Hey all.
Running a Dragonlink UHF radio system on my QAV540 quad, having some interesting range issues that I never thought I would using such a powerful system! My radio is a Taranis X9D.
Everything is setup, bound and calibrated properly according to the website. Prior to doing a longer range FPV flight I wanted to make sure I was going to failsafe at some pitifully short range and crash into the ocean :).
So I put the copter in a bush and start walking. Got 450m or so away, constant failsafes :(. Using the stock antennas, here's what my setup looks like:
I've also attempted the micro power range test like the website dictates to know if your system is working properly, which I completed and only got 16ft away before failsafes. You're supposed to get to 30ft. Anyone else having these issues? Any pointers?
Replies
So basically figured out that I should read general info before posting. The problem is that I idiotically mounted the antennas exactly how you are not supposed to (see above pics). The problem is that if you read the setup for the entire V2 system it doesn't speak much about antenna placement. BUT if you meander over to the part of the website for just buying antennas, it has a GREAT little picture laden section in which I found this gem:
Which essentially tells you don't be an idiot like me:
What you should NEVER do is have both antenna wire elements parallel to each other, and NEVER mount the antenna in a V configuration.
I'll mod my antenna placement choice, retry the range check, and report back :).
Dont worry, anyone born knowing all ;), good Luck,
the antenna parallel to aluminium isn't a good idea too.
I found your cuad photo recently, sorry. your rc antenna setup don't looks perfect too; please make a test, put your transmiter far from your radio and video as you can, them move your receiver with the antenna as far as you can from the copter pointing up and down the dipole and check if signal looks better, if yes, you have to change your setup, if no, try changing antennas, I have a dipole on my transmitter too, works better than the original one for me.
Jeremy I´m using the DL v1, I fly copters and airplane and no issues, what I do: I have a tripod where I put the DL far from other interferences (video, radio control, etc), On the cuad, I have a dipole antenna as far as possible for the other electronics and cuad shadow, 1000+1200 mts is aprox my longest fly with the cuads. Can you share a photo with your cuad antenna?
Perhaps this usefull.
I don´t fly far with the copter but i migrated to DL tired of 2.4 failsafes, with DL never have one again.
-Jeremy