You can avoid (or very soon will be able to do) all the cable runs by using a wireless link to/from your primary radio/repeaters up on your house or car roof top which are in turn communicating with the drone. www.REDbirdRF.com
Sex, Lies and Roof Top Antennas!
- Thread starter paulgrenga
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True... trade-off's ... trade-off's.
If you want the lightbridge radio scheme then you must use wires to connect.
If you want a wireless system, then must use the WiFi type system; ie P3S, P2V+, P2V, FC40 (at this point in time and into the year 2016).
Both systems have realtime 720p video downlink.
If you want the lightbridge radio scheme then you must use wires to connect.
If you want a wireless system, then must use the WiFi type system; ie P3S, P2V+, P2V, FC40 (at this point in time and into the year 2016).
Both systems have realtime 720p video downlink.
I will be putting up an ad on this forum this month. hopefully by Dec 19th.How soon is soon?
I still have to shoot a final piece of the promo video. My bird has issues so DBS sent me a loaner to get the shot.
I'll begin advertising soon on Phantom Pilots:
- $189 (retail) for the Phantom 2 Vision+ version
- $209 (retail) for the Phantom 3 Standard version
Today we had near 70 degree low wind weather in Southern Ohio.
A great day to to be out shooting more promo video.
Today was all about a two man team concept:
- Car Driver
- Drone Operator
The wireless repeater-booster system was mounted ontop the car using a GoPro type suction mount.
Working together, a two man team can cover a lot of ground.
Gone is the traditional routine of setting up, taking off, and returning back to the take off point.
Take off at Point A and land at Point B miles away.
Just my two cents, you can have all the xmit power you want on your ground station, but the bird is limited to what it has - unless you put a new and more powerful wifi unit on it. Your ground station receiver sensitivity will need to be increased as well.
Now, if you were able to set up a directional antenna (rx & tx) at your ground station AND it could be kept aiming toward your drone you will see a nice range...but then you are up against the battery life...you can fly 5 miles away but not have enough juice to get home. The drone has omni-directional antennae (rx & tx), so their power is distributed 360 degrees (not equally either, because of dispersion issues) which further limits the range.
In a nutshell, the bottleneck on xmit power is in the drone, not the ground station.
I'm not even bringing up bandwidth...how much information can travel so far and reliably? telemetry data should be no problem, but FPV at a sufficient framerate and resolution will be a major sticking point.
thoughts?
Now, if you were able to set up a directional antenna (rx & tx) at your ground station AND it could be kept aiming toward your drone you will see a nice range...but then you are up against the battery life...you can fly 5 miles away but not have enough juice to get home. The drone has omni-directional antennae (rx & tx), so their power is distributed 360 degrees (not equally either, because of dispersion issues) which further limits the range.
In a nutshell, the bottleneck on xmit power is in the drone, not the ground station.
I'm not even bringing up bandwidth...how much information can travel so far and reliably? telemetry data should be no problem, but FPV at a sufficient framerate and resolution will be a major sticking point.
thoughts?
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I have flown 16648 feet with this mod on a tripod while I was in a car and true to your statement, the limitation now is battery so the next thing is a battery mod.
Nice!
Was that one way? or 8000' (about 1-1/2 miles) out and then back? What altitude was your bird flying at the farthest distance?
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GadgetGuy
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Jeremiah, how did your air side video amp from Tony for the P3 work out? Everyone else I have heard from regretted doing the mod, for a variety of reasons. I was considering it as well, but Tony said it was incompatible with a battery mod, which defeated its purpose for me. Sounds like I may have dodged a bullet.
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Hey Chris. 100% correct on the cable. LMR is the way to go, especially at these frequencies. I use it for HF also, way less lossy than rg58 or rg8.New the to forum here... Got a P2v+ on Friday and love it!
To answer your question, I'm also a HAM... K3BMW for anyone else that is a HAM as well. I can tell you with very good certainty that your weak link will be the RG58. Quick lesson in cabling. Spend your money on a good cable and a good antenna. Signal loss is very really and I've spent countless hours and money trying to get around buying good cable and I can tell you from experience its not worth it.
So long story short.... As you go up in frequency, you have more DB loss in a cable. RG58 is really only used in mobile installs of a radio where you're operating under 900mhz and you're making a cable run of 15' or less in my opinion. If you're going to run 50', you will want a bare minimum of LMR400 cable or higher. The other option is shortening your cable run. At 2.4 ghz and 5.8 ghz, your DB loss over 50' of RG58 is will almost make it impossible to transmit and receive. You'll be better off just using the stock controller and range extender from inside the house (obviously that won't get you very far....)
I love the idea, but you'll definitely want some good cable or make your cable run less then 10'.
Just my 2 cents. You guys can teach me about my new Phantom and how to modify it and I'll teach you all you want to know about radios, cables and antennas
73's!
Chris - K3BMW
73, de KI6TG
Chuck
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Sorry to hear that, but it removes all doubt in my mind that a birdside mod might be the solution to improving FPV stability at long range. Too many issues! It also reinforces how important the native power output from the birdside video antennas is, which is why I acquired 3 of the original motor .746 watt W323 P3P's over the last four months to back up my P4, as the W323A and W323B models with the new motors can't keep up at 18% and 30% less video power output, even though they deliver 10% more flight time. Thanks for the confirmation.
A completely different way to get the same objective might be to separate the transmitter/receiver hardware from the control stick / switch stuff. Then put the high frequency part of the remote controller up on the pole and bring just the control stick / switch wiring into the house or car. When I had the remote apart to do antenna upgrades I noticed there were only like 8 plain wires that connected to all the switches and sticks. All kinds of possibilities here. Put the remote on a pan tilt base with a zoom camera to see where its pointing, etc.
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Interesting stuff!
I know this is an old thread but has anyone done any work with more modern units like the P4P?
It is dual band which I suppose would need 2 air side TX mods.
Can you also put external receive mods on the drone side of things?
Its digital, so amplification without noise is possible.
Have air side amplifiers reduced in size/weight recently?
Or is the whole point moot because battery technology limits range and all you need to do is mod the ground side with a bigger receive antenna and Tx booster?
I know this is an old thread but has anyone done any work with more modern units like the P4P?
It is dual band which I suppose would need 2 air side TX mods.
Can you also put external receive mods on the drone side of things?
Its digital, so amplification without noise is possible.
Have air side amplifiers reduced in size/weight recently?
Or is the whole point moot because battery technology limits range and all you need to do is mod the ground side with a bigger receive antenna and Tx booster?
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GadgetGuy
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The P4P requires no mods. In Auto 5.8Ghz, the control range exceeds 5 miles in hightly urban areas at 100 feet AGL with clear LOS! Only limiting factor is the battery, which at 30 mph using OA turned on, in P mode, will deliver 23 minutes, for over 10 miles under even mild winds. Get one!
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What if you are in Europe? The power limits are a joke. Power limits are attenuated in software, based on position. You can piss further.
It isn't 5 miles that is for sure. Try 500 yards
Software FCC hacks are Darwinian and hence subject to forced updates.
We need a reliable hardware solution where the signal strength can be modified at both ends and both frequency ranges to give a sensible usable range when given low power inputs.
It isn't 5 miles that is for sure. Try 500 yards
Software FCC hacks are Darwinian and hence subject to forced updates.
We need a reliable hardware solution where the signal strength can be modified at both ends and both frequency ranges to give a sensible usable range when given low power inputs.
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GadgetGuy
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The FCC hacks are not subject to forced updates. Updates can be disabled. However, the 2.4Ghz antenna mods also work much better in Europe under CE, where the P4P power limits are reversed: 2.4Ghz is stronger than 5.8Ghz.
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