RC India

Hi Folks,

I did a search on this topic, but did not find any specific results on this subject in this forum.

I have recently purchased a new WiFi Booster for my Turnigy 9X radio. I have installed it on my radio and following are a few pics. The idea is to increase the 2.4 Ghz range and I believe these boosters are good in doing so. I have read about these boosters being used by many people in other RC forums, so I though I will give it a try to fly long range FPV using my existing 2.4 Ghz Radio. Similar boosters are available on ebay and here as well... http://www.rangevideo.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=62&products_id=245

I bought it from a guy on ebay.in from Chandigarh. Got it for INR 2700 (1 Watt, Made in Taiwan)
Using the Tx battery pack for powering the booster with a HK UBEC at 5V, 3A.

Yes, it consumes quite a bit of my Tx Battery power and also becomes pretty warm. I am using 2100 mah Eneloops. And it gives me 1 hour of continuous operation with a fully charged pack. Ground checks are really impressive. It even knocks of my Bluetooth connection from phone to headset. :giggle:

Will be testing this setup on Jan 26, 2012 with my HK EPP FPV and FY31AP.  ;D

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ep7-UL8FeoY/Tx0N9D8FeCI/AAAAAAAABZ0/KYhcNJT2xoE/s800/20120122_011625.jpg)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-F874L3FVvT0/Tx0NU-RLUYI/AAAAAAAABZo/AwwcnjT82tQ/s800/20120122_011533.jpg)

(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-i8ieAZ9ceLU/Tx0M4RwJ4nI/AAAAAAAABZc/ugd3FRQtva4/s800/20120122_011434.jpg)

(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-E3Z1P1CYMw8/Tx0NUrGOGRI/AAAAAAAABZk/-F_7ryrHASY/s800/20120122_011422.jpg)

Is it like 'plug-n-play'? No soldering? I mean do we have to connect just supply wires and antenna wire and nothing else?

Yes... Just PLUG and PLAY  ;D Soldering required only for the power supply, if you wish to power from tx supply. Else you can use a separate Lipo. Then NO SOLDERING required.

I realised later that I could have mounted the amplifier on the top of the SMA connector itself without using the supplied cable. The amp can connect directly to the SMA connector. However, that would have increased the height of the Tx and disturbed the balance of the tx... and moreover I did not want the weight of the amp to be loaded just on the SMA connector alone.  ;)

Hi Saurabh,

Good luck with your next long range F*V venture. Here is mine done a while ago.

http://www.rcindia.org/radios-and-receivers/extending-range-of-a-futaba-2-4-ghz-radio/25/

However I had to replace the stock antenna with SMA Pig tail to take RF out for the Booster. Did your Turnigy 9X come with SMA mount for the Antenna?

Hey Saurabh, why dont you rout the SMA cable from the same hole where you popped out the power cable ?You can also put a Heat shrink to house the power and RF cable together.  Its easy for the cable to become faulty at the SMA connector over the time.

Looking forward for good review.... all the best for the Re-maiden....

Hi Sundaram. No Turnigy 9x does not come with sma connector. I have the FrSky DIY installed that comes with that connector. The supplied cable is not long enough to reach inside the tx, hence this setup. I saw your modification as well. Howz the performance? With my setup, i am expecting atleast a 5 to 6km or more. Lets see this thursday... Will keep it posted.

Thanks Ujjawaana. As said earlier, the cable is not long enough... Will let you knw bout the results. Thanks for your good wishes.

Supposed to be much more than 5-6 kms. With patch antenna it is supposed to be close to 20Kms line of sight. Being hills never really dared to verture far.

1  just tell me about the ground range you got after installing booster ,how long was it ?
2 where did you get this nice blue colour neck strap connector  ?

Hhmmm... I agree... I was a little conservative while quoting 5-6 kms...  >:D
I knw with LOS it should reach close to 12-14 kms. But I do not have a plane with that endurance..  ;) . To fly 5 km, your plane should have an endurance to fly that far and then return back home..... However my hk epp fpv does have enough power to go upto 4 km and back...  :)

Vineet, i have not tested the ground range as of yet. But I know for sure that it is strong enough to kick off my bluetooth connection... Never had such an experience...

The blue tx balancer is from HK. Search for neckstrap balancer for 10 channel or more on HK

what is the range of your video tx? The task of increasing the vidoe range is more challenging than increasing the Radio range.
I am feeling limited with my video tx range.Last week I did ground test of my fpv setup.. Will update in a separate post..

I have a 1500mw 900mhz video tx with a vee antenna. I believe the range of the video tx should be atleast 5km. LOS

Is it ibcrazy's vee?
Yah with vee it should give around 4-5km..Good luk and keep us posted..

Naaah... :)

Its the RangeVideo Vee antenna...

http://www.rangevideo.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_38&products_id=233

You can get a U. FL to SMA-Male cable, which come in both 6 and 12 inches lengths. the 6 inch one is just $3 inc shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-6inch-U-FL-SMA-Male-Straight-Bulkhead-Pigtail-/300654148583?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4600623be7#ht_1860wt_957

You can remove the U. FL cable from the RF board which goes to the front of the Tx. Directly connecting the AMP to the RF board would give you lesser attenuation (one less connector) and more reliable link. Just dont forget to put some Hot Glue to stick the cable to the board near the  U.FL connector so that the connector does not move.

Anyone know if this would fit the Aurora 9?
Can it also be made to fit the Tx for a RC car?

U can use the booster to boost the range of any RC system that works on 2.4Ghz (it does not matter if it is land rc or air rc)
Any frequescy between 2400mhz and 2500mhz will work. However be careful as this is the microwave range. Keep it away from your body as much possible, specially from your head ;)

NOTE to ADMIN.

Request to please merge this topic with the existing thread or vice versa "Extending Range of a Futaba 2.4 Ghz Radio".

I dont see a point having 2 threads for the same topic.

Thanks.

Unfortunately it will all look ugly if we merge now, as the posts from both threads will inter-mingle :(

So let us put pointers both ways... as in :

This topic is also discussed here :

http://www.rcindia.org/radios-and-receivers/extending-range-of-a-futaba-2-4-ghz-radio/

saruabh, where did you pick the 12v out from turnigy board? I dont want to get it from the battery directly as I am forgetting to remove the the connection to booster when I switch off the transmitter.
I want to get the switched voltage from board so that booster is off when I switch off transmitter.

Hey Foamy,

When you open the turnigy tx. Look for the back side panel. You will see the following pins. See the pic for details.

Got it. Thanks. I guess these are the same pins we connect frsky module to.

Dear Saurabh,
Could you please provide me links to any LHS selling the 5v3A UBEC's? as I am trying to put together a long range booster on my transmitter and need a bit of guidance here and there.

You need a low RF Noise UBEC best recommended is

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__4319__TURNIGY_3A_UBEC_w_Noise_Reduction.html (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__4319__TURNIGY_3A_UBEC_w_Noise_Reduction.html)

(http://cdn.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/catalog/TR-UBEC-3A.jpg)

In the LHS among whats available this seems promising
.
https://www.rcsportz.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=138 (https://www.rcsportz.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=138)

(http://www.rctecnic.com/3206-large_default/emax-ubec-3a.jpg)

Thank you for the input man, I just ordered the latter. Appreciate your quick response.
DD

I have ordered a 2w booster from banggood ...which ON description sAYs its for DJI radio and I am going to use it ON flysky ..... its small in size got it for 26 doller ...MY question is how CAN I check if booster is working properly ...what output it is giving? ??  PLEASE give simple methods coz I don't have any fancy stuff like spectrometer etc

simple is check range of transmitter before and after fitting

another simple way is attach to a wifi router - your wifi network range will be around double

you cannot quantify the output without special equipment

High end equipments like spectrometer are not 'fancy', but certainly a luxury for a few with deep pockets. Read the first post, and check if your Bluetooth connectivity is getting knocked off. If yes, then you have a good signal strength.

Using a booster is against the rules and regulation of India WPC.

Using it ON Rc radio or ON wifi device????

Technically speaking, you should not alter your radio's. Risk is at onus of the owner of such equipment. Period.

got my radio signal booster 2000mw today
mounted it to my radio it works perfect

but as mentioned in earlier post it didnt knocked out my laptop to mobile Bluetooth data transfer link ??
i guess i have to try it with wireless head set??


i have one question thouh:-   my radio is still working without powering on the booster still i am able to receive the signal on receiver why is that  ??? is it normal working or something is wrong??  note:- i have removed the stock antenna completely from flysky module and soldered the coex cable to radio booster

see the pictures

This is pic

Any bdy know the exact range you get if you install 2.4ghz wifi booster on trex...and am confused..as i already have djt module and for long range which one is better adding booster to djt or get ezuhf dragonlink or any other long range system

The radio still works with booster switched off for good range. It's normal.

Range you achieve will be anything between double to manyfold increase based on you other setup and connected accessories. Boost in range is not a fixed arthemetical multiplication factor. It depends on many other factor of setup and how you use it.

Hope for the best! I dropped my plan of buying ezuhf..will go with 2watt booster and patch antenna lets see how it will work,and seen some people on forms who added booster to djt module and achived nearly 20km+,as they ppl have long range fpv airplanes like sky hunter to test the range...searching for sky hunter 1800mm size

Adding a wifi booster will surely increase your range... but there are a few points to consider...

1.) Decide how will you power the booster as it consumes significant amount of energy.
2.) What antennas you plan to use ? If using a patch(directional) it will boost your range quite a bit but will add to the complexity of pointing the tx towards the model all the time. The farther the model goes, the narrower the beam funnel becomes, so an antenna tracker might be useful in this case. However, if you use Omnidirectional antennas, the efficiency of those are not that great and you may not get the desired range as expected.
3.) Multipathing can cause issues and there could be phase outs at the receiver end. (2.4 Ghz is more susceptible to it)
4.) Last but not the least, adding a booster would be illegal as per WPA. You may even void the warranty on the tx.

I still feel that a LRS on 433 MHz is more practical in this case. 433 would have more penetrating power and hence you will be in control of your aircraft even if it flies behind trees or other obstructions. It will consume much less power compared to a booster and hence, can be powered from the tx battery itself. Many LRS systems offer dual power modes. Low power (typically 200 mW) and high power (500 mW)
The sensitivity of LRS receivers is much higher than traditional 2.4GHz rx.
You can use Omni directional antennas with 433 MHz systems and they provide adequate range. You save on the antenna tracker setup.

The 433 LRS system is expensive compared to adding a booster but a much reliable setup for long ranges however it may not be bi-directional (if using old systems like "dragon link") and hence may not support telemetry. If you use data modems which operate on 433 MHz band then you get telemetry but they suffer from low baud rates.

At the end, the choice is yours. Booster is cheaper and would work with existing systems but will induce the hassle of tracking the aircraft all the time. A true 433 LRS would be more robust and reliable at an expense and may further add legality issues.

I've been able to achieve 7 ms per packet (Tx to Rx) and 10 ms per packet for telemetry at 19200 baud using 433 MHz long range modems from DORJI. It's still slow for fpv racing  but much better than the traditional 50 Hz systems for fpv flying. 

The serial protocols like SBUS and SUMD took 2-3 ms more.

hi,
hope this should increasse the range

http://www.banggood.com/DALRC-2_4GHz-8dBm-Remote-Control-Power-Amplifier-for-DIY-Multirotor-Racer-p-1100985.html?rmmds=category

I have fst6 radio and its range is less

So members are requested to intimate link where hardware to increase the range of transmitter is available and method to install on fst6 radio

kp

what is your current range ?

how have you measured ?

Just a novice here. But with all the restrictions about flying, altitude, line of sight, fpv  ... do we need the extra power drawing signal amps.
There are some options like this  :giggle:
 :hatsoff: :hatsoff: