First day out flying my new IRIS+ and I kept having DroidPlanner call out "Weak Signal". This is concerning because the copter was in a wide open field between 10' and 100' from me, most of the time around 30' in front of me hovering when it would give this warning... I am using the 3DR Radio for telemetry. I believe the correct way to troubleshot radio problems/interference is by graphing the RAD values from the Pixhawks logs correct? if so, that is what I did and took a picture to attach to this posting, I am not sure what I am looking at so can someone help and tell me if you see what is going on?
Thanks,
Matt
Replies
Hi Matt,
I had similar issues with the stock rubber duck antennas so I made up some custom antennas by getting 2 standard wireless aerials from an old router, removing the rubber cover and soldering on a length of mig welding wire (to keep it rigid). Then pop a hole in the rubber cover and put it back on and vollia, for about 15 minutes work you can have 2 new monopole antennas. The important thing is that the total length of the unshielded wire is pretty accurate for your desired frequency.
Have a look at this article for a simple 433mhz build http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?382-Sander-style-%28Ez%29UH...
And a more general one for antenna design http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1159968\ And really anything by IBCrazy on the rcgroups is worth reading.
Anyway I can now fly over 1KM out and keep a reliable connection to the ground station, this is with literately 15 minutes work with a soldering Iron and a ruler, I didn't even remove the counterpoise or measure that accurately as I was heading out to fly when I made them.