And how do they perform? |Any significant improvement on how the radio link behaves?
Also can you share a picture of where you’ve mounted it on top and how you’ve managed with the tight space?
Also is there not 2 antennae inside?
How do you know which one to replace?
And which one is TX and which is RX or even if they are TX and RX and not just two antennae doing both TX and RX simultaneously on different bands?
I wanted was considering buying one of those $30 - $40 signal boosters that go inline with an antenna on the controller but I encountered the same issue, I don’t know which antenna to install it on.
Looking at this board:
there’s no difference between the two plugs. I think that as long as you replace both antennae you should have no issue with which is which.
Well okay, and what do you think about these signal boosters?
Are they viable? And if so, how would i figure out which antenna to attach it to?
This is for analog video transmitters, they have no effect for tune 5GHz WiFi. Different kind of “5G”
I simply replaced one of the built-in antennas by disconnecting it and plugging in the patch antenna. I have additional units of the patch antennas with slightly different coax lengths so I could replace the other one too if I so desired. The tiny coax just comes out the side and the antenna sticks to the top cover with its (not terribly sticky) adhesive, and I have a strip of tape over it. I haven’t tried to really measure the performance in a rigorous way. As you can see from that link they only cost a couple of dollars.
They are indeed dirt cheap. I ordered 10 pieces myself today, shipping from the US costs a whole lot more than the 10 pcs but you never know when I’ll need to use them. Having a patch antenna around could be useful to get rid of those directional signal losers, erm loses… 
I’ll add that with the board oriented so that the two antenna connectors are closest to you, I connected the new patch antenna to the connector on the right. The left connector is still connected to its original antenna.
Hi
This thread settled my decision on the EX4 when looking for a small quadcopter - so thanks everyone.
I used Mission Planner a lot with my Quanum Nova (CX20) so it is great that the EX4 uses it.
I have just received the new 3km version.
I was horrified seeing that the 3S LiHv batteries are charged from a USB lead connected charger taking 4 hours. I couldn’t bring myself to do that to them!
If you have batteries that show 100% but only last a few minutes it is beause they have been damaged and the internal resistance has gone very high - so they show as full but last just a couple of minutes.
It arrived this morning so the first thing I did was open the charger up - really easy as the 4 rubber feet hide the screw - the label in the tray saying do not remove me is a complete hoax 
Interesting pin arrangement inside but while working it out noticed that the board was conveniently marked B0, B1, B2 and B3 … which made it easier but interesting that they used red wire for negative and black wire for positive!
With the battery in the tray to check polarities and voltages I noticed the LED flashing so it makes connections even when not plugged in.
As a result i decided to remove the board completely and use it simply as a holder to connect to a real charger.
So I unsoldered the connectors, unscrewed and removed the board and added a 3S balance lead plus JST.
This now just plugs into a LiHv charger as shown for a perfectly balanced quick charge.
Hope this helps someone
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Looks like this is becoming a popular mod for these little quads.
Here is one of my modified stock chargers to hook into a better/real LiPo charger:
I can finally test the charge level of the batteries for real, not the annoying LED beeps but more importantly I can charge them with an actual LiPo charger and not the strange contraption we get as charger.
Unfortunatelly this will make the travel pack all the more bulky since now I have to take 3S LiPo chargers along as well.
At least the batteries will last longer I hope. I had 2 already go bloating and one more is on its way out, it only lasts for several minutes and I’m afraid after a few charge cycles the other two I had ordered in a previous batch are also going the same way. Luckily I have a batch of 3 new ones, I’ll charge them on the 3S LiPo charger which I have been using for some years now with other LiPos and those seem to be doing fine.
I’ll have to get more balance charge lead though.
The ones I have are for LiPos, they only supply the voltage needed LiPos, not the higher one for the LiHVs. They’re not THAT smart, and they only charge. But since I already had two packs go bad, I guess I’ll just have to buy a better charger with discharge option as well, one specifically for LiHVs, but the thing is, I still need some plug for this charger, I have another one, a bit smarter, but that one also has a XT60 plug for hooking the LiPo pack into it for charging I think. With these little LiHVs there’s no way to hook that additional plug, I’d have to make one…or live with the limitation of the LiPo charger, only get a “regular” LiPo output from these LiHVs
It is worth getting a proper one - mine is really small with an XT60 input and outut so I can use one of my bigger packs if i am out at the field - I use it for everything now as I can monitor internal resistance too so know when it is time to give up on a pack - costs a lot less than a new battery: https://www.banggood.com/custlink/vDvEVdEWW1
I’d go for the internal resistance measument capability and the discharge and storage options which regular chargers don’t have. This Q6 is indeed compact but I don’t see a power supply, only a input XT60 which is a bit odd. Does it imply I have to power it from another battery or how exactly do I power it from the mains?
Yes, it has an XT60 input and output.
As it has such a wide acceptable input voltage I took an old laptop power supply with a decent amp rating, cut the plug off and soldered an XT60 on.
I also took a very old charger with banana sockets and cut the board out and put an XT60 on that too so I can still use my IMAX B6 multi-lead set.
Luckily for me I found on Aliexpress a variant of the Q6 Nano with a built in power source and cord. For me it has to be EU plug:
So at least I will have a decent charger and checker, not to mention it will allow for a safe discharge and storage of my other packs, which now that I took stock of them are quite a few actually, and a mixed bunch even, some LiPos, some LiHVs but mostly LiPos and all mostly 3S with only a few 2S that I use now for the toys I build for my kid (well, for me mostly to play with her as she’s still to young to use a solder iron)
Until the snail mail from China arrives I’ll have to make due with the 3S LiPo chargers I have laying around.
Excellent!
The shipping seems to be better at the moment, possibly as covid means there are not so many airliners running so they have to use dedicated freight air traffic.
I have had some really quick deliveries from Banggood recently … the Fimi X8 from China to England in 13 days and the EX4 from Spain to England in what should have been 4 days (if my local Parcel Force office hadn’t messed the delivery up!)
I have mainly LiPo too - I have a few drones but mainly electric aircraft - 30+ at my last count 
30+…well at least I can assure my wife I’m not the “worst” that could be…I have only 5 quads, a Quanum Nova Pro, its previous version Cheerson CX-20, a Syma X8H variant which I modded to have brushless motors, a crashed modded CX-20 that I crashed due just browsing the user manual before flying it and lastly an JJRC X12 and an Eachine EX4, this last one I got more or less by mistake but at least I have a backup in case something happens (as it did, the X12 crashed once due to magnetic interference already but luckily there was no damage).
I was planning at some point to get a DJI but even though the quality of the image, the stability of the craft is obviously better, hence the price point, I’m still gravitating around the “cheap” concept, not because I don’t want to pay the extra cash, but these cheap quads do let you fiddle with them quite a lot. Even the EX4/X12 models still allow for some level of customization even on the FC level, their PX4 can be rather easily tweaked to do what you want, which is something lacking on the other more expensive quads. At least that’s how I see things: cheap and customizable
They are good but i sold my Mavic Pro 1 to buy the Fimi X8!
The battery issue started my unrest but also the obstacle avoidance … which many people seem to want but i found a real pain on a few occasions.
For example … i flew in a forest and was going to fly through a gap in the trees to go over a ledge and suddenly be 100Ft up- very dramatic video I thought…but as i went through the gap the sensors underneath tried to push me up into the branches above … i ended up like a yo-yo trying to get out of the gap.
The other thing that has got me a few times is when flying early or late in the day when the sun is low…doing a nice smooth circuit when suddenly it does an emergency stop and won’t move! The sun shines in the front sensors and it thinks there is something in front of it and stops. You can only yaw to get the sun out of its eyes and escape!
The video is good but take a look at my Fimi videos i did last week - first flights and stock settings but pretty nice considering it was blowing a gale - just search for modellermark2 and you will find my YouTube channel.
I still have my Quanum Nova … not sure what to do with it as it is so loaded with mods I would never get for it what it is worth … X8R receiver, full telemetry back to the Taranis, voltage meter, retracts, fixed fpv camera plus iLook underneath on a gimbal with remove video switcher, wireless telemetry etc. so may end up stripping it down for parts … which is a bit sad as it taught me so much.
Going to see if I can use my FPV goggles with the EX4 later today which should make it fun
FPV on EX4…you’re in for a huge disappointment, the so called FPV is just the same image split into to screen halves, they didn’t even bother to remove the text writing so you get the exact same image from the main camera split into two, so it’s half the resolution, but there’s no stereoscopic effect whatsoever. The only use I could think of is if it’s really sunny outside and your phone’s screen is too weak against the sunlight then put it into a pair of cheap Google Cardboard viewers, the likes used on Android for stereoscopic 3D viewing and strap the contraption on your head. The light insulation should help distinguish more detail but don’t expect any 3D effect.
I hear ya about the obstacle avoidance, I only saw something more or less reliable in the forest on the Skydio 2, but even that one had some glitches, it took a very conservative path selection to avoid any obstacles it detected. The bad part is that they all rely solely on optical image recognition of their surroundings and aren’t even using stereoscopic vision for that so it’s all flat pictures they trained those neural networks with to recognize “things” in their path. I did see some experimental gig though from some dudes in Finland that didn’t use GPS at all and relied only on Intel RealSense’s optical recognition software, they used both visible light and infrared cuz…duh!..these things could be flying into dark places too…but they had no thermal option as well nor Lidar which for me it is kind of a must if you wish to make any obstacle avoidance of any kind. I mean relying only on what human or AI eyes can see in the EM spectrum, without bouncing something off whatever might be in front of you is a bit of a wishful thinking: you hope you’ll have enough light to detect the obstacle and there won’t be any noise which real life shows to be rather the norm than the exception.
Still there’s progress and not just for drones, the big brother of this obstacle avoidance that Tesla uses doesn’t fare a whole lot better, and they’ve actually hurt people already so we still have some slack with quads: no autonomous quad has yet to harm a human in a serious manner.