Hi, i just read a topic about this which was closed.
I have the same issues, 1 meter range with the 433MHz telemetry and it only connects intermittently. I am using the 3DR radio absolutely stock.
Ground station is a Acer Aspire One with an Intel Atom processor.
Any ideas? Its really annoying my quad keeps falling from the sky as i have no idea on what my batt voltage is!
Thanks!
Replies
Hi, i've got the same issue, as have others:
http://ardupilot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=5939&p=1612... (not solved despite marked as so!)
Ive just been looking at mine again. it seems that a resistor has come off from the transmitter, just below the ant solder joint.
See picture -
Ive been having problems with these since yesterday (but before i have them for basic tuning in a room and not lost any signal)
Currently the green light is blinking indicating it is looking for another radio. I can get it to stay solid, but thats with the remote very close (30cm), if i move the remote away by 10cm then it looses connection.
I have looked at the noise and both dont seem to be that bad between 20-30 units on the MP graph
@Dean
Are your 3dr radios connected to your laptop via a FTDI cable or is it one of those units with the USB connector on the board itself ? I think ive seen before that the later is bad for precisely the reasons you seem to be discovering.
Graham
the length of the wire for 433 MHz depends on the Antenna type for Lambda 1/2 it is around 332mm for Lambda 1/4 166mm and for Lambda 5/8 415 mm.
for a 915 MHz Antenna the length would be for Lambda 1/2 it is around 157mm for Lambda 1/4 79mm and for Lambda 5/8 197 mm.
the length of the wire from the Rc Timer coil is 285,4 mm plus the wire from the coaxial cable till the beginning of the coil. And for the APC 220 it is 377,36 mm.
so for me it should be 433 MHz Antennas but I do not know how to calculate exactly the coil
Improved noise level on rctimer 433 Mhz USB ground radio
In general it worked for me but I could not accept that the 433 MHz USB Radio is worse than the 915 MHz.
The picture before improvement:
Accidently I removed the antenna during testing and saw how the noise went down. My conclusion was the noise coming from the USB chip will be inserted through the receive path. I covered the whole device with aluminum and reduced the noise.
After the improvement:
The Ground Radio:
The Copter:
Why not be belt and braces about battery life, use your TX timer if you have one or watch. I use one of these http://www.pyramidmodels.com/shop/product.php/979/2_in1_lipo_batter... when flying whirley things.
Relying on data links is perhaps not best practice.
Hi Dean,
post a tlog showing the 1m range test, plus post the settings shown for your radios in the mission planner.
The tlog should tell us if the problem is noise or signal strength.
Cheers, Tridge