Warning! Before you attempt to install this booster kit, make sure you know what you are doing and are properly prepared. NEVER power on the devices without proper cooling or the antennae all being properly connected! Failing to connect all antennae to the booster boards or providing them with at least some passive cooling may severely damage the chips on the booster boards.
Guide mostly credited to giovi321
Tools needed:
- Soldering iron with a fine tip
- Solder with a low melting point
- Flux
- Torx and Philips screwdrivers
- Hot glue
- Thermally conductive silicone-based glue
Step 1: Disassemble the drone. You don’t have to take it apart completely, just the top shell and the bottom shell and heatsink. Here’s a video on how to take it apart.
Optional but recommended: Physical modifications to the drone
Using a cutter or a very sharp exacto knife, cut a square window on the top of the drone (already disassembled) with the same size of the heatsink. A Raspberry Pi heatsink that’s on the larger side is fine to use.
Stick the heatsink to the booster board and stick the booster board to the drone plastic cover using silicone-based glue with thermal conductive properties.
This should be the result
Step 2: Stick the step-down board to the plastic shell of the drone in the back: be careful, where I stuck it in the picture below is not ideal, so you can put it somewhere else, BUT: do not put it on top of the GPS antenna (the large piece highlighted in red in the pic below)
Connect the power
Step 3: Connect two wires to the points shown in the picture below. The middle 2 pins are the power and go to the IN+ pad of the step-down board. On either side of the 2 power pins are GND pins where you can solder the other wire that will go to IN- pad of the step-down board.
Step 4: Connect 1 red wire from the OUT+ pad of the step-down board to the 5V pad on the booster board. Connect 1 black wire from the OUT- pad of the step-down board to the GND pad on the booster board.
Connecting the antennae
Step 5: disconnect the antenna on the bottom of the drone as shown below in the picture, move it gently and neatly to the top of the drone and connect it to the ANT connector on the booster board.
Step 6: In your booster kit should be a black ipex4 antenna cable. Connect one end to the remaining antenna connector on the booster board, proceed to move the other end down to the drone and connect it to the antenna connector on the bottom of the drone that you previously disconnected.
Note: make sure no wire crosses the booster board and that the battery can still be inserted smoothly into the drone without obstructions. Power on the drone for a few seconds and see if the LEDs on the booster board light up. Power the drone off again as soon as you see the LEDs light up to prevent the board from overheating.