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Fatshark 5.8 Ghz Terrible Range

Posted by aspenlife on July 7, 2012 at 6:28pm

Using a new Fatshark 5.8 with my 2.4Ghz Futaba controller. I hear folks complaining about 150m outages but I can't get much more than 10m. If I setup the camera without my quad simply turning around goes to static. WTF? Is there a special channel that works best with 2.4? I purchased the cloverleaf antennae, etc. and they are no better than the stock. What am I doing wrong or is this a huge waste of 500 bucks? Very frustrated with this purchase!

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Replies

  • Michael February 17, 2015 at 5:41am
    I think this guy has a valid reason for being upset. I'm not new to fpv and know how 5.8ghz works! I have been running my drone with an immersion 600mW Tx for a long while and get great distance, over 1km hardly any static only a touch when I turn. I just had a pair of fat shark attitudes arrive and it will only get a snowy vague picture I can't make out and that's standing right next to it. The supplied Tx worked but had very poor range. Immersion and fat shark now aren't they supposed to work together just fine?
  • Bluskyone1 January 3, 2013 at 2:18pm

    All good if I offended someone please accept my deepest apologizes.

    XOXOXO

    PS: maybe its my new Fatshark Attitude goggles influencing me!

  • Bluskyone1 January 2, 2013 at 8:48am

    All of these videos are shot with 5.8ghz 600mw and Fat-shark predator goggles. Range is fine once you understand how to setup and how radio freq work placement on your vehicle is key to getting the best range. having ham radio license is key and some basic knowledge of how radio freq work.

    5.8ghz 600mw Quad flying videos

    You obviously have no idea what your doing. please rather than complain learn. go read on the net or even get your ham radio license so you understand how it all works. building a drone is not something you do without prior knowledge or research.

    *big tip if you ever power the video tx or rx with no antennas attached you can blow them and the range will never be good again this sounds like what you did to me*

    My Channel with walk though of this quad setup

    https://www.youtube.com/user/Bunnykiller6969?feature=guide

  • Andrew Polson December 3, 2012 at 8:15am

    Here in the UK we have big problems with this stuff. 900 & 1.2mhz is a mobile phone frequency in the uk so a big no no. 2.4 no good for obvious reasons, 5.8 the only legally allowed usage but get this.........maximum 10mw!!!!!

    So pretty much every fpver in the uk, inlcuding me is breaking the law. I use 5.8 200mw using cloverleaf on the tx & a eagletree diverisity running 2 x receivers with cloverleaf & a small patch antenna. This gets me a comfartable 1m range as long as nothing is obstructing. You can now get higher power tx's and this coupled with a tracking patch is about the best your gonna get with 5.8ghz.

    As mentioned 5.8 isn't that good really and it doesn't like obstructions big time.

  • Knut Graf December 1, 2012 at 1:04pm

    Could you possibly have the RX and TX antenna swapped ? That could explain super-low range.

    3 lobe cloverleaf goes on the TX (aircraft) and 4 leaf skew planar wheel goes on the RX (goggles).

    Regards,

    Knut

  • Admin
    Thomas J Coyle III December 1, 2012 at 9:07am

    Hi All,

    I use 5.8GHz Air Wave DPCAV kit transmitters and receivers. The transmitter is only 200mw so I use two receivers, an Oracle Diversity Controller, and a RMRC/ArduStantion2 tracking antenna and I get pretty good reception within most visual ranges.

    Regards,

    TCIII

  • T.Maclaurin December 1, 2012 at 5:50am

    Hi

    I have the Fatshark predator v2 series with a 250mw transmitter. On my transmitter I have about 4 little rocker switches which enable me to change channel. I assume that it is the same for all fat shark transmitters. I have a spektrum 2.4 radio and apparently channel 1 works best for any 2.4 radio. If not they recommend  that you just flick through the channels to find the one with the least interfearance. I hope to get a Immersion 600mw transmitter which I have heard will dramatically increase my range and clarity, WHEN HOBBY KING GET BACK IN STOCK!!!!!!!!!

    Good luck

  • james sowell September 3, 2012 at 9:33am

    http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&a...   hk not in stock i got some this morn. from tim

  • Magnus von Rosen September 3, 2012 at 2:29am

    I also bougth the Fatshark 100mW system, and just like you, I was disappointed. Got 50 meters, but at low altitude picture was unsafe to fly by at 20 meters.

    Edit: Missed the part where you said you bought the Clovers already. :) 1. I suggest that you look at Hobbykings new CloverLeaf antennas. They should boost the range quite a bit and is a bargain at $40.

    2. If thats not enough, do like I did and get the Immersion 600mW TX. Problem is its not compatible with the fatshark, you end up with a separate reciever and a wire to your goggles.

    Edit2:

    I forgot to mention, I first had mine close to the ESC:s, moved the TX to one of the landing legs, as far away from everything that I could. Seemed to help some.

    KR

    Magnus, Sweden

  • Jean-Marc Gendreau August 29, 2012 at 4:45pm

    @aspenlife

    I tried my new Fatshark 5.8G setup today.  I'm using the integrated Fatshark 5.8G RX module, the Immersion 600mW TX and stock antennas.  It's the first time I fly FPV so I didn't try to find the range limit but I can tell you that I got very good signal quality within a 100m radius. I didn't lose the signal once but sometimes the motors seems to generate some video noise.

    So if you can't get more than 10m, you might have a problem with your 5.8G receiver.  If you know someone with the same setup, you should swap the RX module to see if it does the same thing.

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