Pharos matches a dynamic directional (beam shaping) radio on the air with another on the ground, with the two tracking each other for multi-mile range for video and telemetry. Coming to Kickstarter in 2-3 weeks.
The Pharos is a newly-developed smart antenna. Unlike conventional omni-directional antennas that waste energy in all directions, the Pharos concentrates the available power where you need it most. Working in conjunction with the Pixhawk autopilot (a version with its own autopilot is being also developed), the antenna activates the side facing your UAV, boosting reception and range. A second Pharos can also be used on the aircraft, quadrocopter or UAV, keeping ground control in aim at all times. The Pharos is also circular-polarized, granting immunity to polarization losses and multipathing signals, an optimum choice for challenging environments.
Air:
Ground:
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And this one shows how to manually activate each antenna through an Arduino and a serial monitor by typing the respective antenna numbers 1 through 4. You can use any serial monitor i.e. from an Android smartphone as on this video.
This video shows a special version of the Pharos antenna that includes a spherical video camera at the bottom of the antenna (more on this shortly). You can see the activation sequence of each one of the 4 antenna panels (by the corresponding LED) as the IRIS is yawing 360 degrees. The HOME point is set behind the cameraman.
@ Albert, Yes we will offer the antenna controller as a standalone device and also accompanied by a pre-programmed Arduino-mini (or Teensy) that includes the basic code to control the antenna activation sequence.
The Arduino code will allow you to press a button on your keyboard (1 through 4) to activate each antenna respectively. You can add your own code to allow more advanced functions i.e. controlling the antennas activation sequence depending on location, orientation, etc but we will be releasing this advanced code as well that makes the antenna controller a complete “geo-referenced” antenna just like the complete Pharos does. Expect this to happen slightly after the kickstarter campaign ends.
Also, we will be offering a 3D mapping application that allows you to activate the antennas activation sequence by clicking on the map. Clicking a location on the map will activate the antenna that points towards that direction.
Finally, we will share schematics of how to connect your own GPS and IMU to the antenna controller to make a complete automated antenna controller that does not need orientation to the North (location/orientation aware) but you’ll be also be able to enter these attributes manually (location and orientation) in case you don’t want to use additional sensors.
Then we can add our own.
Thanks
@ Jason, The Pharos antenna (and its integrated controller) is compatible with the Pixhawk firmware only. To make it compatible with other platforms (i.e. the Phantom you mentioned) we would need to have access to their telemetry code (which we don’t, neither are open source). So, the Pharos antenna can extend the range of any platform it is attached to as long as this platform can output the correct commands for the Pharos integrated antenna controller. Currently, only the Pixhawk does, although we wrote our own code for the Teensy board that makes the Pharos a complete standalone unit not requiring an external FC. But this is a future version we are preparing and not related to your questions.
Going back to the combination you present of 2.4GHz antennas with the Pharos controller, yes, this shall work fine with the Solo and it will at least double (2-3 times) its range. Using a 2.4GHz Pharos on both the Solo and on its ground controller should get you close to 2.5-3Km of flight range and I’m sure this range is supported by the Solo battery (i.e. flight time) for a round trip at 3Km. We don’t have access to a Solo but if you try this combination let us know how it worked. If on top of that you apply the mod presented here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eGhpqDHMm0) in combination with the 2.4GHz Pharos, I trust you shall get 5Km with the Solo but then I’m not sure if the Solo can make it for the round trip. Normally it should if it flies for example at 40km/h (25mph) and still supports 20 mins of flight time. It will take 7.5 mins to get there, 7.5 mins to return plus you’ll get 5 more mins of flight time at that range.
Another variant could use cell towers for navigation.
Check this out? http://www.aaronia.com/ look at the 3D Scanning antenna. You can google "RDF radio direction finding switch" just looking at images I found some interesting stuff.
Many users have addressed the 2.4GHz version and we plan to get into it. There are some challenges but solutions exist. Our main challenge is to keep the size small and comparable to the existing Pharos. Hugo is working on that.
In the meantime, there are good news. You can use the main controller board of the Pharos antenna and plug pretty much any antenna you wish. The controller operates from 10MHz up to 8GHz so it accepts pretty much all antennas. Now you can plug your own 2.4 GHz antennas. Power input limit is 1000mW so do not exceed that. Below is a picture of the antenna controller. The middle connector is the RF-in and the 4 corner connectors are the RF-out. We will also release Arduino and Teensy code that allows you to control the antennas activation sequence manually.
2.4GHz is in our plans for future development. We will tackle the technical challenge of keeping the same dimensions or close.
-Hugo
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