$40 to get 30-40% increase in range?

Jagerbomb52 · Apr 13, 2019

These types of antennas have been around for ever in the RC world and they don't have to be anything fancy.

Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

IRR · Apr 13, 2019

Agustine said:
These types of antennas have been around for ever in the RC world and they don't have to be anything fancy.
Sent from my LG-H873 using Tapatalk

Correct! But with a little more engineering behind it I think there's more effective solutions out there, mine being potentially one of them. That being said, here's a couple of ways my design could be improved if someone out there wants to give it a shot.

1. Find a way to increase the height of the antenna into the bowl. It shouldn't be flat against it for optimal signal deflection.

2. Find a more convex reflector, the geometry of mine is less than ideal (think of a satellite tv dish)

Those two improvements would provide a far more elegant design, but I'm not sure it would significantly improve the user experience. The limitations of the power of the signal and the interference on the drone itself would still be a problem. And of course, you'd eventually bump into the battery limitations. But it'd still be great to see someone try and improve my fairly rudimentary construction.

Jasper68 · Apr 13, 2019

I will concur. Yes this is simply reflecting a signal already generated. To truly improve if you could elevate Tx using pole maybe even 4m and run high Grade coax connection.

davinchi2000 · Apr 13, 2019

This I had already achieved a while ago.
I've got more than 7500m away.
Parrot Anafi range test 6029m

Parrot Anafi range test 7551m

Jasper68 · Apr 13, 2019

davinchi2000 said:
This I had already achieved a while ago.
I've got more than 7500m away.
Parrot Anafi range test 6029m

Parrot Anafi range test 7551m

Jasper68 · Apr 13, 2019

Awsome!! ?
What was ur setup?

davinchi2000 · Apr 13, 2019

Jasper68 said:
Awsome!! ?
What was ur setup?

in the 7500m video, at the beginning you see the image of the configuration.
manual channel 1

SkySpy · Jun 25, 2019

Agustine said:
I suppose you could have used a plastic colander that costs under 10 bucks at walmart and accomplished the same thing since the reflective tape is what helps direct the RF signals to the antenna.
And it would have cut down on the weight
I have seen people use egg cartons to do the same with other UAV's.
It does work but flying VLOS the Anafi on its own does very well for me.

I think I'm going to try the plastic version you suggested. I wonder if aluminum foil (less weight) would work as well as the tape. Could secure the edges with the aluminum tape.

Webvan · Jun 27, 2019

davinchi2000 said:
in the 7500m video, at the beginning you see the image of the configuration.
manual channel 1

Crafty !
And nice to see a one-way flight, not many I could find on YT.

nikola · Nov 4, 2020

IRR said:
I thought I'd share this as it really has turned out to be an effective and cheap way to get better FPV and range out of the Anafi. I took a metal colander and removed the base and handles so it was just the bowl. I then cut it in half with a sawzall, made a notch for the controller, and attached a hinge one end and a clasp on the other. The two metal pieces you see on coming down off the back line up with each side of the controller handles. So once you attach your phone underneath and throw a rubber band around the bottom it's solidly in place. It doesn't budge at all. Then I used aluminum tape to cover the whole thing. All combined it was less than $40. It takes all of 5 seconds to take on and off as well.
View attachment 1795

I'll do some more testing, but based on previous flights from the exact same spot I'm seeing an increase in range of at least 30%. More importantly, I'm getting MUCH better FPV in areas with tons of WiFi interference which is where I fly 80% of the time. Here's a video where I got the Anafi out to 2 miles with no loss of FPV and plenty of WiFi signals to battle. I could have gone plenty further but didn't see the need to push it. At the end there's a short section of what it looks like with the controller attached.

If you have more questions about it, let me know. But I thought I'd share a simple, cheap and not-warranty-busting solution to help with connectivity.