Ok, so, I took the antenna off of the top of the quad, and put it on the tail thinking hey, I'm always going to be flying it in front of me, and with my trainer quad without FPV, this is how I fly, always tail toward me to keep my bearings. Well in FPV mode, if I fly away and turn around to come back nose down toward myself, the tilt of the carbon fiber quad body blocks the antenna dangling off the back of the tail, and I lose video, and I have to fly back backwards... I'm kind of curious what others have done to avoid the carbon fiber body problem. The battery is in the middle of the bottom, otherwise maybe moving it there would work. Originally the antenna was on top of the quad, but I was worried about losing signal from underneath. Does anyone use more than one transmitter antenna? I'm not wild about losing visual from far away when I can barely see the quad. I guess I could have gained altitude too, but then the video is kind of lame because everything is so far below you...
Carbon Fiber Blocking FPV signal
- Thread starter xlaziox
- Start date
John Doecliff
Well-Known Member
I have heard about carbon fiber blocking signals. You said you took it off the top because you thought it would be better served on the bottom but did you confirm this? I mounted mine on the bottom of my quad for the same reason but I never actually had any problems with it on top. I do not have a carbon fiber frame though. Whats you transmitter power? Maybe your at the end of your effective range?
It's a 600 mW and I was only a half block away at 30m elev. Signal was definitely blocked. It cut out only when I was moving towards myself and the quad tilted. Well my concern was that with it on top the quad body would block the signal when it was above me, or above me with the antenna on the other side. My thinking was that with the quad in the air, the antenna would always be able to see from any position, just didn't think about the tilting body. Can I add another antenna and split the transmission without problems, or would that foul everything up?
John Doecliff
Well-Known Member
You may be able to add a second antenna but my guess would be no. I have never seen a splitter for double antennas. That's really poor signal quality (half a block), remember that your transmitting with the quad antenna and receiving with the FPV goggles. Maybe it's on the receiving end. There is a thing called a diversity receiver that has 2 receiving antennas (both a different style) and a control board that switches back and forth to whatever antenna is receiving the strongest signal. It is to ensure you never lose your FPV signal. They are fairly common although I haven't read a lot on them. There is a you tube page called RCmodelreviews. The guy that does the page has a video explaining how a diversity receiver works and how to build one. The guy has a lot of knowledge about this hobby and has a lot of cool projects that you can build. Another thing you may want to try is a little experimenting with your FPV goggles and transmitter. Have a friend take your quad down the street and put it in different positions and see how your video acts. You could even remove the system from the quad and see if it improves. At least that way you won't risk a crash. 600 mw is pretty strong so I'm wondering if you maybe have a receiving problem and not a transmitting problem.