Antenna type and distance achieved

[mr_3_0_5]

Figured I'd start a thread with just results from different antennas and testing we have all done. My PV2 is stock no changes
I'll start with
5 dbi omni I was able to get to 1550ft
With 8 dbi omni I was able to get 1800ft
And with LHCP helical I have been to 3000ft
That is not the max of the helical as I'm still waiting for a wire and have to mod control side again
I will post my max range in a couple days when I get some things in the mail
So what kind of results are we all getting and with what antennas?

 

[themosttoys]

10,500 feet = Circular Wireless SPW24 on the P2V, HELIAXIAL24 on the repeater, NEEWER 11dbi patch on controller.
12,800 feet = Same antennas, add amp to P2V. Lost control signal, still had clear video at 640x480 at full pan / yaw.

I'm confident that the video (WIFI) setup will do more than 16,000 feet. However to accomplish that something might need to be done with the control signal and I'd need a day without wind because that is also about the realistic limit of my battery (32,000 feet round trip.)

 

[mr_3_0_5]

I think people are afraid to post there results following yours
I just flew and lost signal at 3000 ft out but this is an unfair test location lots of wifi around here
You think adding the pinwheel on the pv2 will really result in triple my distance?

 

[Sledge]

Figured I'd start a thread with just results from different antennas and testing we have all done. My PV2 is stock no changes
I'll start with
5 dbi omni I was able to get to 1550ft
With 8 dbi omni I was able to get 1800ft
And with LHCP helical I have been to 3000ft
That is not the max of the helical as I'm still waiting for a wire and have to mod control side again
I will post my max range in a couple days when I get some things in the mail
So what kind of results are we all getting and with what antennas?

These are FPV distances, correct?

As I assume control tx/rx go a bit further

 

[mr_3_0_5]

Yes these are wifi/Fpv distances
The control signal should reach to around 5000 ft with no modifications
But results seem to vary quite a bit

 

[cavaleiro01]

Hopefully, I will be able to post my own test results here shortly, when the weather improves....

My set ups:
1) In the Vision
a) Full stock...
b) 2,4 GHz LHCP Pinwheel antenna, arriving shortly... http://www.fpvlr.com/store/, $29,99
2) In the Wi-Fi repeater
a) Option 1 - 2.4 GHz 15dBi WIFI Signal Booster Router Wireless Networking Antenna SMA, http://www.ebay.com/itm/330881041043?ss ... 1497.l2649, $8,91, shipping costs included
b) Option 2 - New Dual Band 2.4/5.8Ghz 9dBi RP-SMA High Gain Antenna, http://www.ebay.com/itm/130858256856?ss ... 1497.l2649, $16,99, shipping costs included
c) Option 3 - 2.4GHz 7dBi Wireless WIFI Antenna Booster WLAN RP-SMA f PCI Card Modem Router T5, http://www.ebay.com/itm/331071930394?ss ... 1497.l2649, $1,58
d) Option 4 - 2,4 GHz LHCP Parasitic Disc Helix, http://www.fpvlr.com/store/, $84
3) In the TX controller
a) New Dual Band 2.4/5.8Ghz 9dBi RP-SMA High Gain Antenna, http://www.ebay.com/itm/130858256856?ss ... 1497.l2649, $16,99, shipping costs included (I ordered two, so the shipping costs went down to half)

No amplifying and still working with the stock Wi-Fi repeater, so far.

Tests to be performed:
1-a) + 2-a) + 3-a)
1-a) + 2-b) + 3-a)
1-a) + 2-c) + 3-a)
1-a) + 2-d) + 3-a)
1-b) + 2-a) + 3-a)
1-b) + 2-b) + 3-a)
1-b) + 2-c) + 3-a)
1-b) + 2-d) + 3-a)
This is a lot of testing to be performed, already...

I will let you all know, as soon as I start getting some results.

So far, in a fully cleared area, I reached more than 1,000 m distance, control wise (never lost signal, the RTH was never triggered) and the Wi-Fi signal reached more than 600 m, with my stock P2V. This was done one month ago, before any modification...
I have the video, but didn't post it on Youtube, yet. As soon as I will, I will post its link here, also.

 

[themosttoys]

I think people are afraid to post there results following yours
I just flew and lost signal at 3000 ft out but this is an unfair test location lots of wifi around here
You think adding the pinwheel on the pv2 will really result in triple my distance?

More wifi than the 1000 houses I flew by in this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43rRozzyGek

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk 4

 

[mr_3_0_5]

Probably about the same I'm in a residential neighborhood at the moment
Been trying To avoid modding the pv2 But I feel like that's the only way to get it out that far
Still don't see that adding the pinwheel is going to triple my distance

 

[themosttoys]

Probably about the same I'm in a residential neighborhood at the moment
Been trying To avoid modding the pv2 But I feel like that's the only way to get it out that far
Still don't see that adding the pinwheel is going to triple my distance

Before changing the antenna on the P2V I tried everything (including professional grade antennas, amps, repeaters) on the repeater side. No matter what I did, the best results were 2200 feet (and that was flying sideways). Of course that was before we knew the antennas in the P2V were LHCP (an important fact to know). But by then I had already gone down my path and was happy. To the best of my knowledge, PVflyer is the only person on the planet that has achieved good results with the stock P2V antennas. Improving the P2V antenna (properly) more than tripped my range.

Good luck and happy flying

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk 4

 

[ResevorDG]

Figured I'd start a thread with just results from different antennas and testing we have all done. My PV2 is stock no changes
I'll start with
5 dbi omni I was able to get to 1550ft
With 8 dbi omni I was able to get 1800ft
And with LHCP helical I have been to 3000ft
That is not the max of the helical as I'm still waiting for a wire and have to mod control side again
I will post my max range in a couple days when I get some things in the mail
So what kind of results are we all getting and with what antennas?

For your omni antenna, is this setup just using one add on and one stock antenna on the repeater?

 

[mr_3_0_5]

Yes one stock antenna and one tp link 8 dbi got me to 1800 ft

 

[mr_3_0_5]

Probably about the same I'm in a residential neighborhood at the moment
Been trying To avoid modding the pv2 But I feel like that's the only way to get it out that far
Still don't see that adding the pinwheel is going to triple my distance

Before changing the antenna on the P2V I tried everything (including professional grade antennas, amps, repeaters) on the repeater side. No matter what I did, the best results were 2200 feet (and that was flying sideways). Of course that was before we knew the antennas in the P2V were LHCP (an important fact to know). But by then I had already gone down my path and was happy. To the best of my knowledge, PVflyer is the only person on the planet that has achieved good results with the stock P2V antennas. Improving the P2V antenna (properly) more than tripped my range.

Good luck and happy flying

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk 4

Ok so I can expect a lot better results by adding a pinwheel to the pv2
Thanks for the heads up
I think I'm going to order the pinwheel

 

[themosttoys]

Ok so I can expect a lot better results by adding a pinwheel to the pv2
Thanks for the heads up
I think I'm going to order the pinwheel

Yes, there are multiple "pinwheel" designs (Skew Planar, Cloverleaf, Fan, ...). All will work, but each has strengths and weaknesses. Due to the nature of our FPV (bi-directional wifi and less concern for wind resistance) I went with Skew Planar. IBCrazy Cloverleaf design is great but it's better for TX than RX and we need both and the elimination of one lobe make no difference to our flight characteristics. When done properly (not easy), the Fan design is even better than SP, but it is more fragile. I chose Skew Planar because it is more physically robust than a Fan.

Cheers

 

[YeeaaBoii]

If all the distance results you guys are posting are accurate, there must be something wrong with my P2V. I have the TP-Link 8dbi omni + one stock antenna on my WiFi repeater. P2V camera antennas stock. Stock control antenna. My records are a very patchy 1,100ft distance, 200ft altitude FPV (starting losing FPV around 900ft distance but control signal remained solid) and 1,300ft altitude FPV at about 100ft distance in front of me. When I took it to 1,300ft altitude, it was going in and out of control signal starting at 1,200ft altitude and even initiated RTH before I could regain control upon reaching 1,300ft. I had the white control antenna pulled back and aimed at it correctly the entire time. FPV was still solid throughout, even during the RTH phase.

I asked this in another thread but no one answered. Did any of you set your records by lowering the FPV streaming quality in the settings on the DJI app?

 

[themosttoys]

Did any of you set your records by lowering the FPV streaming quality in the settings on the DJI app?

Now that my setup is stable, I only use 640x480 (since I rarely lose it.) However, when I was experimenting and trying to push limits, all things being equal, due to the lower bandwidth required, 320x240 will give more range. You will notice that the telemetry data will remain even longer (basically until the connection is lost) as it requires very little bandwidth. All of this could be improved by DJI in the app. While the app is a very good ver 1.0, there is potential for improvement (especially on the video side.)

 

[YeeaaBoii]

Did any of you set your records by lowering the FPV streaming quality in the settings on the DJI app?

Now that my setup is stable, I only use 640x480 (since I rarely lose it.) However, when I was experimenting and trying to push limits, all things being equal, due to the lower bandwidth required, 320x240 will give more range. You will notice that the telemetry data will remain even longer (basically until the connection is lost) as it requires very little bandwidth. All of this could be improved by DJI in the app. While the app is a very good ver 1.0, there is potential for improvement (especially on the video side.)

Alright cool, I'll give it a try. Thanks for answering!

 

[Scottrod]

I've got a stock P2V and a 9dbi omni-directional antenna on my wifi repeater. I'm getting solid 640x480 up to around 2,700 with almost no lag and also a choppy connection continuing past 3,300 feet. I like this setup because it's fairly portable. I'm shocked to see the results you got themosttoys.

 

[gfredrone]

http://www.fpvlr.com/store/

For FPV, Tony just put the parasitic 2.4 on his website!

http://www.fpvlr.com/store/dettaglio_ar ... rticolo=27

Looking at this one too...

http://www.fpvlr.com/store/dettaglio_ar ... rticolo=29

 

[ClimbrJohn]

Stock P2V
Stock remote controller

WiFi Repeater:
TP-LINK TL-ANT2408CL 8dBi Omni Antenna and,
TP-LINK TL-ANT2409A 9dBi Directional Antenna

Just today I got FPV ~2,500ft out, at ~200ft altitude. This was in the suburbs, but in an 'open space' park with no buildings.

Much further than that I would have to rotate the P2V sideways to keep video streaming. No issues with control signal.

Same setup in the city gets me to about 1,000ft and I'll lose FPV and control.

---
BTW, this is my second P2V, the first one with the exact same setup had best case, about 1/3 the performance of my new one. Same firmware, flight locations, etc.

 

[gfredrone]

I'm going to do the pinwheel on the camera's left antenna once my Rotorpixel gets here. That should solve any issues with the gimbal motor blocking the signal.

FPVLR any chance the pinwheel can be shorter for mounting under the craft and not dragging the ground? Will you post length specs? I can't really tell from the picture so it might already be short enough.

Also what's the cost for both the parasitic and the pinwheel kit?