chip.robie
 lvl.1
United States
Offline
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"As i am P3S owner (in australia) too, i find that i am only getting about 150mtrs. It "feels" like it should be greater and your post has confirmed this for me."
I wouldn't use my post as confirmation at all. I was losing flight control signal at 150-200 FEET. YOu are reporting 150M which is about 450 feet. I think in the US the software has a flight ceiling of about 400 feet. Sounds to me your bird is performing a little above US OEM specifications. Maybe that "feeling" is just a bug to mod it?
This mod requires a little bit of thought beyond instruction lists. You need understanding. You need to invest effort. I'll help, but you have to do due diligence as well. You need understanding with the instructions. You set out with instructions alone and no understanding, you are going to screw up and be unhappy and I won't be there to fix it. I will not be the Cliff Notes author--you gotta understand if you look to me for help.
"Question 1: How did you go about opening the controller nicely? When i attempted to open mine whilst reading this article, i wasnt able to detatch the USB Charger (at the bottom) point from the case and the cables were glued on the other side of the controller - making it very tight to open? Was there a trick you did to get this disconnected / opened?"
My posts said all the work was not shown. Did that for a reason. I watched YouTube videos last week to learn how to open the clamshell on P2Vision+ controllers. Do your YouTube homework on opening P2Vision+ cases (yes, I know you have P3S) as well as watching the ITELITE video for the DBS-01 mod. I followed their advice, you do the same--if you break or disconnect something, it's on you, not me. Just go careful and don't force anything. Yes, the clamshell halves seem to come apart better after you work out the antenna loop at top. I won't waste my breath typing about the videos, just find them and watch them.
"Question 2: What about the OEM antenna? When looking at removing this (albeit the case was still relatively together due to the above,) it appears not to be separated in half. the moulding appears to be solid? Again any tricks? "
Again, watch the videos i just described above. I found a couple that specifically show and discuss in detail exactly what you asked, including how to work the clamshell halves apart at the antenna loop up top. It won't help you for me to type about the videos. Find and watch. Part of your investment in what you are doing. The tricks are revealed in the videos.
"Question 3: Is it possible for you to upload higher resolution photos of the internals and possibly label the points you are discussing rather than doing "7 oclock" / "5 oclock" references? Just to make it clearer again?"
Nope! I don't work for DJI or this forum. This stuff comes out of my personal time, which I value. If you're not able to look at the pictures and my reference points and identify the components, screw your case shut and stop now. The circuit board inside doesn't have labels and callouts, bubba. If you can't work it out given my information, this is not for you. If you can't manage the intellectual investment to pore around those pics and find the described component, modding really is not going to be your thing. You have to invest your own time and attention to gain competency.
"Question 4: Can you please provide a list of items that you purchased? Whilst i appreciate i may not be able to get them in australia, if you can atleast list them i can try source them from various places. "
You do realize, that your question says that you are too lazy to read the previous content I posted, where I in fact posted numerous times exactly what I purchased, but you want me to type it all up nicely for you? That is called spoon feeding. It's rude to ask for that, but I'll grant you a one-time exception because we are both new guys, I'm trying to be nice, but from here on you do your own reading and collation.
Amazon delivers to Australia. Go to Amazon and search on "UFL to RP-SMA 20 cm". They often come in sets of two. You'll need one to do the 5.8 antenna, two more if you do the 2.4 FPV antennas. Total of 3. Order 2 sets and keep a spare. That's your one free spoon feeding.
"Appreciate it greatly, im going to do some more testing this weekend in an open park to get some baseline figures and it owuld be great to compare your new figures vs my OEM ones so people can see what they should expect."
Bad news, I'm afraid. I'm not out for distance, I'm out to fix a broken antenna lead, that I may have self-inflicted by opening the controller clamshell. I've done one test flight to verify the new 5.8 connection works--and it does. I still haven't been as high as you have, before cracking your case open. I'm not out to push limits so don't look to me to provide test data on range extremes.
The whole point of the pigtail mod isn't to go crazy distances. That's why you shouldn't go off with a list to do some mod without understanding of exactly what's going on. The pigtail mod provides a RP-SMA connector set outside the case that you can use to attach pretty much an infinite combination of antennas across 2.4 and 5.8 GHz spectra, either linear or circular polarity, whip or panel, omnidirectional or directional. All the pigtail mod does is give you a plug-in point. Then you supply antennas or go buy a panel kit from ITE or FPVLR who did the design and R&D work for you.
Once you get your SMA connectors on your box, then what do you do next, especially if you don't really know what you just did? Next you have to do antenna school, and YOU have to do the learning. That's why Cliff Notes answers without understanding are BAD for you, even if it seems easier and shortcutty to let others do the work. You gotta invest too. If you are going to invest hundreds in helical and hemispherical RHCP and LHCP antennas, you either need to understand design and behavior to do your own designs, or buy from someone who sells their researched work, like ITE and FPVLR. You follow lists blindly and you soon will be starting your own "My Modded Phantom 3S Had A Flyaway And I Don't Know Why" thread. For reals, bubba.
I put matching frequency linear omnidirectional antennas with 8 db gain on my SMAs for initial test. I don't know that my test antenna choices would make you happy at all. The do me, but I'm not you.
I can't prove that I can even match the OEM performance that you complained about yet with my 8 db gain antennas. I don't think we both want the same thing, and if we have different goals, you'd be better of with knowledge sufficient to plot your own course.
Good luck and good flying--and don't be afraid to learn. THe forum can explain things, but it can't understand things for you.
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lvl.4
Second Officer
First Officer
lvl.2
It takes the same connectors that you are currently going to be using with your other mods and is fairly easy to locate in the phantom with the top removed. 
