Flying from inside house or car anyone?

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Well, I finally got my cable and had to laugh at the absurdity of it all when it was installed.

What I thought was interesting and it may simply be a disadvantage of omni's in my congested environment. I did two test flights: one with the DBS antenna w/3w sunhans and one with the omni's w/rf linx. Distance-wise they flew roughly the same, however the omni's had much more intermittent signal loss during the flight. It was much blurrier/lower quality for most of the flight when at approximately 4000'.

I'll probably have to test in other areas, but right now I'm going to fix my mistake of ordering LMR-400 to the remote. Wow, that's not nearly as flexible as I was expecting and it takes up most of the interior of my small car. haha, whoops!

When the girlfriend/wife rides in the car, does she whine about the "Octopus" strangling her?

 

[Jeremiah Nelson]

Use the channel hack. I never use auto and manually select channel 21. I never have a problem with interference. Others swear by leaving it on auto.

 

[Jeremiah Nelson]

I do use the channel hack , and I am using 50 feet Lmr 400 connected directly to the remote with adaptor


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I wouldn't suggest using that heavy cable connected to the remote. Go down to 240 for that. To much stress on those little connectors with all the movement.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Well, I finally got my cable and had to laugh at the absurdity of it all when it was installed.

What I thought was interesting and it may simply be a disadvantage of omni's in my congested environment. I did two test flights: one with the DBS antenna w/3w sunhans and one with the omni's w/rf linx. Distance-wise they flew roughly the same, however the omni's had much more intermittent signal loss during the flight. It was much blurrier/lower quality for most of the flight when at approximately 4000'.

I'll probably have to test in other areas, but right now I'm going to fix my mistake of ordering LMR-400 to the remote. Wow, that's not nearly as flexible as I was expecting and it takes up most of the interior of my small car. haha, whoops!

Question: Do you run engine while testing/flying?

 

[JohnnyB]

Laughing... Need some N type 90's to pipe it in like plumbing.. couple offsets, a drop and connect RC with a union.. lol

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[JohnnyB]

Looks good on top of car cstout.. like the mounts.

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[IBV]

I installed those


TP-LINK TL-ANT2415D 2.4GHz 15dBi Outdoor Omni-directional Antenna, N Female connector, weather resistant https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004I5J2XY/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apip_V81BRCTmybq9t

And I got two sunhans 3 w golden amplifier

However the result is not satisfactory.

1- the range is very limited if I do not use the amplifiers , and I use the control signal before loosing the video feed.

2- if I use the amplifiers the control signal is very good , however the video feed deteriorate and I found all the channels have too much noise.

I understand that I can only use one amplifier on the control side , but how can I determine which side is the control one .


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I installed those


TP-LINK TL-ANT2415D 2.4GHz 15dBi Outdoor Omni-directional Antenna, N Female connector, weather resistant https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004I5J2XY/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apip_V81BRCTmybq9t

And I got two sunhans 3 w golden amplifier

However the result is not satisfactory.

1- the range is very limited if I do not use the amplifiers , and I use the control signal before loosing the video feed.

2- if I use the amplifiers the control signal is very good , however the video feed deteriorate and I found all the channels have too much noise.

I understand that I can only use one amplifier on the control side , but how can I determine which side is the control one .


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The antennas are not to blame. I used same but changed back to Tp link 12dbi because the15dbi that you use got a too narrow beam. Once above the signal is fast gone.
The second is that the Sunhans amps don't work well for house installations with long cables. The Rx amp should be right at the antenna. The Sunhans are otherwise not delivering gain, but increase noise to signal ratio. Get better amps like L Com or Rf linx and your problem is solved.
On your picture it also looks like that the antennas are not fully vertical. With a 15dbi omni you will leave the beam area really easily. Use simple maths and calculate your max height for 1km and you will be surprised....
Don't worry, you will get it working with some try and error. Unfortunately, this hobby isn't cheap...

 

[cstout]

Glad I could give you guys as much of a laugh as I gave myself. Time to exchange the cables! Thanks for the comments on the mounts. I made them with some scrap wood and put 80lb magnet feet on the bottom of them. Holds pretty sturdy! Once I get a less ludicrous cable I'll be able to clean up the runs with zip ties.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

The antennas are not to blame. I used same but changed back to Tp link 12dbi because the15dbi that you use got a too narrow beam. Once above the signal is fast gone.
The second is that the Sunhans amps don't work well for house installations with long cables. The Rx amp should be right at the antenna. The Sunhans are otherwise not delivering gain, but increase noise to signal ratio. Get better amps like L Com or Rf linx and your problem is solved.
On your picture it also looks like that the antennas are not fully vertical. With a 15dbi omni you will leave the beam area really easily. Use simple maths and calculate your max height for 1km and you will be surprised....
Don't worry, you will get it working with some try and error. Unfortunately, this hobby isn't cheap...

But I spent a dollar... Don't I get everything??

 

[IBV]

Attach small WIFI antennas to controller. Turn drone/controller on and stand 50/75 feet away from drone. Quickly unscrew one at a time the wifi antennas to see which is which. Don't allow much time to pass while antennas are disconnected, just long enough to tell what is control/video. Another method would be to cover each wifi antenna with foil while standing far away from drone, blocking signal to identify the video/control sides.

I think he's using Sunhans amps. They got some light indicating if there is signal or not. The Rx will not trigger the light unless there is too much crosstalk. Get antennas more apart for testing.

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

I think he's using Sunhans amps. They got some light indicating if there is signal or not. The Rx will not trigger the light unless there is too much crosstalk. Get antennas more apart for testing.

I am just now thinking of ant. spacing.. will test that too (writes furiously on a notebook)...

 

[cstout]

Question: Do you run engine while testing/flying?

No, this was with the car off and I ended up going the battery route anyway.


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[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Separate tripod mounted L-cons... 15 ft. apart...

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

No, this was with the car off and I ended up going the battery route anyway.


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Cell phone/other devices (car wifi/bluetooth gizmos off?

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

As soon as the wind dies down (25-35 mph) I plan on a dedicated litchi mission/route test to see L-con :sunhaus 4 watt/unbranded 8 watt/1.5 watt RF-Linx performance with LMR-400 cable in my city environment. With minimal adapters/ cable lengths/ Antenna direct from amps.

 

[cstout]

Anybody object to adding 3' of LMR-240 as an extension to relieve the stress at the remote end? Is there a better option?


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[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Anybody object to adding 3' of LMR-240 as an extension to relieve the stress at the remote end? Is there a better option?


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There is no such thing as remote stress.... (only local)...

 

[cstout]

There is no such thing as remote stress.... (only local)...

I mean physical stress on the tiny rpsma connections at the remote end.


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[Jeremiah Nelson]

Question: Do you run engine while testing/flying?

On

Anybody object to adding 3' of LMR-240 as an extension to relieve the stress at the remote end? Is there a better option?


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That's what I do no worries there. Mine is about 6 to 8 ft.

 

[cstout]

I'm not able to get out an about with the car so I decided to see what kind of range I could get from my back yard on channel 23. I was surprised at the penetration (should I be though, after all I've read here?) My back yard is down a hill and I'm completely surrounded by large, close together houses. At no point during my flight was there any line of sight. My first flight was dismal, losing video at 1000ft (but still had full bars for control). Unsure and a little rattled I re-seated the DC jacks on the amps and tilted the antennas at a very slight angle. Either of those could have really benefited my second flight. My second flight was a 10 minute flight around my entire neighborhood. The furthest distance during that 13123ft adventure was 2600ft. These antennas had to have passed through not only my entire house but over about 100 more in that 2600ft shot. I can't imagine how much further I could have gone if these were on my roof (these are for the car though, I need to keep reminding myself).

Can't wait to test more from the car...especially after having such great results on an unused channel. I had very few cut outs during that flight. Video seems to be the weakest link though, not exactly sure why. I keep losing video long before I lose control.