Stock P2V 2.7 KM (8,850') Long Range Test

[LMC]

Got the TP-Link TL-WA801ND in today and set it up. All worked fine as a stand alone repeater, but I was disappointed in my test results. More testing to do with something other than the stock antennas, but I am not very optimistic. I was losing video at less than 1000 feet. Good thing is It only set me back $23.

If you fly with stock 4 dBi antennas of TP-Link TL-WA801ND, it ends up with only 1 dBi gain (-3 dBi loss) due to mismatching with LHCP antennas on Vision camera. I bet the FPV range could be the same or even worse than stock repeater.

+1

 

[HaM-73]

Got the TP-Link TL-WA801ND in today and set it up. All worked fine as a stand alone repeater, but I was disappointed in my test results. More testing to do with something other than the stock antennas, but I am not very optimistic. I was losing video at less than 1000 feet. Good thing is It only set me back $23.

If you fly with stock 4 dBi antennas of TP-Link TL-WA801ND, it ends up with only 1 dBi gain (-3 dBi loss) due to mismatching with LHCP antennas on Vision camera. I bet the FPV range could be the same or even worse than stock repeater.

Yes, it is worse IMO than the stock, although I have modified the stock repeater for an external antenna connection. I plan to experiment with some other antennas on the TP-Link and will report back wih results.

 

[pault]

Re: Nexus 7 Clamp

Yes, link please Looks awesome !!

I bought a white and black one from tmall.com (China eBay in Chinese only)
http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a1 ... 2e1b2e1aff

There are so many choices with different colors and sizes. They are dirt cheap $2 each.

Did you get the
(2) single clip version - Grand opening 10.5cm-White
or
4) double clip version - super strong - White
and did you order in Chinese or English ?

 

[PVFlyer]

Re: Nexus 7 Clamp

Yes, link please Looks awesome !!

I bought a white and black one from tmall.com (China eBay in Chinese only)
http://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?spm=a1 ... 2e1b2e1aff

There are so many choices with different colors and sizes. They are dirt cheap $2 each.

Did you get the
(2) single clip version - Grand opening 10.5cm-White
or
4) double clip version - super strong - White
and did you order in Chinese or English ?

I picked (4) double clip as you can see from the pictures I posted earlier. I ordered in Chinese, and I 'm a native Chinese living in Hong Kong. I wonder whether they are shipping to overseas.

 

[pault]

Re: Nexus 7 Clamp

I picked (4) double clip as you can see from the pictures I posted earlier. I ordered in Chinese, and I 'm a native Chinese living in Hong Kong. I wonder whether they are shipping to overseas.

It is probably $2 on Taobao for the mainland market and $20 if they put on eBay for export
I will send a Google translate message to them and see what happens.
Thanks for your reply and the link

 

[PVFlyer]

Yes, it is worse IMO than the stock, although I have modified the stock repeater for an external antenna connection. I plan to experiment with some other antennas on the TP-Link and will report back wih results.

If you modded the stock repeater with external antenna, you may compare the result between TP-LINK and stock repeater with the same antenna. I bet the stock repeater may outperform TP-LINK with better sensitivity.

 

[HaM-73]

Yes, it is worse IMO than the stock, although I have modified the stock repeater for an external antenna connection. I plan to experiment with some other antennas on the TP-Link and will report back wih results.

If you modded the stock repeater with external antenna, you may compare the result between TP-LINK and stock repeater with the same antenna. I bet the stock repeater may outperform TP-LINK with better sensitivity.

Yes, IMO stock repeater is better than the TP-Link. Ordered these today.

http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index. ... ts_id=1252

http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index. ... cts_id=814

First will try them out with the Helical attached to my stock repeater, and the skew-planer on the pv2 camera. Hopefully this will be much better.

 

[Skipholiday]

No necessary reset ! But not important. Use Argtek AP I was the original inventor.
See my post http://bbs.5imx.com/bbs/forum.php?mod=v ... 697&extra=

Thanks for the insight. I don't use ARGtek and am unfamiliar with it. As I recalled a few months ago, I helped a friend of mine setting up ARGtek repeater. It was a bit troublesome. I suspected that is a fake ARGtek from China since the panel UI is all in Simplified Chinese (no English).

Ha! I'm Taiwanese live in Taipei . So I always use Traditional Chinese.

I had the ARGTek that claimed to have output of 1500mW, it was actually the older model ARG-1210 with an added antenna to make it appear to be the more powerful ARGTek-1211 that is indeed 1500mW.

The original ARGTek-1210 only had 2 antennas but had the pinout on the board to add another,
it only has output power of 1000mW and also has half the flash memory and half the ram of the real 1211

Here's a good video to see if you have a forgery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etB2aCkqU94&index=5&list=PLI6aUvDU8H8rCJx_QBYswp-wGpKq9dPBX

 

[LMC]

I had the ARGTek that claimed to have output of 1500mW, it was actually the older model ARG-1210 with an added antenna to make it appear to be the more powerful ARGTek-1211 that is indeed 1500mW.

The original ARGTek-1210 only had 2 antennas but had the pinout on the board to add another,
it only has output power of 1000mW and also has half the flash memory and half the ram of the real 1211

Here's a good video to see if you have a forgery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etB2aCkqU94&index=5&list=PLI6aUvDU8H8rCJx_QBYswp-wGpKq9dPBX

Use Argtek AP I was the original inventor.My AP is 2 antenna version . I open it and take some picture.
I will tell my friends this message about fake AP.
Thank you very much .

 

[LMC]

How to open it . Check it out.

 

[Skipholiday]

Indeed that is the 1210 1000mW output. Notice the solder pins for third antenna?
The copy is same except sold as 1500mW output with 3rd antenna added. Also has 4mb flash and 32mb ram opposed to 8mb flash and 64 ram for the real 1211

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[PVFlyer]

I had the ARGTek that claimed to have output of 1500mW, it was actually the older model ARG-1210 with an added antenna to make it appear to be the more powerful ARGTek-1211 that is indeed 1500mW.

The original ARGTek-1210 only had 2 antennas but had the pinout on the board to add another,
it only has output power of 1000mW and also has half the flash memory and half the ram of the real 1211

Here's a good video to see if you have a forgery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etB2aCkqU94&index=5&list=PLI6aUvDU8H8rCJx_QBYswp-wGpKq9dPBX

Thanks for the video. The one I did setup a few months ago was in white, which is definitely a fake one accordingly to the video. There is no wonder why the firmware looked crap as I mentioned in previous posts. FYI, fake ARG-1211 has BOTH white and black color. A black one does not always mean original.

Believe it or not in China, I found the fake ARG-1211 is 10X (or even more) sales volume than the original one in Taobao. The fake one is only $7 cheaper than original one. I think the problem is that customers are unable to distinguish fake and original. Customers make their purchase based on the sales volume and comments in Taobao.

 

[LMC]

I had the ARGTek that claimed to have output of 1500mW, it was actually the older model ARG-1210 with an added antenna to make it appear to be the more powerful ARGTek-1211 that is indeed 1500mW.

The original ARGTek-1210 only had 2 antennas but had the pinout on the board to add another,
it only has output power of 1000mW and also has half the flash memory and half the ram of the real 1211

Here's a good video to see if you have a forgery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etB2aCkqU94&index=5&list=PLI6aUvDU8H8rCJx_QBYswp-wGpKq9dPBX

Thanks for the video. The one I did setup a few months ago was in white, which is definitely a fake one accordingly to the video. There is no wonder why the firmware looked crap as I mentioned in previous posts. FYI, fake ARG-1211 has BOTH white and black color. A black one does not always mean original.

Believe it or not in China, I found the fake ARG-1211 is 10X (or even more) sales volume than the original one in Taobao. The fake one is only $7 cheaper than original one. I think the problem is that customers are unable to distinguish fake and original. Customers make their purchase based on the sales volume and comments in Taobao.

You are right !
My friend open his 5S black version and say "f*ck !!!!!" Board and IC chipset same to me.

 

[Pull_Up]

Hello long-range gurus. I bow to your superior knowledge and excellent homebrew achievements!

Now I've buttered you up I would like to ask an opinion of you.

I'm not after extreme range from my Vision, but I would just like to stabilize control and wifi (at the moment I tend to get a max of 1000ft for both, but it's variable sometimes drops out whilst I'm still visual with the aircraft which is what I'd like to improve).

So I have got one of these kits: http://horizonfpvantennas.mybigcommerce ... -full-kit/ which has matched antennas for ground and airside for max performance that are all LHCP. Now until my soldering skills are up to scratch, and until my gimbal arrives and I know about antenna placement, I'm wondering if I will see any benefit (or at least not see any downside) if I just fit the helicals on the ground side only for now? I notice that a lot of the mods in this thread are keeping the aircraft almost stock but I notice most effort is going into the wifi side as you all seem to have much better 5.8 performance than I do.

The big issue for me going forward with installing this full kit is going to be the receiver side as although the kit comes with pigtails, the stock antennas appear to be hot-glued or similar to the receiver board. So I either need a hint on how to take one off safely or I need to learn/find someone to do some fiddly splicing and soldering for me!

All information/hard knowledge/guesses/assumptions/speculations gratefully received.

 

[themosttoys]

Hello long-range gurus. I bow to your superior knowledge and excellent homebrew achievements!

Now I've buttered you up I would like to ask an opinion of you.

I'm not after extreme range from my Vision, but I would just like to stabilize control and wifi (at the moment I tend to get a max of 1000ft for both, but it's variable sometimes drops out whilst I'm still visual with the aircraft which is what I'd like to improve).

So I have got one of these kits: http://horizonfpvantennas.mybigcommerce ... -full-kit/ which has matched antennas for ground and airside for max performance that are all LHCP. Now until my soldering skills are up to scratch, and until my gimbal arrives and I know about antenna placement, I'm wondering if I will see any benefit (or at least not see any downside) if I just fit the helicals on the ground side only for now? I notice that a lot of the mods in this thread are keeping the aircraft almost stock but I notice most effort is going into the wifi side as you all seem to have much better 5.8 performance than I do.

The big issue for me going forward with installing this full kit is going to be the receiver side as although the kit comes with pigtails, the stock antennas appear to be hot-glued or similar to the receiver board. So I either need a hint on how to take one off safely or I need to learn/find someone to do some fiddly splicing and soldering for me!

All information/hard knowledge/guesses/assumptions/speculations gratefully received.

Hi Pull_Up,

Yes, just changing the ground side should be an improvement (for sure should not degrade.)

I've not messed with the receiver. Though my approach would be with an exacto knife, tweezers (to pull the silicone /glue away) , loop (magnification to see better) take your time and don't use too much force (before even trying to lift, get a good side to side wiggle going.)

Good luck and happy flying

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Pull_Up]

Thanks, that's encouraging to know. I'll do the ground side mods this weekend. Someone else who tried to remove the pigtail from the receiver said it was more like hot glue than the silicone stuff used on the tx, so I'll approach with caution and without a drink to steady my nerves as it won't steady my hand...!

 

[Skipholiday]

Thanks, that's encouraging to know. I'll do the ground side moss this weekend. Someone else who tried to remove the pigtail from the receiver said it was more like hot glue than the silicone stuff used on the tx, so I'll approach with caution and without a drink to steady my nerves as it won't steady my hand...!

Pull_Up you will have no issue removing the silicone. I believe those that have issues try to pull the ufl off before all the substance is removed.
I used a dental pick and an eXacto knife and removed it all without issue and the connector popped off as it should!
Mt video is already much better with the addition of a 7dbi omni and my range was never an issue but I added a small directional panel just in case.

 

[Pull_Up]

Well in that case maybe I'll have a closer look at the receiver at the same time, then! The supplied pigtail is nice and long so should give me plenty of options to fit the antenna to the aircraft in any way. I might test the full setup in any event before the gimbal arrives if the receiver isn't going to be as tricky as I thought. Thanks again!

 

[pault]

Well in that case maybe I'll have a closer look at the receiver at the same time, then! The supplied pigtail is nice and long so should give me plenty of options to fit the antenna to the aircraft in any way. I might test the full setup in any event before the gimbal arrives if the receiver isn't going to be as tricky as I thought. Thanks again!

It is one way to make sure your gimbal arrives because as soon as you have closed your shell having attached the wires you can guarantee the delivery email will arrive !

 

[Pull_Up]

True enough, although the gimbal doesn't require opening her up - plug and play: just the way I like it!

Right, off to tackle tx and range extender mods first, will report back with grateful thanks or shaking fists when I get to the receiver, depending upon outcome.