How To Extend Range of DJI Tello With Wifi Repeater

The DJI tello is a great toy drone for 100$ which we’ve covered in previous posts here. But the main drawback I’ve experienced was the poor range and video streaming. If you are doing selfie shots, it works great but try to go beyond the 20 foot range and you get poor video and the dreaded frame drops.

While the march 2018 firmware fixed a lot of the problems, there might be situations where you need a better wifi signal between your phone/tablet and drone.

A quick scan of the Tello facebook group showed that many were using a wifi extender as part of their kit when going out in the field.

What You Will Need

The part list is pretty simple and you probably already some of these items. This repeater is handy as the connection is USB and the battery bank is used to power it.

• Battery Bank
• Mi WiFi Repeater 2

 

The Process

The steps are a mashup of other efforts you can find on youtube, but I’ll describe them in more detail. You’ll only need to do this once.

1. Change the wifi settings on the Tello
2. Scan the QR code on the Mi WiFi package to download the Mi home app
3. program the repeater to connect to the tello using Mi Home app
4. A new wifi access point name will be created, it will have [tello wifi name] + [_plus]
5. Connect phone/tablet to the new access point

 

Change wifi Settings On Tello

You may or may not need to do this, but connect the tello to your smartphone/tablet as usual and using the tello app, connect to the drone and go into the settings | wifi area. We will change the wifi name from the default tello_*** to something shorter and setup a password. You may not need to set the password, but just enter a simple one.

Now, with your smartphone, connect to this new wifi access point, you will need network in your list before you use the Mi Home app to program the repeater.

 

Download the Mi Home App

On the Mi Wifi package, you will see a QR code, use your QR code reader app or Apple Wallet to scan the code, this should open up the app store for the app to download. Create a Mi account and you are ready to program this repeater.

Change the region to Hong Kong so that when you add a device, you will see the Mi Wifi repeater listed. From here you will go through a connect wizard. At this point you may have to switch wifi connection to the drone using the new name and password. What we’re trying to do here is have a connection to the drone and using the app, program the repeater to connect to it automatically using the updated wifi name & password.

You will see a solid blue light on the repeater when successful.

 

Connect to New Access Point

At this point the repeater will be connected to the drone and will have created a new wifi access point. You simply now need to connect to it using your phone / tablet.