Wifi Mod complete

Timmytimetravel · Sep 25, 2015

Will do. I've left it as was so that comparison was apples/apples on this next comparison.

Stock card controller, fpvlr amped, high mw card in solo.

2km. 1.2 miles, 6561ft !

Still had 3 signal bars left, rssi -65db.

Battery was at 54pc. Freaked out a bit as only lake on way home. Landed with 28pc. I guess it's not linear. So to go further I start chancing battery

. Maybe not over water in case I need to land. Power and vol down did not work for me to screenshot plus I need a lanyard to hold signal and avoid rth whilst screenshotting.

Here are some iPhone snaps of android screen.

Mauiwind · Sep 25, 2015

z3r01 said:
order i would do (and have done)

1. config mod to see improvement
2. alpa antenna mod (cheaper alternative and good range)
3. FPVLR mod before wifi card upgrade (the cards are good but best get antenna first)
4. wifi cards if necessary (which i think won't be)

thank you very much

Timmytimetravel · Sep 26, 2015

NYG said:
If it were me I'd change the country code to something that allows for more power.

sololink_config --set-wifi-country US (this would change country code to the US without manually changing hostapd.conf)

Interesting results. That command was accepted like it did something however the output of the iw command was the same. No extra channel allowances or db changes. Rebooted and rechecked for good measure.

Then I used solotweaker to change country to us. Checked iw results. It changed all the db from 20 to 30 however still left those high channels disabled.

Before I upped the software db, ran an omni test.

Got to 750m (2460ft before controller signal went red), pushed it then out to 1.2km (3937ft) before signal loss. I didn't get signal back until around 300m

After 20-30db channel tweak, ran again. This time I retained a bar of signal all the way out to 3937ft without it going red. It went straight to signal loss instead of any red time,

I spent a long time controlling and flying in red before. Someone noticed the same behavior in the software tweak thread. Changing db up didn't seem to give me more range but left me feeling more in control but no danger time before loss of signal.

I've no idea why. Keeping in mind at the moment I have one high mw card in solo, controller is currently stock.

How do I unlock those other channels if the tweaker didn't for some reason?

NYG · Sep 26, 2015

If you added channels 12 and 13 to hostapd.conf you can try using a country code that supports both higher power and channels 12 and 13. The other option is patching the drivers. That way you'll have the additional channels regardless of country code.

Timmytimetravel · Sep 27, 2015

Cool. I guess I assumed USA was it. I'll try was it russia or europe or something?
This may be easier for me than patching drivers.

NYG · Sep 27, 2015

I think TW Will give you channel 13 and 30dBm

Timmytimetravel · Sep 27, 2015

NYG said:
I think TW Will give you channel 13 and 30dBm

I looked up the Cisco wifi tables and concur that should do it. In my case it does not. Reboots each time and cross checking by reverting to something that does change the db output. I had no difference (unlocked channels or 30 db with TW, GE, or ZA (which was the only other region other than Usa that listed 1w in total antenna (multiple chip) measurement allowance other than eirp. None of them unlocked additional channels in the iw command output or upped the db other than the USA which did the db but not channels !!!

I think I'm up for driver massaging to get both. Happy to test via a pm first if you are able, no use in people messing with their drivers.

I thought solotweaker was meant to unlock channels aside from setting a region? Or does it only do it by lowering do by setting another region (none have unlocked channels in the iw output for me so far ). I think myself and others are benefiting from the other tweaks it contains as well as variable channel selection perhaps ) or iw output does not reflect capabilities (it looks like it should)

Eagle1 · Oct 4, 2015

I did the wifi card mod and this is my result, I didn't go any further because I was worried about battery life.
So the R11e-2HnD(AR9582) card vs the stock card,
With software modifications to give cards full potential, both cards will give the same range(same result) in a high wifi environment(2000ft).
Where there is a couple or no wifi to interfere you will get the above result or better.

I spoke with a tech at Mikrotik and he recommended this card since it's a dual band(2.4 & 5.8ghz) card, he said it should perform better in a highly wifi area.

"COMPEX WLE350NX"

The only thing is, it seems like the mw is low on this card, so I guess if we could find something similar with 800mw to 1000mw it should work.

SteveReno · Oct 18, 2015

Eagle1 said:
View attachment 1476
I did the wifi card mod and this is my result, I didn't go any further because I was worried about battery life.
So the R11e-2HnD(AR9582) card vs the stock card,
With software modifications to give cards full potential, both cards will give the same range(same result) in a high wifi environment(2000ft).
Where there is a couple or no wifi to interfere you will get the above result or better.

I spoke with a tech at Mikrotik and he recommended this card since it's a dual band(2.4 & 5.8ghz) card, he said it should perform better in a highly wifi area.

"COMPEX WLE350NX"

The only thing is, it seems like the mw is low on this card, so I guess if we could find something similar with 800mw to 1000mw it should work.

I don't think the Solo or the Controller doesn't use anything in the 5.8ghz band.
How is everything after the latest update?
No problems?

SteveReno · Oct 18, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
I looked up the Cisco wifi tables and concur that should do it. In my case it does not. Reboots each time and cross checking by reverting to something that does change the db output. I had no difference (unlocked channels or 30 db with TW, GE, or ZA (which was the only other region other than Usa that listed 1w in total antenna (multiple chip) measurement allowance other than eirp. None of them unlocked additional channels in the iw command output or upped the db other than the USA which did the db but not channels !!!

I think I'm up for driver massaging to get both. Happy to test via a pm first if you are able, no use in people messing with their drivers.

I thought solotweaker was meant to unlock channels aside from setting a region? Or does it only do it by lowering do by setting another region (none have unlocked channels in the iw output for me so far ). I think myself and others are benefiting from the other tweaks it contains as well as variable channel selection perhaps ) or iw output does not reflect capabilities (it looks like it should)

It seems you been on the same track of info, as i have. Should in be TW ot Tw in the country settings?
Any other info you may have tested will help everyone here, that's thinking of changing their WiFi cards.

Lamda · Oct 18, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
Very interesting! Do you see the original ar9300 solo are using on that list? I can't. I wonder what it's Mimo config is?

I've been contimplapting maybe using higher mw in the solo and stock amped in the controller (if it works) for possibly max range. In this case assuming the stock is less Mimo than the older chipset it may not matter as surely the stock unit is the same or less Mimo than the newer chipset?

Why would they go less Mimo in a newer chipset ?

Where did you find someone saying the newest chipset was not as good in solo?

My solo is in bits as i upgrade see how well it works will dual new chipsets tomorrow I hope

I could be wrong, but I don't see how the 3 streams with the AR9580 could influence range in our use case with Solo.

To utilize the 3 streams in MIMO appropriately, you would need at minimum 3 antennas. We currently use 2 antennas on each end, one per stream. The power ratings on the cards are the same, so the AR9582 should work just fine.

Driver/soft limiting definitely could but my single card in the controller has been working great (4300+ft in an urban congested area).

My second card for Solo (ok, I've been kinda lazy the last week and a half and trying to fly weather permitting vs. taking Solo apart to do all my final antenna/wifi mods

) has FCCID and MAC address stickers stuck all over the chips but the website of the place I bought the cards confirmed my chips should be AR9582.

Lamda · Oct 18, 2015

Interesting to note, while Baltic networks lists the R11e-2hnd as having the AR9580, the site also provides the FCC certification:

http://www.balticnetworks.com/docs/R11e-2HnD-FCC.pdf

This is the same FCC ID as packaged with the AR9582 cards that I have.

Timmytimetravel · Oct 19, 2015

I'd be interested to know if the hostapd mods are the same in the new fw as we were adjusting with solo tweak.

Timmytimetravel · Oct 19, 2015

SteveReno said:
It seems you been on the same track of info, as i have. Should in be TW ot Tw in the country settings?
Any other info you may have tested will help everyone here, that's thinking of changing their WiFi cards.

I didn't see what I wanted using any country code (channels plus USA power). So I left it as us

Eagle1 · Oct 19, 2015

Timmytimetravel said:
I'd be interested to know if the hostapd mods are the same in the new fw as we were adjusting with solo tweak.

3DR did boost up the power for the U.S.
Not sure how much but I noticed a big difference

Eagle1 · Oct 19, 2015

SteveReno said:
I don't think the Solo or the Controller doesn't use anything in the 5.8ghz band.
How is everything after the latest update?
No problems?

You have the option of changing from 2.4Ghz to 5.8Ghz, that's the beauty with the Solo, it's all based on the kind of wifi cards
The new update seems to be more stable, US country code.
Since my recent update I have only tested it on the modded cards.

SteveReno · Oct 20, 2015

Eagle1 said:
You have the option of changing from 2.4Ghz to 5.8Ghz, that's the beauty with the Solo, it's all based on the kind of wifi cards
The new update seems to be more stable, US country code.
Since my recent update I have only tested it on the modded cards.

Thanks for the reply, Can't test due to wet weather till Friday. but, changing to TW gave me extra distance.

SteveReno · Oct 21, 2015

SteveReno said:
Thanks for the reply, Can't test due to wet weather till Friday. but, changing to TW gave me extra distance.

Just ordered the WiFi cards x2. Looking forward to better quality feed & a little more distance. Anyone still using these cards willing to add any new info. Will be appreciated.

Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

pyrate · Oct 21, 2015

thinking about doing this one, so are some people saying you have to change wifi settings to really get the power increase or does just changing the cards work

Lamda · Oct 21, 2015

SteveReno said:
Just ordered the WiFi cards x2. Looking forward to better quality feed & a little more distance. Anyone still using these cards willing to add any new info. Will be appreciated.

Thanks

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

pyrate said:
thinking about doing this one, so are some people saying you have to change wifi settings to really get the power increase or does just changing the cards work

Didn't need any setting changes. Nothing new to add... Except "Just do it!"