FPV Booster App DOUBLE Vision+ FPV Range

[rrmccabe]

Hi,,

How can you reaches such distances? I can do 350-400 meters at best both straight up or at distance.. The FPV-booster V2.1 increased that to 500-550 ,but the control signal broke a few times before... I'm always pointing the extender toward the Phantom.

Straight up is tough regardless for control as you are working of end of phantom antenna. This is weakest point of dipole.

 

[PVFlyer]

Happy to help but yaw quickly at a distance to test for what?

I know I'm on high res and frame rate as its easy to tell by picture quality and update speed in comparison to lower rate and quality. I often fly with someone else holding a 10" tab for me and the differences are very noticeable on screens that size.

I have the X3 (twin dome lhcp) antennas on the control side and as yet not needed to mod the quad side.

The flights out to that distance where in a very rural area with no WiFi interference, probably no interference at all of any kind as you don't even get mobile coverage. One flight consisted of flying down a valley, very wide one, rotated 180 at around 3280' and flying back. Straight line out and back.

Quad was in standard mode, all switches up, still running 1.0.8 firmware as I don't want to lose the faster flying speeds.

Happy to run some more tests if you let me know what your looking for. If there is a dedicated thread for a P2V version that this discussion would be better in let me know

Yaw multiple 360 degree turns quickly with 640/30fps is for testing RE500 bandwidth. 640/15fps requires ~900Kb (just below 1Mb) bandwidth, and 640/30fps requires ~1.8Mb bandwidth. For normal FPV flight straight ahead, FPV screen doesn't change much and it transmits back only the changes requiring less bandwidth via video compression algorithm. If you yaw 360 degree quickly, the whole screen is changing rapidly and requiring higher bandwidth because not much video compression involved.

 

[Zacca]

Hi,,

How can you reaches such distances? I can do 350-400 meters at best both straight up or at distance.. The FPV-booster V2.1 increased that to 500-550 ,but the control signal broke a few times before... I'm always pointing the extender toward the Phantom.

Control Signal Lost is due to 5.8G control link dropped regardless how you aim the range extender. You may need to pay attention on 5.8G antenna (rubber ducky) orientation for better control range. FCC mode should give you 800m control range per DJI spec.

FYI, the booster app does NOT boost 5.8G control range. You may refer to FAQ sections in the OP (page 1) for details.

Im surly talking about the video signal distances here..... Not the control signal (5.8ghz) which only reaches around 500-550 meter regardless of your FPV-Booster or not.

 

[RichW]

Happy to help but yaw quickly at a distance to test for what?

I know I'm on high res and frame rate as its easy to tell by picture quality and update speed in comparison to lower rate and quality. I often fly with someone else holding a 10" tab for me and the differences are very noticeable on screens that size.

I have the X3 (twin dome lhcp) antennas on the control side and as yet not needed to mod the quad side.

The flights out to that distance where in a very rural area with no WiFi interference, probably no interference at all of any kind as you don't even get mobile coverage. One flight consisted of flying down a valley, very wide one, rotated 180 at around 3280' and flying back. Straight line out and back.

Quad was in standard mode, all switches up, still running 1.0.8 firmware as I don't want to lose the faster flying speeds.

Happy to run some more tests if you let me know what your looking for. If there is a dedicated thread for a P2V version that this discussion would be better in let me know

Yaw multiple 360 degree turns quickly with 640/30fps is for testing RE500 bandwidth. 640/15fps requires ~900Kb (just below 1Mb) bandwidth, and 640/30fps requires ~1.8Mb bandwidth. For normal FPV flight straight ahead, FPV screen doesn't change much and it transmits back only the changes requiring less bandwidth via video compression algorithm. If you yaw 360 degree quickly, the whole screen is changing rapidly and requiring higher bandwidth because not much video compression involved.

Got ya. OK will test out one night this week if I get acceptable weather and let you know.

 

[PVFlyer]

Hi,,

How can you reaches such distances? I can do 350-400 meters at best both straight up or at distance.. The FPV-booster V2.1 increased that to 500-550 ,but the control signal broke a few times before... I'm always pointing the extender toward the Phantom.

Control Signal Lost is due to 5.8G control link dropped regardless how you aim the range extender. You may need to pay attention on 5.8G antenna (rubber ducky) orientation for better control range. FCC mode should give you 800m control range per DJI spec.

FYI, the booster app does NOT boost 5.8G control range. You may refer to FAQ sections in the OP (page 1) for details.

Im surly talking about the video signal distances here..... Not the control signal (5.8ghz) which only reaches around 500-550 meter regardless of your FPV-Booster or not.

Glad to know you made significant video improvement. You may test in wide open area, which helps both video and control range.

 

[PVFlyer]

Are there still any plans for this app for the P2V?

Geert./.

Yes, I finished the research of P2V booster and passed the research data to my buddy months ago. It boosted stock P2V to 1km FPV range 640x480/15fps with stock RE500 repeater. P2V booster is likely to lower TX power of P2V from 20dBm (100mW) to 13dBm (20mW) and apply interference control. It doesn't need that much power to reach 1km per our research.

We also found RE500 does not have sufficient bandwidth to stream 640x480/30fps even you modded the antenna with strong EIRP. We are trying to fix it by software together with P2V booster.

Hope to figure out something in the coming week, and will keep you posted.

Thanks for the heads up, appreciate the efforts.

Geert./.

We managed to increase the FPV range and bandwidth, but it will need to copy/update some files on RE500 permanently. Do you have any concern with this as a user? I'm unsure whether this would void the RE500 warranty, if any.

 

[RemE]

Personally I don't mind the change as long as it is better, and at least as stable.

 

[Frostmann]

Hi Support FPV Booster iOS 8?

Thanx

 

[enterprise1]

Are there still any plans for this app for the P2V?

Geert./.

Yes, I finished the research of P2V booster and passed the research data to my buddy months ago. It boosted stock P2V to 1km FPV range 640x480/15fps with stock RE500 repeater. P2V booster is likely to lower TX power of P2V from 20dBm (100mW) to 13dBm (20mW) and apply interference control. It doesn't need that much power to reach 1km per our research.

We also found RE500 does not have sufficient bandwidth to stream 640x480/30fps even you modded the antenna with strong EIRP. We are trying to fix it by software together with P2V booster.

Hope to figure out something in the coming week, and will keep you posted.

Interesting that you think the PV2 camera Tx power may have to be reduced. I always assumed my camera Tx was under powered. Stock wifi was only around 900ft. with 640x480/15fps. I have since boosted RE500 with 2 watt amp and 9 db helix antenna to achieve 3000ft. with reliable wifi. Also added 2.4ghz pinwheel to bird.

I would be willing to test any booster app. if needed. Lucky for me I can fly in high wifi interfence or clean area.

 

[ToddSmi]

We managed to increase the FPV range and bandwidth, but it will need to copy/update some files on RE500 permanently. Do you have any concern with this as a user? I'm unsure whether this would void the RE500 warranty, if any.

Most folks probably won't mind as long as it's an across the board improvement, but if there is a way to click a button to return back to stock I think that would satisfy most everyone.

 

[RichW]

Are there still any plans for this app for the P2V?

Geert./.

Yes, I finished the research of P2V booster and passed the research data to my buddy months ago. It boosted stock P2V to 1km FPV range 640x480/15fps with stock RE500 repeater. P2V booster is likely to lower TX power of P2V from 20dBm (100mW) to 13dBm (20mW) and apply interference control. It doesn't need that much power to reach 1km per our research.

We also found RE500 does not have sufficient bandwidth to stream 640x480/30fps even you modded the antenna with strong EIRP. We are trying to fix it by software together with P2V booster.

Hope to figure out something in the coming week, and will keep you posted.

Thanks for the heads up, appreciate the efforts.

Geert./.

We managed to increase the FPV range and bandwidth, but it will need to copy/update some files on RE500 permanently. Do you have any concern with this as a user? I'm unsure whether this would void the RE500 warranty, if any.

Is the perma change necessary to increase the bandwidth or necessary to get any kind of range increase?

I would prefer not to have any perma changes really due to the possible unexpected consequences it might have on future updates. If some increases could be got without any permenent changes maybe you could offer a Boost and Boostlite version for people who prefer to not make a perma change?

 

[sbarton]

Just checked out the FPV Booster app for Android. Wasn't really able to get much further range than normal (could be due to weather), but it seemed to reconnect much faster after loosing the connection.

 

[PVFlyer]

Hi Support FPV Booster iOS 8?

Thanx

Yes, iOS version booster app supports iOS 8, though the screen may shift a bit on iPhone 6/6+.

 

[PVFlyer]

Interesting that you think the PV2 camera Tx power may have to be reduced. I always assumed my camera Tx was under powered. Stock wifi was only around 900ft. with 640x480/15fps. I have since boosted RE500 with 2 watt amp and 9 db helix antenna to achieve 3000ft. with reliable wifi. Also added 2.4ghz pinwheel to bird.

I would be willing to test any booster app. if needed. Lucky for me I can fly in high wifi interfence or clean area.

Boosting power to increase FPV range is not an effective way in Wifi FPV world. Unlike analog FPV, RF power/antenna is just part of the game as a carrier to carry digital data/FPV on Wifi network.

Your RE500 repeater uses total 16W / 42dBm EIRP (2W / 33dBm + 9dBi helix) to achieve only 3000 ft. For Vision+, it can easily reach 3000 ft using our booster app with total 0.2W / 23dBm EIRP (0.1W power / 20dBm + 3dBi microstrip patch) on repeater end (RE700 is with almost the same hardware as RE500). You use 80X power to achieve ~3X range, which is not very efficient.

Our P2V booster app will use NO extra power to boost FPV range. Will let you know once the booster app is ready for beta testing.

BTW, your 16W EIRP is WAY exceeding the 2.4G legal limit in most of countries. Thus, you are likely flying illegally depending on the regulation of your country. Fly safe!

 

[Mori55]

Any idea when the new booster will be out for IOS?

 

[mauizoom]

I have been using the booster app for a few months now.
Recently I upgraded to the Stage 2 antenna system, and now I observed something strange :
What I did notice is, when I shoot many photos in RAW format, I loose my video connection, usually after shooting 12 or 13 photos.
This only happens if I use the 640 at 15fps preview quality.
If I use 320 at 15fps, the video feed works fine. I am usually at a distance of 500 to 1500 feet when shooting with clear POV to the Vision+.
When it hangs up, I tried restarting the Vision app, but no success, even with the latest Booster app for Android and close distances (400ft)
Again it only happens when I shoot many Raw images in a row. When I shoot video. I can use 640 at 15fps no problem at a distance of 2000 feet at 70 feet altitude and it never hangs up the Vision app..
Any thoughts, why this is happening ?
Thanks.

 

[PVFlyer]

I have been using the booster app for a few months now.
Recently I upgraded to the Stage 2 antenna system, and now I observed something strange :
What I did notice is, when I shoot many photos in RAW format, I loose my video connection, usually after shooting 12 or 13 photos.
This only happens if I use the 640 at 15fps preview quality.
If I use 320 at 15fps, the video feed works fine. I am usually at a distance of 500 to 1500 feet when shooting with clear POV to the Vision+.
When it hangs up, I tried restarting the Vision app, but no success, even with the latest Booster app for Android and close distances (400ft)
Again it only happens when I shoot many Raw images in a row. When I shoot video. I can use 640 at 15fps no problem at a distance of 2000 feet at 70 feet altitude and it never hangs up the Vision app..
Any thoughts, why this is happening ?
Thanks.

I think it's easy to identify the issue by NOT running the booster for testing. What was the FPV range & preview quality before upgrade your antenna? Is that possible having a bad pigtail cable or bad contact of u.FL?

 

[WebMaximus]

I also noticed an issue with the FPV resolution from time to time where using 640x480 results in the FPV preview freezing or getting very slow and sometimes with a corrupted picture. This happens even when I'm next to the P2V+ so this must be caused by something else rather than weak signal/low bandwidth.


I've never experienced this running at 320x240.

 

[PVFlyer]

I also noticed an issue with the FPV resolution from time to time where using 640x480 results in the FPV preview freezing or getting very slow and sometimes with a corrupted picture. This happens even when I'm next to the P2V+ so this must be caused by something else rather than weak signal/low bandwidth.


I've never experienced this running at 320x240.

This could be due to too strong signal level making radio receiver "saturated" and lower the bandwidth. Thus 320x240 is barely working though insufficient bandwidth for 640x480. You may try to turn your transmitter/repeater NOT facing the aircraft when you are next to it.

As we introduced Smart Boost framework in Android booster V2.1, we are researching to adjust TX power and interference control dynamically based on signal strength, link quality, noise, bit rate, etc. If you are next to aircraft, then no boosting at all until you fly to a few hundred meters away and signal dropping to a certain threshold.

 

[WebMaximus]

Thanks for the tip and explanation, I'll try that next time I encounter this issue.