External aircraft 2.4ghz antennas

[yjander]

So last week I lost my drone overnight. Long story short, found my p3s the next day in the woods. I had a high speed impact with a tree and tore up my front two props, as well as ripped the entire gimble off. It also broke the vibration plate and ripped the two 2.4 ghz live view patch antenna wires out of the main board on the top of the gimble.

After a lot of searching I was unable to find replacement patch antennas so I decided to buy this thing off of Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00VHDXSSU/ref=psdcmw_3015438011_t1_B01KBU61S8

I have not flown it yet, but it looks alright. The antennas are kinda big and I hope it doesn't affect the flight characteristics of the bird. Here are some pics of the finished product.

Still waiting on the gimble mounting plate to hook everything up.

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[phantomgaz5]

I'm sure you wont notice any difference in flying. I would love to know if those antennas perform ok if not better than the standard patches. Can you post results after your first couple of flights? Cheers!

 

[PhantomPhrank]

3 days after getting my drone I hit a tree and got the same damage you describe. I did a similar mod with similar antennae and it worked just fine. I got out to 2250 ft before losing both video and control and did an RTH. This was in a residential area with a lot of radio interference. I can't speak to how well this works as per the stock patch antennae since I didn't have the opportunity to do a range test before crashing :-(
Since you've done the mod you might want to consider a pair of bazooka dipoles. The consensus on here is very good for those.

 

[WilliamM]

Here are mine:

 

[phantomgaz5]

So the wires come out from the gimbal? So you don't have to open bird up?


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[Y2KGTA]

following very interested

 

[WilliamM]

So the wires come out from the gimbal? So you don't have to open bird up?


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For the wifi 2.4 GHz, it's only the gimbal on the Standard that needs to be gotten to. If you mess with the 5.8 GHz antennas that's different.
See here if you look close:

 

[phantomgaz5]

Cheers thanks. Now googling dipoles [emoji106]


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[yjander]

Yea the wires come from the gimbal. You have to remove the little plastic covers. There are two small screws under on the bottom of the gimbal.

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[phantomgaz5]

Here are mine:
View attachment 73363

Hey did u make or buy those dipoles? If u purchased them could u post link. Thanks


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[WilliamM]

Hey did u make or buy those dipoles? If u purchased them could u post link. Thanks


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I hope those thinking about installing these realize they are directional, so the position that you end up installing them on your drone is critical. If you notice the way I choose to have the dipole install. It's with the end of the dipole being vertical so that the transmission radius will be 360 degrees on the compass. Causing the weakest transmission to be directly above or directly below my drone. As I never fly directly above my head, not sure why people do that, I fly on the horizontal.
Here you go, got them here.
2.4GHz Bazooka Dipoles

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[yjander]

I'm sure you wont notice any difference in flying. I would love to know if those antennas perform ok if not better than the standard patches. Can you post results after your first couple of flights? Cheers!

So i've flown it a couple of times now, and i don't notice a difference i flight characteristics, so thats good. As far as transmission, no less or no more than what was on there originally. I guess I will upgrade them to a dipole antenna, but spending 50 bucks on them seems very steep to me, so might try and make my own.

 

[yjander]

so i decided to make my own dipole antennas with the guidance and help of @Matts175 . I ordered this wire 12" RG316 RP-SMA Male to RP-SMA Male RF Pigtail Coax Jumper Cable; US Stock | eBay
and i am going to cut in half and follow a few tutorials i found on youtube and the internets...

I'll let you know how it works out. The omin's that are on there now are giving me pretty decent range in my 'hood. I got to 2000 feet the other day, however I do have argtek mod on the RC. I was using the 2 flat 7dbi patch antennas that came with argtek and the 6dbi patch antenna for the 5.8ghz control

Looking forward to seeing if i get any more range with these dipoles.