Will Carbon Fiber Interfere with Transmitter Wifi Signal?

[ccbdav]

I found a CF mount I had stashed in my FPV parts bin and decided I was finally going to replace the crummy plastic phone mount on my P3S transmitter. The mount has two legs that connect to the metal bar directly in front of (what I assume to be) the wifi antennae. Does anyone know if CF will interfere with the signal? I found a couple of threads about CF props, but that was all about GPS on the bird and not relevant to my question. I know, I know: I will go out to test it myself soon but it may be a week or so before I have time to fly again.

Below is a picture showing exactly what I'm talking about. I have also included a few extra pictures of the nearly completed project of a crudely-fashioned sunshade (I need to cut some vinyl trim to cover up the electrical tape and make the edges straight, and I may design and 3D-print a better looking alternative to the nylon straps currently attaching the shade to the case). I'm not going to waste anymore time on the whole setup if the mount is going to cause interference.

I used styrene to make the shade, some old GoPro hardware to mount a dedicated phone case, and the CF mount mentioned above. It's rock-solid, imminently adjustable, and everything assembles and disassembles very quickly and easily. Plus, it was all free due to the fact that I'm a hoarder. I think it turned out well enough, at least for now. I will probably pick up this tablet holder for when I want to utilize my iPad Air rather than my 6 Plus, and it will also be easily hot-swappable with this mount.

Anyway, any answer to my question regarding CF would be greatly appreciated!

[Carbon fiber mount--will it interfere with antennae behind the warning?]

[Without sunshade.]

[Without shade rear.]

[With sunshade.]

[Sunshade rear.]

 

[With The Birds]

All i can tell you is that if the little antenna from the RX in RC Helis arent brought clear outside the CF side plates of the frame you end up with major glitches in flight. So, yes CF does block signal at 2.4ghz very effectively. In your case it seems the profile of the mounts will be unlikely to obstruct the signal to a significant extent. I havent seen your implementation done by anyone else this will likley be a unique experiment. If you are flying with ac direct in front it would seem very unlikley you will have an issue.

 

[ccbdav]

Thank you for the quick and informative response, With The Birds! I always try to keep my remote facing my bird so hopefully it won't be an issue. I will just break down and buy an Inspire mount at some point, but I was hoping I might be able to obviate that little expense with this setup.

Again, thanks for your response, and I'll be sure to post back with my results once I have the opportunity to fly again...hopefully it won't result in a catastrophic failure!

EDIT: This actually got me thinking--the micros I used to build were all built on CF frames with the FC (flight controller) and receiver/vid transmitter mounted directly to the frame and those little beasties never seemed to lose signal. However, I wasn't flying those 1/2 mile to 1 mile out, and they weren't transmitting via wifi so I suppose that anecdote is irrelevant. IIRC, though, the vid transmitter on the micro was broadcasting 5.8ghz to Fatsharks, and the TX was broadcasting at 2.4ghz. Is the fact that the Phantom tx is broadcasting wifi for the vid the real problem with possible CF interference?

 

[Deleted member 61170]

This will affect your range - to what extent I do not know - but it will. 2.4 GHz is attenuated by basically everything.

Nice setup though!! If you drill a couple of holes through the housing, you could mount the antennae externally which would fix your problem. It will void your warranty but I guess given that you've already started modding your controller, it will only be a matter of time before the bigger modifications come along

 

[ccbdav]

Thanks for the reply! I'll take two warnings as reason enough to not use the cf mount. I'll go ahead and design a 3D printed mount using the specs of this one to replace the cf with abs. I'll work on this tomorrow and post back with a link to the stl in case anyone wants to give it a try.

And yeah, I'm trying to avoid voiding the warranty for now, but who knows how much longer that's going to last!

 

[Deleted member 61170]

Avoid putting the mounts in front of the antennas. Anything in front of them is bad!

 

[Deleted member 61170]

EDIT: I forgot to add the link to this study.

Thanks again for the advice, @jackhadrill! I didn't realize 2.4ghz was so susceptible to attenuation. Then again, I'm just an archaeologist with an affinity for technology who obviously appreciates and heeds advice from more knowledgable folks like you. /bow

As you very well know, the stock PS3 phone mount (made of ABS, I assume) is in front of the "Do not cover" warning area when in use, so I thought attenuation wouldn't be an issue if I designed my new mount (printed in PLA) to sit askew of the wifi antennae equally (see images below). If the crummy 7mm thick stock phone holder from DJI doesn't hamper signal strength when mounted in front of one antenna, I figured two 3mm thick arms spaced equally wouldn't interfere much at all either.

Turns out the printed parts didn't affect range at all despite being almost directly in front of the antennae. I'm going to try the the CF mount again in the morning just to see what happens.

I'm not a distance chaser, just don't want to lose my bird.

View attachment 59563


View attachment 59564

Awesome mod, love it!