Homemade windsurfer:)--

[efexor]

while waiting for warranty to finish,and order maxxuav
Ant,trying out some home made windsurfers with different metals,found out that copper made is much better than any other as I have seen in range and no lost in signal or crappy video.
huge difference with this!just wanted to share some photos

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[Jussaguy]

No offense, but that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. You are not embarrassed to be seen with that?

Rather have short range

 

[efexor]

Xaxaxaxaxaxaxxaaxxa
Nope
Actually they ask me were I got it from
Jussaguy i know it's huge but It surely does the job



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[Chopstix Kid]

No offense, but that is the ugliest thing I have ever seen. You are not embarrassed to be seen with that?

Rather have short range

Savage

 

[Mark The Droner]

I suggest you research parabolics. Bigger is not necessarily better. What you want to do is magnify the signal. This is what a tech might refer to as "tuning." Reflecting it is good, but magnifying it is better. In your particular windsurfer, you have the advantage of clearly seeing the reflection of your antenna and you can see it's not magnified. That's why you'd want a smaller one. You want to wrap around the back of it (that is, each antenna, not both antennas) and shoot the signal out from the entire surface of the reflector, or at least as much of the surface as possible. That will give you better range.

Hope this helps.

 

[alokbhargava]

Technically copper and aluminum should give the similar results.

 

[efexor]

Markmnd thanks for your reply I will make smaller ones around each antenna and see the results.
Thanks


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[Mark The Droner]

Quick story - I went to Green Bank West Virginia a couple years ago and visited the radio telescope museum there. One display was a large parabolic dish pointing at a light bulb on the other side of a large room. The parabolic had a shiny mirror-like surface and was "tuned" to reflect the light from the bulb to a particular point in front of the parabolic. Visitors were challenged to place our hand in front of the parabolic and find the focal point. I did, and I could actually feel the heat from the light bulb, even though the light bulb was all the way across the large room. And that's because the entire surface of the parabolic reflected the light from the relatively small distant bulb and directed it to one spot.

 

[4wd]

That's the first time I saw anyone apparently using the controller without taking the plastic off too.

 

[Bill Golson]

Made these with copper foil on aluminum -- they fold up for easy packing. Have not done extensive testing -- but seem to work ok. The printed frame ones you can buy look heavy. You can learn a lot buy rolling your own. Kinda brings some of the hands-own traditions of RC modeling into the automated drone era we all enjoy.

 

[John Locke]

Made these with copper foil on aluminum -- they fold up for easy packing. Have tested but seem to work ok.

View attachment 57452 View attachment 57453

Those look a lot more efficient than efexor's relatively flat dish, more compact too for transport. Next time extend the copper all the way down to the base of the antenna, and 1" above the tip of the antenna. You should pickup a little more efficiency based on what I've read about parabolics. For $19 it's hard to beat this folding setup, I really like mine. It stores away quite nicely when folded. Aluminium or copper will give the same result, but the copper looks cool.

 

[efexor]

Markmnd I understand what your point is with the large parabolic dish,
John Locke yes I know the windsurfers,I just like making things ,Bill golson has done a nice job with his
I'm just testing different stuff and the copper as you see it's not flat..
I will test what marknmd said on magnifying with smaller ones..
4wd I didn't take the plastic off because all day I install satellite dishes at photovoltaic parks and when I finish I video them with the drone..
As you can understand my hands are very clean,to use the controller...


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[WetDog]

Look up some tutorials on the windsufer like this one

How to build your own Windsurfer Antenna

The dimensions are important. As has been mentioned, size isn't everything. And pretty much any conductive material will work fine.

 

[N017RW]

Made these with copper foil on aluminum -- they fold up for easy packing. Have not done extensive testing -- but seem to work ok. The printed frame ones you can buy look heavy. You can learn a lot buy rolling your own. Kinda brings some of the hands-own traditions of RC modeling into the automated drone era we all enjoy.

View attachment 57452 View attachment 57453

I

I understand the DIY aspect but the parabola must be properly shaped and the antenna placed in the focal plane for max effectiveness. There is no room for experimentation other than size/scale, up to a point, with this design.

 

[Bill Golson]

I used one of the many parabolic curve templates -- does it look wrong? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[efexor]

No it doesn't look wrong as I see,
have you seen difference in range ?


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[Bill Golson]

I've not done any comparative testing -- just followed the vast numbers of positive testimonials for windsurfer use. Believe it started when tech's began using Pringles potato chip cans (inside is foil covered) to make quick work of boosting various server device antenna's. One guy boosted his signal by placing two CD's behind his p3p controller antenna's. Certainly there is science behind the parabolic focused solution -- but hey -- what ever makes you happy -- even if it does not add usable knowledge. One detail per my design -- they can seperate if you'd rather angle your antenna rabbit ear style. Safe flying.

 

[Chopstix Kid]

I had an industry colleague 3-D print me one using one of the free cad files you can get online. Standard two pocket design. I lined it with aluminum foil and in my test today, got an average of about 1000 feet increased distance. While this may not seem a lot to most people, because of the interference in my area I was only getting about 2000 feet to begin with. So jumping up to 3000 feet is huge.

 

[Bill Golson]

That's a real improvement -- I've yet to test my p4s limit with the added antenna boost. The R/C club field I fly at is bordered by trees that block line of sight beyond 1,200 ft. Safe flying.

 

[4wd]

I do suspect part of the advantage is partial screening from the electronics of the tablet and controller itself.
It can't be ideal having various components so very close to the antennas.
Screening could be better achieved in other ways, if not so time consuming it would be interesting to try concentrating on that aspect with simple stuff like foil.

A possible option would be greater separation with shielded coax, you could have the antennas on a special cap or headband for maximum directionality [only partly joking...]
With CB it was always highly beneficial to use a metal surface such as car roof for ground plane - something else perhaps worth exploring.