Antenna replacement Devo 7e

Hi i decided to do antenna mod, the donor was an old 54mbps router.
Mod was easy, as shown on the pictures, I didn't notice much range improvement, now is about 45 meters, where there was many wifi networks, Unfortunately i didn't check before mod, Tell me guys what is the range of stock devo 7e?

Next I'm going oto do shorted diode mod. Maybe that will help


edit, I removed shield and diode for better reach, and the range now is 130 meters at 10mW. I couldn't go further becouse end of the street, later i will report the range out of the city, at full power,

Edit, today i did range check, the result is surpassing for me, 1200m, i think it is a good result, could be better if the receiver was higher, the receiver is OrangeRx R910, i put it on my car,


you see a litte white dot? it is my car

You need to put the shield back on, it's there for a reason and doesn't affect the range.

There were discussions about antennas a while ago in the 7E thread, I believe the consensus from those in the know (not me) was that changing antenna doesn't give better range, and may in fact actually harm the range; something about needing matched impedance etc?

Did you bridge the diode or just remove it? Just removing it won't do anything, it needs to be bridged to provide a power supply for the power amplifier, which is disabled on the stock setup.

The major benefit of this antenna mod is not necessarily an increase in antenna gain (from the length it looks like a normal dipole config), but the fact that the antenna can now be bend up 90 degrees and perpendicular to the line of sight to the model.

Having the antenna perpendicular to the line of sight to the model ensures the maximum antenna gain in the direction of the model, this can easily increase the range 2-4 times compared to holding the Devo7e in the common near-horizontal position with its antenna pointing towards the model.

RoGuE_StreaK wrote: You need to put the shield back on,

What shield do you mean? i replaced an antenna and the coaxial cable too.

RoGuE_StreaK wrote: Did you bridge the diode or just remove it?

Yes i removed the diode and bridged it,

However i think 130 meters at 10mv is a good result,

kicaj222 wrote:
What shield do you mean? i replaced an antenna and the coaxial cable too.

The shield referred to is the metal can on the TX module which you had to remove to bridge the diode. This need to be replaced and re-soldered onto the PCB as it was originally.

Yes i put this shield back and soldered it,

quick update, today i did range test, see first post,

Did you cut the antenna yourself? or was it already set in the Wifi reciever? I believe if you are extending it it would have to be aprox. 62cm.

also, bending the antenna may reduce range as well.

Where did you get the longer antenna case? Is that a Devo 10 case?

Also, specifically how did you put that coaxial cable adapter on there?

I am interested but a little hesitant

Could I just use this:

hobbyone.com.hk/cn/product.jsp?id=11637

I've just put the antenna inside the shield, perpendicular to model direction, to have better range (please, don't care about the 0V and 3.3V notes).

Did you range test this? Is there any interference because it is so close to the electronic boards?

I did not test range, but I know I've less issue with this mod and I can fly farther. From the model receiver RX point of view, there is no problem with the antenna proximity of electronics... there is may be issue with telemetry but I don't use it.

How do I change the power output of the 7e on deviation 4.0.1? It is locked on 150mW

kicaj222, great antenna mod!

I'm planning on installing the NRF module with the swivel antenna as the main one. Can you provide some more info on how about to do that? Sould i cut the top then slowly try to wedge the antenna base and continue to "shave" the plastic until it's a tight fit?

How did you do it?