WiFi cards and Alfa Antennas installed. Need more range.

Dogman,

You are correct, I'm suggesting using cloverleaf antennas on the Solo. These are the ones I ordered: VAS - 2.4 GHz Cloverleaf Whip Antenna RHCP - Right Angle [CL-2400-90] - $19.95 : Ready Made RC LLC, The Leader in All Things FPV, RC, and Beyond

On the controller, I'm planning on trying the VAS Crosshair antennas. At 5.5" square X 2:, they are not crazy large with a 10 dBi gain. VAS - 2.4 GHz 10dBic RHCP Crosshair Antenna RHCP [CH-2400-R] - $54.95 : Ready Made RC LLC, The Leader in All Things FPV, RC, and Beyond

These are the antennas that IBCrazy suggested in this post: Alex, Ever Consider Developing an Antenna Set for the 3DR Solo?
 
Those crosshairs look pretty good, so do his Helicals :) 10dB would be nice for most applications... might look into these some more... being an RF nerd, I like spending time and money testing this stuff out! lol (much to my wife's dismay)
 
This is a fun conversation.

Been flying Fixed Wing FPV for way linnet thank solo. My preferred video band is 2.4 so I have a slew of 2.4 antennas around - LP, CP, Omni, Directional, etc.

Of note, you will indeed need an RP-SMA to SMA adapter (per antenna) for these FPV antennas to work with solo. Specifically RP-SMA Male to SMA Female.

ID'ing gender in those connectors can be tricky at first.

RP SMA Male to SMA Female Adapter [RPSMAM-SMAF-ADAPTER] - $2.99 : Ready Made RC LLC, The Leader in All Things FPV, RC, and Beyond
 
So I have a creation by Alex Greves/IBCrazy/VAS called the Pepperbox.

It's the best thing to happen to my FPV flying. It is a high gain directional CP antenna , 13dbi, 180 deg horizontal FOV, 60 deg vertical. From take off point, you can essentially fly everywhere you can see in your human eye's FOV. It's killer. With a CP Omni on an ~800mW video transmitter flying out in the open, this setup is capable of miles and miles of range. I've never maxed it out.

Anyway, I wanna hook this bad boy up to Solo. I have the adapters. But I only have one. I intend on mounting hooking up to one antenna port on Solo controller, and leaving the stock Omni on the other.

You guys have any reason to believe this will not work?
 
You guys have any reason to believe this will not work?

It will work, but dont expect stellar results... you'll probably lose most of the benefits of MIMO beyond the stock omni range. MIMO derives maximum value from similar signals, but with slight phase shift, and obviously the signal on the stock antenna will drop away quicker than the other.

I have tested this concept at a very basic level using a single 5dB omni mounted to the roof of my car (extra height, nice ground plane), and there was _some_ improvement. Just make sure you have the appropriate RTH altitude set, and give it a go... it certainly wont break anything (unless you luck out on GPS lock also!)

Maximum value will only come from upgrading both unfortunately
 
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Dogman is right. With MIMO you will be limited by your slowest channel which will be the one with the OEM antenna.
The Pepperbox looks like a real nice piece of gear. I wouldn't mind owning one myself.


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Forgive my ignorance, but this has been tossed around a few times. So, the way I have come to believe from reading, EACH antenna on the Solo transmitter does something different from the other, right? It's not just 2 antenna connections tired to one another, right?
 
Forgive my ignorance, but this has been tossed around a few times. So, the way I have come to believe from reading, EACH antenna on the Solo transmitter does something different from the other, right? It's not just 2 antenna connections tired to one another, right?
Correct. The antennas on Solo are NOT diversity antennas, each one is being used for transmitting different packets of data. Ideally, they should match each other.
 
OK, thanks, now next question. Are they both transmitting AND receiving? What I'm getting at, is I stumbled upon a couple of 2 watt 2.4 amplifiers I bought years ago, and forgot I had.
 
Yes, both transmit and receive.
From Google:
MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) is an antenna technology for wireless communications in which multiple antennas are used at both the source (transmitter) and the destination (receiver). The antennas at each end of the communications circuit are combined to minimize errors and optimize data speed.
 
Greg,
I just picked up an L-Com 11 dBi antenna with spatial diversity (two identical 2.4 GHz antennas in one enclosure).
2.4 GHz 11 dBi Dual Diversity Antenna - 3ft SMA Male Connector [RE11DS-SM] - $29.99 : Ready Made RC LLC, The Leader in All Things FPV, RC, and Beyond
Tried it out last night, works great. I have not tested it for max range (not enough airspace around me), but if the specs are accurate, should do much better than the Alfas.
The antenna is an 8" square, about 1/2" thick, so not small. You would need to make a mount for the controller, or just set it up on a pole or tripod.
For $30 (on sale) you have nothing to lose.
Oh, you will also need two SMA to RP-SMA connectors, which readymaderc also has for a couple of bucks.


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Do you think that the Dual Diversity Antennas are better than the fpvlr antennas?
 
I own neither, so I can't say based on experience.

Right off the bat we do know some things:

FPVLR is a Circular polarized 10.5dbi solution with a 60° horizontal beam width. Because Solo is transmitting and receiving with a linear polarized antenna, you're gonna have a loss of approximately 3db when switching between circular and linear. So you're effective gain back I. The ground is 7.5dbi.

The Spacial Diversity Flat Panel antenna at RMRC is a Linear Polarized 11dbi solution with a 60° horizontal and 30° vertical beam width. No DB loss as polarization remains constant. 30deg vertical may require some aiming of the antenna while Solo is close in, but at range shouldn't be a problem. And this guy is a fraction of the cost of FPVLR at $30.

Another note, FPVLR mounts directly to Solo controller, while the flat panel will require some engineering to mount, if not a tripod.

Info for us al to chew on.
 
@Pushjerk hit the nail on the head!
The RMRC antenna is a little cumbersome to mount on your controller, but could be done. Would be good to mount it on a tripod or antenna tracker.
I just bought two 2.4GHz Crosshair antennas from VAS, purchased from RMRC. These are very similar to the Pepperbox, but about 1/2 the size. I'll try them out and let you know how they work.
 
Oh BTW, The L-Com antenna from RMRC has pretty large side lobes. I had my Solo hovering about 150' AGL and 500' out, and was able to rotate the antenna away from the copter and not drop link. The signal readout dropped on the controller, but the copter didn't go into RTL. This means you could fly without aiming the antenna if you kept the copter close while flying behind the antenna.
 

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