need help w/ black widow setup

[MooMan7777 0]

I'm looking at buying the 2.4Ghz 200mW Transmitter and Receiver Set for a very light weight application...

the unit weighs around 12g ( and less uncased), but the antenna is quite heavy, is there any way to buy a lighter weight antenna?

http://www.blackwidowav.com/bwav240200components.html

[mklarich 0]

You can take the antenna apart and reduce its weight by quite a bit. All thats in there is a piece of circuit board cut to the correct length. If you want to get real fancy you can unsolder the sma connector from the transmitter and solder the coax from the circuit board antenna directly to the transmitter circuit board.

By removing the SMA connector and adding the small amount of weight from the coax and circuit board you probably stay just about equalized. I warn you though, bill strong from blackwidow probably won't accept a return if you break something :)

Matt Klarich

[yb2normal 0]

Yeah, and I monitor the forums for suspicious activity

MooMan, have you considered the uncased 50mw unit? Given the same set of antennas you can expect 1/2 the distance of the 200mw tx. Add 6dbi of gain to your receiver antenna and you can get all of that range back.

Regards,

Bill

[bubbazanetti 0]

I am bringing up an old thread...

but is there a ballpark, approximate range for the 50mw micro vs the 200mw?

Would I suffer from video drops due to nearby obstructions more with the 50mw...or is it simply a range issue.

[Terry 5]

The range you get with any setup depends on your receiver and receiver aerial.

As Bill said whatever range you get with 200mW you will get half with 50mW. This is because the power required goes up as a square of the distance eg to double the range you need 4 times the power. If you get drops at 500ft with 200mW you can expect them at 250ft with 50mW.

Terry

[Mr.RC-Cam 123]

Terry has it right, expect half the range when going from 200mW to 50mW. This assumes everything else has the same performance.

I like my BWAV 50mW Tx for my small park flyer models. But, the only issue is that it has an integral compact antenna that appears a bit inefficient. So it has less effective range that I would normally expect.

Unless you have a need for a VERY small Tx, I would recommend a quality 200mW system with good Rx antenna (circular polarized patch or similar). I think that 200mW hits the sweet spot for the typical R/C video user.

[Terry 5]

I too would go for the 200mW if you can. I have used a 10mW, a 100mW and a 500mW and the best choice out of these is the 100mW. the 10mW takes a good ground station to use effectivly and the 500mW burns the battery power and can also cause r/c interference. I would think 200mW would be my choice if I had one.

Terry

[bubbazanetti 0]

Wow! Thanks for the quick replies!

I have an electric helicopter (EFlite Pro).

When I went from NiMH batteries to much more powerful LiPo I saved 20-35 grams (depending on how big a battery I run)

The 200mw version is 25 grams

Camera is about 12 grams

battery is 30 grams? (how to power...)

I have flown with 60 grams of extra weight on board...but not for more than a hover. (due to the fact the cheapie camera transmitter with 9v battery was interfering with the helicopter receiver)

I guess if I can find a light weight power solution the 200mw one would be best!

Any other ideas?

[cliffo 0]

Antenna, antenna, antenna..amazing what you can do with less than a watt.

[Terry 5]

Antenna depends on how much power you are transmitting, the range you requre and if you have a helper to point the antenna at the plane.

Terry

[rob10000 0]

many people have reported success with these antennas, and they are bound to weigh less than the standard whip.

From YB2Normal's website..

Antenna