I get a much clearer picture on my phone with the whips but since I can’t go back and forth to stock it’s hard to say that for sure. I did get their longest (14”) antennas and it is, how should I say this, it feels a little like over kill for flying around the house. With that in mind I went ahead and ordered their basic set of antennas Thursday and they are out for delivery right now. So I should have them around 3-4pm today. I don’t know how long they are. They list them at 5db. They sell three sets of whips. The 5, 7, and the 9db. The 9db is the 14” set I already have. So I’m eager to see how the 5db stacks up. I can’t wait until July to get the powered switch panel they sell. I would love to see how all the antennas do boosted. Anyway, when I get the antennas on today I’m going to take them for a flight around my neighborhood and I’ll let you guys know how they do.
That’s just another great thing I like about this company. You have options. A lot of people like the raptor antennas. And I hear they work great but when you install it it’s there. All the time. The titan antennas give you the option to kinda taylor the antenna set up to where your going to be flying. Honestly to me it’s just a really cool system they have come up with.

 

[Mellowamoya]

I have titan cyclone antenna,and find it work's very well for the flying that I do never had any problems,I see that they are bringing out an upgrade that can be fitted to use the switch with the cyclone, looking forward to more information from them on the release date.

 

[buttons276]

Man I finally got the 5db antennas. I opened them up and they were really short. Looked about like something that would be on a police radio. The are identical in style to the long ones I already had just much shorter. I really didn’t expect much out of them when I saw how short they were. I was completely wrong. Honestly you can get out almost just as far with these as the long ones. The long 9db antennas seem to give a better signal all the way out to max range but honestly these really pick up unbelievable. I flew out to 3000-3500 foot at an altitude of anywhere from 150-350ft and the never lost signal once. That alone is better than my stock antennas. And they are so short they are just easier to move around with. I love them. Bottom line is yes you can get put a little farther with the longer antennas. Anywhere from 500-800ft it seemed depending on the direction but I’m not always flying around at the edge of my range. I’m glad I got both but if I could only keep one and have to give up the other one I’d keep the shorter set. I can’t wait to try out off these antennas with the powered panel. The have one more set of whips they carry. It’s a 7db set that I’m assuming the length is between the two I have now. I’m probably going to order them too just to try them out.

 

[Mosalah]

@buttons276 Thank you very much for all that reporting. You are probably the first person to report anything about the control antenna and the whip antenna. I live in phoenix Arizona and wifi interference is killing my experience with the Mavic Air. I started looking into extenders and boosters and this is how i came across this thread. I was wondering all the extenders do as they are supposed to do which is give you more range and the control seems to do that without boosting so does the whip from your experience. i have a very simple question. during all that testing what was the Video transmission quality. did you stay 720p all the range. any lagging or chopping video feeds. this is really important to me because of what i use the drone for. Thank you again for all that working reporting.

 

[Turn11]

I somehow missed this thread. Here is a little of my experience.
My experience has been very positive I live up in Bullhead City a little bit Northwest of Phoenix I have some areas that are hilly to mountainous and other areas at 20 batteries on the mavic pro or the Maverick 2 Pro would not reach the foothills.
I the 5 DBA antenna's come with the Switch and I bought the 9 dB antennas. Boy howdy they can reach out. A lot of the times I fly with just the Omni antenna and the 9 dB whips because I want to just be able to reach out to my drone when I'm over a hilltop and down in a little Ravine taking a look around. Distance wise and over a rise I have not had any problems with video.

 

[Mosalah]

@Turn11 I ordered the titan control 2.4ghz and 5.8ghz and will see if the will imrove my video feed and range or not before i go boosted. Will be sharing my experience once i mod the RC.thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[FoxhallGH]

If you mention the weather @buttons276 one more time, we'll have to make you an honoury Englishman!