Need help with FPV range

[AltitudeProductions]

Recently I have been flying FPV very close to myself but today I tried going out about 530 feet and my video signal got very bad and nearly cut out completely. If you think you know why that happened please reply.

Specs
Goggles - Fatshark predator v2
Tx - 32C TS832 200mw 5.8 ghz
Cloverleaf antennas
Gopro with video out

 

[Montiey]

I have no experience, but 200mw should give you some more range than that. do you have your antennas in matching rotation (CW, CW or CWW, CWW)?

 

[AltitudeProductions]

Yes the match

 

[AverageGuyRC]

Wrong connector

It appears your tx uses a RP-SMA antenna connector and the fat shark use a SMA connector. Check to make sure you have the right connectors on your antennas. SMA have a little nipple on the inside of the connector RP SMA do not. If you bought RP SMA antennas as a set that may be the problem.

 

[AltitudeProductions]

I bought an adapter so they fit

 

[bstanley72]

What kind of craft? How are the components laid out? What type of environment are you flying in? There are many things that can contribute to a loss of range.

 

[AltitudeProductions]

The craft is a flying wing, FPV40. Reciever and transmitter on plane are 15 inches apart on each side of the wing. I am flying in the city but in a large open field with very little trees. I wasn't very high or behind any buildings.

 

[meehan]

This is probably not your problem but I should mention it just in case. I bought a couple right hand polarized 5.8 antenna from HK that turned out to be left hand polarized. I was using them with an existing RH setup and they worked great as long as I was within 50-100 meters. I was convinced they were just junk so I popped the mushroom open and sure enough left hand polarized. I should have read the HK forums earlier as others had the same problem. Anyhow they work great as long as they are paired together.

 

[AltitudeProductions]

They do not have cases so I can see that they match.

 

[bstanley72]

Do you have the wifi turned on on the goPro? They're pretty noisy, especially if you've left the wifi on. Do you have another camera you can try? If you're in the city you could be getting some interference from the environment. Can you try flying in a more rural location and see if that helps?

 

[ExperimentalRC]

Do you still have the stock fatshark 250mw transmitter that came with the predators? Ive seen a couple other people measuring the power output of those boscam transmitters, and the quality of them seem pretty poor. Check out this thread on fpvlab: http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?20465-BOSCAM-TS832-600mW-....-Really

 

[ExperimentalRC]

It could also be the antennas. What brand are they?

 

[AltitudeProductions]

The antennas I got from Jerimiah from stone blue airlines and I do not know the brand but I assume he gave me a good setup.

 

[AltitudeProductions]

I don't still have the stock transmitter, I bought the goggles used.

 

[AltitudeProductions]

The gopro did not have wifi on. I will try flying in a new area but I always am afraid I will get lost in different areas. My fatshark goggles are on channel 17. Should I try changing the channel? I have a mobius that I can try but the plane is made around the gopro.

 

[AverageGuyRC]

Looking at the TS832 online they are shown as 600mw. Is your 600?
They also list the following freq
FR1 5865,5845,5825,5805,5785,5765,5745,5725
FR2 5733,5752,5771,5790,5809,5828,5847,5866
FR3 5707,5685,5665,5645,5885,5905,5925,5945
FR4 5740,5760,5780,5800,5820,5840,5860,5880

The last row F4 are the chs that Fat Shark uses. There are several in FR2 that are close to the Fat Shark Chs(<20 spread) With 600mw and poorly tunes antennas you may get some bleed over when close in. This would cause a drop out as you got farther out. Double check to make sure you are using the FR4 row. I'm not sure how the channels are set up on your Tx, but from this chart it would appear you'd need to use channels 25-32.

 

[AltitudeProductions]

To my surprise, lots of channels work. 17 , 21 partially 22, and 41. Which should I use? PS yes it is 200mw.

 

[AverageGuyRC]

Sounds like you got all this stuff used so I suspect you don't have a manual. Unfortunately there are so many Chinese knock offs out there it may be hard to figure out what channel = what frequency on your transmitter. If there is a name brand and you can search online see if you can find that info. Then use the chart in my last post. The last 8 are the correct freqs for fat shark goggles. Beyond that trial and error. Stand a few feet away from the transmitter and go through all 8 channels on your fat shark for each channel on the transmitter. Then write down all the channels that work. Next get a friend and do the same thing only separate the goggles and transmitter by about 100 yards. Then go further out and do it again. Eventually you should get down to about 5 or 6 channels that work best between the goggles and transmitter. After that you'd need test with different antennas.
If you have the linear antennas that came with the goggles and transmitter try and see if there is a difference as well. Try and avoid using adapters. It alsways best to use the correct connector on your antennas. A cheap adapter can cause problems as well.
Ultimately there are so many potential issues you could spend a ton of time and $ trying to figure it out. Not sure it is worth it. Generally trying to match the tx and rx is the best bet. If you have the means getting an immersion or Fatshark tx might be your best bet if you can't get it figured out.