Devo 8s range issues, feedback needed

Hi all

I have a devo 8s with deviation 4.0.1 and i absolutely love deviation and the 8s.
The problem i'm having is the range i get (or don't get actually), I fly quads alot and never had a problem with my mini quads at all but lately I've started to fly planes f27 Stryker and Flyzone Hadron.
These planes are really fast and can go pretty far out really quick, when i'm out flying the failsafe kicks in very often (flying far out but still LOS) it starts twitching and going in and out of failsafe. I've had some crashes that is related to this so therefore i decided to do a range test with all my receivers.

I have 3 rx802 receivers and rangetested them all. I set the power on my 8s to 100uW, and after 6-7 meters the failsafe started to kick in and after 7-8 meters there was total signal loss. Is this normal?, I've heard of other devo people that they got atleast 30 meters at 100uW before it cut out.
Could i have a faulty rf-module? or is this range normal for 100uW power?.
So i guess this is my first question if this is normal on a 8s radio?

Now if it ends up being normal with this bad range on my 8s i would like to do something to get better range, since i like deviation and the 8s i wanna keep it but was thinking of maybe buying a Frsky rf module and installing it and use only frsky receivers in the future, would that work with deviation?
My goal is to get a range of approx 1.2 - 1.5km atleast, I do have a Dragonlink module but the receivers are really expensive and i wanna be able to use the 2.4ghz on non longrange fpv planes.

Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated.

Best regards
Alex

I found this diy frsky
If u look at specs it says it has extended range 1.5 - 2.5 km with 60mW output power.
Would this work?

I forgot to say in my post that i had aready done that, everything looks good,
I even took out the rf-module from the radio and inspected the pigtails in both ends and the sma connector where u screw the antenna on.

A couple of weeks ago i ordered a CC2500/XL2500 module from china since i wanted to add frsky receivers. That specific module had 20dBm output power and an estimated range of 1500 meters. Now i'm thinking since i can't find any problrms with my devo rf-module i might switch out my main module to the CC2500 and make a sma extension wire with antenna connector and upgrade the main antenna i might be able to squeeze out 1.2 - 1.5km range? (that's what i'm hoping to get, still if i get 1.2km that's still double the range i have today.

I know the FrSky protocol is pretty new in deviation but what do u guys think? would u trust ur foamy planes with it?, my fpv stuff will be flown with dragonlink but all my regular foamies will be flown with frsky.

What is the maxrange u guys trust ur devos with?, is there more people here having these range issues?.
And one last question, if i don't get the range desired with the CC2500 module i am thinking of this diy frsky rf-module diy frsky
From what i can read is that it works like the Dragonlink, and taps in on the radios ppm output. The only negative would be that u have to use it as an external module since it requires between 6-13 volts to operate. It also states that the range is extended to 1.5 - 2.5km.

Best regards
Alex

My Devo 8S seems to have pretty good range as long as it's working. I've had it quit working twice. First time it crashed the plane, but the second time I was quick enough to turn the tx off and back on again and it connected right away. I haven't had it do this since the latest firmware I put in, but I don't trust it much anymore. My buddy crashed a nice molded F5B plane with his Devo10 as well. None of them were very far away.

While they're working, I've flown at least 1500 feet away.

I've never had a reboot or somekind of freeze in flight but have had failsafe kick in and that resulted in crash.

Atm i'm running a Dtagonlink with my Devo8s and i do trust it 100%, but i do not trust the devo protocol and my rx802 receivers. I can use them for mini quads aslong as i don't fly very far away.

1500ft is really bad range i need to trust my radio and receivers to at least 3000 - 4000ft which is impossible for me today.
I do really like deviation and my devo 8s, the only big problem is the range issue.
I've been reading up on old forum posts about range issues and it seems like alot of devo owners have range issues.

I don't know the solution for this, I really don't wanna switch radio now that i'm used to deviation and it's freedom, I will prolly buy and install a FrSky rf-module and replace the stock one in my devo 8s.
Sucky part is buying new receivers.

//Alex

Have you looked into getting a simple 2.4g wifi booster?
Like this one..

www.fpvguy.com/2013/11/boost-your-range-v1.html

So this range issue on my devo 8s has plagued me for a long time, I've also read that alot of people are having similar issues with range.

I'm happy to say that I solved my range issues.
A couple of months ago I ordered a xl2500 do3 module from ebay to be able to use frsky and their ppm receivers.
After a month and ahalf of waiting my module arrived and I started fitting it in my devo 8s
I had some trial and error connecting the module, (the xl2500 module had some switched pins that didn't match bitbucket guide) I was able to get it working correctly.

Installed the newest nightly and edited the "hardware.ini" file adding the xl2500 module and I was able to bind my frsky D8R-XP receiver succesfully.
I then started to do some range testing with the module and the results were amazing for me.
With the power turned down to 100uW I got almost 30+meters (with my devo rx or spektrum dsmx I would get 10meters).
Now I still wasn't sure and went and did a fullrange test, I put my radio in my car and I took the receiver connected with battery and servos and started walking cross a big field to try and loose the connection.
I did 2 test's first one was 1.2km before connection was lost and second one almost 1.3km.

I was running out of field when approaching 1km so there were some trees and bushes in the way but i think it is possible to hit 1.5km in a open area.
Needless to say I am superhappy with the range, in the past with my devo receivers I would get failsafe at around 300 - 500 meters out.
So if u hate ur range but love ur devo radio this might be an option for u, gonna start flying with real planes now to test the reliability of the frsky module and will report back with my results.

Also added pics of how my xl2500 module was installed.





Best regards
Alex