Getting into fpv

[HighTechPauper]

I would however bend the antennas straight up more, usually when we fly our heads can lean down which points your antennas at the ground (not good), try to make them so that the omni and the patch are pointing horizontal or slightly up from horizontal when you are wearing your goggles. That and setting the proper band/frequency should fix your issue if there is no actual bad connection or malfunctioning parts.

 

[Stoked4]

Ok, orientation looks fine, but do not tighten the connections with a wrench, finger tight only, they do not need to be torqued down as that can do damage. Try to get a DVR recording of the issue, upload it to youtube and put the link here so we can see how bad it is. My first thought is that you are not on the same frequency on both goggles and quad, do not just scan for your signal as the goggles can lock onto anything near your frequency, Wayne was having the same types of issues until we set the goggles and quad correctly and then he was good to go.

Ok great
New motor coming in 2 days
Once I install I’ll record a flight
Thanks for the help

 

[HighTechPauper]

As an example of antennas, I am running a 90 degree connector (mushroom) and a 45 degree (patch) so I am losing .5 to about 1 dB or so possibly.

 

[HighTechPauper]

As just a note from RC Groups about the subject. You can get reasonable ones if you want and just compare a flight with them and without (keeping antennas in the same orientation) to see if the 45/90 is a dud and having big loss issues, if good you shouldn't notice any real difference in signal with them. A dB or so of loss (max, could be .5 or less) is not a big deal at all if all else is good.

"It's not the Right Angle that is the main contributor to the RF losses. The SMA adapters with high losses suffer from design / material quality issues. At 5.8GHz, everything matters; Poor dielectric materials and inferior mechanical parts are to blame.

There are good Right Angle SMA's but they cost a lot more (budget about $10 USD). For example, Amphenol's SMA Right Angle is very low loss (0.4dB @5.8GHz). Also, its "uni-body" construction can take a LOT more crash punishment than the economy priced China connectors that fail after some hard impacts.

Measurements that show a quality Right Angle SMA (0.4dB loss) versus a typical China SMA (1.1dB loss).

Sadly, economy priced SMA's that are soldered on the coax (versus screw on) have similar RF loss issues.

For those that demand lowest connector related RF losses should plan on using high performance SMA connectors and skip the Chinese bargain stuff. I don't totally avoid the economy priced connectors, but I measure them and toss the really bad ones. Another reason to own a RF power meter."

 

[Stoked4]

As just a note from RC Groups about the subject. You can get reasonable ones if you want and just compare a flight with them and without (keeping antennas in the same orientation) to see if the 45/90 is a dud and having big loss issues, if good you shouldn't notice any real difference in signal with them. A dB or so of loss (max, could be .5 or less) is not a big deal at all if all else is good.

"It's not the Right Angle that is the main contributor to the RF losses. The SMA adapters with high losses suffer from design / material quality issues. At 5.8GHz, everything matters; Poor dielectric materials and inferior mechanical parts are to blame.

There are good Right Angle SMA's but they cost a lot more (budget about $10 USD). For example, Amphenol's SMA Right Angle is very low loss (0.4dB @5.8GHz). Also, its "uni-body" construction can take a LOT more crash punishment than the economy priced China connectors that fail after some hard impacts.

Measurements that show a quality Right Angle SMA (0.4dB loss) versus a typical China SMA (1.1dB loss).

Sadly, economy priced SMA's that are soldered on the coax (versus screw on) have similar RF loss issues.

For those that demand lowest connector related RF losses should plan on using high performance SMA connectors and skip the Chinese bargain stuff. I don't totally avoid the economy priced connectors, but I measure them and toss the really bad ones. Another reason to own a RF power meter."

Wow
You’ve really gone above any beyond testing this out
I guess the aomway triple feed patch is better than the one I have on there currently

 

[HighTechPauper]

Yes, it is a better antenna, just make sure you have your 50 ohm terminator on the LH side so it is RHCP and you are good to go. I also find them easier to point in different directions depending on which way I am flying the furthest.

 

[HighTechPauper]

The reason I pointed out SMA/RP-SMA is because people have hooked RP-SMA antennas to SMA jacks and therefore had 2 female sockets and no real connection. When it is 2 male pins you can't put them together, but with 2 females they will mate but have no connection, due to the RF jumping the gap you can have a decent signal until you get a few feet away and then it turns to poop. Just didn't want you to run into that sometime, I always have to check because I have so much of both in my squadron that I double check to be sure.

 

[Stoked4]

Yes, it is a better antenna, just make sure you have your 50 ohm terminator on the LH side so it is RHCP and you are good to go. I also find them easier to point in different directions depending on which way I am flying the furthest.

50 ohm terminator?

 

[HighTechPauper]

That is why I mentioned it, there should be a plug that looks like this on the connector labeled LHCP that terminates the signal properly. Cut rate deals seem to be leaving the terminator and/or the flexible coax out of the deal, without it your antenna will suck.

 

[HighTechPauper]

You can get them separately like from here...

SMA Male RF Coaxial Termination Matched Dummy Load 50 Ohm Terminator For FPV RC Drone

Take a look at the pictures and the comments on this product.

 

[HighTechPauper]

Watch this, the Aomway was just released when Stu did this so he didn't have one of those but I think another one he tested was also missing the termination.

 

[Stoked4]

You can get them separately like from here...

SMA Male RF Coaxial Termination Matched Dummy Load 50 Ohm Terminator For FPV RC Drone

Take a look at the pictures and the comments on this product.

Wow
I see this guys videos all over the internet
I just ordered the connectors
Awesome information once again
I thank you

 

[Futuramille]

congratulations on the new son. he'll be flying too soon!

 

[Stoked4]

Ok, orientation looks fine, but do not tighten the connections with a wrench, finger tight only, they do not need to be torqued down as that can do damage. Try to get a DVR recording of the issue, upload it to youtube and put the link here so we can see how bad it is. My first thought is that you are not on the same frequency on both goggles and quad, do not just scan for your signal as the goggles can lock onto anything near your frequency, Wayne was having the same types of issues until we set the goggles and quad correctly and then he was good to go.

Hey
The quads fixed and I got that dummy cap for the patch antenna
You were saying there’s a way to find the right channel aside from scanning?

 

[HighTechPauper]

Should be easy peasy! Decide on what band, and what channel in that band you want to run on all your quads, then set your vTX's and your goggles to the correct channel. If you have any issues figuring it out let me know. I would suggest you shoot for something in the Race band, I run R5 (5,806 MHz), but it really doesn't matter much, just pick one that all your vTx's and your goggles support, because many do NOT support all bands and channels (due to FCC regs here in the states anyways) so you may see that some vTX's are 32, 40, 48 channels etc meaning it doesn't do all of them unless it is a 72 or 80 channel model.

 

[Futuramille]

I run on F2 mostly. If your goggles will, do a frequency scan. I believe your looking for the quietest channel range.
Tech is right about R but you might be surprised at the improvements simply changing channels. testing is required to get it right for the location.

 

[Stoked4]

I run on F2 mostly. If your goggles will, do a frequency scan. I believe your looking for the quietest channel range.
Tech is right about R but you might be surprised at the improvements simply changing channels. testing is required to get it right for the location.

I’m having trouble changing the frequency on the quad itself
Every time I press the button on the vtx the led always returns to the same one
I’ll post the video I sent to tech

The lights never correspond with the ones on the chart

 

[Futuramille]

I could easily be wrong in this and hopefully someone here with that vtx will comment but on my TBS unify pro Race or any of my Blacksheep VTX, the lights flash just like yours do and then return to a single light showing its on. the lights flash only to indicate the change and return to a single green if locked or two solid red and a green light if unlocked.
I believe you have changed channels there... you can validate the change by checking the new channel with your goggles or a monitor.

 

[Futuramille]

for what it's worth... really its the last two bottom sentences that count... I think most VTX are the same in this case.

 

[Stoked4]

I could easily be wrong in this and hopefully someone here with that vtx will comment but on my TBS unify pro Race or any of my Blacksheep VTX, the lights flash just like yours do and then return to a single light showing its on. the lights flash only to indicate the change and return to a single green if locked or two solid red and a green light if unlocked.
I believe you have changed channels there... you can validate the change by checking the new channel with your goggles or a monitor.

Ok this makes sense
I think another problem I was having after I thought I changed channels is a loose wire causing me to lose picture
So whatever I set this to should stay this way after the quad is powered off?