I have had some issues with the DJI Phantom 3 Pro dropping the video feed to the ‘monitor’ ie, my phone.
It is very very very very very very very very disconcerting when it drops as all the data goes with it (things like battery voltage, flight time remaining and so on). Sure, you just look up and keep flying from where it is, but eh, it sure would be nice if it hung about a bit more than both a few minutes and a few feet.
Did some reading and everyone agrees, the bulk of the issue is Android.
DJI just have not given the Android version of the app as much love as iOS.
I could not justify or afford to buy a dedicated iOS device just to fly, so after talking to Freddy, she agreed to let me use her iPad whenever I needed. (It’s not like I make a living from flying and so don’t fly that often, and usually its when I drive, and she is usually still asleep at those times).
We did some test flights and sure enough, the app itself was more stable, it did not crash, but the video did break up in the usual digital green distortion.
Back to the Internet, seems the antennas DJI use are, shall we say, less than optimal.
So, I jumped on Amazon and made my selection.
The DJI ones are hard wired in, so the upgrade consists of two parts, pulling out the original and replacing the coax cable with a lower loss version and a threaded mount to screw new/different antennas on.
It was a bit of tight fit, and we had to pad a few washers around the antenna mount point as the previous drone owner had damaged the case around the antenna base when he closed the case lid on them at some stage.
But, bottom line, I was able to get the new mount in nice and firm and gripping onto enough of the case to be solid.
The nice thing about having a standard mount (RPA) is that I can run a few different antenna types.
Here we have a tall omni directional and a small square patch directional antenna.
The patch will have more gain, distance, but requires that I turn and always point the remote at the drone.
Depending on the flight requirements, this may or may not be a big deal.
Honestly, I suspect that most of the time, I will run the tall rabbit ears.
Of course I did a few before and after test flights. Before the drone would get to about 100 feet and the video would break up.
After, with the long omni’s, I went to my legal limit of 400 feet and the video feed was rock solid. So, I’m going to call that a win and stop messing with the tech and just fly more.
