Antenna upgrade

[niro]

Hi

I saw some videos for upgrading the controller 5.8ghz antenna of the FC40, now my FC40 cannot get so high altitude. At his max range he will "come home" and auto land..

To extend the range, i want to add a 14 dbi 5.8 mushroom antenna to the controller...

Any experience? and will it improve a lot???

Thanks guys

 

[tmartin62]

The good thing about that mod is, you can try a lot of different antennas by only screwing them on.

In theory a 14 dbi antenna would be quite an improvement and a circular polarized will help distance and altitude.

That said, I have not read about anyone trying it yet.

I have not done that mod to mine but I probably will at some point.

 

[scooterbuk]

Just ordered the parts to do the mod will post up my findings

 

[tmartin62]

Excellent! Please do. Good luck with it.

 

[darwin-t]

With an omnidirectional antenna (like the stock antenna), the signal is weakest off the top of the antenna. So if you fly it high, you need to tilt the transmitter or antenna so the side of the antenna is facing the quad.

With a directional antenna, you always need to point the antenna at your quad. They have a narrower beam or whatever you want to call it. They basically focus the signal in a smaller area, which is what gives them the increased performance

 

[niro]

Sounds good! I will order the part and go ahead with the mod!

 

[scooterbuk]

I have a few wifi antennas kicking about, anyone know what would be the best to use?

 

[scooterbuk]

Finally got round yo doing this mod

Will update after I have tested a few antennas

 

[tmartin62]

Cool! It looks good. Have you tried it out yet?

 

[scooterbuk]

Used it with a tplink antenna but not pushed it to its full range, waiting on a flytrex so I can record better data, ordered a few different antennas to test as well

 

[biomedchad]

any updates on the antennas and range testing?

 

[scooterbuk]

Been to busy at work but will post up findings soon as

 

[Ohary]

I'm not sure it's related or not, but from experience trying to pull in distant television signals in the UHF range (0.3-3.0 GHz range) I had best results with flat panel bow tie and yagi type antennas. The problem with these types of antennas is they are very directions (you need to have them facing the source) otherwise the reception drops off significantly.

 

[sohail99]

I modified my remote so that now it can take different antennas and I'll be using the directional 11dBi Panel antenna.

Only potential problem with that, may be the constant adjustment of the antenna orientation with respect to the phantom.

 

[BlackOpsTeamster]

Just ordered the parts to do the mod will post up my findings

What are the parts and how is the antenna base attached to the transmitter?
TIA
BOT

 

[sohail99]

Here is a video tutorial that you can use as reference - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BfMFmRiWM4

Parts needed are a mini IPX/u.fl to RP-SMA connector (Approx 6inches long) and a 5.8Ghz RP-SMA antenna of your choice.
It would be a good idea to have clear silicon adhesive to seal the connectors after connecting it to the board.