☝🏼This guy gets it! 👏🏼 One of my favorite shows ever, the goal of my channel has always been to make episodes similar to TopGear, but haven’t quite got there... appreciate the comment, cheers!
Performance of your antennas looked great in the long range and still pretty impressive in The Gauntlet! I am also pleased with how much you're getting out of 500Hz 100mW ELRS as well, trees tend to attenuate the signal when a lot of them block line of sight. The lower ELRS refresh rates have more range (which is why we have them) so you might consider trying 150Hz before raising the power. The theoretical range of 150Hz is more than twice 500Hz.
Hey, excellent point! I’ll be doing a follow up with WalkSnail testing and will be trying a few things, including this, to improve performance. Thanks for the suggestion, appreciate the support, cheers!!
Some say I’ve watched it so many times that I now speak with a Yorkshire accent, and ever since the show ended I can only put my trousers on… in the dark. All we know is, I’m flying line of sight with a visual observer!
Hey thanks appreciate the comment. Here's a link Thingiverse where I have some files. www.thingiverse.com/thing:6181785 Let me know if these are what you were looking for, cheers!
Yes, most the the Range Test was sped up in order to shorten the video. I did Normal speed when showing signal breakup & antenna aiming. Thanks for the comment, cheers!
Yea, 1080p works great for long-range. I don’t fly further than 7km, but great signal/image. You fly some awesome places. Don’t you use DJI O3 now? Why the switch to HDZero?
@@GiantAntCowboy yes i use o3 for my LR but because i fly in the morning i often get backlight situation that hard for o3 because of the dynamic range. Also i never have guts to fly o3 on sunset, because of the backlight and lowlight weakness of it. And why hd0? Because i still love analog whoops. So i only have to choose 1 goggles, i pick hdz goggles. But i still hope carl do more magic to hd0 so it will wayyy better in signal breakup and more penetration
@@TERBANGFPV ok, just curious. I’ve seen a couple people switching from DJI to HDZero recently. With high gain antennas HDZero has great range & penetration. DJI does a really good job at hiding signal issues, but that can be dangerous for long-range, or high risk, flights as shown in this video. HDZero does require better antennas than DJI though, because it only receives data once, so every signal issue will be shown.
Very impressive! Such a beautiful location to fly and do range testing. I don't expect any video system to do very well through all those trees. Especially at this time of year when everything is lush and green. Great video! Keep it up!
Thanks bud, I appreciate the comment. Yea, think trees are really difficult. I’m pessimistic about WalkSnails ability to survive without disconnecting. Should be an exciting run! Cheers!
STAG and his setup is amazing. I'm already a fan of his neck exercises in the middle of long range flights to avoid cramps. And I too was expecting better performance from this setup in the gauntlet.
Haha! Yea, he’s a big advocate of finger and neck exercises. Glad I was able to capture him on film this time. We’ll see if we can’t squeeze some extra performance out, it’s a tough spot though.. appreciate the comment, cheers!
Would you recommend hdzero or analog for LR (not sure if you have experience with analog). I'm currently flying dji, but i hate how dropping down in bitrates gives me frame stutters/freezes for split seconds (especially if im just purposely flying behind a rock or something to get a smooth line, and know that my signal will drop), while hdzero and analog seem to just get snowy but have smooth frames. debating switching dji to analog or hdzero but have yet to decide on one
Yea, I flew Analog for years, and never switched to DJI because of the concerns you mention (Bit rate, latency, freezing screen), and hearing a lot of stories about DJI image suddenly freezing and going blank. Then I decided to give HDZero a try and have been really happy with the system. It performs very similar to analog but with better image resolution. As a “simple one-way transmission” setup the image resolution/latency are both fixed, and while the image has “static break up” it will never freeze, or disconnect, which provides more confidence in extreme situations. (I plan to make a video about this soon) HDZero/Analog “give you what they get”, they can’t buffer or repair the image, and so you’ll want to use high gain antennas (hence my “crazy setup” shown here) to have the clearest picture. DJI appears to perform better with basic antennas but that’s because it can cover up imperfections using buffering and latency. I always say “DJI kinda lies to you about the signal strength, and in the mountains you need honesty and instant feedback.” Now HDZero will of course cost you more than analog, but I’d say it’s worth it. Have you flown analog before? Let me know, happy to help, cheers!
DId the stag really do 100mw to 7k on elrs? holy crap, and all this time I'm worried about going out 1 mile with it and im on 500mw. Are you guys using the moxon antenna?
Yup, ELRS works good. We’re using this little white Moxon antenna that came with the BetaFPV TX and some RadioMaster Dipole antennas on a SkyStars Diversity RX. Performs better than my Crossfire setup used to at 1000mW!
From what I understand thicker is better, more surface area to capture signal. But 16 gauge wire should perform well, and will definitely be easier to work with! Build an couple and let me know what you think. So far I’ve only heard positive things from people who built them. Super cheap & relatively easy to DIY. My first ones 3 years ago were made from Pasta Sauce lids/old parts, and I was flying over 3km (2 miles) at only 25mW! Check it out: “Trash Helical for amazing Range & Penetration” ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TS4fYcT3DEE.html
Hey, that was awesome wherever you live or fly is stunning and the motorbike helmet was totally sick, i got a giggle must have been way more comfortable with them heli's on the hd'z with the helmet :) well done ...one day you will BEAT the Gauntlet! thank you for sharing was excellent from start to finish. oh i was so intrigued by the scenery i didnt see how far you got lol . ill have another look later :) great stuff mate.
Thanks, appreciate the nice comment. Yes, this was shot in Norway, a truly amazing landscape here. If you didn’t see how far I made it than I didn’t do my job here… lol. But I guess the scenery is a bit distracting! Thanks again for the support, cheers!
Have you tried these on DJI. I fly in the woods a lot and with stubbys I’m good to like 500-1000 ft away. It’s horrible. I swapped out 2 of them for a patch but haven’t tried it yet.
Unfortunately I don’t have a DJI setup to test with. But guarantee they’d perform significantly better than Omnis or even basic patches in Forest situations. Adding those patches should definitely improve your performance though.
Appreciate the comment, and sure very curious to hear about what you’re working on. The easiest way to connect is either via FaceBook or Instagram. Both accounts are “GiantAntCowboy”. Send me a message and we’ll chat, cheers!
@@Braincho somewhere between 52-56mm is ideal, I’ve gone larger as well with good results. Largest diameter creates bigger side lobes in the signal radiation pattern. For wire I always use solid copper “Romex Type NM-B Copper Building Wire”, it’s available at most hardware stores and 1m contains 3 or 4 wires enough for several antenna builds. I don’t remember the exact wire diameter, but it’s pretty standard. Has to be solid though.
I’ve heard this comment many times over the years, but prefer to keep it head mounted for several reasons. 1) it’s not actually hard to aim at the distances I’m flying 2) I hike to locations and don’t want to carry extra ground station gear 3) HDZero Goggles use four antennas, so in this situation would I have four coax cable running from my head to a pole? That seems a bit cumbersome. Thanks for watching, appreciate the feedback, but I’ve arrived at this setup after years of trying different things and found this is works well for my uses. Cheers!
Really really impressive and interesting dude! Awesome! I have some questions to you: 1) what do you think about DJI system compared to HDZERO? 2) Why did you use ELRS 500Hz packet rate? I think isn't worth and pretty dangerous for signal strenght.
Thanks man. I have since lowered my Packet Rate to 150hz, because you’re right there’s no reason to sacrifice performance for speed in my case. HDZero & DJI are very different and they both are great in their own way. - DJI seems to meet the needs of most pilots. It has beautiful image, solid performance, and is designed as plug & play. - HDZero meets the needs of pilots with more specific uses, such as racing, tiny whoop, or personally I prefer it for mountain surfing & risky flights. When signal gets weak: - DJI gets slow & blurry, and eventually it’ll go to a blank screen. Essentially it starts buffering the image like a bad internet connection, then needs to reboot. - HDZero gets static, but speed & image resolution don’t change. This is like old FM radio. You can hear the song fine, even through a lot of static, but eventually there’s so much static that you can’t hear the music anymore. So you adjust the antenna and the music comes back. This static feedback & gradual image fading is why I prefer HDZero for risky mountain flights. You instantly know when signal is getting weak and can adjust your antennas or change your flight path. DJI covers up signal issues until suddenly it gets blurry, freezes & goes blank. Hopefully that was a helpful explanation!
@@GiantAntCowboy ok, so hdzero behavior is like an "analog emulator". Yeah, I think it give you more confidence in surfing mountain. I never thought that hdzero can perform thiat distances. I'm a brand new dji V2 user, you make me think that I should have choose different system :D
Exactly, HDZero is like an HD Analog emulation. Most people think HDZero is just for racing, but like Analog it does everything well. Using good quality antennas is the key to good performance. DJI is a great option for most, beautiful image & excellent performance, even with basic antennas. Like anything just learn the limitations of the tool you’re using, and have fun!
Yea, that could be interesting. Just gotta see if you have four decent Omni antennas. I’ll give it a shot. Appreciate the suggestion and support, cheers!
What's the osd element on the left under ExLRS rssi? It acts like snr but I've never seen ExLRS work when >9 since it seems to use agc. It just bounces around 8 or 9 until things get low then it works fine but yours seems to work at all times like the way crossfire does. Was that a recent fix or is that spot showing something else? Great flight.
The number under the RSSI is “Instantaneous RSSI Value” which is a value between 1 - 100. Basically a percent value, but honestly I focus mostly on RSSI dBi and LQ. Good question, appreciate the comment. Cheers!
The combo works great. I’ve tested this in the past and actually I’m thinking about going back to this setup. The X2-Airs are less directional and so have less total range, but give a much wider FOV. Additionally they are smaller size/shape which is nice; I think all try this setup again now that you mentioned it. I actually did a bunch of X2-Air tests years ago that I need to share… stay tuned.
Man they look great. Could you build me a pair, I mean two pairs haha. I would pay well. I am in Switzerland and we have a cottage in the mountains in Austria in a valley that is long range heaven. Very little population and lots of peaks. My dream is to circle the peak that is in view out of our cottage but it is about 7km away. This is only the second time I've been flying long range and we had really bad weather the whole week we were there. I got a chance to fly on a few days though and I tried to inch myself close to the mountain but in the end only got up to 3.5km with my 7 inch until I lost confidence. I have one antenna in this style from Old Radio Control but as you say you need 4 to get good picture. Your picture is amazing, I get snow and flashing beginning at 2 km.
Hey, appreciate the comment. Long-range flights, especially in the mountains are extremely stressful. I make it look calm & easy, but trust me, I’m often holding my breath… just take your time pushing your setup further, make adjustments & build confidence. Regarding the antennas, unfortunately I don’t have a lot of free time or extra parts, and can’t guarantee the quality of my antenna builds… however these guys in Poland look to have amazing quality and should be fast & easy shipping for you. (“ProDrone”) shop.prodrone.pl/en_US/p/PRO-Helical-antenna-5-turn-5.8Ghz-10dbi-v2/334#galleryName=productGallery,imageNumber=1 You’ll just have to figure out mounts. I can share my 3D print files, but you’d have to make adjustments based in their size and shape. Flying in the mountains is an incredible feeling, and I hope you make it! I need to come to the Alps someday, cheers!
@@GiantAntCowboy Thank you very much Ant!! Yeah time is always a problem. People want me to paint their RC car bodies all the time but it takes at least 10 hours. Will check it out.
@@snviper nice, that’s awesome. Should have said GiantAntCowboy referred you and they should send me some antennas to test! 😄 Definitely curious to hear how they perform, so keep me posted, cheers!
That long-range flight was sick! You totally sold me on grabbing that analog setup! Soon as my wallet allows it, I'm snagging the HDZero... plus, your DIY antenna tips are fire! Oh, and can you hook me up with the camera angle from that vid, if you remember? P.S. And major props for the Antenna Head Check tip. Super handy stuff!
Thanks for watching, and yea Analog/HDZero have some real advantages over DJI/WS. Just great real-time feedback. The only quad I’ve ever lost in the mountains was my WalkSnail quad a few months ago. It was a neat test, and I accidentally proved my point about mountain surfing with DJI/WS. Haha! Excited to follow your journey, happy to help. Cheers!
Thanks, man! Your advice, coming from real experience, means a lot. Not everyone's down to help out like that with solid tips, you know? @@GiantAntCowboy
@@Wild__FPV yea, I’ve spent so much time testing & tuning my own set up over the years; and learned so much from others that I try to give back. Hopefully save others time, money & energy so they can enjoy the hobby! I wish more people would do that, but instead the trend is to argue & attack people about dumb things,..
I'm totally the same way, always stoked to drop some knowledge bombs if someone's navigating through the darkness of not knowing. It's just pure joy to give a helping hand. Yeah, it's a bummer how a lot of peeps nowadays are all about pointless arguments and throwing shade left and right. But you know, most folks would probably be different if they weren't hiding behind their screens. But hey, that's a topic for the head doctors, not me! Let's stick to the flying vibes! 😄 Best of luck, my friend, can't wait for your new vids, and just keep rocking it!@@GiantAntCowboy
Why does everyone point their quadversity directional antennas in the exact same direction? Don't the goggles only take from 1 antenna with the best signal at a time? It seems that 3 would be essentially useless.
Good question. Unlike typical diversity (or quadversity) which chooses the best antenna; HDZero actually uses all 4 antennas at the same time. So if one antenna has bad signal it actually introduces noise into the image. Because of this, for longer-range flights, it’s best to use four high gain antennas pointed in the same direction. You could certainly point them in different directions for a wider beam width, or even use two Omni antennas, and still have great range, but the overall image would be nosier. I’ll try to test and demonstrate this in a future video. Appreciate the comment, stay tuned, cheers!
@@GiantAntCowboy Ok, that's crazy that's how HDZero works because then you can't do like I do by aiming my 4 patches in slightly different directions in order to cover a broader area in case I am off on my aim. I like that better because I still don't get the point of having 4 of the same antennas pointed in the same direction, why would 1 be better than the other & if one is better then the worse one creates noise? Why not just use 1?
I’ve never been able to get an answer on this… there are a couple HDZero products, FRSky Monitor and the Event VRX that only have two antennas. Obviously for my uses having only one or two antennas/diversity would be great!
Yea, maintaining LOS along ridgelines is tricky, especially when fly really close. The way HDZero instantly gets static then comes back is why I prefer it here. DJI/WalkSnail might not show any breakup in this situation, and so you’ll fly closer until latency spikes, image freezes & the system disconnects. That’s a nightmare in this situation… and why I use HDZero for all my “ridge flying missions”. I’m actually working on a video of all my ‘close calls’ to demonstrate this point. Stress & excitement… thanks for watching, cheers!
Eh, to be fair I’ve been making and using helical antennas for a few years and I’m not claiming to have invented or discovered them. This video is simply to share my setup and tests, especially for those folks who don’t have 20 years of experience. It’s hard to beat the price to performance ratio these antennas offer! Anyway, hope the video was at least a little fun/interesting, thanks for watching, cheers!
Love your content dude Can we make wider stubby coils for less range and wider beam. of set up focused on being able to penetrate and bando bash in all directions or what would be you suggetions? like how people do omnis, can we make dyi bigger omnis? like double size stubs?
Yes, what you’d want to do is make 3-turn helical antennas. They will have a much wider beam. I’m thinking about doing some tests where I cut my helicals to 5-turn and then 3-turn just to see how the performance changes. Stay tuned, I’ll see what I can do. Appreciate the comment, cheers!
@@GiantAntCowboy please lol no one has done this and I'd love to have something to follow! I'll make them how ever you show and tell peeps about you too!
@@GiantAntCowboy or actually if you were down you could send me a pair and I'll send you a 3.5 Great discus Frame. I get 9+ mins of freestyle on a 650 so I'm sure you would get some good long range out of it!
Hey, appreciate the offer. Unfortunately I don’t have time to make more antennas, or build another quad at the moment. Keep up the good work though, I’ll check out your channel. Cheers!
@@Buy-n-large that should make a big difference for sure, and it might be a quick and easy change. However high gain directional antennas will definitely give you much better range & penetration performance.
Absolutely, some people think it looks crazy, or even insane… and I agree! I use RHCP just because I have lots of RHCP antennas. Appreciate the comment, cheers!
This is good. Very good quality compared to 720p. I really miss the 4 signal bars for each antennas I really wish WalkSnail would implement this feature as well. Would help so much with that system. Question…is this 1080p mode still only for the goggles and not the vrx?
Yea, I’m like the only person using 1080p30… which is crazy because it’s great! I wish HDZero Devs would start working with it again, but they’ve been focused on Analog… which is boring. Forget analog, focus in improving HDZero! (Rant) Not sure if the VRX will be able to output 1080p, I feel like it might be able to… but of course you’d need goggles with an HDMI In that are able to display 1080p. Yea, I wish WS had individual antenna bars, that would be super useful! Watching Mbps numbers whole trying to fly isn’t ideal… plus you can’t troubleshoot your antenna setup. Good comment, much appreciated, cheers!
Yea, the hardest part about flying interesting spots is planning for Line of Sight, and why lot of newer pilots lose quads trying to fly mountains/forests. You certainly could use a lower frequency RF band, cell signal, or yes, even satellite control/video links, but latency would be a major issue for any fast proximity flying. All part of the fun! Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts, cheers!
There are 1.3ghz Video Transmitters. They were more popular back in the day. The problem is availability of equipment, legality of broadcasting on those frequencies, and the antennas are much larger. Related Note: Most 5.8ghz VTXs output more power on the lower channels. So in general channel R1 will give the best performance.
Great video. I would love to roll up a set of these antennas for my HDZ setup. Any chance you have a way of showing how you connected them to the goggles? It looks like you have an additional 3D printed mount of some kind that holds all 4 of them in place. I would love to see how you made that work! Thank you!
Hey thanks, appreciate the comment. I just uploaded the 3d printed mounts I made for this project on Thingiverse, here's the link for you: www.thingiverse.com/thing:6181785 It was a very custom design for this DIY project, so if you were to use them they might need to be modified to match the shape and size of your Helical Antenna ground planes. Let me know if you have any questions, hope this is helpful. Cheers!
It would be great if you can make a video showing up your way of mounting hdzero to your helmet. I usually ride with my quad and it would look sick if i could just put the googles without getting down from the bike with the helmet on xD. Love your videos!!!
I'm been having this idea for a googles/helmet design maybe you can have some fun building it if you can make it work. My idea is heavily inspired by cats/dogs. The antennas would be on top of a helmet for better height and coverage like the ears of a cat/dog and like cats/dogs ears they're more like mini dish antennas. Also like how cats/dogs would adjust their ears to the direction of the sound they want to focus on the antenna would also do the same. An auto adjusting antenna that faces the exact location of the drone. I don't know if this would work but I thought of it seeing my pets whenever they hear an interesting sound.
Haha, quite the idea indeed. I don’t honestly know how STAG does it… I assume it’s quite heavy and warm while flying! Thanks for sharing, the concept isn’t insane, just need to find a way to make it comfortable and functional. Cheers!
You totally where messing around one day and though, Can I put my HDZ on with my moto helmet on? Thats when you realized you had a cool cosplay head gear lol. You just need to paint the inside of your visor shield black.
“Some say he wears a helmet because his head, is a carbon magnet, and that he often uses WD-40 as eye drops… All we know is he’s called the Stag!” Appreciate the comment, cheers!
Yea man, this path is really tricky. Nervous about my WalkSnail attempt. It’s definitely going to be a search and rescue mission… appreciate the comment.
@@GiantAntCowboy nah dude, would bet walksnail performs way better here with this antenna setup.I would try the framing mode just in case but im pretty confident it rocks trough that- what VTX are you flying ? new one or the old version with 2 antennas ? best firmware should be the one from bevore the newest release and i would fly with 750mw 720p :) when are you uploading that vidjeo ?
Yes, we will see. My biggest fear with WalkSnail is that when it gives up it gets crazy slow, blurry, then just disconnects, stops recording and disappears. But we’ll see! I’m using the full size V1 VTX. It’ll be a few weeks unfortunately, because I don’t have a ton of free time and always spend a long time testing & editing these videos. Thanks for the comment and tips, cheers!
well it doesnt really get slow-the ping stays low only bitrate goes down - if you play minecraft that shouldnt be a problem lols xD if its in a few weeks only i guess i have to sub ^^
@@hirnlegorush yea, I’m excited to try. I’ll be really excited if it makes it through. I also have to re-test HDZero because, another viewer commented that I was using 1080p30 which is unstable and has worse signal performance than the standard 720p mode. So we’ll see, thanks for the support!
Appreciate the comment, I spend a stupid amount of time editing these videos and my reward is comments from the community like this, so thanks and cheers!
@@GiantAntCowboy haha yeah it was a correct decision) I mean usually if somebody wants to do some drone filming, he have to spend enough of time to find what to Film. then he have to edit it to make something cool. But you're the lucky one: just filming your envoirement and an awesome video is done :D
@@ERadicator49 true the scenery helps, though making these videos still takes a ton of effort. I probably spent 30-40 hours making this video… I’m obsessed with details, most of which people probably don’t even notice. But, it’s a fun hobby, and I just hope people find the video helpful & entertaining. So I always appreciate the comments and support!
Valid question. For me it’s just about ease of setup. I often hike to my flight locations and a ground station/antenna tracker setup is just more equipment to carry and setup. Also I don’t do a ton of long-range. 7km is my max, but generally I’m between 3-5km. Aiming is quite easy at these ranges, what I was showing in the video was just for demonstration purposes. My head aiming is generally a very subconscious action. Good question though, appreciate the comment. Cheers!
I have not done an updated version, but the steps are basically the same. If you want a slightly more detailed version check Bruce’s DIY: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-fS7MKYkKN-A.html It’s a really simple, informative video, I often re-watch it when making mine.
Well, good question. I wish I had proper test and tuning equipment but… $30k is a lot for a few antennas. Lol After I make them I do a few tests. Basically put the VTX in “1mW pit mode” and I go down into my basement where I have almost no signal, and then I make sure each antenna provides the same amount of signal bars in different spots. Not super accurate about I’ve been able to find major issues and fix them. Generally a soldering/connection issue.
@@somebodyspecific2410 my left two bars are always lower, and they are all too sensitive, like 0 bars with almost perfect image… BUT, if you have one antenna that’s showing almost nothing that’s likely a problem. Either a bad antenna, or, a common problem is the SMA solder joint broke in the goggles. This can happen if you accidentally drop the googles with antennas attached, or if your over tightened an antenna. In later batches they reinforces the connector with an extra nut and washer. Search on the Divimath Facebook group or Discord for more information on that.
I'm jealous man... that's an incredible spot to be flying and pulling off that type of range at! What is your ELRS setup on your quad and what antenna/receiver combo and orientation are you using? I'm planning on pushing the range of my 7" and noticed I had signal dropout when turning around due to the null zones of the T antenna so I wanted to know how you achieved such a robust receiver setup on your quad. Loving the content so far!
Thanks man, appreciate the comment & support. Diversity RX is the key. I had the same problem as you with my old CRSF setup. Would get RXLOSS while out here… so stressful, and I was running 1W! Switched to ELRS for a couple reason, but mainly because a 500mW TX with a Diversity RX was less than a CRSF Diversity RX! I use RadioMaster T-Style antennas, really like them, with one mounted on the Front, and the other mounted on the Front Arm. This cancels out any nulls. Also I run the system fixed at 100mW and 250hz. Just yesterday however I received a BetaFPV “Gemini ELRS” setup which should be the best Control Link available. If you’re unfamiliar the system uses Two Transmitters & Two Receivers together for the Ultimate Diversity setup! I’ll be testing it as I have time next week, but seems promising, and honestly it’s pretty reasonably priced. $70 for the TX. Diversity RXs are under $20.
@@GiantAntCowboy Thanks for the quick reply! I'll have to do the same thing then and use a diversity receiver, likely the super D from betafpv. And yes, I have checked out the new gemini system and may consider it in future if the right sized module is released for my X9D+ SE. Definitely excited to see the performance of the gemini system though and I look forward to hopefully hearing your opinions on it and watching some test flights!
I prefer aiming be feel, and generally I fly within 5km so it’s easy. Additionally I often home to places and carry additional gear gets cumbersome. Appreciate the comment though, cheers!
I'm surprised that you didn't flatten down the last wind nor put a square part near the end to have the proper impedance. Note that I have no way of measuring it so I also did mine blindly following the tutorials online. What ELRS antenna do you have?
Yea, I thought about adding a wave catcher… but since I have no way of measuring it effectiveness decided not to take the extra setup. IBCrazy from VAS, once said that wave catchers aren’t so important for 5.8ghz. I wish I had easy access to expensive equipment and could build some properly tuned antennas. BUT, these seem to be working well for my purposes. On the ELRS I’m running RadioMaster T-Style dipole antennas. I think the antenna in the front gets blocked when I tilt the quad backwards. Also I’m only running at 100mW. I’ll up the power on my next tests and see if that helps. Appreciate the comment and support, cheers!
@@WernerBeroux if you’re using a UFL to SMA pigtail on the VTX, I’d check that. I’ve had them break several times which caused horrible signal range. In fact it happened during this testing and I actually meant to mention it in the video. Basically the coax breaks apart where it’s soldered over time, and eventually your signal range is really bad. Just wanted to mention it. Also taller VTX antennas make a huge difference.
Thanks man, appreciate the comment. They seem to be working well. I call that a success. Also I’m using an iFlight Albatross which works well and is half the price of a TBS Triumph or TrueRC Singularity. So that’s a win. Additionally coax cable on the Albatross is much thicker and stays in place way better that the other two. That was always an issue I had with them… cheers!
Those are some rad antennas and great range on that. Looking forward to seeing if the penetration bit can be improved however that one is always going to be tricky, I agree there. Curious about the WS test as well.
Yes, that particular trail is extremely difficult. In addition to thick trees there also several power lines in the LOS. One of which is a high tension power line… I’m a bit skeptical if WS will be able to make it through the trail without a disconnect, or if I’ll be able to see where I’m going, based on my previous tests. It’ll be exciting for sure! Thanks for the comment, cheers!
Sure, I’ll make a note about it. Do you have a setting that you think will give the best performance? I have my doubts about the success of the test, and when WS get bad it gets really bad! Appreciate the comment and support, cheers!
@@GiantAntCowboy Keep it on 25mb/s, don’t use fw 33.39.10. There are a lot of reports of decreased range. Use beta 31.36.8 or 32.37.10. I suggested trying ch 5 because I got better range based on the s11 of my vtx antennas. Was using Foxeer Lollipop 4. Also leave focus mode off. I have gotten as far as 10.5 miles but I have a tree line in the distance from where I’m standing so I suspect it’s limiting my range a bit.
Love it! ....Did you consider pointing the outer, lower antennas slightly more outward, and the upper antennas pointed ever so slightly up? For a broader area of coverage so as to move your head less? Seems like you could maybe do that without any consequences or loss of distance?
I did consider it, have have tried it in the past. With a typical diversity setup this is 100% the way, but HDZero actually uses all antennas at the same time. So if one antenna performs poorly it actually adds noise to the image. This is why I try to use four matching antennas all faced in the same direction. One thing I’ve been meaning to ask Carl about is if there would be a way to disable two RX ports with no affect on signal, then you’d only need two high gain antennas. We’ll see. Also regarding moving my head, when I’m not making a video it’s more of a natural subconscious action, but I was trying to demonstrate the affects as we went further out. Anyway, long answer, but appreciate the feedback, cheers!
@@GiantAntCowboy I see. I didn't realize this quirk about hdzero. Maybe this would work best with quadversity analog? That being a widened positioning of antennas?
@@Dec1duousTree yea, absolutely would be a neat quadversity setup. Any system that’s actually choosing antennas would benefit. I believe DJI and WalkSnail select antennas in real-time based on RSSI or LQ measurements.
I dont know if thats really the case with the four antennas. There are reports of people flying 8km+ on HDzero with only two antennas. But i think having them all to focus in one spot keeps the image quality the best
True. I have flown 7km with two helicals and two stock patch antennas, with no problem. However using the four helicals gives better overall image which was my goal here. Good comment, cheers!
Awesome video. In my test i have better penetration with a normal patch like the truerc x-air . Or make a 3 turn helical antenna.3 turn helical vs 7: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ygJw0ZjS7bI.html Make a try in the gauntlet.
Yes, I can test swap in X2-Airs and do a Gantlet test. I agree the X2-Airs perform very well, for some reason in previous tests I found they had more image noise them my helicals, but that was out past 5km. The huge advantage of these DIY helicals is cost. As I said this whole quad helical setup can be made for around $20; where as four X2-Airs might cost you 10x as much! Much better form factor though!
@@GiantAntCowboy I speak of the NORMAL x-air NOT the x2-air. Sometimes when you have less gain you have better penetration. If the cost is not high, try to make a 3 turn helical. It can be good to make test inside the gauntlet with 7 turn / x2air / xair or 3 turn helical. I think nobody have do a versus on hdzero with the 7 turn vs 3 turn. The point is to test with a lower gain 3turn or normal xair.
@@jmcjmc5587 gotcha. I was actually thinking about making 3 or 5 turn helicals. Honestly I could even just cut these down… and test again. The smaller size would be nice, and the beam width would be wider. I’ll give it a try, thanks for clarifying.
@@GiantAntCowboy The signal don't go through wood or concrete. It bounce and for some place you can catch more signal. I have made my test with very high gain antenna pointing to my drone trough forest and it's worse than a a normal quality patch like the xair. High gain are better for LR. If you cut. Cut from 7 to 5 to 3.
Any chance you could put some links to where you bought the stuff to make your antennas 📡 I'm having trouble finding the rp-sma or sma 90s that you can solder yourself and the coax 405
Sure, I actually ordered all this stuff from Amazon when I was in the USA. Finding specialty things in Norway is often hard and/or expensive… Are you in the US or elsewhere?
@GiantAntCowboy US I think I found the sma cable for like 11$ you were talking about guess I would just need the circuit board circles for the base now I have copper wire and a 3d printer think that's all I need also the length of 405 wire is important correct
@@MikeErwin-fpv • There’s an item called “uxcell SMA Male to SMA Male RG405” it’s two cables that you could cut in half and have four pre-soldered Coax cables. • Ground Plane: Search “Copper Blanks” I used the 2.5” ones. • Copper Wire is just a solid core electrical wire for interior wiring. Often called NMC or Romex wire. That’s basically it, but let me know if you have questions, and if you build it let me know how it works out!
@GiantAntCowboy OK I definitely plan to do that I've already ordered the 405 sma's I'll get right on the copper blanks I don't have a great area for much long range here in Missouri but the penatration will be very helpful to me I'll make sure and write back to let you know how it goes. (So you just cut them in half 6" of wire going to your antenna or just cut them to fit what you need to make it look right with your goggles?) Sorry for all the questions
@MikeErwin-if8tn regarding the coax length, you kinda just gotta see how it fits. It is a little tricky to get perfect, and you don’t want to bend the coax too much because you can weaken the ground shielding, and your solder joints after it’s been soldered. But 6” should be plenty.
Well actually, I’ve had better performance with my ELRS than I had with my CRSF. Ex: I only running my ELRS at 500hz & 100mW and getting better performance than when I ran my CRSF at 50hz and 1000mW! My ELRS is 2.4ghz vs CRSF 900mHz, theoretically 2.4ghz should be worse range/penetration but the antenna size is a huge benefit for me. Last things: make sure you’re running matching firmware. I had a slightly wrong version and was getting RXLosses and Failsafes only a 100m away. Corrected the firmware and no more problems.
I’m not sure I’d agree it’s better. I actually had worse performance from my CRSF setup previously and I was running that at 1000mw and 50hz. My ELRS is only at 100mW and set to 500hz! So that’s better performance. I could/should probably up the power to 250mW or 500mW when I do my next penetration tests.
I haven’t. This idea would probably wokr well with DJI, WalksSnail or maybe even a diversity Analog setup. HDZero however uses all four antennas together, it doesn’t chose the best one. So using a RH & LH mix would probably introduce a lot of noise in normal conditions. But it’s worth experimenting for sure, especially if you fly in a reflective environment like thick or metal surfaces. Thanks for sharing, cheers’
@@tubsucks yea, smooth surfaces are the worst. I’ve often noticed weird signal interference when flying near large waterfalls, and I think it’s because the RF bounces off the large flat, wet, smooth surface. Generally this interference is more of a annoyance then a major issue.
