Boost Your Range - And Build it Tonight !

[JWarren]

I wanted to try this real quick but didn't have the right materials on hand, so I took an aluminum foil baking dish and cut out my own "dishes". Just plain aluminum foil as you can see in the picture. What a freaking difference! I have problems getting past 1000 ft and maintaining a signal, but this time, I was cruising around at 1200 ft, no signal loss. This mod is a God-send and many thanks to who came up with it and posted it. May your Phantom fly forever! But now I'm going to make something more permanent. Not quite sure what I'll do yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Sorry to tell you that JWarren, but your DIY may work (roughly and in certain conditions) but is not very serious.
At such high frequencies, be sure that antennas must be well designed and built to ensure a proper behaviour (SWR, beam, ...) and gain.
I'm afraid that your reflector could bring you some unexpected side effects by interfering with the wifi.
Your reflector clearly reflects to any/all directions (while waves should be transmitted straight forward); it must be clean and flat.
Please, take care when using it at far distances, depending on the environment, it could bring your Phantom in a fly-away situation


Should you consider to improve the reflector, take a look at the StrikeTeam proposition or at the one I made (in french but easy to understand) : https://www.dropbox.com/s/z1zw214h456a0ew/ReflecteurParabolique.pdf
At my first trial, in very cloudy conditions, 4.400 ft reached... and I flew back because of video losses of connection, not the Tx control !
Good luck

Thank you for the excellent info. What I did wasn't meant to be something to keep using. I just wanted to see if it would help any at all, and it did. I'm not one for flying outside of LOS but it's nice to know 1000ft is easily doable if ever need be. I will without doubt be making a setup like you did.

 

[philarvropagan]

Thank you for the excellent info. What I did wasn't meant to be something to keep using. I just wanted to see if it would help any at all, and it did. I'm not one for flying outside of LOS but it's nice to know 1000ft is easily doable if ever need be. I will without doubt be making a setup like you did.

You're welcome JWarren, happy if I could give you inputs.
You know, eventhough it's very exciting to fly farther and farther (great shots of adrenalin and hard not to do it time to time ), it's not my main expectation. Like you, I just wanted to secure the control connection and that's also why I didn't design the "highest possible gain reflector". I put the focal point not too deep into it so that part of the transmitted waves are not grabbed by the reflector. Result is maybe to give a lower gain, but also to preserve a part of the omnidirectional beam. When flying, I'm not always aiming accurately at the Phantom and no loss of connection until now. That's really the deal I wanted to reach and now, the reflector never leave my antenna.
FYI : the 2 shapes have been cut in a thick cardboard calendar and sticked to the reflector with neoprene glue.
The reflector is a simple can of Ice Tea (beer works as well :lol: ). Just take care of your fingers when cutting it

 

[StrikeTeam]

A word about SWR from an Extra Class ham. Any changes this makes in SWR are minor. .

Yeah, and if it wasn't minor you'd have noticeable loss in gain, not the opposite!

 

[opassac]

Anybody made one out of Pringles can? I hate the taste so I'll need to find someone to donate the chips so I can get the can lol


Has anyone done this?
http://youtu.be/Fky_-MmhZ_Y

Yes, i made one from a pringles can, and i can confirm it works. With the help of the booster app, made a 2100 mts flight (about 6900 fts). i'm thinking about covering the interior surface of the can with aluminium kitchen foil, to see if it gets even better.


But will try soda can option, looks far more refined.

By the way, i'll have your chips, i really love pringles chips ...

 

[JWarren]

I can say without doubt the soda can mod works. I had trouble getting to 1000 ft altitude and after building the can mod, I was cruising around at 1500ft. And, that was even with the interior of the can facing me and not the Phantom! ******* mistake. I'm expecting to do better next time I have it facing the right direction.

 

[JWarren]

Here is my completed Sprite can mod. Works great, took my Phantom up to its vertical limit today. I'll have an interesting video showing the TBE to post a bit later.

 

[Bigdz]

Here is my completed Sprite can mod. Works great, took my Phantom up to its vertical limit today. I'll have an interesting video showing the TBE to post a bit later.

The reflector mod does work as I seen improvements with FPV and better range. My PR 1184ft in this particular area I fly for practice, usually I lose signal at 900ft. In and out...
I came across this thread and started to research and found this site with blueprint for the antennae mod
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/te ... index.html I also put piece under extender.

This is what it looks like...
http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd4 ... 113329.jpg

Here is flight logger SCR Scree APP root
http://youtu.be/kd92KBDLeu8

Just temp fix until I get my kit from fpvlr

 

[dave21]

Here is my completed Sprite can mod. Works great, took my Phantom up to its vertical limit today. I'll have an interesting video showing the TBE to post a bit later.

The reflector mod does work as I seen improvements with FPV and better range. My PR 1184ft in this particular area I fly for practice, usually I lose signal at 900ft. In and out...
I came across this thread and started to research and found this site with blueprint for the antennae mod
http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/te ... index.html I also put piece under extender.

This is what it looks like...
http://i1220.photobucket.com/albums/dd4 ... 113329.jpg

Here is flight logger SCR Scree APP root
http://youtu.be/kd92KBDLeu8

Just temp fix until I get my kit from fpvlr

If I correctly see you covered the holding part with alu foil too. I am sure this part has to be foil free, since it wont let the signal of the part of the antenna which is "hidden" behind it (the same effect that one might want from the reflector to desired direction.

Today I have built mine with pepsi can, adjusted to necessary size not to hinder the phone holder. I hope I will test it soon. Now with improved FPV I go further and loose TX control around 600m (1800 feet). I will see where I get with reflector.

 

[DrJoe]

Just built one using a parabola template and a Coors Light can. Had to drink the beer first... Should be a prerequisite on every mod!

Will test tomorrow to find control distance using the Flytex Live 3G app to track, as my video will drop out before the control link does. I will post results tomorrow, weather permitting..

 

[dave21]

So today I managed to test the parabolic reflector (see two posts above). All stock, extender (RE700) under power with power bank. Low resolution 320x240. Without reflector I reached 980m. After putting reflector it went on. Reached 1200m when "Limit restriction reached" appeared :twisted: hahaha I was never that far, so I completely forgot about it Will test another time and also 640x480 resolution. I am very content with the result

 

[eyecon82]

will this mod work with FPVLR stage 2 ?

 

[Taximan650]

I built one of these Reflector Antennas with a Coffee Can with some Aluminium Foil glued over the top and having great results.Best distance so far has been 4200 feet which really surprised me.Would the Fpvlr Stage 2 kit reach a lot higher distance or will I be better off just with the Reflector Antenna?Thanks

 

[russianfront]

Here is what I just whipped up. Have not tested yet but hopefully will try it today.

Needed:
1 can of rockstar energy drink (will be consumed shortly to wake me up!)
1 sharp knife
1 pair of scissors
1 lighter
1 screwdriver
1 old piece of strap

I just invented as I went along. Hardest part was punching a hole through the strap. Started with a sharp knife then used a heated up screwdriver to enlarge the hole.

Strap fits in the can nice and tight and also on the antenna. Stays on the antenna even if I move around.

Took me about 30 minutes including head scratching time. And I started at 6AM!

 

[Drone-Outlaw]

Probably you need to make it bigger.
[/quotec


I just noticed this post and I must ask what type of App is that you used to make the above Diagram? It is very impressive!! Could I let us know how U created that?
Nice Job!
Moose

 

[CapnBob]

These have been around for years in the WiFi community; It used to be called the EZ-12 (referring to dBi).
I lived aboard for 8 years and sometimes using one of there was the difference between no signal and a usable one.



Freeantennas.com is a great site with lots of info.
They have a version of the EZ-12 that you can whip up in 20 minutes.
There is a template you can print, and some radiation pattern test data as well.
It increases gain to ~11+ dbi (with resultant beamwidth reduction).

http://www.freeantennas.com/projects/template2/

 

[CapnBob]

I saw something similar on YouTube, and this is my version. All it takes is a coffee can.

Choose a 12oz can made of paper. Most of your store-brand ground coffee comes in a paper can with a foil layer covering the paper. This is what you want. I used a hacksaw to saw off the metal ring at the top, and then sawed off two sections about 3 inches wide. You'll want to cut two pieces, sawing or cutting a cross-section of the can, about the same width, around 3 inches.

So, now you have two rings. cut through the ring and bend outwards a little. Yrim with scissors to get a clean line, and make one piece about 7 inches long, and the other trim down to 6 inches. Nothing critical here. Round the corners a little to make it look nice. In the middle, you'll want to cut a notch. Take your control box and make the notch in the shorter piece just enough to fit over the 5.8 antenna base. On the other piece, cut a deeper, narrower notch to fit over the Wi-Fi repeater. When you finish It should look like this:


I then use a piece of black electrical tape, with a slit cut in the center, to hold it lightly to the 5.8 antenna. I just want something to hold it steady. Anything non-metallic will work, you don't want to use a piece of the can material because it will de-tune the antenna somewhat. Tape works well, and is sticky enough to hold it to the antenna.

On the Wi-Fi repeater, you can just slide the curved piece behind it and over the mount. Make sure your notch is deep enough that it centers top and bottom. Keep the notch narrow enough to hold it snugly.

What we have now is two reflectors that can be taken off or put on as needed. These are certainly not high-gain devices, but from my experiments tonight they make a noticeable difference in range. The metal foil covering works as well as solid metal at these frequencies.

I flew with these tonight in an open area I fly often. Normally, at about 2000ft, I begin to get FPV dropouts. (at about 200 feet height) and lose control a little beyond that. But with these simple reflectors, I was able to go to 3200 feet without ANY loss of FPV or control. I could have gone farther, but I ran out of open land and didn't want to push it. Try this, it works and you can make them tonight !

Here's a video I made that may show it better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG4iGoWYbY4&feature=player_detailpage

The WiFi repeater is a dual patch design, with an integral ground plane. The parabolic reflector will give no increase in gain for this unit.