Finnally built full diversity tripod GS

[rangler]

So I finally got the build completed and tidy. The entire setup fits safely in my rucksack and can be assembled in 60 seconds.
Taken frommy site here http://rangler.co.uk/2-4ghz-simple-diversity-ground-station-pt2/

After researching the db loss /foot of RG316 i calculated the loss to be negligible so it can be ignored.

So to summarize we have the following, all running of a single 3S4900mah lipo.

2 x UNO2400 Black VRX's
Eagletree Eagleeyes Diversity Tracker Unit
2.4Ghz IBCrazy Pepperbox
2.4Ghz IBCrazy 5 turn helical, soon to be replaced with a 10 turn black cannon.
12" Foxtech FPV Non Blue Screen Monitor
DVR01 DVR For ground station recording

[Billy_boy_2010]

Bloody hell are you going to the moon?!

Why do you have two high gain directional antennas on a diversity setup and a tracker? The diversity will always favour the highest gain antenna- IMO you may as well just have a tracker and single antenna :) 

if the tracker broke the diversity still wouldn't help you out as both directional antennas are facing the same way ;)

[FPVSteve]

Nice set up but yea... you need a Skew instead of that helical. The pepperbox antennas work incredibly well, however... so I doubt you'd even need that.

[AdamG]

Why do you have two high gain directional antennas on a diversity setup and a tracker?

Although he has that Eagle Eyes unit that can drive a tracker it doesn't look like there is a tracker installed.

It looks cool and pretty hard core  :D But like Steve said, you probably want a skew to replace the helical rather than 2 x directional antennas facing the same way.

[Coyote]

Agreed with above really. It looks nice but wrong choice of complimenting antenna for the diversity and no sun glare cover for the monitor is going to really kill its effectiveness in the summer days.

[rangler]

Had enough with the complexity of a tracker, granted yes i can swap the helical for a kew if desired.
As it stands the helical can rotate through 180 degrees and i only ever fly infront of myself.

As for the sunshade - this i have in the form of a cardboard shroud, didnt put it on for the pic as it was dark allready.

[AdamG]

Had enough with the complexity of a tracker, granted yes i can swap the helical for a kew if desired.
As it stands the helical can rotate through 180 degrees and i only ever fly infront of myself.

I have the MFD AAT and it really is simple and hassle free :thumbsup:

If you only fly in front of yourself I would have thought you'd be good with just the pepperbox  ;)

[Billy_boy_2010]

Had enough with the complexity of a tracker, granted yes i can swap the helical for a kew if desired.
As it stands the helical can rotate through 180 degrees and i only ever fly infront of myself.

7

If you don't have a tracker, but the helical can be rotated easily- then why have a pepperbox?

Get rid of the pepperbox and put a skew on it. Although it will never be used if you only ever fly in front of yourself.....

[AerialAdventurer]

Neat ground station Keith. What do you think of the Foxtech monitor, any good? Is it the M1200 that ships with the sunvisor or a different model?

[Dizzy]

sweet looking GS hope it all works well for you  :D

dizzy :)

[English Turbines]

Like the 12 inch Monitor....how crisp is that display....and is it LED backlit?

:vulture:

[BlueFlyer]

The diversity will always favour the highest gain antenna

sorry billy, this isn't correct.

to my knowledge there are 2 types of diversity units out there... RSSI and Video

RSSI diversity units are wired up to the RSSI pads on the VRX internal PCB (some VRXs have RSSI pins available and some even have RSSI wired into a 3.5mm jack). The diversity controller passes the video signal from the receiver that provides the best RSSI

The eagle eyes diversity unit has just the video phono input from each VRX. It then looks at the noise on each input and passes through the one with the least noise on it.

In either case, the gain of the antenna has nothing to do with it.



I also concur that using 2 x highly directional antennas on a "fixed" diversity setup is a waste of a diversity setup. I will simply repeat what others have already said... use an omnidirectional skew planar antenna instead of one of your directional antennas (I suggest removing the one with the narrowest beam width).

I don't know what power VTX you have, but I can reliably inform you that I have attained over 5km on a 500mw 2.4 VTX using just a skew planar omnidirectional antenna on both ends.

having 5km of "all around" coverage, combined with [massively more than]10km directional coverage is a much more worthwhile use of a diversity controller, whichever type is used.

[keukpa]

sorry billy, this isn't correct.

You're totally right, but I see what Billy_boy was getting at.... in a setup like this (which as Coyote says, has the wrong choice of antennas) it's basically going to win out on the highest gain antenna, e.g. if the helical had 7dbi, and the patch (if circular) was 13dbi, the patch would prob only ever get used....

Of course with an Omni Directional and a directional, then it's not down to gain but signal :)

Still, I'd just use the pepperBox, no need for the helical in this setup above!