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themosttoys said:I've been too busy lately to continue my testing. Plus, this forum spent a little time in the dumper (as someone put it, it was like the wild west with no moderator.)
BenDronePilot - Which type of diversity is being used (Ex: Switching, Selecting, Combining, Dynamic Control)? I've not been able to prove one way or another. Also, while I agree with you, how do you know for sure that MIMO is not being used? The perplexing thing to me about the repeater is that if it were a simple diversity setup (Ex: Switching) then I'm confused on the setup. 1) They are using two 1/4 wave antennas right next to each other. I don't see how it would really matter which one was being used, basically they will be receiving the same signal. 2) For the simple diversity setup to have real effect, the two antennas need to be separated by one full wavelength (4.92 inches.) If they are using combining or a more sophisticated system like MIMO, replacing only one of the antennas would defeat the potential value of the system (would still work, just not as well as intended.)
There must be something wrong with your testing (or your patch antenna) everything else being equal, it does not make sense that a 5dbi omni would out perform a 9dbi directional. The only thing I can think of is that you are somehow flying outside the beamwidth of the 9dbi directional or you have it mounted horizontal rather than vertically (90deg out of phase). Which brings me to my final observation. In your picture you have your onmi antenna horizontal rather than vertical. Is this the way you are using it? If so, and if you are getting that range, something is very strange (like maybe the antennas in the camera somehow were installed 90deg out of phase), in which case try rotating the directional antenna too.
BTW, I see in your screen shots that you are flying sideways, when does the signal cut out if pointed away from you? My guess is 1500 to 1800 feet?
This is with a 12dbi patch (flying sideways after 1800 feet to keep solid video). It actually went further, but no point in showing a screen shot as the distance changes to "N/A" after 3299 feet.:
BTW, your doing great, it's really good to see testing with omni's. Thank you.
Based on testing and comments from other users in this thread they came to the conclusion that it's a diversity setup. Though yes it doesn't make sense to have two antennas so close together in a diversity setup that uses only one antenna or the other so it's possible it may be combined signal.
In the test I show my screen shot of yes, the picture shows the basic orientation I was using when flying, and yes as you can see I did achieve 2,533 foot range using only an 8dbi omni. I flew sideways to see the Maximum potential. I can tell you for sure that it will work reliably in any orientation well past 1,700 feet but I need to do some more test flights beyond the one I had a chance to do to be 100% sure or it's max range on any orientation. The did many more flights using the 5dbi omni directional and did not see any apparent range differences with it either pointed straight up or sideways. When using the antenna pointed on it's side I also had the repeater's flat side facing the general direction of the Phantom as well to maximize results.
For the TPLink 9dbi directional antenna, I did have it in the correct orientation to maximize vertical field of view though it doesn't really matter which way it's oriented as long as you have it pointed at the Phantom, which I did best I could. I will try it again without the antenna mounted on top of the repeater to see if the results change.
The 3,200 foot range you got with your 12dbi antenna is nice. Though I'm sure not so compact as the omni option. If you think about it are you really going to be needing to fly so far away on an every day basis? Isn't it just as practical to just simply take off from a closer position should you want a view of a particular object? Granted I guess that's not always possible if the object in question is over a lake or behind a fence where you can't take off from a closer position. Anyway it's still fun to push the range envelope and see what we can get out of these things short of any major modification. Cause at that point you may as well just get a regular Phantom 2 and 5.8ghz FirstPersonView setup.
On a side note we all need to write DJI to fix the app radar to adjust for people who can fly past the normal 300meter setup, and of course the 3200 foot limit you mentioned that the app reports.