11,115ft Flight with stock antenna hack

[DBS]

Treasure Coast Phantom Swarm 2014 went off today without a hitch... (if you discount the fact that Jayson Hanes AR Drone 2.0 got buried head first into the asphalt :lol

We had some real good times out there this morning with our hardware and kinda took turns going out long for some distance flying... I was using my home built hack job of an antenna panel http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2186181 and was surprised to see how far I got with stock wifi antennas and a 14dBi mini patch for the control signal...

Used RC Taco Vision + Utility Pro for some FPV boost and ended up with 2.1 miles when it was all said and done...

I know... screen shot or it didn't happen right?

We had a great time and made new friends ...

FLPTFLYER brought out an awesome water proof frame with all DJI Phantom electronics and GoPro FPV... really nice

We had a couple AR Drones out there ... lost one in the tall grass but hunted it down with P2V+ FPV ... and as I mentioned earlier the other one slammed into the pavement and did an epic tumble spewing parts down the road ...

And then for the Phantom 2 Vision + main events... we had three of them there in attendance... ok... so it wasn't exactly a Swarm ... but we sure did have a fun time out there!!!

mede8er had his tripod flight station all rigged up bu got hammered by some unknown control signal issues that limited his overall range... He probly went home a bit frustrated but we figured out some things that may be wrong with his controller (maybe)
next time we do this... if your problems still seem to be nagging... leave the controller with me and I'll tear it down and see what I can figure out

Jayson Haynes managed a personal best of 6,100ft with no mods , no antennas , and no booster app... (friggin amazing)
He's got one of those lucky setups that came straight out of the box running perfect... has almost 250 flights and never had a problem or even had the screws taken out yet for routine tinkering...

Look forward to meeting with my new buddies again soon and trying some more P2V+ (and friends) fun runs and FPV shenanigans :ugeek:

 

[mede8er]

Thanks again for hosting this dude, and congrats to you and Jayson's personal bests!!! A great time was had by all....

As for me, well ya learn something new every day... :mrgreen:

 

[DBS]

We gadda do it again when it cools down a bit ... but in the between time me and you can get your signal issues sorted out... Back when I was still flying AR Drones ... I started my long distance attempts in early October and never got a seriously huge distance till December 16th... sometimes it just works out that way :|

My REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tag should be changed to PRESS THE **** RECORD BUTTON!!!

 

[DBS]

Jayson Hanes posted his 6,000ft long shot with no mods to the Phantom... and no boost app involved :shock:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xxkB2l8amc[/youtube]

 

[flyNfrank]

Awesome write up DBS! Makes me want to join you guys sometime.

 

[Jayson Hanes]

Hah! I had no idea you created a new thread.. by the time I got home it had been pushed pages away.

Yeah yeah.. my son sure was upset about that AR Crash.. I'll get it fixed up and have him try again this weekend. I suppose I really didn't ease him into it enough...

I think I'll get the other video edited tonight and I'll post it here

BTW, DBS, is your booster on your control link? I looked at the pictures on RC Groups but I didn't see it there.. the pics and video I have aren't close enough to tell.

 

[DBS]

my son sure was upset about that AR Crash.. I'll get it fixed up and have him try again this weekend. I suppose I really didn't ease him into it enough...

All in good time... The fact that he was bummed about the whole thing shows he is a good kid and cares about the hardware... he'll make a good pilot one day with those basic values

is your booster on your control link? I looked at the pictures on RC Groups but I didn't see it there.. the pics and video I have aren't close enough to tell.

I got boost on both sides ... Wifi is boosted on only one antenna but it is a very expensive amp with 25dB gain on the receive sensitivity... then on the tx side I used one of those sunhans jammies that are all over the forum.... but I got my hands on the 2000mw model... Kinda cool because these sunhans amps are linear... If I wanna dial it back I can turn the pot on the back of the tx to CE mode and lower the power output of the final signal... but when I wanna go full ****** just crank the screw back to the right and I'm at max output for the transmitter and amp...

I had another crazy idea yesterday for a mod and worked it all out today... flight test tomorrow before I get all crazy posting pictures but this looks to be a solid FPV mod if my theories are in line...

Testing in the morning... will post back here if results are positive :ugeek:

 

[mede8er]

I'm building one of these mini panel arrays and I'm having a hard time sourcing a piece of plastic like you've got your antennae mounted to...where did you find that? Thanks...

 

[DBS]

I'm building one of these mini panel arrays and I'm having a hard time sourcing a piece of plastic like you've got your antennae mounted to...where did you find that? Thanks...

That white panel is aluminum... Just used some of the leftovers from old antennas I don't use anymore...

Are you using the itelite PAT50014?

If you are... My suggestion... Hack it out of the plastic case if you want (makes it lighter) but leave it mounted to its own aluminum panel and just add that to the back plate... I spent so much time modifying that to look better by isolating the microstrip pc board and mounting it with the others and changing the connector to SMA... But there is the danger of not getting the back spacing correct and ruining the whole setup for no **** reason... It would have looked just fine the way it was with the white paint job and the original aluminum plate... Lot of work I did for no reason and I still don't know if I got it perfect... (unless I can compare with yours)

Good luck... Lemme know if you need some help :ugeek:

 

[mede8er]

Are you using the itelite PAT50014?
Good luck... Lemme know if you need some help :ugeek:

Yep, PAT50014....and yep, I need all the help I can get.... :mrgreen:

 

[ilovecoffee]

Lol I love the CD spindle cover idea. Actually kind of ingenious.

 

[DBS]

Are you using the itelite PAT50014?
Good luck... Lemme know if you need some help :ugeek:

Yep, PAT50014....and yep, I need all the help I can get.... :mrgreen:

No problems brother... Just let me know what you need

Lol I love the CD spindle cover idea. Actually kind of ingenious.

Yeah bro... We call it his "lunch bucket" (launch bucket)... It has this cool effect when he takes off... It gets sucked up in the propeller vortices and stays attached to the quad for a second and then ejects itself like a spent rocket booster after launch :lol: