2.4GHZ wireless

zoom505

Folks,

Perhaps somebody might be able to help me. I have been trying to get an answer to this question.

In radio control aircraft flying there is a new area taking off called FPV flying whereby you fly the plane via a wireless camera on the nose. Due to power ratings in Ireland of 10mw at 2.4ghz this gives you a range of 1000ft thereabouts. Is anybody aware of a means of sending video signal over a greater distance than this legally. do the emergency services hace access to to parts of the spectrum that would facilitate sending wireless video over greater distances?

I might be at the wrong forum.

Would be grateful of assistance.

zoom

watty

The power rating is a bit more than 10mW. More like 500mW for Analogue 2.4GHz Video, I think. Much CE approved video gear on 2.4GHz may be 100mW (use Analogue, not digital, though virtually every wireless camera / video sender is Analogue)

If you use an MMDS dish (without the MMDS block) as an aerial for the receiver you can certainly follow the plane for maybe 5km to 10km if there is good LOS.

For more power you need a licence and then also the problem is where to get the power on a model R/C plane.

It's not a spectrum issue. For a model plane the licence free 2.4GHz is not bad.If you had a Wireless Experimenter Licence, you could use 1.2GHz, 5.6GHz(possibly) or 10GHz. The Licence does not allow 2.3GHz to 2.4GHz for video, you can only use the licence free band.

zoom505

Watty

Thanks for the info. There would indeed be good LOS.

My plan is to use the RC aircraft for photography in coastal areas. To get the plane into the right spot for taking photos you really need to be flying First Person View. I have a big enough model to carry a good camera and transmitter. I had been looming at shortrange 2.4 ghz digital versions with 10mw power. I was looking at units available in the US gealously...

http://www.rangevideo.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=97&zenid=19aa9113e2d7ae81859a94fe8e44b2b9

I wish.....

watty

US gear would mostly be illegal here.

All the items on that page are illegal everywhere in EU and most of them illegal in USA too.


You need CE marked gear.

However if you use a good site and an MMDS style dish (They can be purchased for WiFi, try solwise?) you might even get 5km range with 10mW.

Do check the power consumption, it's much much higher than output power. Batteries are heavy. A 5M to 8M pixel still camera operated by remote control is needed for actual aerial snaps as the live navigational video feed is only 0.1M to 0.45M pixels.

A 1W unit would take 3W typically or even more. CE approved are up to 500mW and have only 4 channels: A, B, C & D

stylers

Are there many people doing this type of flying ?. I had often thought about using a video link at 2.4 GHz for this, but wasn't sure of the legality of it flying wise (I don't fly RC's, but my bro does). a dish would be way too directional, IMHO it would be unuseable, but maybe something with a nice bit of gain and a broad beamwidth would be better, like a biquad (and its relatively easy to make and small at 2.4 Ghz). In fact I think there was a design for one in Monitoring monthly a while back for use with a video scanner. Another issue is maybe that you'd want a fairly decent camera with a proper iris (not just electronic) to be able to cope with the large and rapid variations in brightness / scene as you climb and descend..

watty

The dish is OK at +1km range (maybe less). Closer you want a dipole + reflector.

You might want circular polarised receive aerial even though that will lose 3dB gain compared with a perfect alignment of Tx and Rx, but then you won't lose signal as the plane banks.

zoom505

Thanks folks for the info,

http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/

This hosts the package I was originally looking at and might still go for. FPV flying is a new growth area in rc flying. With an OSD heads up display it adds for better flying and navigation. You fly the plane from a VR headset and swivel camera...

http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=35

and for the osd

http://www.firstpersonview.co.uk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=33.

I still would like to go for the max range possible. Clew Bay with all those little islands is a good few kilometers out!

Bruthal

has anyone made any video`s here. I will try the FPV at some stage. At the moment i`ve tried a small camera on a trex600 electric chopper

http://www.youtube.com/user/robbie77300


A powered glider would be better as can see it higher for direct view flying, also less vibration, longer flights, and thats what i`l eventually try for FPV video probably