Hi
We got the FPV combo system from Hobbyking, the 900mhz version, together with OSD. We are cuurenntly modifying the OSD to get one unit and less cables, I will upload some photos when its done.
So our question is regarding the ground station, we would like to add an directional antenna with tracking to improve the range. Does anyone know where we can by a patch antenna for 900Mhz?
At the ground station we have currently a small monitor, but we would like to add googles and laptop recording, does anyone know some cheap decent googles, video recorder for laptop and a video signal splitter?
How high up in the air should the antenna tracking system be? Did anyone use a tall tripod or something similar?
And at the moment we dont have any sound, where can we get a mic?
Does anyone use a directional antenna in combination with an omnidirectional antenna?
Kim
Replies
readymaderc.com has a lot of the stuff youre looking for, including a cool antenna tracker PTZ kit that mounts on a camera tripod.
I put together everything to build a tracking antenna and ended up not even using it. If you are flying under a mile, you shouldn't need a direction antenna. If you are trying to fly out several miles, it is usually in one direction. In that case you can just point the directional antenna in the general direction.
I purchased an 900mhz path antenna from dealextreme.com. I have some Headplay googles that I bought on sale for $150 and they work well. Dealextreme also has an inexpensive USB video capture dongle called Easy Capture that works well.
As far as the height of the antenna, that depends. I have read that some patch antennas perform better low to the ground due to ground plane issues. That has also been my anecdotal experience also.
You can get inexpensive, bare component mics from a variety of FPV vendors and add it in.
The best systems use both a direction and omni antennas tied together with a diversity system that automatically switches to the antenna providing the best signal at the moment.
The beauty of an autonomous airplane is being able to hit RTL in case of a video failure. No need for super fancy systems.