Antenna Tracker

[Harry34186]

Hi guys i want to buy an antenna tracker to use with my Z2 (as opposed to diversity). I would buy the ez antenna tracker but i dont know where to find a pan and tilt mount and i dont know what servos to use for it. Could someone please tell me where to get these items - preferably in the UK. Thanks :)

[Flyn]

TeamFTP had some acrylic pan & tilt mounts for this. Either that or try here

http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=_info&cPath=11_27&products_id=95

[Spookfish]

Best to use a tracker in conjunction with diversity. If your tracker should decide to point your directional antenna in the wrong direction (and it does happen), you'll have the backup of ya good ol' skew. Diversity is a must. 

I use the MyFlyDream Tracker with an Immersion 5800Duo v2. I have a Circular Wireless Helical on Rx1 and a Circular Wireless Skew on Rx2. Works a charm.

[skyscraper]

Best to use a tracker in conjunction with diversity. If your tracker should decide to point your directional antenna in the wrong direction (and it does happen), you'll have the backup of ya good ol' skew. Diversity is a must. 

Disagree, since if you are at distance and your AT is pointing the wrong way, the omni wont help.
If you are close and your AT is pointing the wrong way, then its not working properly. The poor picture quality at close range is a warning that something is wrong. Best to land and sort it out.

Diversity is nice to have, but its another expense and its not essential.

regards
Andy

[Coyote]

Agreed diversity is not really needed, I use diversity on mine just because some of my planes / multi`s don't have tracking on board so I don't have to change anything swapping between them

[DaveyLC]

Vote in support of diversity here: if your tracker has a Spaz out without diversity and an omni you are as they say 'f**ked'

Happened to me yesterday at the meet (UBEC browned out on the tracker)..

[skyscraper]

Vote in support of diversity here: if your tracker has a Spaz out without diversity and an omni you are as they say 'f**ked'

Happened to me yesterday at the meet (UBEC browned out on the tracker)..

Sure if your tracker goes pop youre knackd :laugh:

Interesting though. What servos are you running?  And what UBEC? e.g what make and ampage?

FWIW My tracker runs straight off the 3S lipo in Pan, but uses a UBEC for the RC  tilt servo. I will have to keep an eye on current draw!

regards
Andy

[DaveyLC]

Only micro servos BUT my archos runs off the same ubec

[Zeeflyboy]

I see diversity as a good plan - yeah okay if you are a long way out then you'll still lose signal, but you'll get it back sooner (assuming you have triggered RTH) which means you can regain control sooner and perhaps avoid that tree RTH is about to fly you into.

For me the idea of a tracker is not so much for long range, but more for best image quality at shorter ranges. In that scenario you are likely to still have some image (albeit grainy and/or dropping in and out) should the tracker go tits up.

Given the ease of diversity using something like the DUO I think it's a no-brainer back up if funds allow.

[Flyn]

Best to use a tracker in conjunction with diversity. If your tracker should decide to point your directional antenna in the wrong direction (and it does happen), you'll have the backup of ya good ol' skew. Diversity is a must. 

Disagree, since if you are at distance and your AT is pointing the wrong way, the omni wont help.
If you are close and your AT is pointing the wrong way, then its not working properly. The poor picture quality at close range is a warning that something is wrong. Best to land and sort it out.

Diversity is nice to have, but its another expense and its not essential.

regards
Andy

Have to say I disagree with your disagreement ;)

Last year at the Bardney meet Spooky was flying his ZII, maybe 1/4mile out (not far!) & his MyFlyDream spazzed out & pointed 180° away from his plane, at this time he was without diversity & only had a medium gain CircularWireless helical & he lost 100% of his video. I was there spotting for him shouting "pull up", "bank left" etc to keep him from flying blindly into trees purely due to a non diversity system!

He managed to get the plane home ok but was clearly shaken by the fact that his antenna picked up NOTHING at such a short range once his tracker went bad, further flights he used the MFD in offline mode with me tracking the antenna for him!

So if you feel your directional antenna can perform well alone even if pointed away from the plane - I say good luck to you but most certainly won't be chancing it ;)

I do however agree that plus 2.5km skews might not be much help, but what I'm getting at is that you don't have to miles out to get zero signal from a poorly pointed helical.

[Spookfish]

Yup that was definitely a brown pants moment. It was that very incident that led me to use a diversity setup.

If you look at full size aircraft, you'll notice that every system generally has a reversionary system as a backup. Even though I don't really fly out huge distances (1.5Km being the farthest so far) I like to have a good strong video link. I know my skew antenna will give me a flyable (just about) image out to about 3Km. With my tracker however it's still a strong link at this sort of range. This means up to 3Km I have a backup system, good to know when you're flying a plane that cost the best part of a grand.

[DaveyLC]

Also the purpose of a tracker isn't always to fly long distance it can be to have a rock solid image so you can fly low and fast :D

[Flyn]

Also the purpose of a tracker isn't always to fly long distance it can be to have a rock solid image so you can fly low and fast :D

+1 to that ;)

[skyscraper]

If you have the money then go for it. I don't, so while trying to do it on a budget I hope I can share my experience and open up FPV to as many as possible ( and legally if possible ) so I think diversity Vrx is nice to have with a tracker but Not a necessity.

I absolutely agree since getting my tracker running that image quality close in has improved a lot. An Antenna Tracker is very worthwhile investment. Thats why I'm trying to do a good one that isnt expensive: New URL coming soon] V1 is a bit bulky so V2 will be a bit more compact though!

I am curious  as to why the trackers failed? I just speculate on the cause. The issue over reliability may be down to using the video link to send telemetry. On the  DIY tracker, I am currently using the FrSky telemetry link to send the position data. Its very reliable so far since the RC link has diversity built in and warning beep when going out of range. Am working on parallel alternatives nevertheless.

interesting discussion though!

regards
Andy

[Flyn]

ftp://Totally agree trackers & diversity are pricey.

Think the mfd & EZtracker use the audio channel for data whereas the eagle tree system uses the video channel to embed in the overscan. This is a far better way over audio as my eagle tree has never failed on me - ever.

Gotta say using frsky telemetry sounds interesting mate!