Improving my Diving at Knockholt

Videos by FPV Drone
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Good coaching by @ORB_FPV

Damn these youngster are quick. But my diving skills are slowly improving.

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Looking good :slight_smile: - Is this Walksnail/ELRS? Each time I get around a ‘big’ tree I am about loosing connection (with my mono-antennas on the drone). I was told dual antenna (both VTX & ELRS) would help but yet to test

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Walksnail (moonlight) - Dual Walksnail Avatar HD Moonlight Kit | HobbyRC UK
ELRS - also dual antennas. - Radiomaster RP4TD Diversity 2.4GHz ELRS Receiver | HobbyRC UK

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@bmsleight — shhhhht! They are going to know that I crashed while supposedly flying correctly! BTW - I am as young as you are!

@Cedric Bonjour :wink: You are writing about loosing signal. Video or TX/RX? And either case, you should NOT lose signal behind a (even big) tree. Something else needs to be tackled.
Usually, if you lose video, it has to do with the emission power on the VTX. If it is strong, then the next thing to look is at the antenna. Do tell us more, and we might be able to help.

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Bonjour :slight_smile: - signal loss has indeed been an issue for me - I think I spent as much time looking for my quads as flying them :smiley:

I started with a 3.5 - I followed Chris Rosser’s advice on antenna mounting (along opposite arms) - single antenna VTX + RP1 - AOS 3.5 V5 6S
I lost signal in a few unexpected places - mostly video signal. Upgraded antennas to TrueRC stubbies on the Goggles X and ended up moving the drone antenna to have it cable tied to one of the rear standoff. Much better now in line of sight (several km) but usually any obstacle is an issue (tried a few settings, power (this VTX goes up to 500mW).

Same thing with my toothpick (same config with naked vtx - AOS T3 3S ) - except it is smaller and still have not managed to fit a gps on it so even harder to find :smiley:

I built my first 5inch with the V2 VTX single antenna (dual antenna came out a month after or similar) - this one has an RP3 ELRS and same thing - video does not like loss of LOS (tried every power - up to 700mW at the time then full power when firmware was fixed on this one ( AOS 5 V5 ) - antenna upgraded to TrueRC - quite a bit better but still strong signal drop.

Each time I approach an area out of LOS I seem to get big drops in video signal (usually trees/bushes)

A more recent build with a dual antenna V2 VTX - this time with an RP-1 ELRS as recommended by the designer ( ItsFPV ERA 5 ) - couple of days ago doing a test flight with the action camera - got a short RX loss less than 1km away, 50m high or so with maybe a few leaves of the top of a tree entering the LOS (I’ll add the video shortly) - so my thinking now is dual antennas everywhere and likely better positioning as part of the winter refresh – I want to fly around stuff too :smiley:

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I have to say I was remembering it a bit stronger than that (1:20) but still does not fill me with confidence…

I noticed that I was standing facing close to 90 degrees to the drone so may have got close to one of the nulls of the Boxer antenna (default antenna and I leave it horizontal when I fly) :thinking:

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Hello Cedric - sounds like we are highjacking @bmsleight’s thread, so probably better to open a direct comms at some point.

1st - you have very clean nice looking builds (!)
2nd - I see the positioning of the antennas (both vtx / RX) are good
3rd - I hear that you are clear on what you are doing / you have tested (ie power levels etc…)
4th - finally the video confirms an issue imho on the TX/RX link, but I am less convinced that you have a problem with the VTX link (only looking at the video).

so we can have a discussion one on one if you wish, but here is my 2(+/-) initial cents:

  1. when you turned the quad and the LQ of ELRS dropped a bit, it happened for a brief moment as you stated (micro cuts). It feels too close to be right, but a few things could happen there:
  • it happens when you turn. This means you are likely to have ended (as you stated) in the null of the antenna. You might also have been unlucky and have been on the null of the emitter, and combining both reduces the ranges / penetration strongly.
  • I assume you are on ELRS 2.4ghz (I don’t know much about ELRS, but used to fly on 2.4ghz in the past) and penetration / range are a little lower than on 868mhz.
  • finally you could have a firmware / build issue (?). eg: firmware glitch - are you on the latest versions? eg: build glitch: are you 100% sure you have 1) isolated the antenna connectors from the frame and that your soldering of the live / ground and signal TX/RX are clean? I can’t judge your solder quality on the pictures, but since the build look clean, I would check the route of the firmware. Check also that your antenna connection is isolated from the frame or any other electric component - you could have a ground issue there as well. This is also valid for the VTX.

Often it is a combination of the above that generates these issues. Last time I had a severe RX/TX issue, it was because my RX antenna cable was severed (prop strike) - yet it allowed me to go 100m away without impact on the LQ… then I had micro cuts.

  1. VTX issue. I see that you had a slight glitch on the video when you are turning. I also see one when you are on your way back. It is ok to have a few glitches here and there (eg: when you turn, your battery pack or full frame could be around the donut shape of your circular polarised antenna, and thus blocking partially, shortly, the signal. This should be dropping a few mbps, not from 25 to 14 at 200 meters away though. So here again, I would say check that the antenna connector is not loose / not in contact with the frame. Or again, check that you are on the last version of walksnail.

Finally, the key I am getting from all this is that you mention this happens on most of your builds, which leads me to common elements of the builds:

  1. you - do you have expectations too high (I think your video does show some weird behaviours, so I assume not - and you have built a few drones, so I assume you are in the business since a little while)

  2. the firmware on the ELRS and / or walksnail as these are still WIP.

Tough one! Let me know!

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oooh - I missed one thing - are you using UFL to SMA connectors or direct UFL (or MMCX)?
From a firmware perspective in the ELRS - check if you have dynamic power - maybe you can fix it at a reasonably high level

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Super video and flying.

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