Deviation TX Mods & wifi booster.

Hey all I made a quick video showing my devo mods and wifi booster

take a look here if you wish

That is one impressive DEVO 7E, the way it looks with all the antennas and the booster. Very nice presentation too...

I wanted to ask you something about the 2 watt booster. I purchased the booster from bangood. I connected it correcty on my DEVO 10, everything went ok. I connect the battery to the booster, and then when i power the tx a blue light turns on, so assume the booster receives the signal from the rf module.

At first i used a 1S 500mah battery. I wanted to see for how long i could run the booster, in order to know how many batteries i should carry to the flying field. To my surprise after half an hour of continous use, the battery was from 4,20 volts down to 4,14 volts. At one hour the voltage was 4,07 and at 1,5 hours it was 4,00 volts. My question is, what is the current draw of this device? I think this power draw is very very low. Is it defective? I haven't flown with it yet, but i would like to have an idea what to expect first. To my opinion, this current consumption could be equal to what the blue led light consumes. I can't see how this thing can produce 2 watts of power.

I also used a 3S 900mah battery with a 5 volts BEC and the results were exaclty the same. What is your opinion? Thank you.

AndyRC wrote: Hey all I made a quick video showing my devo mods and wifi booster

take a look here if you wish

What are gain obtained for DSM2/DSMX protocol with your booster ? and for FrSky ?

Fer wrote: That is one impressive DEVO 7E, the way it looks with all the antennas and the booster. Very nice presentation too...

I wanted to ask you something about the 2 watt booster. I purchased the booster from bangood. I connected it correcty on my DEVO 10, everything went ok. I connect the battery to the booster, and then when i power the tx a blue light turns on, so assume the booster receives the signal from the rf module.

At first i used a 1S 500mah battery. I wanted to see for how long i could run the booster, in order to know how many batteries i should carry to the flying field. To my surprise after half an hour of continous use, the battery was from 4,20 volts down to 4,14 volts. At one hour the voltage was 4,07 and at 1,5 hours it was 4,00 volts. My question is, what is the current draw of this device? I think this power draw is very very low. Is it defective? I haven't flown with it yet, but i would like to have an idea what to expect first. To my opinion, this current consumption could be equal to what the blue led light consumes. I can't see how this thing can produce 2 watts of power.

I also used a 3S 900mah battery with a 5 volts BEC and the results were exaclty the same. What is your opinion? Thank you.

Please be considerate and do not use a 2W booster (which is illegal to use in most countries anyway, unless you are an authorized operator) in densely populated areas. By using a 2W booster in the WiFi band, you will basically disrupt everyone else around you. Using it in wide open spaces might be ok (still illegal, but...), but I hate seeing more and more people sticking poor quality boosters on their radio (poor quality means a signal that is more likely to bleed in all channels)

robca wrote:

Fer wrote: That is one impressive DEVO 7E, the way it looks with all the antennas and the booster. Very nice presentation too...

I wanted to ask you something about the 2 watt booster. I purchased the booster from bangood. I connected it correcty on my DEVO 10, everything went ok. I connect the battery to the booster, and then when i power the tx a blue light turns on, so assume the booster receives the signal from the rf module.

At first i used a 1S 500mah battery. I wanted to see for how long i could run the booster, in order to know how many batteries i should carry to the flying field. To my surprise after half an hour of continous use, the battery was from 4,20 volts down to 4,14 volts. At one hour the voltage was 4,07 and at 1,5 hours it was 4,00 volts. My question is, what is the current draw of this device? I think this power draw is very very low. Is it defective? I haven't flown with it yet, but i would like to have an idea what to expect first. To my opinion, this current consumption could be equal to what the blue led light consumes. I can't see how this thing can produce 2 watts of power.

I also used a 3S 900mah battery with a 5 volts BEC and the results were exaclty the same. What is your opinion? Thank you.

Please be considerate and do not use a 2W booster (which is illegal to use in most countries anyway, unless you are an authorized operator) in densely populated areas. By using a 2W booster in the WiFi band, you will basically disrupt everyone else around you. Using it in wide open spaces might be ok (still illegal, but...), but I hate seeing more and more people sticking poor quality boosters on their radio (poor quality means a signal that is more likely to bleed in all channels)

It could disrupt something if it was working. This i think it doesn't, that's why i asked this question to the person that has installed one already.

I do intent to use it only in open (very open) spaces, what else would i want a 2 watt booster for? I would be much more worried about the millions of wifi routers what could be using 2 or more watts boosters in houses and buildings in vastly populated areas, turned on all the time, and not for a few hundereds or thousands boosters installed in some tx's, only operating in open spaces for limited periods of time anyway. If it only was the tx's radiation the world would be so so so so much more safe and happy...

P.S. I agree on the poor quality thing... If this one actually doesn't work i will purchase a quality one.

Is the A7105 module wiring specific to what firmware you use?
Your video seems to imply you used basic 4.0.1 and effectively used this wiring set up, or close.



But I've also seen this one.



The connections are a lot different. I wonder if stuff in the nightlys change things round.
I'm looking to find out as I burnt something out on my 7e and want to have another go on the replacement I bought. I really don't want to destroy two it's getting expesive.

If you read the official module installation documentation - it's in the links page in the left-hand menu - it makes it pretty clear that the wiring is different if you're using 4.0.1 than it is if your using anything more recent than that for a number of modules, including the A7105 with a PA.

To save a little time, you want the module list page: bitbucket.org/PhracturedBlue/deviation/wiki/ModuleList

Thanks for the reply. Reading round I see my error. Well at least I am less likely to blow the second one. Waiting on conductive ink to do the range mod before trying again.

mwm,
say what?
I have 2 modules in my D10, running 4.0.1. If I upgrade to a nightly, the modules will not work?
Or I misunderstood you?
thanks
bm

I have 7E with older wiring but with 4.0.1 nightly builds and it still works. It's just not as power efficient if I recall reading.

If i have understood it correctly, when running nightly builds with 4.0.1 wiring, then the modules are all consuming power. In contrary when running nightly builds with the new wiring, the firmware is able to power only the selected module. That is what the main difference is i think. There might be other things too, now or in the future that will perform differently.

OH. I was not aware of that...
This means a teardown and re-wiring with the next upgrade.
So is the modulelist file shows the latest version of wirings?

billmester wrote: OH. I was not aware of that...
This means a teardown and re-wiring with the next upgrade.
So is the modulelist file shows the latest version of wirings?

Unfortunately, this web site is in need of much better organization to keep such (all too common) mistakes and errors from happening.

There's so much valuable information stored here. But it's so difficult to access.

It's far too easy to find out-of-date information on a build or mod and think it is valid and current.

Richard96816 wrote:

billmester wrote: OH. I was not aware of that...
This means a teardown and re-wiring with the next upgrade.
So is the modulelist file shows the latest version of wirings?

Unfortunately, this web site is in need of much better organization to keep such (all too common) mistakes and errors from happening.

There's so much valuable information stored here. But it's so difficult to access.

It's far too easy to find out-of-date information on a build or mod and think it is valid and current.

Unfortunately, the internet-at-large is even worse. People write up a blog or forum post or make a video or whatever, and it's correct and current. But they then forget about it, and the next version shows up, and it's now out of date and behind the times. But chances are they don't update the post or video (assuming that's even possible), so you get what you get. The deviationTx forum is no exception to that.

The wiki entries are updated as things change, new modules are tested, errors are found, etc. Unfortunately, they are hard to find now, and it took multiple requests to get them added to the Links page at all.

FWIW, the 4.0.1 wiring ought to work on the nightly build. AIUI, the first modules supported didn't have PA/LNA components, and when people started buying modules with a PA/LNA and hooking them up, we just wired the PA/LNA enable lines to the appropriate ground/power lines. Later code uses uses GPIO pins on the RF modules to control the PA/LNA enable pins if they have them, so you connect to those instead of ground and VCC. As noted, this will lower power consumption if things are wired up properly, and may well reduce RF noise from unused modules. If you go the other way - wiring a module for the nightly build and using it on 4.0.1 - it may also leave the PA/LNA hardware shut down when you expect to use it which IIUC will kill your range.

Thanks
I need to keep this in mind for updating...

Thanks mwm for this information.

Well, y'know what? I'll re-solder the whole Tx when there will be a new official release

Let me ask my question here since its kinda relevant. So I have some mods already, but I don't want to / cant solder anymore to the main module or the main board (because its messed up), instead I would like to solder a A7105 modul mainly using the already installed NRF24L01 pins. Is it ok? I dont see why not, it will be a short anyway, of course only in cases when they are using the same solder points.
What you guys think?
Andy, I am a huge fan!

Thanks in advance!

Do you mean you want to replace the NRF module with the A7105 module? That's easy because you just use 5 of the six connected wires.

Or do you mean you want to chain off the existing NRF and have both? If so, the trick is to ensure that the connections are solid from end to end, but yeah, it should work. One of the early tutorials showed it wired that way. You could also just leave the wires connected to the Transmitter board and cut /splice them to both modules.

There are four common wires to connect: Vcc (3.3v), Ground, SCK and MOSI (SDIO). You will need to connect the A7105 CSN directly to the appropriate unused TMS or TCK.

And pins 6-9, 7-8 on the A7105-D03 are directly wired at the module to allow control of PA and LNA.

Good luck and post photos!

I meant in chain. I am happy you have nothing against it, I wouldn't think myself either. In fact, I already have some similar solutions, since I have the 8s module too, but I wanted to make sure.
Thanks for your fast answer!
I am not sure I will take pictures about this work unfortunately, not too proud