WiFi Card upgrade testing
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Thanks for the feedback Eric. I understand what you're saying. Makes sense. I found out about the AMA from Jubar, another forum member and joined pronto. The liability coverage alone is worth tons to me.
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The Sunhans amps are typically rated for a max input of 20dBm. I wouldn't use them without an attenuator between the controller and amp, which kind of defeats the purpose of using a higher power wifi card to begin with.
OK the weather was nice today. I took solo w/ 2 upgraded radios and FPVLR out. I made it to 2.5miles before turning around. The RSSI was still -69db and I wasn't doing the best job of aiming precisely. Battery is much more of an issue at these distances. I made it back to takeoff w/ about 25% battery. There were some nasty winds coming off the mountain.
As you can see in the shot, I was walled off by some high power transmission lines. FAA, please note the the elevation where the screenshot was taken is several hundred feet higher than takeoff altitude.
As you can see in the shot, I was walled off by some high power transmission lines. FAA, please note the the elevation where the screenshot was taken is several hundred feet higher than takeoff altitude.
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Someone on Solo FB users group went 3.6 miles or something like that with the FPVLR antenna and a couple of external 2.5W boosters. I believe he had to land early though not having the battery power to get all the way back home.
Chengidgger that's an awesome flight. Do you ever notice the RSSI bounce around when you stop or tilt Solo when you're out that far? I find that when the antennas in the Solo legs shift they can really mess with my signal when I'm out a distance or fly in a noisier area. Maybe the FPVLR handles that a bit better. I've been shopping around for antennas to replace the antennas on the Solo but I haven't found anything i really like yet.
@Jubalr I think we can get a 3 mile out and back, maybe more - battery willing. Plotting a safe course that long with emergency LZs is tricky here.
@NYG I did notice RSSI bounce more on my previous test flight w/ the 2 upgraded radios. I was being really sloppy aiming the antennas. I stopped @2.1miles and lost signal when the legs moved, triggering a RTH. Today, I had a spotter with some good binos assisting. I saw a little variance (1-2dB @ 2 miles), but the signal was generally rock solid, even spinning and hovering. I think the circular polarization helped a lot in my situation. At those distances (and elevation shifts in my case) you really need to pay attention to your antenna aiming. I wish the solo app had a little video game style HUD aimer. That said, I'm quite happy w/ the FPVLR antenna.
@NYG I did notice RSSI bounce more on my previous test flight w/ the 2 upgraded radios. I was being really sloppy aiming the antennas. I stopped @2.1miles and lost signal when the legs moved, triggering a RTH. Today, I had a spotter with some good binos assisting. I saw a little variance (1-2dB @ 2 miles), but the signal was generally rock solid, even spinning and hovering. I think the circular polarization helped a lot in my situation. At those distances (and elevation shifts in my case) you really need to pay attention to your antenna aiming. I wish the solo app had a little video game style HUD aimer. That said, I'm quite happy w/ the FPVLR antenna.
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Has anybody considered changing/upgrading the antennas on the Solo itself? Are there some better mini pci-e antennas that can be swapped in? I'm new to this whole thing, but I already have the MikroTik radios and the cheapo Alfa panel antennas from Amazon. Getting good range, just curious if it could be better.
I was going to upgrade the antennas on the Solo. I have u.fl to RP-SMA cables to install. I've been looking for antennas but haven't found anything yet that I really want. The main thing stopping me though is not having the gimbal. I want the gimbal on so I can better choose placement of the antennas to not obstruct the gimbal.
I think the most readily available solution for this is to go full circular polarization and use a wide beam CP antenna. I'd want to switch the Solo antennas with cloverleaf/mad mushrooms and use a wide beamed CP antenna on the controller. So this led me to the Pepperbox. Not exactly small at 2.4GHz, but interesting. Since I don't see myself needing crazy range while hiking etc. (the wifi upgrade makes the most compact range boost setup), this was a possibility for me. It also looked novel!
The Pepperbox is approximately 18" X 8" X 3". Fair warning
it's not for everyone. For me, it's on order, so will see how it works out. I'll be comparing it to the Spironet patch as well.Update: just got the 2.4Ghz Pepperbox. It's only 10" long x 5 X 2 3/4. Much smaller than reported. It does have a wood reinforced backside, so it's hefty. It includes a standard tripod mount.
The FPVLR have the benefit of being compact. But they are 76 degrees H&V and 8-9dBi if old forum entries are correct. Note, FPVLR told me the FPVLR array for the Solo is one left and one right handed CP. I think you'd need one of each circular polarization on the Solo for full effect. I don't know how effective half left and half right CP on the same MIMO wifi system is vs. using a homogenous set.
The Pepperbox is supposed to be 13dBi. Beam spread is 145 degrees horizontal. It loses some in the vertical at 55 degrees vertical, but since I fly reasonably low altitude to stay within guidelines, that works fine for me.
With both these antenna setups, if antennas aren't changed on the Solo to matching CP, there's a loss of up to about 3dBi, bringing the FPVLR to about 5-6dBi and the Pepperbox to about 10dBi. Even if I don't change the antennas on Solo to avoid gimbal blockage or to keep it simple, the Pepperbox will still have an edge up in this respect.
People seem to have success with patch antennas, but they are quite directional and the most talked about(?) DBS, seems not to want to release any stats on their antennas. Anecdotal results of the panels seem generally good, but are of less interest to me - most people posting large range increases seem to be flying in much less populated areas than I am in and it's hard for me to compare using those "reviews".
Regardless, it'll be fun to tinker with these antennas and see how Solo performs.
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That pepperbox, although large, looks like it would be an excellent antenna for ground station flights.
I just ordered an FPVLR antenna. I'll see how that does with the stock Solo antennas. I have a few cloverleaf antennas on my bench. I think they are three and four blade. I'm not sure what the difference is between them. Maybe one is better for transmit but I'll need to research it. I was initially going to use them with the P2V+.
The process continues. It is fun though.
I just ordered an FPVLR antenna. I'll see how that does with the stock Solo antennas. I have a few cloverleaf antennas on my bench. I think they are three and four blade. I'm not sure what the difference is between them. Maybe one is better for transmit but I'll need to research it. I was initially going to use them with the P2V+.
The process continues. It is fun though.
Yes, I'm excited to see how the Pepperbox performs. I'm still debating if I'll be able to get it to hang from the controller at all
. Maybe I'm being too ambitious.For a ground station, I think the ultimate setup just might be 2 Pepperboxes, one on top of the other - connected one each on the wifi antenna ports. This would give the full 145 degrees horizontal and up to 110 degrees vertical coverage.
From what I read out there, traditionally the 3 blade/lobed antennas are on the transmit and the 4-5 lobed are used for receive but I think the jury is out on that one. I ordered a pair - one 3 and one 4 from readymaderc.com along with the Pepperbox.
From what I can gather for the clover/pinwheels, the shape of the antenna gain is flatter on the bottom on the 4 and 5 lobed antennas while being more even and smooth on the top. This means that, when positioned pointed up, they can better help reject multipath reflections from the ground. Basically they aren't as good at listening from the bottom but have even coverage from above. Our use case might be a bit different, since we are using MIMO with control and video on the same link.
My thinking is that I'll want the 4-5 lobed to go on the Solo pointing angled down and slightly to the side, paired with a 3 lobe on the other leg and also pointed down and to the side. We'll just have to try it out - but as you say, that's the fun in it.
While I have no affiliation whatsoever with Alex (IBCrazy), his posts and videos show he's very passionate about the hobby and antenna design and he is a great asset to the community. He's clearly helped many others who are currently selling antennas with their designs either directly or indirectly. He's very transparent and giving with his findings. I for one, have no issues supporting his site. Saves me time and I feel the products are going to be well made and from a respected member of the community.
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I updated my firmware this morning to the latest available. Upon restart my controller was sitting at "waiting for solo". Running a WiFi analyzer I saw that my SSID had changed. A new SSID was created based on the MAC address of the MikroTik card in the controller.
Hitting the pair button on the Solo with a paper clip immediately re-established a connection. I've rebooted a few times and all is good. You'll need to change the WiFi password from the default of sololink again.
Just an FYI for anyone else that sees this.
Hitting the pair button on the Solo with a paper clip immediately re-established a connection. I've rebooted a few times and all is good. You'll need to change the WiFi password from the default of sololink again.
Just an FYI for anyone else that sees this.
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Yes, I'm excited to see how the Pepperbox performs. I'm still debating if I'll be able to get it to hang from the controller at all
For a ground station, I think the ultimate setup just might be 2 Pepperboxes, one on top of the other - connected one each on the wifi antenna ports. This would give the full 145 degrees horizontal and up to 110 degrees vertical coverage.
From what I read out there, traditionally the 3 blade/lobed antennas are on the transmit and the 4-5 lobed are used for receive but I think the jury is out on that one. I ordered a pair - one 3 and one 4 from readymaderc.com along with the Pepperbox.
From what I can gather for the clover/pinwheels, the shape of the antenna gain is flatter on the bottom on the 4 and 5 lobed antennas while being more even and smooth on the top. This means that, when positioned pointed up, they can better help reject multipath reflections from the ground. Basically they aren't as good at listening from the bottom but have even coverage from above. Our use case might be a bit different, since we are using MIMO with control and video on the same link.
My thinking is that I'll want the 4-5 lobed to go on the Solo pointing angled down and slightly to the side, paired with a 3 lobe on the other leg and also pointed down and to the side. We'll just have to try it out - but as you say, that's the fun in it.
While I have no affiliation whatsoever with Alex (IBCrazy), his posts and videos show he's very passionate about the hobby and antenna design and he is a great asset to the community. He's clearly helped many others who are currently selling antennas with their designs either directly or indirectly. He's very transparent and giving with his findings. I for one, have no issues supporting his site. Saves me time and I feel the products are going to be well made and from a respected member of the community.
Over a month ago I had a PM with Alex on the solo and antennas. I will be using his products both at the controller and on the solo when I ever decide to do the upgrade. He has the most thorough knowledge on antenna of anyone anywhere.
Im going to have to say his recommendation at the time was :
"The common combination seems to be a cloverleaf/crosshair combination."
-Alex
So a pepperbox crosshair and some RHCP clovers on the SOLO...
You would not want to mix RHCP and LHCP as they will null signal, they do that at FPVLR because on a P3 they have 2.4 and 5.8 signal so putting control on a RHCP and Video on the LHCP has a benefit of keeping them totally separate. In Solo its all over one path of 2.4 GHZ.
That's good to know he approves
Unfortunately, that's how the FPVLR antenna is setup - one LHCP and one RHCP. I was really interested in the hemispherical helix they use because it's compact with reasonably good beam width. I'm not too sure I need it though, since I have more than enough portable range now and the Pepperbox should get me the beam width I need to not have to point exactly at the bird while long distance flying.
Later if I get adventurous (bored?, stuck indoors because of rain?), I might try to make one or two of those hemispherical helixes myself, but both RHCP to match what I will have in my set. There are white papers on the 'net with the formulas for the spacing between/slope of the wires. It's basically a ~4.5 turn helix in the shape of a half sphere. It may be a bit tedious - a 3D printer would help. At this point I'd rather be flying
When I did the firmware upgrade (with 2 upgraded wifi cards) the controller did not broadcast any SSID. I had previously changed the SSID from the stock previously for security. However, I reset the controller and wifi came back up, which allowed solo to update w/o problem. I suspect the firmware was set up for the stock card and the reboot kicked things back in order. I did not have to re-pair.
Phew... I was nervous for a moment, thinking I'd have to go back to stock cards!
I read about someone else changing the SSID. I think it may have been on the Facebook group. They had issues after changing it and had to do a reset. That wasn't related to doing a firmware update or WiFi card swap. After reading that I left it alone. Now after reading what you went through I'll definitely leave it alone.
Glad you got it all working.
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