OMG! Fatshark clovers are good!

[CurryKitten]

A clover has 3 lobes, and a skew has 4.  When people started on this a skew was used on the vrx and a clover on the vtx.  But better results are gained with a pair of skews instead

[rob.thomson]

Curious that they are all still sold in that format.

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[BigT]

So what you are saying is that both the rx and rx have 4 lobes. But what is the difference in shape between a clover and a skew?


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[Flyn]

Hi mate, the clover has 3 lobes & has slight signal gaps that become apparent when at range, if you point the gap back at the other antenna your signal will drop slightly then come back as you move the gap away.

Skew antennas have 4 lobes & do not suffer from the flaws of clovers.

[Coyote]

leaf

On the left is a 3 leaf Cloverleaf antenna, on the right the 4 leaf Skew-Planar wheel

The 4 leaf Skew-Planar gives better multipath rejection than the Cloverleaf so is regarded as the best of the two for being on the receiver end as it rejects multipathed signals which you would get on the ground reflected from objects around the ground station.

The Clover was introduced first as a transmitter antenna but since the Skew came about it performs no less than the Cloverleaf and actually has a much better circular pattern emitted from it so now is the popular choice for both ground and air antennas.

The Cloverleaf is fine, but when going for the max range the Skew will hold its pattern better giving a more solid picture and more gradual fade when you reach the limits compared to the Clover

[simondale]

ImmersionRC/ Fat Shark don't subscribe to the "myth" (their words) about a 3 leaf Skew Planar Wheel (AKA Cloverleaf) performing better than a proper 4 leaf Skew Planer Wheel on the VTx and now all of their SpiroNET antennas are 4 leaf - Tx and Rx.

They're also all the same length with better bendy stalks now too.

They're co-branded ImmersionRC and Fatshark but ImmersionRC actually sells them.

I guess the thing about using Cloverleafs when everyone was home making them was they were easier because there was one less petal to deal with!

All the best

Simon

[mark]

I understand all that but immersion were nt "home making" them. Still posses the question why with all there tec they did make them like that. Sorry but did nt want to start a new post.

Mark

[Dusty]

Hi there, sorry for the noobiness but I'm running a Fatshark Attitude with Immersion RC antennae on both the goggles and the 250MW tx. I reckon on a good day this gets me about 400 metres or so, it needs to be a good day though :D

I've seen skews and other stuff I don't understand for sale on here. Will these make a massive difference even though I've no intention of building a groundstation or anything like it at the minute? Would I be safer simply switching for the 600MW tx first or a comination of new antennae and a 600mw?

It's for a phantom v1 so I'm conscious of flight times. Or lack of........

thanks all :)

[FPVSteve]

I'll put my 2p in here.

I'm a big fan of Bignose13's skews. But they seem to have degraded over time, not due to his build quality or anything like that but my heavyhandedness. They've been bent, snagged etc etc and I'm pretty sure the lobes aren't in the correct orientation for "perfection" any more. I can't say I'm able to get perfect video after 500m any more because I can't.

Contrast that with the Immersion "cased" skews which are undamaged inside despite some enthusiastic attempts that the contrary, and still work as they did over a year ago.

I think when I buy some more skews I'll absolutely ensure that they're cased. I'm far too hamfisted with them while loading into the car etc.

Kinder Surprise innard thingies work great as covers.

[hase2]

Dusty, good quality antennas will make a difference. As comparison - I use Flyn's antennas and get around 1300m out of them with a Fatshark 100mW transmitter.

[electricmick]

I'm with Steve here as some of my naked clovers and skews have suffered hanger rash so I try to remove them from the model asap to preserve their shape. However the cased IRC ones are as fresh as the day they were made and stay on the models all the time. On my quad which has a downward facing skew it must be a cased example or it would get squished every bad landing, which is quite frequent.

Never bought a cheapy one so cannot comment on those but I do recommend the ones sold by members on here.

Mick

[dogzilla]

To be honest I am not impressed with my Immersion omni antenna's. The Spironet patch is good, but the little domed clovers, poor in comparison to my set of circular wireless SPW's.

[krikey]

Dusty, you want to eliminate any other chances of noise that might be hampering your video signal first. Getting 400m on 250mW doesn't seem far at all. Try to distance your VTx and antenna from all other equipment (awkward on a Quad I know) or do some ground tests with only the VTX connected and transmitting without the GPS or Rx being powered and see how far you can get. Then turn on each element in turn and do the test again to see what may be causing interference.

Do your tests in an open area, such as a park so that you reduce the chances of other external signals degrading your own Video signal.

[Coyote]

When you say ImmersionRC antennas you don`t mean the black straight ones with ImmersionRC written up the length of them do you ?

IE :

[stevec]

I also got fed up with constantly bending my skews back into place....

My local tesco had little boxes of 6 ping pong balls for a fiver.


A little slit up to about halfway up and a small relief for the coax and some tape to seal it up after you have popped it over the antenna.

Protects it nicely on my experience. I can now have my rx in my rucksack bouncing around with my flight transmitter.

I just need to sort out something for my helical now.

/Steve


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