Mike,
Pm me your mailing address, I’ll mail you square battery for the original type SC2. If you need a charger, mention that in the pm as well and I’ll toss in a charger.
Paul
SkyShit Booster mods for BB2 any good?
- Thread starter MavicPro1966
- Start date
Pm me your mailing address, I’ll mail you square battery for the original type SC2. If you need a charger, mention that in the pm as well and I’ll toss in a charger.
Paul
mikeexplorer
Well-known member
Jagerbomb52
Well-known member
You can also modify the batteries to except a balance charger if your interested.
thehighproglow.blogspot.com
The High Pro Glow: Parrot Skycontroller 2 Battery Modifications
mikeexplorer
Well-known member
I took the boosters out of the controller and transferred them to a version 3 controller (black sticks) Since the battery cannot provide enough voltage for the boosters the only choice is to tap the USB port for the needed power, problem is I use Android devices so I soldered a 100 ohm resistor inline with the 5V line going to the USB port. The phone thinks its still charging but it isn't anymore. Boosters show power with the LED lights even with phone attached. The second booster board's LED is still dimmer then the other one (same as when it was in the other controller)
I tried using pes to see what the antenna signal is in the controller but pes keeps saying its not a supported parrot device. I also get some garbage characters with using adb for the controller but looking at the drone side, it appears the boosters are working based on the signal level of the drone.
Only had a chance to do one test flight. I have a second black stick controller which is stock so I used that one and compared to the one that has the boosters. I was able to get double the range.
I am still not sure about that second booster with the dimmer LED, hopefully I can get pes working to access the antenna signal of the controller.
Mike
I tried using pes to see what the antenna signal is in the controller but pes keeps saying its not a supported parrot device. I also get some garbage characters with using adb for the controller but looking at the drone side, it appears the boosters are working based on the signal level of the drone.
Only had a chance to do one test flight. I have a second black stick controller which is stock so I used that one and compared to the one that has the boosters. I was able to get double the range.
I am still not sure about that second booster with the dimmer LED, hopefully I can get pes working to access the antenna signal of the controller.
Mike
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mikeexplorer
Well-known member
Solaris suggested to me there is a way to test the boosters. Using my old controller I plugged in the booster from A1 antenna into A0 (the working one) and sure enough that booster (its the one with the dim LED) is not working. Impossible to tell what happened as to why that booster has failed and the antenna chain on the controller is dead. I was able to order a replacement for it, hopefully if it is the booster, it did not take out the antenna chain on the new controller.
Mike
Mike
mikeexplorer
Well-known member
Replaced the booster that was on the A1 antenna chain and the test flight with it shows its working good now. I ordered a kit for the second controller and used one of the boards to replace the bad one. I have a replacement on order. Stock controller compared to the boosted one shows quite an improvement.
Mike
Mike
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mikeexplorer
Well-known member
Low altitude test with boosters. The distance didn't seem like much, but considering there is heavy brush and tree growth between the controller and drone would say this is a success. I did not try this with a stock controller since a disconnection would mean the drone would rise up to 20 meters and likely strike a tree. The trees tend to overhang the trail.
mikeexplorer
Well-known member
This is the flight with the boosters, broke the 2m barrier and I did include a snapshot of the same flight with a stock controller. 7,300 feet compared to 3,900 for stock. I did still have signal at 7,300 feet but didn't want to chance it, and brought the drone back.
mikeexplorer
Well-known member
I followed your video you produced about pes, I did enable all the options for the drone as you outlined in the video. I actually still had signal at the furthest point but was getting weak, I just decided that was far enough and brought it back. Comparing the distance to stock I am very pleased with the results.
I do realize that there will still be interference in some areas but the boosters have proven to get better distance then stock. In this screenshot, The distance with the boosters does not look impressive, but I am standing in an area where there is a solid hill in front of me. This area is where there is an active underground mine fire that they are working to put out. The area is closed off so the only way to look at it is from outside the zone. Before the boosters were installed, I could only get maybe 1,200 feet before loss of signal. At least with the boosters, I can get a look at what is going on in the zone. Again, pleased with the results. Once the drone got to this area, the hill is blocking the signal even at high altitude. The picture shown looks like they are building a large holding pond for water. Once they start digging out the fire, they will need this water to cool the dragline trench equipment and douse the fire as they dig it out.
This video was taken a few months ago (before boosters) where I was able to sneak into the site. Although it looks calm, there is an active mine fire below ground, being warm out, you don't see any smoke and steam from the fire. Colder weather you will see the smoke. The video shows a trench they dug around to try to contain the fire back in 2011. From flying last week, it appears the fire jumped the trench on the south side as I have seen a new trench being dug.
I do realize that there will still be interference in some areas but the boosters have proven to get better distance then stock. In this screenshot, The distance with the boosters does not look impressive, but I am standing in an area where there is a solid hill in front of me. This area is where there is an active underground mine fire that they are working to put out. The area is closed off so the only way to look at it is from outside the zone. Before the boosters were installed, I could only get maybe 1,200 feet before loss of signal. At least with the boosters, I can get a look at what is going on in the zone. Again, pleased with the results. Once the drone got to this area, the hill is blocking the signal even at high altitude. The picture shown looks like they are building a large holding pond for water. Once they start digging out the fire, they will need this water to cool the dragline trench equipment and douse the fire as they dig it out.
This video was taken a few months ago (before boosters) where I was able to sneak into the site. Although it looks calm, there is an active mine fire below ground, being warm out, you don't see any smoke and steam from the fire. Colder weather you will see the smoke. The video shows a trench they dug around to try to contain the fire back in 2011. From flying last week, it appears the fire jumped the trench on the south side as I have seen a new trench being dug.
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mikeexplorer
Well-known member
I use a cell phone that is not activated so I always keep it in airplane mode. I only turn on wifi on the phone after returning home so it can upload the flight data.
Everyplace I flew so far with the booster kit, I am seeing at least double the range compared to stock. Some areas are tough with interference or like in the case of the mine fire, a hill blocking line of sight. I did a flight yesterday where I was on a railroad grade flying into an old mining site. There was a rock cut in the way. I still was able to get double the range compared to stock. Very pleased with the results.
Mike
mikeexplorer
Well-known member
This test is in an urban area flying over the towns from the park. I did still have signal at this point but with the high voltage power lines ahead, I decided to turn the drone back. I try to stay away from them. My brother lost a drone near a high voltage power line, not sure if it was a failure, or the interference from the power line did something.
Mike
Mike
