Aircraft Antenna Mod

[CyberNate]

For a specific example, this unit is $47 and will perform exactly the same as cybernates $173 stylish variant

2.4 GHz 14 dBi Flat Panel Range Extender Antenna - 4ft SMA Male Connector - RE14P-SM

The 4hawks antenna supports 5.8GHz as well according to specs which is important for spark. Would this cheaper version work with 5.8GHz?

 

[Brojon]

This post is for @Brojon , Unlike the familiar products we see in this forum, these guys publish tested performance results of their products. Examples below:

http://www.l-com.com/multimedia/datasheets/DS_RE14P-XX.PDF

http://www.l-com.com/Redirect.aspx?file=~/multimedia/eng_drawings/RE14P.pdf

THAT'S what I'm talking about!
Seriously - those are the kind of specs I would expect to see.
I'm about 99% sure the vendors are just packaging commercial products like these but they refuse to publish specs relying instead on "word of mouth" and "customer satisfaction" type smoke and mirrors. I still maintain you can't make claims without testing. If you tested tell us the results.

 

[dirtybum]

For a specific example, this unit is $47 and will perform exactly the same as cybernates $173 stylish variant

2.4 GHz 14 dBi Flat Panel Range Extender Antenna - 4ft SMA Male Connector - RE14P-SM

I agree bean, these cheap Chinese panels as we used to call them, can be a cheaper alternative.
In fact when the Horizon Antennas put out the terminator panel, the one I still use, it didn't take long for us phantom guys to figure out he was selling $200 panels that he bought off a Chinese company for $20. And even without alterations those CCP's for 20 bucks did perform, but they did not perform near as good at extreme ranges. After private conversations with the owner of Horizon. He admitted that he was using the cheaper panels as a base, but rebuilding them and fine-tuning them, because the spacing inside was incorrect and basically junk and inconsistent. A friend of mine who's not on the forum much anymore,procharged97, was able to take these panels apart and space them properly, to where they perform 50 percent better.
So all these easily available panels are probably just as good as some of the maxxUAV stuff, i've tested those cheap panels straight out of the box and they're not as good as the fine-tuned panels.
Even the very famous maxxrange panel has some inconsistent spacing compared to the ones that have been customized. That's why I lost connection on one-way trips with the maxxrange at 85,000 feet and was still able to go past 100,000 with the customized horizon antenna.
Horizon even took apart a max range and changed the spacing and got better results.
Anyways, long rant but it's all about the spacing is my point

 

[Brojon]

You REALLY want some range build a Yagi antenna. Here's plans.

Easy to Build WIFI 2.4GHz Yagi Antenna

 

[beanbubba]

I agree bean, these cheap Chinese panels as we used to call them, can be a cheaper alternative.
In fact when the Horizon Antennas put out the terminator panel, the one I still use, it didn't take long for us phantom guys to figure out he was selling $200 panels that he bought off a Chinese company for $20. And even without alterations those CCP's for 20 bucks did perform, but they did not perform near as good at extreme ranges. After private conversations with the owner of Horizon. He admitted that he was using the cheaper panels as a base, but rebuilding them and fine-tuning them, because the spacing inside was incorrect and basically junk and inconsistent. A friend of mine who's not on the forum much anymore,procharged97, was able to take these panels apart and space them properly, to where they perform 50 percent better.
So all these easily available panels are probably just as good as some of the maxxUAV stuff, i've tested those cheap panels straight out of the box and they're not as good as the fine-tuned panels.
Even the very famous maxxrange panel has some inconsistent spacing compared to the ones that have been customized. That's why I lost connection on one-way trips with the maxxrange at 85,000 feet and was still able to go past 100,000 with the customized horizon antenna.
Horizon even took apart a max range and changed the spacing and got better results.
Anyways, long rant but it's all about the spacing is my point

That's a fair analysis dirtybum, but even makes me more curious why they don't publish their stats. If they did get 20% more range that means they figured out how to increase the dBi gain and that's something you would think dealers would want to tell the world!! Look at us, we took a 14 dBi antenna and with our awesome engineers we now get 18dBi gain, buy our stuff, it is better!!

That was my only point in this thought experiment

 

[mnoutdoors]

You REALLY want some range build a Yagi antenna. Here's plans.

Easy to Build WIFI 2.4GHz Yagi Antenna

Why build when you can buy one for 10-12 bucks on fleabay?

 

[lolo780]

Why build when you can buy one for 10-12 bucks on fleabay?

Has anyone tried one of the $12 yagis?

RP SMA 2.4GHz 25 DBi Yagi Wireless WLAN WiFi Antenna For Modem PCI Card Router Promotion-in Fiber Optic Equipments from Cellphones & Telecommunications on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

 

[mnoutdoors]

Many Yagi antennas need to be amplified to work......... just food for thought, I’m working on a system now I will test in the near future

 

[beanbubba]

I made another variant if you want to leverage the factory port/left antenna. There is nothing on the planet at this weight and is almost a rounding error in overall weight of the aircraft for the signal boost you get when flying in unfavorable RF conditions.

This is my new daily flyer!

 

[Brojon]

Maybe I missed something but what am I looking at?

 

[mnoutdoors]

I guess it doubles as a pot scrubber ?

 

[lolo780]

Maybe I missed something but what am I looking at?

AC side amp to improve HD signal. A boosted RC works great, but isn't much use if you can't receive the AC signal cleanly due to interference and or obstacles.

 

[mnoutdoors]

AC side amp to improve HD signal. A boosted RC works great, but isn't much use if you can't receive the AC signal cleanly due to interference and or obstacles.

How many watt is it ?

 

[beanbubba]

How many watt is it ?

4W

 

[lolo780]

4W

Could the board fit under the factory battery if you cut away some of the label area? That would be cool if it was all internal and used the stock antenna.

 

[beanbubba]

Could the board fit under the factory battery if you cut away some of the label area? That would be cool if it was all internal and used the stock antenna.

Good idea. The amp interfered with the compass and GPS at every other location I tired it. But never tried under the battery, and this is actually in theory the best place to put it due to the shielding characteristics of the battery material.

 

[lolo780]

Bare board. Started at 180g.

I think this was made to fit in a Mavic.

 

[beanbubba]

Bare board. Started at 180g.

I think this was made to fit in a Mavic.

I hope you can figure out the heat dissipation and RF interference issues. But you have figured everything else so far, good luck!

 

[lolo780]

Just guessed on a heat sink. It gets plenty of airflow laying flat behind the front grill.

The core board has a large shield so I put the component side facing that and ground plane up to shield the ESC board from possible interference.

Quick range check in the rain.
I wrapped the core board ribbon cable in foil and tape for shielding and physical protection as it runs beside the rf output side.

I think this amp may be noisy because with the antenna up high on the rear center where it's always worked, GPS was sluggish and half the normal sats. Moving it to the bottom of the rear motor or top and side of the battery restored normal GPS function.

 

[lolo780]

To give this a challenging test I picked a ridiculous flight path. The lights of the bridge towers can be seen just over the warehouse roof to the left of the red dot. Mountain peaks to the left mean staying on course and aiming through a narrow RF window.

Flight path.

About 40m off the ground, a lot of interference. Perhaps a center top mounted antenna can reduce interference from below? Or an 8W RC booster.

4x4 signal at the limit. Estimated ground level 206m