Last night I installed the Itelite DBS antenna on my Phantom 2 Vision+. I ran into only a couple of snags. I had decided to keep the original range extender antennas in place and work around them. My mistake was that when I put the circuit board back in, the black rubber light barrier got pushed down in front of the clear plastic light emitters on the case. When I had everything hooked up and turned it on, the lights never illuminated making me think I had somehow shorted or damaged the device. Some amount of perspiration later I had it open again and removed the obstruction. Luckily I resisted the urge to turn it on without the antennas connected even when I thought it was broken. The other issue I ran into is that I failed to fully tighten the new connectors on the extender and when I tried to tighten the cables with a small wrench the connector (and cable inside) rotated. I managed to catch it before doing any damage.

Today I took out my Phantom 2 Vision+ for a test flight and I am very pleased to say their antenna worked exactly as they had promised (and demonstrated) it would. I have had no issues at all with directionality. I tried turning away from the drone when it was about 100 feet away and it did not lose signal (which is something I had worried about). I easily doubled my previous range but did not push it any further on the first flight. I managed 4000 feet which I think is really good.

I was going to ask Itelite DBS about a better way to mount the antenna when I noticed an image on the Itelite web site of the bracket between the two connectors on the range extender. I wondered “how the heck did he do that?” because I knew the mounting post was in the way of the bracket. Then I noticed the slot they had cut out of the bottom of the bracket and then quickly learned what that wing nut is for. They should make it a bit more obvious on their site that for permanent mounts snapping the bracket around the range extender makes the antenna quite rigid. Just loosen the wing nut, squeeze the clamp down and tighten it again for a snug fit.

All in all I am very pleased with the Itelite DBS and will happily recommend it to other Phantom owners. Since the Phantom 2 is getting a bit long in the tooth, now is the perfect time to have some fun modding it if you are planning to upgrade.

http://itelite.net/drone/

-Mark Granger

Good job, enjoy, I can fly out to 2,225 ft without loosing control or video. Won't fly beyond that as ii loose visual and have to initiate fail safe to get her back or at least use my home lock. Great antenna. I know she will go further and I could use the FPV but FAA says no higher than 400 ft. And maintain visual contact.  Registration starts Dec. 21.

Hi Mark, I have been thinking about getting the gear you have fitted, and after reading you post I have had my mind made up to go ahead and do it.  Thanks for posting your comments and experiences they helped a lot.  Regards  Ian.

I performed this mod last summer and have had no problems, distances are significantly further, just be extremely careful when doing the mod in the RC and wifi extender as the pins in the RC can be easily cut from the circuit board if not cut around very delicately...get yourself a good x-acto knife if you do not already have one and good success with it! The supplied bracket for mounting the antenna is a wonky....

That is a really good antenna and mod. The Itelite antenna does triple you distance and plus some... Good antenna!

I got one for mine last spring for my P2V. Ive had to over 6000 ft @400 or less height over the lake. Now that the stupid FAA rules are in effect, im sure some people (including me) will be harassed by police. I have a feeling that the people selling antenna kits are going to loose sales in the USA. My P3P will fly the same distance stock out of the box.

I was really hard on this antenna when it first came out, but I have had mine for about six months and get some pretty good distances as well.  I try to pull back at 3K, but I am pretty sure it would go out further.

I got this kit for safety reasons. I can see my drone 3000 feet away no problem however past 2000 feet it would start to lose signal randomly (this is a PV2+ not a P3). As long as I have good control over the drone, I can be very safe about how I operate it. For me this mod is not actually about adding a huge amount of range (although it can clearly do that) it is about adding flight control confidence at medium range. At 4000 feet, the drone does turn into a dot and is very hard to see against the sky however it is "line of sight" and I can bring it home again safely if that happens. Where I like to fly there are no people or structures to run into anyway so "safety" is really for the drone itself.