A friend of mine has published a small 3d printed tool to cut a groundplane for the Tallysman antenna and to place and glue the antenna on it. The files to print it can be downloaded on Thingiverse.
I have tested it with great success with the 0.5 mm alu sheets I use as groundplane and a cutter knife (for that workflow it was constructed). It also helps with thicker alu plates which I did cut with a side cutter. Its for a 10x10 cm groundplane, a 7x7 cm version (which I want to use onboard of my drone) will follow.
The groundplane is effectively to reduce the amount of rogue gps signals that are received from indirect reflections. An indirect signal reaching the antenna (for example, by bouncing off the ground) can confuse the GNSS processor significantly, which interprets the wrong location and decreases the calculated accuracy.
There is no need to electrically ground the groundplane as far as i understand.
Connecting the ground-plane to ground could introduce noise into your electrical system (working as an receiver-antenna basically). Donāt connect your ground-plane to ground.
Yeah, Iāll bet even the term āground planeā is a misnomer in this usage. Ir probably should just be āRF blocking plateā or something like that.
I donāt think āground planeā is a misnomer. I think it means āgroundā as in āthe groundā like the (plane) surface of the earth, not an electrical ground. It is simulating āthe groundā. I donāt think itās necessarily a misnomer, more an assumption by people about what āgroundā means in this usage.
Thanks for the clarification. The antenna Iām using has a grounded metal casing below the ceramic part, I guess itās ok to let this contact the ground plane and it shouldnāt affect the antenna performance.
Just thought I would share. My ten-year-old son has been watching me work on the PPK kit I have been working on and cutting the ground planes in particular. We were opening a can of corn the other day and when the top popped off he said āHey Dad you could use this for your GPSā, lol. #lilengineer
Reminds me that I wanted to share a picture of me slipping the cutter knife deep into my finger Good idea but take care of the sharp edgesā¦ . I also donāt know whether the shape will worke as diy choke rings or will introduce unwanted reflections.
But then I see others havenāt grounded it and some have worse results from grounding it. I have two identical antennas and receivers so I could have a go at comparing a grounded/ungrounded setup
Good idea but take care of the sharp edgesā¦ . I also donāt know whether the shape will worke as diy choke rings or will introduce unwanted reflections.
