Sorry this might be a newbie RC question but can the phantom go around buildings? Like I can imagine the signal would be ok through trees and whatnot. But what about a full concrete building? Or maybe a house? Or through a forest?
Can phantom go around buildings?
- Thread starter yalag
- Start date
My first answer is - don't try it.
More detail - It actually really depends on the size of the building and how its made. Like Wifi routers, 2.4ghz waves 'can' travel through objects and walls but unlike a Phantom reciever they don't run on 4 x AA batteries. If you had Cloverleaf antenna you could probably get away with it.
Next thing to ask is - how do you fly behind a building? If the answer is 5.8ghz FPV then you will fail as 5.8ghz won't travel through anything at all that isn't pretty thin and non reflective (in a radiowave form).
If you wanted to go this route you'd need an aftermarket Transmitter and something like EzUHF which turns a 2.4ghz transmitter into a lower frequency, longer range frequency (i forget which one). On a Phantom that is not easy as the lower the frequency, the bigger the antenna gets.
More detail - It actually really depends on the size of the building and how its made. Like Wifi routers, 2.4ghz waves 'can' travel through objects and walls but unlike a Phantom reciever they don't run on 4 x AA batteries. If you had Cloverleaf antenna you could probably get away with it.
Next thing to ask is - how do you fly behind a building? If the answer is 5.8ghz FPV then you will fail as 5.8ghz won't travel through anything at all that isn't pretty thin and non reflective (in a radiowave form).
If you wanted to go this route you'd need an aftermarket Transmitter and something like EzUHF which turns a 2.4ghz transmitter into a lower frequency, longer range frequency (i forget which one). On a Phantom that is not easy as the lower the frequency, the bigger the antenna gets.
DeweyAXD said:
Oh ok like I said this could just be a completely newbie thing. So basically I need line of sight at all times? How come sometimes I need video that people take where fly the phantom over all kind of crazy places, like cliffs or rainforest etc.
According to the FAA, you're not supposed to fly over 400 ft and you're not supposed to leave line of sight. Other than that, I agree with DeweyAXD.
I didn't know that you are suppose to keep line of sight at all times. Even the showcase videos on dji.com have videos that made me think otherwise. For example look at https://vimeo.com/72576578# isn't it really hard to do shots like that with line of sight?
:lol: yeah interestingly I wrote out a bit about CAA/FAA l.o.s rules and decided not to mention it. It is a tricky one cause I have flown 1.3km away using FPV as a test so it would be hypocyritcal to don't do it (but I did use a spotter with binoculars). In black and white that is a no no but then you could argue that just putting the FPV goggles on breaches the law when its hovering 2 feet away.
The 400ft ceiling is a very good point though and something that should be stuck to as best you can (altimeter reading will help a lot there!). When DJI sort v4 out I will gladly use the 'flight limits' for controlling this. I have low flying military helicopters around my way and I sure as hell don't want to be the one that paints their wind screen with Phantom parts and cause a crash.
Cool video there - With a full range transmitter/reciever you should be fine going round a tower or a turret. A full building would be more challenging and 5.8 will cut out pretty quick. Best thing to do is get the setup you want, then test it carefully a step at a time.
The 400ft ceiling is a very good point though and something that should be stuck to as best you can (altimeter reading will help a lot there!). When DJI sort v4 out I will gladly use the 'flight limits' for controlling this. I have low flying military helicopters around my way and I sure as hell don't want to be the one that paints their wind screen with Phantom parts and cause a crash.
Cool video there - With a full range transmitter/reciever you should be fine going round a tower or a turret. A full building would be more challenging and 5.8 will cut out pretty quick. Best thing to do is get the setup you want, then test it carefully a step at a time.
I suspect that Marcello was always within line-of-sight shooting that video.
The FAA and the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) have issued guidelines for flying 'drones' as they call them, referring to FPV flights or unmanned aircraft flying to GPS waypoints. It's as stated, line-of-sight and a 400' ceiling, but also flying should not take place over populated areas.
Yes this is violated daily and there is no enforcement.
But if something bad happens and we are not within the guidelines it's our fault. And ignorance of the guidelines is no excuse.
The FAA and the AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) have issued guidelines for flying 'drones' as they call them, referring to FPV flights or unmanned aircraft flying to GPS waypoints. It's as stated, line-of-sight and a 400' ceiling, but also flying should not take place over populated areas.
Yes this is violated daily and there is no enforcement.
But if something bad happens and we are not within the guidelines it's our fault. And ignorance of the guidelines is no excuse.
I did range test my fpv setup and stock radio a while back. I had the phantom setup with no props inside the house and walked down the street to see how the range goes. The stock radio I count arm the motor pretty straight outside the house but my video was clear with 2 houses between. It started to break up a little but would still be usable nearly 200m down the street even with my body also in los along with quire a few buildings fences and trees.
A good 5.8 setup can do surprisingly more penetration then I thought, mine is the dji setup and dji cloverleaf antennas. This many times lost radio going behind objects when the video was still unaffected. Your not meant to go out of los but then pretty much all fpv is illegal unless you have a spotter and you still need to maintain los to be within laws in most countries.
I fly with a screen not goggles so can much easier regain los flying but this still doesn't make it any more legal. Whatever type of flying you do make sure to take small steps and test all your gears limits, if using the stock radio be prepared to go into failsafe if flying behind objects as its a pretty weak signal.
A good 5.8 setup can do surprisingly more penetration then I thought, mine is the dji setup and dji cloverleaf antennas. This many times lost radio going behind objects when the video was still unaffected. Your not meant to go out of los but then pretty much all fpv is illegal unless you have a spotter and you still need to maintain los to be within laws in most countries.
I fly with a screen not goggles so can much easier regain los flying but this still doesn't make it any more legal. Whatever type of flying you do make sure to take small steps and test all your gears limits, if using the stock radio be prepared to go into failsafe if flying behind objects as its a pretty weak signal.
martcerv said:
Wait so you are able to fly through walls, but others have said it's not possible. I guess it depends on the wall material?
yalag said:
Wait so you are able to fly through walls, but others have said it's not possible. I guess it depends on the wall material?[/quote]
I have not seen anyone successfully fly their Phantom through a wall. Some entertainment value, I suppose, but hard on the Phantom. :?
bumper
My video link can travel through some walls and trees and I do fly behind objects all the time, With the stock radio this is very risky as it has gone to failsafe on me a few times whilst still having zero noise on the video feed.yalag said:
I am yet to fly through a wall but nearly tried the other week hit a tree instead :lol: this was caused by losing the stock radio due to this exact reason. I saw it all happen on the FPV screen but couldnt do anything about it as the radio on the phantom doesnt penetrate objects anywhere near as well as my 5.8 FPV setup and this says quite a bit about the radio. 5.8 is supposedly crap at penetration and even though 2.4 isnt great it should be better then 5.8. Antennas make a big difference along with signal strength.
Was flying manual mode too fast and too low, after noticing radio control was lost switched quickly to ATTI to try and at least avoid it flipping over. It was traveling a bit quick and ended up hitting a tree before failsafe could take over. This was about 200m away from me with a few thick trees and a couple buildings in the way so a bit of stupid flying that was 100% pilot error.
Seen a guy try to fly through the groom at a wedding, without success. :lol: :mrgreen:bumper said:
Just did my first flight with the new radio to 1.2km no issues with video but got a couple radio glitches at that point. My carbon fiber monitor mount is not ideal as its partly shielding the tx antenna and so I will need to do something about this. Video was fine and noise free at that distance but was at 75m altitude so had LOS all the way. I will be pushing the new radio much more and hope to sort my monitor mount out as it still looks like my FPV is stronger then even the Futaba radio after the first couple tests.
I wouldn't try flying around a building. I did and as you can see at the 5:45 mark it didn't work out so well. [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgY8ahr5JG4[/youtube]
ted35 said:
Looks like you still had control but lost video by the look of the video? Its definitely not the recommended thing to do and the further away you are the more objects in your LOS will effect both your video and radio reception.
Ive just been doing some longer range tests and at 1.5km I will pretty much go from full control to failsafe and also video goes from clear to near full static if I get some big trees in the line of sight. I will put up a video of my range tests soon but just rendering atm. With my setup if pretty close and building isnt too thick its possible but there is always the risk of disaster so lower frequency control and video is recommended if its something you want to be doing safely.
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