4 replies to this topic

[Terry]

I just flew my Futaba Fasst system out to test its range but at 1.6 miles my video glases went flat. When the low batt warning came up I got a full 10 seconds until it turned itself off, lucky me
Lucky I was using the FY21AP, still seems odd turning off the TX and putting it on the glass while looking up for the returning plane
Anyway what is the range of one of these?

Terry

Edited by Terry, 13 November 2010 - 06:43 AM.

[twinturbostang]

Can't say exactly what the range is, but here's a couple of data points for you...

I've had my 10C system out to 1.4 miles with perfect control (my "river road" flight here: ). I also recently (this year) went out to a mile range... with the RC Tx antenna pointed straight at the plane!! Now that tells me that there's quite a bit of range left in it, based on the radiation pattern of the dipole antenna. I was just starting to notice some packet loss at a mile range with the dipole pointed at the plane. This was evident by how the camera pan servo was behaving. It wasn't "glitching" like you see in 72MHz systems. Instead the pan motion was not quite as smooth. It started stuttering a little. But as soon as I oriented the antenna properly, I had perfect control again.

Anyway, based on this, I'm guessing the range of a stock system is somewhere around 2-3 miles. I'm hoping to test that out soon. Also, if you build the little aluminum reflector that sits behind the antenna (sorry, I forget where the link to it is), that significantly helps. In ground range tests, I was able to get 40% farther with the reflector in place.

Brian

[Devonian]

You mean a WindSurfer?

http://members.multi...windsurfer.html


I heard about your experience Terry

Nigel.

[Terry]

Its a funny thing but with the same set up I got fail safe after onlt 1.2 miles today. Im not sure but it may have been that I flew into a bad area of interference as after about 5 seconds all was well again. I didnt risk flying further out so I cant be sure. It dose show that its unpredictable though

Terry

[twinturbostang]

You mean a WindSurfer?

http://members.multiweb.nl/schaaijw/ez12_windsurfer.html

Yep, that's it!