Bugs3 Antenna Mod Part 1

[@RCEscape]

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[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

Good test of the tx antenna mod Pete

[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

Lol if you want to see terrible range on my replacement Bugs 8 red canopy one.. Check out my video.. About 50 or so metres it dropped

[@RCEscape]

Thanks Dave!! Gonna do two runs with just the 5db antenna alone and with the 2watt booster tomorrow!! Hoping it will be better distance :)

[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

RC Escape nice.. Look forward to watching the improvement.. I suck at soldering but wouldn't mind doing that mod also

[@RonaldBrown59]

PerthWestOZ RC Isn’ that the mod Hendro did to his BUGS 3 when he took it out to almost 1000 meters? I know he had a couple of large antennas coming out of his TX.

[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

Yes I believe so, think he used a 5dbi antenna for the tx and a patch antenna for fpv signal though not sure..think he got 700m flight control distance from memory :)

[@davidrivero7943]

I'm starting to Fly the Bugs3 again. All 18 of them. Kinda forgotten what a Fun Flyer they are but, helis are Fun too. lol

[@RCEscape]

😲 All 18 of 'em? 😲

[@davidrivero7943]

@@RCEscape 2 in every color & then there's 5 Drocon Blue ones back when the price was so low I just had to .

[@minkorrh]

I know this is an old vid, but the antenna inside the transmitter is aligned horizontally for a reason. The 'waves' radiate perpendicularly from the antenna itself, so horizontal alignment will have more chance of reaching the target. Lets say you have the antenna poking out like you do, and you're holding the transmitter at a 90 degree angle from your waist. Essentially you're transmitting signal straight into the air above you and straight down to the ground. That's why antennas that protrude from radios are usually turned horizontally. It's the 'side' of the antenna that needs to point to the target. I could be wrong but that's how I understand it. Awesome vid as usual. Now I'm off to source parts to mod mine the same!

[@gregorydahl]

Battery going dead lowers distance too

[@modshobs1014]

Its definitely worth the pigtail and diopole upgrade if you're getting 357 meters stock and your wifi booster should push you out to a 1000 meters.

[@RCEscape]

I just got done with the mod :) Man...that thing gets hot!! Hopefully 1k!!! I'll be good with a solid 600-700 :) We shall find out tomorrow!!! Thanks for tuning in man :)

[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

well done Pete, if possible can you please do a run down of how the mod is done, with the booster? for newbies to modding antennas like myself LOL.. if so that would be great..have a great flight test tomorrow :) hope you get over double the range

[@vashon100]

This is like a replay of my experiments; pulling out the antenna, then I tried various 5db and 6 dB antennas, and again not much improvement. Thus ending up with 2W (claimed) booster and adequate results. Glad I shared my info in the comments last vid about my booster so you could try it too.

[@RCEscape]

Yeah, I got this booster months ago but now I found a use for it :) At first, I was gonna put it on my rc car and go fpv long range and I will do that too since all it needs is a pigtail prepped and just move the booster from here to there :) So, all you need is one booster and a bunch of pigtails!!! what was your max distance?

[@PERTHWESTOZRC]

Excellent news :)

[@Hugeroost]

Hey mate that little stubby antenna on the Bugs, got a link to it, all I see are long ones, thanks

[@awdturbo4]

yep... there has to be something wrong with a few bugs 3 and this range issue. I did a few range test today with mine in a residential area (on purpose) with lots of wifi and interference. I did it 2 different ways: 1- I left the transmitter in my driveway and started walking with the quad. 2- I left the quad in the driveway and walked away with the transmitter. according to google earth, I got 1178 feet (359 meters) and no "beep" from the transmitter. I even tried to cover the antenna with my body... no issues at all. I went all the way to the end of the street so I had to turn back. When I did the "antenna mod" just pulling the antenna out of the transmitter... I did it from the first day that I got the quad, before even flying it for the first time. So I can't say if there was a difference or compare it to stock. Also... if you see the antenna and the way I hold the transmitter, it is 100% in vertical position. By the way, my street is not straight, here is a picture... i773.photobucket.com/albums/yy18/On2_On4/street_zpsqjvcmuiw.jpg

[@RCEscape]

Oh wow!! Is that a golf course? Dang!! Yeah, in this video I'm getting all kinds of inconsistency! Maybe mine is one of those iffy ones....

[@awdturbo4]

Yes... been living here for the past 27 years :-)

[@RCEscape]

I did some runs today with the signal booster and found out the signal booster sucks!!! It is worse than stock!! checked the connections and they have faulty solder joints....

[@awdturbo4]

wow really? damn! I don't know exactly what he did, but there is a video of a guy using one of those 2w boosters on an H8 mini... and he took that little sucker all the way to the clouds.

[@RCEscape]

lol!! it is a tricky area for soldering and looks like the middle signal wire connection is not touching the pad at all...I'll try to re solder and see if that works out :)

[@3OYKAS]

I have a 10dbi antenna on my remote and when I fly by it self it goes no problem just over 300m after that I cannot see it at all. When I put the FPV camera there are times where I get 10 100-150 m beeping...it is strange because it is not always at the same place or distance and I would love to fly FPV further

[@RCEscape]

exactly what I was experiencing with inconsistent distance beeping and at times no beeping at that run of 357 meters but beeping at little over 100 meters...

[@RCEscape]

I just want a solid 6-700 meters without beeping so when I fly fpv, I don't have to worry :)

[@3OYKAS]

It is strange with the signals and I do not understand it,but all I can tell you is that you made me buy more things today...I have bought the booster and all I have to do is wait for it to come so I can install it. It should be here sometime over a month, so I hope you get yours faster and I would like to see what happens. Do me a favour stop making this youtube movies you are empting my pockets...hahaha

[@RCEscape]

lol :)

[@birdman316]

nice flight bro! hope that mod helps you into the 500-600m range or better....

[@RCEscape]

thanks man :) I hope so too!!!

[@angelxd41]

Antenna wifi just only send signal in one way but If think change antenna with a omni antenna. It will send full range signal.

[@didactylos4diddy474]

You'll probably do even better if you mod or even just reposition the Rx aerial in the bugs. Stock it gets quite a good range for what it is flying outwards but loses signal when you turn back to home or if you fly at certain angles to the tx. I suspect that will be repeated (at a more distant point) whatever tx mods you make. The 6/8 suffers from a similar problem because of the location of the aerials. Good work though and interesting to watch :)

[@RCEscape]

I hope I do and a dry run is indicating that I will and you are right about when it turns around and starts to beep!!

[@Mikey9618-x9q]

Could I splice both 25mw fpv camera and light that’s on the bugs together on one connection and plug into the spot we’re the light goes? And I’m using the bugs 3 mini

[@RCEscape]

the power source for the light is 5v so you can power up a vtx and a camera that uses 5v.

[@Mikey9618-x9q]

Ok thanks I’ll give it a shot 🙏

[@Taematoe]

I've heard cell phones can effect range. Maybe try a parabolic dish on the transmitter? Is the antenna on the Bugs running down the leg?

[@RCEscape]

I've added a 2watt booster to the remote and it is awesome!!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/aqXXfYVjYrmWmtU

[@terryvallette3022]

oh thank you, didn't know bugs 3 had this issue. so I will be getting a upgrade for my transmitter. thanks

[@RonaldBrown59]

I never felt like I was getting the promised 300 meter range with the BUGS 3. But since it’s a fully manual quad I don’t think it was intended to be a long ranger flyer. But that being said I’m very interested to how your latest mod works.

[@RCEscape]

I'll test it out tomorrow :)

[@DRTOLLZ]

Today I experienced weird drop outs around 200 meters that I hadn't got before. So I did this antenna mod. Interested to see if it helps some. But I'm wondering if mounting the bugs antenna vertically rather than tucked under the body might help with the range? This same approach worked well for my camera antenna which gave me longer clearer FPV range. What do you think? I've yet to see anyone mount the bugs antenna straight up or down. They usually just keep it flat.

[@Dod01]

Cool mod Pete :)

[@RCEscape]

thanks man :)

[@rogercligg4531]

well, yer transmitter may be on the low setting.

[@RCEscape]

how do you switch it to high settings?

[@SirBeauJangles]

Your antenna's pointing in exactly the wrong direction for horizontal max distance. Antennas like this are probably quarter-wave items. Imagine your typical CB whip antenna on a mag mount on your car. You don't point the antenna at the other guy's radio, you point the antenna upwards. That gives max transmit in a radius around the centre of the antenna's location. The max angle of radiation is at right angles to the plane of the whip, not along its axis. The presence of large metal objects like vehicles can affect very low power transmissions in unpredictable ways - try to get as far away from your car - or indeed other large metallic stuff - as practically possible. Trees too can attenuate weak signals markedly. The bugs3 has its antenna clipped to the chassis pointing directly backwards. If flying directly above the transmitter this is absolutely fine - but for horizontal range it's as bad as it gets.. particularly if the bird is facing away from the user. To get the max transmit efficiency (without changing components), try unclipping it and enter its base into the hole that the feed coax comes from the main board. Pad it out with tape so it's not going to fall out during flight. It should now be pointing downwards to the ground during flight. If experiments show favourably you can later secure with hot glue if desired. But you'll need to keep the high legs fitted so the whip doesn't hit the deck on landings. Inside the RC unit, disengage the stock antenna from its factory location. Take off the dummy stub and bore a hole in its upper surface. Feed the stock antenna through this as close to vertical as possible when it's all reassembled. Secure with a circle of hot glue, or perhaps just a minimal blob or even some tape temporarily so you can experiment with the result before committing finally. If you do hot glue it in place you'll need to handle the RC unit more carefully after as the antenna's now exposed and rigidly mounted to the shell, will bend or break more easily that way. For me, this is no problem as I'm careful with all my stuff anyway. The point of all this is to ensure the antennas are running approximately parallel with each other during flight. That should max out the available TX power received by the bugs, so telemetry should be as efficient as possible over as great a distance as possible. Please note this is to ensure max horizontal distance with the handset held roughly horizontal. Not to ensure maximum flight altitude. If you punch the bird way too high directly above, you'll be replicating the original antenna orientation and I'd expect signal dropout earlier than with the stock set up. Should not matter since 400 feet is the max allowable under CAA and FCC rules for drone operators. As an added comment, radio transmissions are strange things, and when using minimal power in crude equipment like these items are fitted with even small deviations from perfect can have marked effects on transmit/receive efficiency. Characteristics of the ground over which you're working often affects this, so can the presence of frequencies in use by other services that are reasonably similar in wavelength to the 2.4ghz of wifi connections. That's why it's a bad idea to run wifi cameras on quads at long distances - as well as possible signal breakup of your imagery you can get control degraded or cut off by adjacent frequency breakthrough. Close up is probably fine, but stretch the distance as is happening here then problems as above should be expected. Compared to the sorry tragedies of antennas fitted to the Syma X5 and especially the X8, the Bugs' antennas are way superior. Those in the Symas are absolute abortions of things, just wire stubs often crammed in any old how depending on how the assembly worker was feeling that day. Those birds respond well to this sort of mod as well, although the exact nature of how to achieve parallel antennas is arrived at differently the result is also worthwhile.

[@DRTOLLZ]

Ian Gourlay wow fabulous description! I have similar range issues with the mjx FPV c5820 camera. The dipole antenna that comes with it just comes out of the hole under the esc. When I mounted it flat on the bugs I maybe got 150 meters if I was lucky. I recently mounted it vertically upwards hoping that might help my range. I use a circular antenna on my VR goggles. Do you think mounting the camera antenna vertically will help as you claim for the bugs antenna? I've yet to test it out.

[@SirBeauJangles]

I don't know anything really about the RX characteristics of the "circular" antenna you mention, sorry. I'm a radio amateur which is how come I have a little bit of insight to antenna functions; but none of my rigs and none of my own built antennas share the format of that particular sort. Isn't that camera operating at 5.8ghz? That's more than twice as high a freq. as the standard 2.4ghz. Gigahertz band transmissions are subject to fairly dramatic penetration loss as the frequency gets higher, the wavelength getting proportionally shorter. 5.8ghz, given similar transmit power and antenna quality/efficiency, can certainly not match that of 2.4ghz by its very nature. I think your answer is to keep it closer. Or ensure that the antennas used are, as above, well matched. In general try to have your antennas parallel to each other, irrespective of point up or down, a mix of up/down is not a mismatch. If the TX power was a little more then dropout issues would most likely more or less disappear but unless you can redesign/uprate the transmitter sections at either end then you'll need to make do with stock components - which is pretty much what my original post was meant to assist with. These little things are infinitely weaker than any transmitter I have for voice comms, I don't know the rated output but would guess it's probably very low figure microwatts tops. Might be less, given the very short range achievable. That's why antenna efficiency is important, there's absolutely no power to waste in bad installations - and the factory installs are more to do with longevity and convenience than efficiency. Since then I tried an alternative positioning of the Bugs' aircraft antenna. There is enough coax feed to the little whip so you can position it inside the concave shape of the nearside front landing leg, mine's held in place with two decent blobs of blue tack anchoring it firmly in place. Works very nicely, total reliability within distances I can see the bird and I never let it get outside that rough distance. This is better than my initial suggestion of entering its base into the chassis hole as above. If you don't use the high legs then this option's not available. For me outright performance is of far less interest than flight reliability/stability so the high legs will remain on mine But even so the standard Bugs' set up unmodified is infinitely better than any Syma I've yet seen, by toy quad standards it's almost rolls royce quality!

[@minkorrh]

LOL I just commented and said the same although my understanding is a little more rudimentary. ^^^ What he said! A question for you Mr. Gourlay, ....as the FPV systems in quads generally run on amateur radio frequencies, is there any one quad channel that may be interfering less? I don't really want to crap on someone elses hobby while enjoying mine. Here in Canada I think there is a bit of push to become Ham licensed so you can 'legally operate' the vtx on those frequencies, but in my mind licensing is so the govt can have a way to keep tabs on the content you broadcast and how the bandwidth is used. With the FPV hobby nobody is really trying to broadcast anything to any third party so to me it's more a concern of not interfering with radio amateurs. Are these transmitters as they approach 800mw in any way interfering? As a Ham, what say you?

[@zumassenrose6693]

Are you mod 3dbi antenns to your drone

[@RCEscape]

It is actually a fpv mod :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXvWfGl3ed-Zo6s

[@jandomingo9806]

Whats that antenna on the back of the bugs?

[@RCEscape]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXvWfGl3ed-Zo6s

[@late2thegatefpvdfreeman319]

Just a 16 Gage wire as far as I can tell

[@late2thegatefpvdfreeman319]

I'm having trouble. I did a antenna mod on bugs3 transmitter. And when I stripped the cable into 2 wires. All good. But I can't tell what wire goes where. The old antenna wire camera off when I stripped the glue.where do I put each wire. Does it matter??

[@georgeaura]

Did you antenna mod the bugs 3 itself or does it come with the antenna at the back?

[@RCEscape]

Yes, it was a mod :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXvWfGl3ed-Zo6s

[@rigo4080]

I've same quad ,the range,is sooooo bad,,

[@HaveFaithInGod]

Looks like you're trying to transmit through all the bulk of your car maybe? Think too that your FPV set up is interferring some how. Remove it and see if it'll go past the alert area you hit.

[@acesonthego2287]

there got to be something interfering with your frequency, still nice video brother like#30

[@RCEscape]

Yeah, I'm getting the good and the bad whenever it feels like it...

[@late2thegatefpvdfreeman319]

ACES on the Go juju

[@gdhall5311]

If you can 357 meters that is better than not doing the mod, wouldn't you agree? Nice video Pete.

[@RCEscape]

Yeah, but it was not consistent and it did fall victim at the same distance as the non modded run the day before. Hopefully with the booster it will go further :)