Extending the wifi range of the FC40 camera

ericdes · Mar 8, 2014

Great distance.

Stock transmitter?

Can you shows us pics and parts of your FLV mods?

Thanks

jetdust · Mar 8, 2014

Everything is stock except for what I use to boost the wifi range from the ground. Basically using a Amped SR10000 wifi repeater, with a 16dbi antenna on the # 2 side and a Hawking directional antenna on the primary side. The Hawking directional has really helped a lot. I power the repeater from a Zippy 2200 so it's totally portable. I have to keep it line of site to go the long distances, I'm afraid to push it too far but am so tempted to. Tonight it was fairly stable when out as far as it was which was surprising.

benzo365 · Mar 9, 2014

How are you connecting the battery to the SR10000, what connectors?

jetdust · Mar 9, 2014

I bought this connector, works perfect! xt 60 to size M barrel connector..

http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/Power-Cord-2 ... -Male.html

rustysd · Mar 14, 2014

1700 ft is .3 miles - about the max distance djis website says it can go.

Anybody fly farther than that with th fc40 (with or without fpv) ?

PhantomPerk · Mar 21, 2014

here is another option to power the SR10000

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RQW5WG/ref ... 12ZSG6MELR

benzo365 said:
How are you connecting the battery to the SR10000, what connectors?

rduffman · Mar 30, 2014

I just went and bought a netgear n450 and tried to configure it as a repeater. This one makes you set a static IP address for the repeater. I set it to 192.168.1.102 just to make sure. I also changed the ssid to one different number at the end like everyone else does. I then select the repeater on my iPhone wifi then try to connect. It just stays on the main screen like it can't load. It doesn't give me an error though like any other random wireless network does. Could it be the static ip setting it forces me to do is causing this? Im thinking I'll return the router to the store and try the hawking hwren2. I've been connecting via wifi when I configure the router since my Macbook pro has no ethernet port. Could that cause issues as well? I notice the people who have had success have connected with a cable.

ericdes · Mar 30, 2014

Start fc40 camera.
Wait 30 seconds.
Start repeater
Going through the repeater wizard or GUI, it should see available networks.
Click on the fc40 "network" to repeat it. Give it a slightly different name.
Done

Not sure about your router in repeater mode. If you need to manually punch everything in, much different than the amped setup.

rduffman · Mar 30, 2014

The firmware on this one doesn't ask for available networks, but the MAC address of the base station(fc40 camera) which I found out using a wifi analyzer. I also set the channel to be the same(channel 9).

dragonash · Apr 5, 2014

i can confirm that no matter what type of repeater/router you use, you will need to place FC40_ in the name of the repeater for the app to connect.

I just named mine FC40_Repeater
I tried to name it DJI Repeater, but it wouldnt let me connect. I dont know why DJI doesnt let it work like this.
Especially for the vision repeater. Just think about how many more repeaters they could sell if they just let us pair it to the FC 40 or other cameras with wifi.

rduffman · Apr 6, 2014

Is anyone using repeaters using the android app or are there some using the iphone app? I notice with the android app it connects to the wifi within the app while on the iphone you have to connect to the wifi in iphone settings first before running the app and clicking on the camera name. Maybe it's only the android app that can be tricked....? I'll try buying a dedicated range extender if someone has been successful in iOS. I guess the repeating function in the regular router wasn't compatible(I hope). I used the naming trick too. Otherwise I might have to buy a cheap android device to get this to work

.

parkerman · Apr 6, 2014

how bout this...........https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS-YHz- ... e=youtu.be

dragonash · Apr 7, 2014

rduffman said:
Is anyone using repeaters using the android app or are there some using the iphone app? I notice with the android app it connects to the wifi within the app while on the iphone you have to connect to the wifi in iphone settings first before running the app and clicking on the camera name. Maybe it's only the android app that can be tricked....? I'll try buying a dedicated range extender if someone has been successful in iOS. I guess the repeating function in the regular router wasn't compatible(I hope). I used the naming trick too. Otherwise I might have to buy a cheap android device to get this to work .

I cant vouch for iOS, but you definitely can select the wifi SSID via the camera app.
As for a "regular router", I am using a linsys WRT54G with DDWRT flashed onto it.

rduffman · Apr 8, 2014

I ordered the hawking hwren2 yesterday from newegg and it arrived at my door today. It works GREAT! I tested out to 200 meters but was afraid to go any further since it was slightly windy today. On a calm day I will try to range test this thing. I imagine it will be about 1100-1500 feet from what other people have reported. I bet if I ordered a higher gain antenna I could get video out to the max range of the fc40s stated control (500 meters) or beyond. The video was completely glitch free and smooth!

rduffman · Apr 9, 2014

I flew about 350 meters today but my camera died mid flight and wouldn't turn back on. After about 10 minutes I pressed the power button 1 more time and it came back on...... Very strange. I tried recording mid flight when I was 350 yards away and I lost connection. That's when I landed and the camera would not turn back on. I tried putting it on the charger and no lights. I even pulled out the sd card and it wouldn't turn on. I waited a bit and tried again sure enough the camera started working again. Maybe something overheated?

T0Rtur3 · Apr 9, 2014

rduffman said:
I flew about 350 meters today but my camera died mid flight and wouldn't turn back on. After about 10 minutes I pressed the power button 1 more time and it came back on...... Very strange. I tried recording mid flight when I was 350 yards away and I lost connection. That's when I landed and the camera would not turn back on. I tried putting it on the charger and no lights. I even pulled out the sd card and it wouldn't turn on. I waited a bit and tried again sure enough the camera started working again. Maybe something overheated?

I've noticed my camera is very finicky as well. Seems to stop recording at times without any input from me, and has shut off by itself before for me also.

dsiles · Apr 10, 2014

rduffman said:
Is anyone using repeaters using the android app or are there some using the iphone app? I notice with the android app it connects to the wifi within the app while on the iphone you have to connect to the wifi in iphone settings first before running the app and clicking on the camera name. Maybe it's only the android app that can be tricked....? I'll try buying a dedicated range extender if someone has been successful in iOS. I guess the repeating function in the regular router wasn't compatible(I hope). I used the naming trick too. Otherwise I might have to buy a cheap android device to get this to work .

I can confirm as long as you mimic the SSID by changing the last number up or down by 1, but keep the same format you can use the FC40 app on IOS just like on Android with an extender. Have done it through a Tenda A6 and Amped SR10000. You just have to connect the new SSID from the extender on IOS first in settings before launching the FC40 app.

horne47789 · Apr 10, 2014

Got my DJI FC40 a few days ago (love it) and I can get up to about 150m in line of sight with the camera, but I have several routers in the house so I figured I'd convert one to a repeater.
I spent all of last night playing with the settings of a dd-wrt based router and eventually got it to a point where my Android app could pull the stored images and video from the camera but could not get the live video feed going.

I had turned off security settings on the router, set it up to be on an adjacent subnet, configured my virtual interface with the modified SSID and the repeater interface as the same one on the camera.

The thing that bothers me is I thought I would be able to have the camera and the repeater on the same subnet but it didn't seem to work.

Any words of wisdom - otherwise I am likely to have another frustrating evening

dragonash · Apr 10, 2014

horne47789 said:
I had turned off security settings on the router, set it up to be on an adjacent subnet, configured my virtual interface with the modified SSID and the repeater interface as the same one on the camera.

it sounds like you got way too involved in the settings. No need to get so deep into it.
I dont have my repeater next to me(linksys with ddwrt), but all you really need to do is set it to repeater mode, name your router FC40_anyname and also join it to your camera.

Set all security to off.
Thats about it.

I can try to post pics when i get home

9Jamie · Apr 10, 2014

horne47789 said:
I spent all of last night playing with the settings of a dd-wrt based router and eventually got it to a point where my Android app could pull the stored images and video from the camera but could not get the live video feed going.

I have to turn on the DMZ(De-military Zone) function for the DHCP IP address, e.g. 192.168.2.100 in my Tenda A6 router in order to have the live video FPV from the FC40 camera. Try Try..... :roll: :roll: :roll: