Taranis Antenna Mod + RSSI

[keukpa]

Hi All,

So, I got myself one of those sexy Taranis Radios, and WOW they are sexy. However, I wanted to use the full built in telemetry and to do this, you need use the internal module. The problem with this is that you are then bound by using a standard omni antenna. So, I decided to do an antenna mod, see pics.










This mod has worked GREAT and now I can use a Patch and other high gain antennas :)

The SWR is 0-1 which is excellent... so then I range tested it on Tuesday and I must say, I was VERY happy.

I got to 800m @ 300m altitude, and still has an RSSI of between 60-70....

So, my question is thus...

At what value should one start to worry about RSSI? I know the lower the worse, but I currently have my RSSI watching to sound when it reaches 50% and critical at 45%, am I being too over cautious? should I alert at 10% or 5%? what RSSI value (except for the obvious) is indeed a critical value?

For example, would a reading of 20% mean I'm going to lose plane control?

Cheers peers,

Keukpa

[Jumpy07]

I am not getting great range on my Taranis and really fancy doing this mod.. thanks for the pics and guide..


Some questions..

Hows is the antenna socket attached to the Taranis ?

also what length of pigtail did you use ?

Many Thanks

[keukpa]

Hows is the antenna socket attached to the Taranis ?

also what length of pigtail did you use ?

Many Thanks

I'm getting great range to be fair, well chuffed.

OK, so the socket is just hot glued in, with some CA glue for added insurances... as for the pigtail, I used a long one, all I had, about 15cms I think. Works great tho!

Keukpa

[CurryKitten]

I'm getting good range on the stock antenna to be fair, but it does seem a weird oversight that they didn't make it changable.  Perhaps it'll be like the initial XR8 rx's had the antenna soldered on, and later Taranises (Taranasi ?) they'll go back to the normal interchangable antennas

[Coyote]

Hi John, do you have a link for the socket for the Taranis board bud ? 

[rob.thomson]

Yesterday I did 1500m on the stock antenna - 200m altitude :)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Jumpy07]

Ok.. got a 5db antenna, surface mount mini pci socket and 15cm pigtail ordered.. from fleabay

Now just waiting on slow boat from China :-)

[keukpa]

Hi John, do you have a link for the socket for the Taranis board bud ?

Coyote: They are u.fl sockets, I'd had mine for years from another project, but here is an eBay link to one. HTH

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HRS-HIROSE-U-FL-R-SMT-1-10-RECEPTACLE-SMT-U-FL-ULTRA-MINATURE-COAXIAL-/130705177851?pt=UK_Computing_Sound_Vision_Video_Cables_Adapters&hash=item1e6ea2bcfb

Keukpa

[Flyn]

Hi guys I got x5 sockets & pigtails I ordered at the same time to do mine.

If anyone wants the kit to do the mod pm me.

Kit is socket & pigtail £6 posted

[Coyote]

Cheers John :)

Sounds even easier Rory thanks :)

[Flyn]

No probs

X4 kits left

[pk-surfing]

No probs

X4 kits left

X3 now (I've just PM'd you for one  :) )

Can't have Ian with one and not me....

PK

[Flyn]

X3 kits left :)

[Robotnik]

Responding to the first post.
I've got my RSSI alarm set to 40
Below is from the openTX wiki.

'Probably the most important telemetry value is RSSI, which is an indication of how much signal the receiver in the model is seeing from the radio, and will warn you in advance if you are at risk of losing control be it due to external interference, excessive distance, badly oriented or damaged antennas etc. The telemetry settings page gives you 2 alarm levels you can set that will be announced in clear voice ("RF signal low" and "RF signal critical"). They are set by default to levels that have been considered suitable and safe for normal line of sight flight (45 and 42), but if you want to adjust them yourself the following explanations will be useful:

RSSI on FrSky equipment is represented using a logarithmic scale (dB), not in %. This means that when RSSI is high, a small difference in distance between the transmitter and receiver will lead to a big change of the RSSI value. It is perfectly normal to see a value of about 100 when next to the model, and already down in the 70's by the time you've walked to the other end of the field. When you have a reading of 50, it will however take a lot of extra distance to reach the alarm level of 45. The basic approximation rule is that a doubling of distance between pilot and model will result in a drop of 6dB of the RSSI value, which should make the previous explanation clear: If you are 5m away from the model it only takes another 5m to reduce RSSI by 6dB, but if you are 600m away from the model it will then take another 600m to reduce the value by the "same" 6dB.

Loss of control will happen when RSSI reaches a value of about 38, so setting an alarm at 10 is useless. From the above explanation you can see that between the default critical alarm (42) and usual practical loss of control we have a margin of about 4dB, or range factor of around 1.5. The alarms are thus rather conservative, and in normal conditions even if you heard the critical alarm you would still be far from losing control (you should be at around >1000m distance, with another 500m to spare). Intermittent loss due to local fades and antenna orientation mismatches could however get more and more frequent.

As mentioned the default alarms are deemed safe for usual line of sight flight, but for example with FPV setups especially when coupled with automatic return to home systems and properly configured failsafes the safety margin can be reduced and you should be able to extract more or less double of the standard range out of the system. It is up to you to (safely!) experiment as once the margin gets reduced influence of external interference sources will start to become more noticeable, such as it is impossible to predict the behavior of a given installation in a particular model.'

[bs85]

This is the first mod i did to my Taranis.

Used a couple of o-rings on the sma then push through the hole and tighten the nut.
Holds in place very well and easy to change if it gets damaged.