On the Phantom, I have a Zenmuse/Gopro combo + mini iOSD + generic Boscam TS351 200mW 5.8Ghz transmitter. On the ground, I'm using the Black Pearl all-in-one. I'm using the BlueBeam Ultra antenna set.
On the ground from about 5-10 feet away I've got an ok signal, but some sort of visible ghosty lines moving through picture. After takeoff, once I get maybe 150 feet away the picture gets REALLY crap, pretty unusable. It mostly flickers but I can see the rough shape of things. It's nowhere near good enough to read the OSD unless I let the let the Phantom hover and then concentrate for few seconds. Even then, it's a crapshoot. Forget trying to see a picture. All this is line of sight, at about an 100 feet up and about 100 feet out. So far I'm testing on my street, so there are houses and such around.
This feels like an unreasonably short distance for this gear. I'm pretty sure it's not the wiring. Today I re-did the connectors and soldered the wiring for real. It's still not perfect, so I could be loosing signal or picking up interference there, but it doesn't feel like the problem.
I've tried various antenna positions, and I today borrowed a 3-turn helical (also circularly polarized). The helical shows a better signal at the same distance. So that's good sign, but I didn't expect to need 7dBi gain antenna to make this work out to 150 feet. I expected to go 1000 feet away and still frame a shot. I'm using more antenna connectors than I would like (RP-SMA to SMA on the tx and the receiver) so there's some loss there. I'm wondering if the problem is the transmitter.
Have others had luck with the generic 200mW Boscam gear? Do I need 500 or 600mW? Would going to an ImmersionRC tx help? Any other tips? Do I need to be careful about shielding the connections on the Phantom? It's all kind of jammed in there with the mini iOSD and TX stuck to the bottom of the Phantom behind the gimbal.
I'm really frustrated, any help would be appreciated.
On the ground from about 5-10 feet away I've got an ok signal, but some sort of visible ghosty lines moving through picture. After takeoff, once I get maybe 150 feet away the picture gets REALLY crap, pretty unusable. It mostly flickers but I can see the rough shape of things. It's nowhere near good enough to read the OSD unless I let the let the Phantom hover and then concentrate for few seconds. Even then, it's a crapshoot. Forget trying to see a picture. All this is line of sight, at about an 100 feet up and about 100 feet out. So far I'm testing on my street, so there are houses and such around.
This feels like an unreasonably short distance for this gear. I'm pretty sure it's not the wiring. Today I re-did the connectors and soldered the wiring for real. It's still not perfect, so I could be loosing signal or picking up interference there, but it doesn't feel like the problem.
I've tried various antenna positions, and I today borrowed a 3-turn helical (also circularly polarized). The helical shows a better signal at the same distance. So that's good sign, but I didn't expect to need 7dBi gain antenna to make this work out to 150 feet. I expected to go 1000 feet away and still frame a shot. I'm using more antenna connectors than I would like (RP-SMA to SMA on the tx and the receiver) so there's some loss there. I'm wondering if the problem is the transmitter.
Have others had luck with the generic 200mW Boscam gear? Do I need 500 or 600mW? Would going to an ImmersionRC tx help? Any other tips? Do I need to be careful about shielding the connections on the Phantom? It's all kind of jammed in there with the mini iOSD and TX stuck to the bottom of the Phantom behind the gimbal.
I'm really frustrated, any help would be appreciated.