Just curious what antenna mod YOU are using.. feedback

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

I'm about to go out into the big open "old runway" near my house.. My Naibor already gave me permission, my buddy is bringing his p4 and his race quad, I'm bringing my p3 with batt mod and maxxrange.. Sure wish I had the boosters today cuz it's perfect out for testing! Sunny, 50 degrees, and only 5-7mph wind, I'm hoping cuz of the location and direction change that I can get close to 20k feet today! Bringing my venom duo pro charger and my whole kit.

We will be out there for 2-4 hours today I can't wait. Leaving soon. I will let you guys know my results today!

My next day off is Tuesday, I should have my boosters/evo kit by then, so Tuesday will be another big test day for me once I get it installed .


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"P" often and when needed......

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

"P" often and when needed......

Laughs...

 

[JohnnyB]

Take that thang down in the trees.. test penetration.. just always point the antenna towards the bird..

 

[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

What Dbi are the grey ones? And do omni directional only go up to a certain Dbi? Cuz you would think after 9-10dbi it would start to become a directional and not omni ..


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8.5db

 

[NoBiffBetter]

Alright guys so I just got back a hour or two ago from testing.. My first run went as I anticipated 20k all day long with out a hitch! I have pictures from my phone, that are screen shots off my tablet (sorry my tablet is wifi and I don't have wifi at my house)

I then turned around being 20k was the farthest I ever went ever, specially with my new battery mod and it was more or less for a test.. I got back with roughly 13minutes left! So then I knew I had to up the anti

My next run I hit 27k easy.. Full bars, no boosters,

Noticing that I still had around 7-8min left once I got back I knew I could push to 30k so I recharged and did just that.

Un-boosted and I hit 30k with out a hitch, not a single drop out or anything, and I flew out to 28k at 270 feet!! That's it! When I hit 30k I only picked up my altitude another 100ft cuz I was gonna have a tail wind and wanted to catch it as much as I could.. Otherwise I coulda been at 270ft at 30k with full bars no doubt about it!

Only issue I had was with my 30k run my app closed out on my around 25-27k out, it got pretty scary but soon as I reopened the app it was back online with no further issues.. But I did loose my Trip coming to 30k I only have mainly the return trip for a flight log.

I returned at roughly 3min left on my batt.. And I made a few errors on my way out..so I know tomarrow when I go back to test I'm sure I can make 35k or so and that's exactly what I plan to do..

My first mistake was flying out after take off of my 30k run, I was talking to my buddy and forgot I was holding the throttle up as well as full forward up, and by the time I looked back at the screen I was nearly 1000feet in the air! Totally my mistake (not paying attention) so that was a ton of wasted battery.. The next mistake/issue (not my fault) was that the app closed on me, when it did my quad stopped and sat there for a minute give or take till I was able to open the app back up and re-gain control of the bird..

With out these two errors I'm sure I coulda went 35k maybe more.. Tomarrow I'm gonna sure try. Hopfully zero issues!

Man flying long distance is a rush and it's amazing, I'm totally hooked.. I prolly didn't need to buy the evo lite kit with boosters that I have on order but it will come in handy when I need the extra power (depending on location) just nice to have the extra penetration when you need it. The evolite kit + maxxrange antenna = serious range in my already crazy range -take off location.


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[JohnnyB]

Ok, had time for a small flight with maxxrange. One of my amps didn't work so I unhooked them and went unboosted. The rth kicked in early.. sent me home with 42% remaining when I got back.. but here's a screenshot I was able to get before it headed back.

To bad.. got to figure out how to set up battery percentages on rth in litchi. But, very satisfied and impressed with maxxrange.


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[NoBiffBetter]

Ok, had time for a small flight with maxxrange. One of my amps didn't work so I unhooked them and went unboosted. The rth kicked in early.. sent me home with 42% remaining when I got back.. but here's a screenshot I was able to get before it headed back.

To bad.. got to figure out how to set up battery percentages on rth in litchi. But, very satisfied and impressed with maxxrange.


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Yah man you ALWAYS gotta turn off auto rth before take off doing long distance if not soon as you hit the yellow "go home bar" it will turn you around and burn up valuable battery time as you get it turned off and turned back around..

Also don't tell me that you know a lot of ppl were having issues with just ONE booster not working with the maxxrange panel.. And the Sunhans 3000mw amps.. This was going down around 2015.. But I talked to maxxuav and asked them if I would be fine and they said "the issue is now fixed between the maxxrange panel and the Sunhans boosters.. I can even show you the emails.. I must have asked him 3 times if it would be ok and he said "yes I'm 100% sure you will not have an issue with one of the amps not working"

So try the amps in your smaller panel and if they both work then that tells you the maxxrange is not compatable with the amp and you will have to replace either the amp or the panel..

I sure hope I don't have this issue!

Also nice range man!! Stoked for you buddy! As I posted yestersy I hit 30k well today I was bound and deturmaned to go 35k

Problem was the weather, it got super cold down to 38 give or take, I had my battery's in my inside pockets to warm them as much as I could before flight.. The other issue was it had rained all morning and there was HEAVY HEAVY fog.. I mean so bad that I didn't even record cuz there was nothing to see but white..

Again I was bound and deturmaned even tho my buddy said "idk man maybe you shouldn't try to break records today" lol

Ended up going to 30k feet in heavy *** fog at only like 250 feet altitude!

I made it there in around 10min, I did the math and I said **** that was quick I could prolly make 40k, so I continued on my way, and finally made 40k but I noticed a wind shift, all a sudden right before I hit 40k I was moving around 40mph.. I said **** that ain't good, turned around fast at 40k and headed back.. My top speed was between 29-32 mph.. I said oh god there just is no way I'll make it back..

Another issue was on my way out I was out so far I was near an airport and was afraid it would force me to loose altitude.. Luckly it didn't ..

I had finally so slowly made it back to 13,600 feet when my timer went out and autoland kicked in.. I said oh god..

I found a baseball feild diamond to land it in at my high school and knew right where it would be.. So I landed it on the diamond and sure enough took me 10 min to drive there, there she was sitting pretty with only the 2 external battery's keeping her running.

I imediatly checked voltages they were all around 3.6v.. So I didn't hurt any batts thank god ..

Here are the pictures from my **** near suicide mission!

You can see in the one picture my video feed is pure white, I had to rely strictly on just the map. It was one hairy ride man! I def pushed it way too far on such a cold and rainy day.. I usually get 27 min or so flight time but with the cold and fighting the fog it ran them down quick, had I gotten 27min as I did yesterday (warm weather) then I can garentee I woulda made it back even with the wind change.

I'm just glad I didn't try to go any farther and just landed it where I did cuz there was a lot of woods Infront of where I woulda had to go and if the battery's let go over the woods I woulda never found my baby.

Lesson learned!!

Johnny I sure hope you get the amp situation resolved soon, mine should be here by Tuesday or wed, gonna be nice to have that extra penetration.

Going in for my landing I was at 6% and at around 100feet altitude at 12k feet out, i am so impressed that I got so low as far as I was still out before I finally lost signal.. And thanks god rth didn't kick in once I got disconnected cuz I can garwntee you I woulda never found it if it did..

Will rth work if your in critical battery "landing mode"? Cuz that's sometbing huge that I need to know, cuz if so, then If this ever happened to me again I will go into the app and change rth to "landing or hover"


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[JohnnyB]

Alright guys so I just got back a hour or two ago from testing.. My first run went as I anticipated 20k all day long with out a hitch! I have pictures from my phone, that are screen shots off my tablet (sorry my tablet is wifi and I don't have wifi at my house)

I then turned around being 20k was the farthest I ever went ever, specially with my new battery mod and it was more or less for a test.. I got back with roughly 13minutes left! So then I knew I had to up the anti

My next run I hit 27k easy.. Full bars, no boosters,

Noticing that I still had around 7-8min left once I got back I knew I could push to 30k so I recharged and did just that.

Un-boosted and I hit 30k with out a hitch, not a single drop out or anything, and I flew out to 28k at 270 feet!! That's it! When I hit 30k I only picked up my altitude another 100ft cuz I was gonna have a tail wind and wanted to catch it as much as I could.. Otherwise I coulda been at 270ft at 30k with full bars no doubt about it!

Only issue I had was with my 30k run my app closed out on my around 25-27k out, it got pretty scary but soon as I reopened the app it was back online with no further issues.. But I did loose my Trip coming to 30k I only have mainly the return trip for a flight log.

I returned at roughly 3min left on my batt.. And I made a few errors on my way out..so I know tomarrow when I go back to test I'm sure I can make 35k or so and that's exactly what I plan to do..

My first mistake was flying out after take off of my 30k run, I was talking to my buddy and forgot I was holding the throttle up as well as full forward up, and by the time I looked back at the screen I was nearly 1000feet in the air! Totally my mistake (not paying attention) so that was a ton of wasted battery.. The next mistake/issue (not my fault) was that the app closed on me, when it did my quad stopped and sat there for a minute give or take till I was able to open the app back up and re-gain control of the bird..

With out these two errors I'm sure I coulda went 35k maybe more.. Tomarrow I'm gonna sure try. Hopfully zero issues!

Man flying long distance is a rush and it's amazing, I'm totally hooked.. I prolly didn't need to buy the evo lite kit with boosters that I have on order but it will come in handy when I need the extra power (depending on location) just nice to have the extra penetration when you need it. The evolite kit + maxxrange antenna = serious range in my already crazy range -take off location.


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Seems long distance is where you would need RTH the most... (Signal loss)

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[NoBiffBetter]

Well it is.. Because say you get out 30k feet and loose signal cuz of some interfienance or maybe cuz you turned the other way with the panel or something ( not paying attention) you want it to turn around and fly back to you so you can get signal back with the drone..

But the issue lies here.. If your flying back and loosing battery power, and you know you arnt gonna make it back.. And you try to land and as you get down low below a bunch of trees and houses .. Say 15k feet away or whatveer.. What if the phantom then tries to return to home becusee you loose reception trying to safely land the quad... This is where you wouldn't want to return home.. Cuz if you have houses roads or trees between you and the quad 15k feet out, then it's gonna try to return home on a dead battery and its most likely gonna crash in the woods or whatveer vs. a safe landing spot you have picked out..

Yesterday that wasn't the case tho, once critical battery hit, it was in autoland mode, I got down about 100 feet and I lost signal.. I was so worried it wouldn't continue to land and would try to return home but Luckly it landed right where I had already started to land it..

So my question is, if it's in critical battery, 8% and in "landing mode" will the quad still try to return home if the signal is lost? As I said yesterday it didn't.. But idk if I just got lucky.. Or if this is what it will always do..


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[NoBiffBetter]

Cuz basically as long as I know it's not gonna rth when signal is lost.. As long as it's in critical battery (landing mode) then if I ever catch myself not being able to make it home again, then I will find a spot, hover over it about 200-300 feet and wait until critical battery kicks in.. Then once it does, start to land on my own until I loose reception.. Knowing it's gonna continue landing once you do.

I may have to test it out tomarrow on my day off... Maybe I'll set my home point then walk out 100 or so feet with the quad flying.. Drain it till It hits critical battery and then stay 100 feet or so away from the "takeoff" location or home... And if it just lands itself where I'm at, then that's good news, if it tries to rth in critical battery, then I gotta go a doffernt rout


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[NoBiffBetter]

Today the weather sucked so I ditched the long range flying for another day... Today I finally went and got me a mini to hdmi adaptor so that I could use my 50' tv for fpv.. I was suprised at how well it looked.. Put my antenna out on my porch railing, just kinda hung it over the rail, it was barely sitting straight but I have no way of really setting it up until I order my tripod.

Anyways this time I used my rg6 cable I actually used tiny little 8mm wrench that came with my new butane soldering kit, I snugged up all the connections with it, went inside, connecter hdmi out to my tv and went for a fly.. Took off, flew, and landed, souly on only looking at my fpv.. It was awesome and this time I never had any lines, bad reception, or sudden signal loss! Here I was blaming the rg6 when all I had to do was snug down the connectors with a wrench.

I was very pleased with my range... From striaght out I got nearly 6000 feet, and from each side.. Directly right and directly left from home, I got nearly 2000 feet... Again this is with the maxxrange sitting very low on a railing outside.. And not pointed at all where it should be.. It was litterally aiming Staight for trees and buildings that were directly Infront of it. I was so impressed that I think I'm gonna keep my rg6 cable.. Specially cuz I don't ever plan to fly long range when I'm flying from inside my house.. Also becusee this time I flew the picture quality was not deminished like last time.. The picture quality was the same as if I had the antenna mounted right to my controller.

This gives me total confidence in rg6 quad shield, specially for its price. I will def be buying 2x6'-8' and 2x 12' of the exact same cable next time I'm at the hardware store.. For days I'm closer to my antenna like in the field or in my vehicle with the antenna mounted outside.

Here's some pics of my tv screen and the way I did it today, just for a quick run.. Nothing hard wired yet until I figure out what exact antennas I wanna permanently mount to the roof of my house, and what location I wanna mount them at.

You can see my house is the brown one way on the distance... Right smack dab in the center of all those trees.. Literally there is a wall of trees on nearly 3 sides of my house lol. And you can see how my house is almost completely surrounded by trees buildings and interfeirance.

So with 2x50' of rg6 I gotta say I'm VERY impressed with these results specially when you consider how low and un-adjusted my highly directional antenna was when I did this lol.

Edit: keep in mind the photos of the tv is obv gonna degrade what the picture quality actually looked like.. Also don't mind my ugly carpet, it's an old house and I'm just renting

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[PRINCE37]

Guys what is the best fpv goggles with hdmi in. My tablet has HDMI out and I want to use the goggles also just in case I'm blinded by the sun and can't see the screen on my tablet


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[NoBiffBetter]

Head play are good.. Look them up, cheap but super good for the price I like them better than the higher end ones.. And they have hdmi in on them


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[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Today the weather sucked so I ditched the long range flying for another day... Today I finally went and got me a mini to hdmi adaptor so that I could use my 50' tv for fpv.. I was suprised at how well it looked.. Put my antenna out on my porch railing, just kinda hung it over the rail, it was barely sitting straight but I have no way of really setting it up until I order my tripod.

Anyways this time I used my rg6 cable I actually used tiny little 8mm wrench that came with my new butane soldering kit, I snugged up all the connections with it, went inside, connecter hdmi out to my tv and went for a fly.. Took off, flew, and landed, souly on only looking at my fpv.. It was awesome and this time I never had any lines, bad reception, or sudden signal loss! Here I was blaming the rg6 when all I had to do was snug down the connectors with a wrench.

I was very pleased with my range... From striaght out I got nearly 6000 feet, and from each side.. Directly right and directly left from home, I got nearly 2000 feet... Again this is with the maxxrange sitting very low on a railing outside.. And not pointed at all where it should be.. It was litterally aiming Staight for trees and buildings that were directly Infront of it. I was so impressed that I think I'm gonna keep my rg6 cable.. Specially cuz I don't ever plan to fly long range when I'm flying from inside my house.. Also becusee this time I flew the picture quality was not deminished like last time.. The picture quality was the same as if I had the antenna mounted right to my controller.

This gives me total confidence in rg6 quad shield, specially for its price. I will def be buying 2x6'-8' and 2x 12' of the exact same cable next time I'm at the hardware store.. For days I'm closer to my antenna like in the field or in my vehicle with the antenna mounted outside.

Here's some pics of my tv screen and the way I did it today, just for a quick run.. Nothing hard wired yet until I figure out what exact antennas I wanna permanently mount to the roof of my house, and what location I wanna mount them at.

You can see my house is the brown one way on the distance... Right smack dab in the center of all those trees.. Literally there is a wall of trees on nearly 3 sides of my house lol. And you can see how my house is almost completely surrounded by trees buildings and interfeirance.

So with 2x50' of rg6 I gotta say I'm VERY impressed with these results specially when you consider how low and un-adjusted my highly directional antenna was when I did this lol.

Edit: keep in mind the photos of the tv is obv gonna degrade what the picture quality actually looked like.. Also don't mind my ugly carpet, it's an old house and I'm just renting

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Pretty fun stuff isn't it... I have to be real careful. I live in a condo place. The neighbors are morons and think it's spying on THEM. I have to take off straight up very fast and wizz away. Landing is harder. I have to come in pretty slow and decend into a 10x10 ft patio. Plus I'm not allowed to put up antennas, so I have to do it with super stealth. Good job on your project of externalizing your flying.

 

[NoBiffBetter]

Pretty fun stuff isn't it... I have to be real careful. I live in a condo place. The neighbors are morons and think it's spying on THEM. I have to take off straight up very fast and wizz away. Landing is harder. I have to come in pretty slow and decend into a 10x10 ft patio. Plus I'm not allowed to put up antennas, so I have to do it with super stealth. Good job on your project of externalizing your flying.

Oh yah man it's a freaking blast! I have an old runway near my house where I do my long distance flying from, but when I'm flying from inside I like to get down real low 20' give or take from the ground and zoom around and make fast turns, I put he camera in "non follow mode" so it feels more like flying a plane. It's pretty fun stuff! So happy with my setup and thanks a lot man.

And that sucks :/ **** ppl .. That's the first thing ppl think when they hear or see a drone .. "Must be spying on me" when in all reality prolly only 5-10% of drone operators are actually spying.. It's a lifestyle and a hobby.. Those types of ppl will never get it, and prolly have something to hide if they are that Nervus around one.

The media doesn't help either tho, always putting up bad Publicity about them and making pilots look like a bunch of creeps.. When it's really just like any other hobby out there.

Landing 10x10 is tough for sure, specially if it's got railings and you can't be off by much or else you could crash.. I have one little sidewalk coming from my house, and muddy grass on either side of it, so I kinda know what you mean.. But not really lol. Cuz If I had to I could land wherever , but I still always like to try and land it directly on the sidewalk where it's dry and clean.. which is pretty tough fpv, the sidewalk is pretty narrow but so far I'm 3 for 3 on landing it directly in the center of the sidewalk lol. Landing and take offs are one of the most exciting and thrilling parts fpv.. But also can be the most nerve racking.


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[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

Update: Ran RF-Linx last night from car. Had engine off at first but it was cold. Started engine. Drone was out 9,000 ft @ 250ft. Was losing video feed due to "Stupid trees" and buildings. But the kicker is when drone was returning (Waypoint mission for test) I shut engine off to see if it was interfering. The video feed signal went full bars instantly. I'm going to see if that happens again. I was using 110v. inverter into cig lighter for amp power through a 12 v 4 A supply. I will just run amps through cig lighter directly and run car engine on/ff to see if the car's electronics are in fact causing the interference. I was fairly impressed with the amps performance using L-Coms 5ft. off ground mounted on tripods. I'm not going for extreme distance, I need solid video feed. I dipped the drone out at 550ft. to negative altitude. (Below ground level) and it was behind several metal truck trailers and several large trees... 90-95% video signal, 100% control signal. That impressed me. Sure is was not far out, but being under depth below me (Ground level blocking) and metal between me and it 100% was a good sign. I have the screen video, but need to decide how to show it to prove this.

 

[NoBiffBetter]

Update: Ran RF-Linx last night from car. Had engine off at first but it was cold. Started engine. Drone was out 9,000 ft @ 250ft. Was losing video feed due to "Stupid trees" and buildings. But the kicker is when drone was returning (Waypoint mission for test) I shut engine off to see if it was interfering. The video feed signal went full bars instantly. I'm going to see if that happens again. I was using 110v. inverter into cig lighter for amp power through a 12 v 4 A supply. I will just run amps through cig lighter directly and run car engine on/ff to see if the car's electronics are in fact causing the interference. I was fairly impressed with the amps performance using L-Coms 5ft. off ground mounted on tripods. I'm not going for extreme distance, I need solid video feed. I dipped the drone out at 550ft. to negative altitude. (Below ground level) and it was behind several metal truck trailers and several large trees... 90-95% video signal, 100% control signal. That impressed me. Sure is was not far out, but being under depth below me (Ground level blocking) and metal between me and it 100% was a good sign. I have the screen video, but need to decide how to show it to prove this.

Wow yah man I would say that's a good sign indeed! Sounds like a good future with that setup your running. I'm happy to hear you found "Hopfully" your interference Issue, it makes sense with the vehicle and all its electronics that it could affect the signal. And I'm glad you mentioned it because when I start testing from my vehicle ( which I havnt yet) I will try both with vehicle running and with vehicle off.. And tell you my results.

So what antenna were you using for this test? And what size boosters? J/q sounds like you got it all pretty much figured out. Would like to hear from you next time you try it if having your vehicle on, then off, gives you the same results or not as it did this time. That is def impressive tho none the less!


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[GrammatonxXXxCleric]

I was using L-Coms on tripods, RF-Linx 1 watt amps directly into antenna.

 

[JohnnyB]

I was using L-Coms on tripods, RF-Linx 1 watt amps directly into antenna.View attachment 74474 View attachment 74476

Spread?

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[Turbomania]

I was using L-Coms on tripods, RF-Linx 1 watt amps directly into antenna.View attachment 74474 View attachment 74476

L Com's and RF-Linx... now we are talking....lol
To many panel heads in this thread... J/K.... 40K = holy nervous break down!!

Omni's do it in ALL directions...lmao


Turbo