Upgrading antennas on Drone itself

[SuperPete]

This something that has been on my mind for years, since my first Inspire 1 back 4 years ago.
I do have some good knowledge and background in electronics and radio, so I kind of know what I am talking about, but hear me out.

I see post after post of controller antenna mods, right? Huge antennas, amps and all.
But what about drone it self, video feed back and communication from drone back to controller just as important, if you don't get that feed back your super monster antenna is worthless.
I believe and I am planing to prove that soon that if you put good antenna on the radio, say directional 8-10 dbi, no amps, and upgrade drone antennas to something like 5-6 dbi, now that balanced "talk" between drone and radio should take you as far as your battery will let you and some.
Lets hear what you have to say, but it is in works. I got parts I need, and I am starting to do some testing.

I am not bashing huge antennas and amps and all that, it's great stuff, if they do the job, that's awesome, what I am saying is, that if you can achieve same thing with less expense, and smaller foot print, why not...

I will post the video on my youtube channel and also here on the forum to share my findings.

My *DRONE PLAYLIST* link HERE

 

[Canuk]

I was thinking the same thing . A boosted remote is like a 25 watt 2way , talking to a walkie talkie . Both ends gettting improved should work out great . Keep us posted with all your testing .[emoji106][emoji106]

 

[fileophile]

You guys may want to check the Mavic Antenna Mods forum here. Beanbubba and others have made (and continue to make for the M2) several pretty definitive tests showing the most important distance gain is on the controller side. A directional antenna on the bird? Well, are you going to fly backwards all the time to keep that antenna pointed back to the controller? Not to mention all the added weight of amps and bigger antennas on the bird will cut your flight time. Folks are already getting distances with just the controller-side modifcations that far exceed the battery of the drone, even with a few more larger storage batteries strapped on to it.

Alot of good data already is present, but if you want to try to re-invent the wheel , go for it.

 

[SuperPete]

I would never put directional on the drone it self, never sad that.
Open sight you can exceed battery distance even with no amps added to the remote, you are correct. I almost do that now with my stock on stock antennas remote/drone with no issue.
Yes, I seen guys going farther then far with just remote mods, but that remote, ohh boy, that remote, amps, huge antenna, extra batts, what a expense and hassle.
What if I can do all that cheaper, less foot print, no amps, and smaller antenna that you can pack away easy?
That's the point. I was not saying it's not done, or was not done. I am saying this can be done with less expense and smaller foot print.
Can you link post you are talking about, lots of them going on here, hard to track

Thank you

 

[AzBill]

My only thought is the antennas are in the front legs, so that might present a challenge, but if they are 1/4 wave now, it would not be hard to make one with more gain

 

[Rnl]

Beanbubba has done different ant. On drone (several different kinds on mavic1 )

 

[bibibana]

is there any data on antena omni on drone it self? 3dB, or? Can we upgrade it with access point antena 5 dB or 7dB.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

I like it! Interested. The telemetry back is always the weakest link.

 

[RadioFlyerMan]

A

I would never put directional on the drone it self, never sad that.
Open sight you can exceed battery distance even with no amps added to the remote, you are correct. I almost do that now with my stock on stock antennas remote/drone with no issue.
Yes, I seen guys going farther then far with just remote mods, but that remote, ohh boy, that remote, amps, huge antenna, extra batts, what a expense and hassle.
What if I can do all that cheaper, less foot print, no amps, and smaller antenna that you can pack away easy?
That's the point. I was not saying it's not done, or was not done. I am saying this can be done with less expense and smaller foot print.
Can you link post you are talking about, lots of them going on here, hard to track

Thank you

Are the antennas on the AC act with the same functionality as the RC? Meaning one is a diversity antenna?

 

[punkkone]

As I've talked about in other threads, and done out of necessity because of core board damage, is something that might be of interest. There are multiplexers present on the core board to combine the RF output from the wifi board and core board RF. If anyone has access to a radio lab it would be pretty interesting to see what bypassing these diplexers/multiplexers and cutting off the wifi board actually does to the signal. In theory (without knowing the exact specs of the multiplexers) this could give as much as 1dB or possibly even greater gain towards the aircraft antennas..
I do have access to a radio lab, and spectrum analyzers that should cover both 2.4 and 5.8GHz spectrum, but I don't have access to a Mavic that is not modified and thus nothing to compare to

 

[netsonic]

What no one is talking about and it's relevant:
If someone does want to amplify the drone with a "small amplifier" like this one (5.5 x3 cm) ..

Where do you take the power for it, as this amp consumes 435 mah @9V in ideal conditions. On a small drone (maybe a DC convertor is needed) this translates to flight time loss due to additional consumption + extra payload. How far could one get?

 

[punkkone]

What no one is talking about and it's relevant:
If someone does want to amplify the drone with a "small amplifier" like this one (5.5 x3 cm) ..

Where do you take the power for it, as this amp consumes 435 mah @9V in ideal conditions. On a small drone (maybe a DC convertor is needed) this translates to flight time loss due to additional consumption + extra payload. How far could one get?

Well you could just tap the battery output on the mavic and add a ~5 Ohm resistor?

 

[mrreddog]

This looks to be same or similar to the 4 watt Dove or Dragon Amp...

 

[netsonic]

Well you could just tap the battery output on the mavic and add a ~5 Ohm resistor?

Well indeed you could but there are other cave eats. Drone power output needs to be reduced too below. X mw, etc. Can be done but it's not easy or straight forward.

 

[punkkone]

Well indeed you could but there are other cave eats. Drone power output needs to be reduced too below. X mw, etc. Can be done but it's not easy or straight forward.

Hmm, I don't quite follow? I you tap the output before logic board the system wouldn't even know it had 4w additional load, and surely there is more than enough headroom for that from the battery..? Or ah, you mean the output from the core board? That shouldn't be very hard if you have a hot air soldering station Just peek under the RF shield, it's not soldered on there, you'll find that it wouldn't be too hard to connect directly to the RF chipsets output. Another alternative is using attenuators after the signal is amped. Should work good enough, done it with wifi stuff with decent results.