Flying from inside house or car anyone?

Sim597 · May 22, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
Yes, after experiencing the complete loss of signal, if your Loss of Signal settings are correct, they are designed to restore signal, by first elevating, and then flying closer, as needed, so you can cancel RTH and move on. However, what I really worry about are the other drones out there, that I could run into, that can't be seen, until it's too late to take evasive action. I've seen two in the last month while reviewing the 4K video afterwards, frame by frame. "Whoa! What was that streak?" Last week, one came out of nowhere, head-on, and missed me by a 5 foot separation! The one before that was about 25 feet away. Be careful out there!

Wow that's a lot of traffic, I have an app that no one ever seems to be using to show others your flying.

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MasterBlaster · May 22, 2016

Sim597 said:
Wow that's a lot of traffic, I have an app that no one ever seems to be using to show others your flying.

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What is the name of the app you are referring to?

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Sim597 · May 22, 2016

Ok, so, here is the deal, the 3w Sunhans are awesome, and can tell they're working because the ground floor noise levels are really perked up now. The problem is, LOS even with the big huge antenna, it's the Video downlink that suffers. My aircraft signal is pegged, PEGGED! But my location using the huge Itilite is still in the weeds, so to speak. So, amazingly at closer ranges, LOS isn't needed, I can be at the lake, 3-400' away, and fly it and land with a bunch of trees and my house in the way, and my signal stays good. But at distance, now it won't go RTH because it's Getting 5/5 control signal, I've lost total downlink on the video side. I just don't see how the booster helps on that receiving only side, maybe, J, how far out can you go, in all directions and never loose HD link? I'm kinda bummed. And worried, worried that my plans that put a couple 5' Hawking's on my roof won't be as good as yours Jerimiah

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Sim597 · May 22, 2016

MasterBlaster said:
What is the name of the app you are referring to?

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Oh, lemme look for it, it's in my phone here

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Sim597 · May 22, 2016

MasterBlaster said:
What is the name of the app you are referring to?

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I must have deleted it, I'll look again on the store, but I think it wasn't very good, or I Would have kept it

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Sim597 · May 23, 2016

Good info here
http://wireless.fcc.gov/outreach/2004broadbandforum/comments/YDI_understandingdb.pdf

GadgetGuy · May 23, 2016

Sim597 said:
Ok, so, here is the deal, the 3w Sunhans are awesome, and can tell they're working because the ground floor noise levels are really perked up now. The problem is, LOS even with the big huge antenna, it's the Video downlink that suffers. My aircraft signal is pegged, PEGGED! But my location using the huge Itilite is still in the weeds, so to speak. So, amazingly at closer ranges, LOS isn't needed, I can be at the lake, 3-400' away, and fly it and land with a bunch of trees and my house in the way, and my signal stays good. But at distance, now it won't go RTH because it's Getting 5/5 control signal, I've lost total downlink on the video side. I just don't see how the booster helps on that receiving only side, maybe, J, how far out can you go, in all directions and never loose HD link? I'm kinda bummed. And worried, worried that my plans that put a couple 5' Hawking's on my roof won't be as good as yours Jerimiah

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Booster on the receiving side is like a hearing aid, but the FPV from the aircraft is always the weak link, which is why for long range flying, the aircraft video power output is critical.

GadgetGuy · May 23, 2016

Sim597 said:
Wow that's a lot of traffic, I have an app that no one ever seems to be using to show others your flying.

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I wouldn't use it either. I doubt it would show the current location of either drone. Most likely, it uses the RC location, which in my case is some 3-4 miles away from the drone. That won't help avoid any near miss.

GadgetGuy · May 23, 2016

Any thoughts on putting a homemade windsurfer onto the car mounted omni antenna to further improve range, if you are only flying forward in a 180° plane, instead of needing a full 360° signal coverage? It will ruin the clean lines, but anything for more range, while sitting comfortably and discreetly in your car!

Jeremiah Nelson · May 23, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
Any thoughts on putting a homemade windsurfer onto the car mounted omni antenna to further improve range, if you are only flying forward in a 180° plane, instead of needing a full 360° signal coverage? It will ruin the clean lines, but anything for more range, while sitting comfortably and discreetly in your car!

I've thought about that but the lcoms already draw attention. How far u want to go exactly?

John Locke · May 23, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
Booster on the receiving side is like a hearing aid, but the FPV from the aircraft is always the weak link, which is why for long range flying, the aircraft video power output is critical.

This implies you might be thinking of amplifying the video transmit signal at the craft. Be careful what you wish for. If you boost the craft video signal you could potentially start losing your control signal first, triggering RTH. Is that what you want?

If I can get out to about 3miles reliably (stock battery can't go much further) without boosting the craft video signal, I'm good. I'd rather be humble with 3mi and have control of the craft, always losing video first as a warning, versus flying out 3-4 miles, having video, but losing control signal all the time to trigger RTH. I think that's a recipe for disaster, however the few times my RTH kicked in, it returned to papa without a hitch. The problem is waiting and waiting for RTH and to regain control ages me.

GadgetGuy · May 23, 2016

Jeremiah Nelson said:
I've thought about that but the lcoms already draw attention. How far u want to go exactly?

Actually, I was originally wondering more about the rooftop setup. I never fly behind my house. I only fly to the front. Also, it's less about further extending the control range, and more about improving the video stability at long distance, which is the weak link from the aircraft, without an amp on the transmitted video signal.

GadgetGuy · May 23, 2016

John Locke said:
This implies you might be thinking of amplifying the video transmit signal at the craft. Be careful what you wish for. If you boost the craft video signal you could potentially start losing your control signal first, triggering RTH. Is that what you want?

If I can get out to about 3miles reliably (stock battery can't go much further) without boosting the craft video signal, I'm good. I'd rather be humble with 3mi and have control of the craft, always losing video first as a warning, versus flying out 3-4 miles, having video, but losing control signal all the time to trigger RTH. I think that's a recipe for disaster, however the few times my RTH kicked in, it returned to papa without a hitch. The problem is waiting and waiting for RTH and to regain control ages me.

No, I already went far enough down that path. No birdside video mods. Just improved FPV reception on the transmitter side with the best amped antenna hookup possible. I've already had the P4 modded for external batteries. I can now fly at 100% throttle with OAS off, and still get 23 minutes instead of 12 minutes! Waiting to see what the max flight time will be with OAS on. Was 25 minutes. Should be up to 35 minutes with two 2800 mAh MaxAmps strapped on.

Jeremiah Nelson · May 23, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
No, I already went far enough down that path. No birdside video mods. Just improved FPV reception on the transmitter side with the best amped antenna hookup possible. I've already had the P4 modded for external batteries. I can now fly at 100% throttle with OAS off, and still get 23 minutes instead of 12 minutes! Waiting to see what the max flight time will be with OAS on. Was 25 minutes. Should be up to 35 minutes with two 2800 mAh MaxAmps strapped on.

I need to do this. Who did it for u?

GadgetGuy · May 23, 2016

Jeremiah Nelson said:
I need to do this. Who did it for u?

Paul at www.FPVCustoms.com
$250 including return priority shipping.
DJI PHANTOM 4 BATTERY MOD( NO EXTERNAL BATTERIES INCLUDED) ...INCLUDES PRIORITY RETURN SHIPPING
You'll still need your own external batteries, and a charger for them.
Paul does a nice clean install, and the needed battery plates also come already installed when you get it back, along with Velcro straps, and Velcro pieces to attach the batteries to them.

Sim597 · May 24, 2016

John Locke said:
This implies you might be thinking of amplifying the video transmit signal at the craft. Be careful what you wish for. If you boost the craft video signal you could potentially start losing your control signal first, triggering RTH. Is that what you want?

If I can get out to about 3miles reliably (stock battery can't go much further) without boosting the craft video signal, I'm good. I'd rather be humble with 3mi and have control of the craft, always losing video first as a warning, versus flying out 3-4 miles, having video, but losing control signal all the time to trigger RTH. I think that's a recipe for disaster, however the few times my RTH kicked in, it returned to papa without a hitch. The problem is waiting and waiting for RTH and to regain control ages me.

But, well to me it doesn't work that way. A lot of us on here already have the boosters (I just got one brand new hawking for $50.99 Amazon, it was $45 plus shipping, couldn't pass it up) so, we already boost the transmit, so, my FC signal stays basically pegged in terribke conditions. I totally agree, I'd love to boost the bird side downlink, and hope someone does it so I can follow.

Sim597 · May 24, 2016

I bought one antenna Jerimiah! Lol Amazon has them for $63 prime, but one vendor had one left for $45 +$5 for shipping, $50 for a brand new HG9O is a pretty good price. **** I wish I wasn't a **** disabled dude. I totally want them on my chimney, but looks like a may have to set a mast close to the house, and hope nobody complains, I just want my kit to work 75% as good as yours if be happy, I may be about 7'-10' higher even (you have a low roofline) I have the worst pitch too, as steep as they come of course! But it's the 90' trees and area that kills me.

Sim597 · May 24, 2016

GadgetGuy said:
Actually, I was originally wondering more about the rooftop setup. I never fly behind my house. I only fly to the front. Also, it's less about further extending the control range, and more about improving the video stability at long distance, which is the weak link from the aircraft, without an amp on the transmitted video signal.

I'm moving in this direction. The big problem is the amp doesn't seem to help "grab" the weak transmit downlink. I can lose video, or it'll stay at one bar, and have top shelf F/C signal. Also, with minimum testing I've both went 1.5 miles in a bad area in my backyard without a LOS, or true decent LoS, but I've also lost downlink relatively close ( has to be due to noise) where an unboosted downlink was never lost. I'm thinking about pushing the 5' hawking thru channel 2 up high maybe alone, or first, because that's certainly the weak point now

Jeremiah Nelson · May 24, 2016

Sim597 said:
I bought one antenna Jerimiah! Lol Amazon has them for $63 prime, but one vendor had one left for $45 +$5 for shipping, $50 for a brand new HG9O is a pretty good price. **** I wish I wasn't a **** disabled dude. I totally want them on my chimney, but looks like a may have to set a mast close to the house, and hope nobody complains, I just want my kit to work 75% as good as yours if be happy, I may be about 7'-10' higher even (you have a low roofline) I have the worst pitch too, as steep as they come of course! But it's the 90' trees and area that kills me.

Awesome. Can you hire someone to mount it for u?

Sim597 · May 24, 2016

Jeremiah Nelson said:
Awesome. Can you hire someone to mount it for u?

Yeah, I mean, I have some buddies I guess I'm d rather put some money In their pocket, but would love a pro to come out and me not have to walk them thru it, you know. I mean, it's about an hour of work, with me helping from the ground and I can go into the attic.
Here's the antenna

bam!

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