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The stock radio on the solo is very impressive. They advertise up to 1/2 mile connectivity and it delivers that and more under ideal circumstances. When flying around interference such as other 2.4ghz wifi, or when the line of sight is even slightly compromised, it can be considerably less than the stated range.
I tired soldering up a double biquad antenna and was quite pleased with the results. It is however very directional, and works best when pointed directly towards the drone. Farther out than the 1/2 mile mark, you have to keep the biquad pointed pretty carefully, but I have gotten over 10,000 feet reliably with video from the gopro. The video is not as fast to refresh at that range, but it keeps a reliable connection.
I added the parabolic reflector to help the signal in the 2,500' to 5,000' range, as it is less directional, but still about doubles the range as compared to no reflector.
The double biquad dimensions are somewhat readable in the pic, but it is 28.2cm wide by 13.1cm top to bottom. The plates along the top and bottom edge stick out 2.9cm from the face of the reflector, and the biquad standoff is 1.1cm from the face of the reflector. It is made out of double sided circuit board cut and soldered together as the reflector, with a piece of 12 gauge copper wire as the radiating element. If anybody is interested I can find the dimensions for the biquad element.
The parabolic reflector is just a simple parabola with no special characteristics, I just chose a shape that looked nice and cut out the two black acrylic plates on a laser cutter.
They aren't pretty, but they work great.
The stock radio on the solo is very impressive. They advertise up to 1/2 mile connectivity and it delivers that and more under ideal circumstances. When flying around interference such as other 2.4ghz wifi, or when the line of sight is even slightly compromised, it can be considerably less than the stated range.
I tired soldering up a double biquad antenna and was quite pleased with the results. It is however very directional, and works best when pointed directly towards the drone. Farther out than the 1/2 mile mark, you have to keep the biquad pointed pretty carefully, but I have gotten over 10,000 feet reliably with video from the gopro. The video is not as fast to refresh at that range, but it keeps a reliable connection.
I added the parabolic reflector to help the signal in the 2,500' to 5,000' range, as it is less directional, but still about doubles the range as compared to no reflector.
The double biquad dimensions are somewhat readable in the pic, but it is 28.2cm wide by 13.1cm top to bottom. The plates along the top and bottom edge stick out 2.9cm from the face of the reflector, and the biquad standoff is 1.1cm from the face of the reflector. It is made out of double sided circuit board cut and soldered together as the reflector, with a piece of 12 gauge copper wire as the radiating element. If anybody is interested I can find the dimensions for the biquad element.
The parabolic reflector is just a simple parabola with no special characteristics, I just chose a shape that looked nice and cut out the two black acrylic plates on a laser cutter.
They aren't pretty, but they work great.
