MD_Icarus
Second Officer
United States
Offline
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I want to state at the onset, that these results are not only preliminary, and they are based upon ONLY ONE of each of the following: P4, RC, Antenna Mod.
That means, that my results, may not match your results, because the 4 variables I listed above have tolerances, and yours may have different performance characteristics than mine. A good test will sually inlcude a few of the above to see if it is consistent. There is another critical factor in my opinion, and that is temperature. All these tests were performed at relative lower temperature of 70° - 80° F.
So far, the first week I devoted to just Distance testing, flying over the ocean, with clear eye view of the P4 throughout the flight.
Why did I do this? I am not looking to break any records, I just wanted to get back to what I was enjoying when I first flew the P4 from factory back in May. I used to get about 1.5 - 2 and clear video streaming. Then recently, the range was redulced to 0.7 - 0.8 , and my video streaming was extremely laggy and I had constant green screens.
1) Using the copper parabolic range booster my range increased to about 1.2 - 1.4 and the video streaming improved, but I was still getting some green screens. The video streaming was affected by the ambient temperature; when it was above 90°, I used to get more green screens.
I then proceeded with an RC Antenna mod; I tried the 2 most popular mods in the market right now. I prefer not to mention the names, but it will be obvious to anyone which ones I am talking about. I did not use any active amplifiers, because I believe they will introduce noise and cancel any additional gain anyway. I also do not like noise around the RC, when there are high frequecy signals at low power.
I performed 1.2, 1.5, 1.9, 2.2, 2.5 tests.
And I am happy to say, that both antenna mods provided the same exact results at all those range tests. The minimum RC signal strength was recorded at 95%/94% using both mods. I was surpised to see how close they both operated. I am happy with the 2.5 range, and I do not plan to push them any more, although I think they can go further.
One important apsect is that these were all straight flight tests. All I had to do is keep the RC pointing in one fixed direction. I have not yet tested them using wider flight routes, or see how they penetrate structures like trees, etc.
My video streaming was more or less perfect in all test flights. Only when the P4 turned a few times, I would see some minor lag.
Of course I use a light beacon so I can see the P4 throughout the flight; plus I have an acute eye sight, which may be the result of having a glass of carrot juice every morning since I was 5 and the only cake I eat is carrot cake.
So far, my tests show that they work. They are not gimmicks, as some may have felt.
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