100mw Orange RX expected Range on Rubber Duckies?

[Robbie]

Hey guys,

in the rediculous HK cyber sale i picked up Open LRS for 67p, I notice they come with small rubber duckies which must have the antenna coiled inside what kind of range can i expect in a faily urban area with the 100mw Orange RX, with the OPENLRSNG firmware flash.

I intend to stick the moduel on the back of my Taranis and then put the reciever either on my FPV plane or one of my bigger quads.

Am i likly to get more range with just an 8XR, baring in mind i also run an 800mw 1.3 video system.

Thank you,
Robbie

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

First of all, pairing an 800mW video system with a tiny 100mW control link is a really bad idea. A video transmitter with that much power is likely to swamp out such a low-power radio link. A 500mW radio link would be much more suitable. The thing to remember is that it's not the amount of power that matters, it's the antennas that you use and how you set your system up.

 

[jhitesma]

I wouldn't worry too much about the 5.8g video swamping out the 440mhz RC link...it may raise the noise floor but they're far enough apart in frequency it shouldn't be a huge issue.

I had a 100mw orange openLRS RX/TX setup on my knuckle quad and with a 200mw 5.8ghz VTX I was able to go 500m with no loss of either signal. That was on a knuckle quad (~400 size) so a bit more room for separation than a 250...but I still had the RC and VTX pretty close together. It was also far enough that I fell out of the sky from a dead battery before I could fight the wind and get back to myself....

Unless you're on a really big quad with a lot of flight time that high power of a VTX and LRS are really overkill. I did like openLRS for the PPM support and telemetry though even if I didn't use it for range. I'm actually about to build some more openLRS RX's since I still have the TX...but my HK Orange RX was never very reliable and one day just suddenly died with no warning

 

[Robbie]

I wouldn't worry too much about the 5.8g video swamping out the 440mhz RC link...it may raise the noise floor but they're far enough apart in frequency it shouldn't be a huge issue.

I had a 100mw orange openLRS RX/TX setup on my knuckle quad and with a 200mw 5.8ghz VTX I was able to go 500m with no loss of either signal. That was on a knuckle quad (~400 size) so a bit more room for separation than a 250...but I still had the RC and VTX pretty close together. It was also far enough that I fell out of the sky from a dead battery before I could fight the wind and get back to myself....

Unless you're on a really big quad with a lot of flight time that high power of a VTX and LRS are really overkill. I did like openLRS for the PPM support and telemetry though even if I didn't use it for range. I'm actually about to build some more openLRS RX's since I still have the TX...but my HK Orange RX was never very reliable and one day just suddenly died with no warning

I will probably use it on a 2m fpv plane that's the main reason i got it, i don't really want to fly further than 1km away and I know the 1.3 can easily send video that far it's more the orange box i am worried about.

Even if I mount on opposite wings am I still likely to get noise issues from the 800mw 1.3 or is 433 strong enough thst it won't be an issue

Could I easily expect 1km on ORANGERXNG? Because I don't want to have to wait ages for the whips to arrive from China

 

[jhitesma]

oh...1.3ghz...missed that. That could cause some issues. 1.3 and 440 have some harmonics that can cause video issues. It's actually your RC TX that's likely to swamp your VRX. Your VTX may be 800mw...but it's going to be a lot further away while your RC TX is going to be just a few feet away from your VRX so even though it's a lower power signal it's going to be a lot louder to the RX and probably cause video interference.

You'll probably want to get a filter for the 440 tx just to be sure it doesn't interfere with your VRX: http://www.getfpv.com/ibcrazy-433-mhz-1-3-ghz-notch-filter.html

1km should be possible. I ground tested my orange 100mw setup to almost 2km - so in the sky it should be safe. But I was using a nice diamond antenna on the TX - the stock antennas really are junk. You may at least want to try making a "Sandor style" antenna http://www.fpvmanuals.com/2011/03/23/make-your-own-lrs-rx-antennas-sander-style-and-turn-style/

They're really quick and easy to make and do considerably better than the stock orange antenna. Just need some wire and SMA connectors which you should be able to find at a local electronics shop if you don't have any laying around or any broken antennas you can scavenge them from.

Also...hate to bring it up but...aren't you in the UK? I thought 440 wasn't allowed in the UK for RC?

 

[Ocean]

Also...hate to bring it up but...aren't you in the UK? I thought 440 wasn't allowed in the UK for RC?

458.5-59.5Mhz up to 100mW is legal here in the UK.

 

[Robbie]

Thanks jhitsema for your advice, even though it's strictly mainly for plane fpv i put it on multi rotors because I know you have had experience with orange rx and you know what your talking about

Thanks
Robbie

 

[jhitesma]

Thanks jhitsema for your advice, even though it's strictly mainly for plane fpv i put it on multi rotors because I know you have had experience with orange rx and you know what your talking about

Or at least I'm good at giving that impression

I wish I had more time to check the other forums more regularly. I do stop in from time to time in the radio and FPV forums but must admit this is where I spend most of my RC forum time

I'd strongly suggest looking into the DTFUHF or Brotronics gear for a RX if you want to keep using the openLRS. The Orange RX I was really not happy with the design and implementation of. The DFT/Brotronics gear includes a filter on the output that helps with 1.3ghz interference and is just much better designed. The 4ch remix from brotronics even has sbus output. I have 3 bare remix boards sitting here waiting for me to finish rewiring this toaster oven so I can solder them up. Have all the parts and boards in hand just need to make it happen. But been spending all my hobby time testing things for dRonin the past few weeks (uncovered a gnarly bug that for a few days only I was able to reproduce which has finally been fixed so the project can keep moving forward!)

 

[Robbie]

Or at least I'm good at giving that impression

I wish I had more time to check the other forums more regularly. I do stop in from time to time in the radio and FPV forums but must admit this is where I spend most of my RC forum time

I'd strongly suggest looking into the DTFUHF or Brotronics gear for a RX if you want to keep using the openLRS. The Orange RX I was really not happy with the design and implementation of. The DFT/Brotronics gear includes a filter on the output that helps with 1.3ghz interference and is just much better designed. The 4ch remix from brotronics even has sbus output. I have 3 bare remix boards sitting here waiting for me to finish rewiring this toaster oven so I can solder them up. Have all the parts and boards in hand just need to make it happen. But been spending all my hobby time testing things for dRonin the past few weeks (uncovered a gnarly bug that for a few days only I was able to reproduce which has finally been fixed so the project can keep moving forward!)

Trust me i would love to use better gear, but as a poor student i have to make do.

I just missed out EZUHF for £23 in HK cyber sale so annoyed!!!

But did pick up a Avios Sea Fury for £58 and a FirStar Raptor V2 £40 (which is what the UHF is for) so did pretty well.

BTW just put my mini quad stats into Ecal and here are the rather worrying results

At least the thing still flies, and trust me the climb rate is in the 25m/s, still scared to go 100% throttle for good reason!!!

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

I would suggest getting the EzUHF by ImmersionRC. 200mW or 500mW of Tx power and plenty of range on stock antennas.

$120 Tx/Rx combo from Hobbyking: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/...F_JR_Module_With_4_Channel_Lite_Receiver.html.

However, if you're not flying more than a mile out, you probably don't need the LRS at all.

 

[The-One-Who-Never-Crashes]

Wow! That's one heck of a mini quad!

I missed out on the sale too! Didn't get anything...