Reach with Foxtech map-02

Here are the result from the flight test, it’s much better, on the left it’s Tuesday setup and on the right is today setup. Now I just hope it will be enough.

I will do a survey test flight a bit later and check if the number of event and the photo are matching.

I am just worried that this big disc on a mast will change my flight characteristic.

I don’t think that this construction will withstand a flight with >15m/s.
I would be very interested to see the effect if the cable and module is next to the pole.

I agree with you, at 17m/s, it will break I think, but that’s what was recommended by Andrew and if I can’t use this solution, I will have to go back to bad signal and missing events :

I can try to move up the module and remove the antenna from it’s mast, cut a smaller disc about 6cm and screw it on the black cover, but that will be the last test I think.

But from what I can see, Foxtech used a spiral antenna without ground plate and KlauPPK as well. so right now I am not flying, which is really frustrating for me and the people I am working for keep asking me why I don’t. Right now I’m only doing test to achieve a good signal and when I managed to do it, another problem comes.

But don’t worry, If I can’t make it to work, the Reach will go on a multirotor, that will be so much easier and I will find another PPK module

Ok, I installed the system like that, with a 7.5cm ground plate :

You could also try to cover the area around the antenna and the module with copper tape if you still have some left.
I also would wind up the cable (carefully, not to narrow so you don’t break it.).

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It’s on the ground now, I modified the cable, so right now it’s on the top.

What do you mean?

It’s not covered enough?

I do not know whether it is enough. But I think more is better than less.
I would cover the black area and the white plane surface. If you can connect this area with (not the base plane of the antenna!) the ground of the plane I would do that to.

And here is the result, ground on the left and during flight on the right, it’s really bad :

So I am done with it for now, I will order a spiral antenna and do the Nimbus setup when I receive it and I will also order a complete system from KlauPPK.

Maybe I could do that, but it will only be marginally better, which is not enough, and to tell you the truth, I am so fed up with this system.

Ok, keep us updated. I’m very curious whether anothe system will fix your problem…

I offer you 50 $ for the system :wink:

Well, I can see a spiral antenna on all their fixed wing, might be a reason and also they can do PPP update, which is really nice.

That’s a great offer, but I will pass :smile:

No, I will use it to check points on the ground, I will not have problem with electric interference and maybe later on a multirotor, no problem about installing a 30cm mast.

This was your problem : already told at the beginning => Shield your reach. Too close from battery wire, furthermore you are un 6s : it needs proper ans carefull installation. If you were testing on the ground while motors running (with propellers better) and showing satellite status on reach you will know, on load it generates lot of perturbations.

Putting antenna on a pole could enhance satellite reception a little but not that much. We run reach inside fx61, Skywalker X5 pro, Skywalker revolution 1720 inside the fuselage without problems …

Now you could remove external battery and power it from a clean BEC to reduce weight

So, the Reach have been shielded with copper tape, moved from wires and the antenna was mounted on a mast with a reasonably sized ground plate, did it solve the issue? No. Can I use it for survey? No.

And yes, I did test on the ground and in the air comparing them, so yes the load generate a lot of perturbation.

It did a lot for me, and the best result so far was with the massive 12cm ground plate, but it’s not practicable for high speed flight and high wind. I am happy that you run the reach on fixed wing, but here it’s a VTOL, a lot more current, wires, etc…

What’s the point if it won’t work with an external battery

would you please post some images how you shield the units?

It’s exactly like this morning

But do you truly believe, that adding a few extra layer of copper tape will solve the problem? And also if I want a good reception, I will need the install the mast with the monster ground plate and like you said and I agree with, it might break in the air.

And what about the M+, is it only a PCB with a plastic cover without any shielding?

I just would like to add, that moving/shielding the reach away was to be done, but the result was not great. moving up and ground plating the antenna was where I saw the big change.

Spiral antenna, do not need ground plate, no?

Because, this result in flight / multirotor mode looks good to me :

Thank you, but I wanted to see an image of @Sylvain_POULAIN way to implement it, of course I have seen this image before. I want to know what he makes different than you.

The receiver chip itself and the soc is shielded, the rest of the electronics not. I do not know whether more copper will help, but I think it is worth to try before spending so much money.

If the ESCs are in the wings and long dc wires are running from the battery to the ESCs it is probably also necessary to shield those cables. You could also narrow down the source of noise by running a motor test without props and move the antenna around to find the source of the noise.

I guess what is different in plane than in multirotor mode is the way the motors are working. Maybe they are turned on and of a lot on plane mode?

I’m very curious to see how a more expensive system will perfom within this noise. What is the price of this KlauPPK system?

What are you mapping with this plane?

Sorry, I missed the picture on the right of the post.

I could try to put the Reach far away from the VTOL, as far as the cable allow, but I am not expecting a much better result than when it was on the wing.

I had a similar problem on an octo coaxial with massive props, the external compass had a lot of interference. the way to fix it was to use a higher mast.

The main difference between a fixed wing and VTOL are that you have motor nearly everywhere and it will easily require 8 times the power for takeoff - transition and landing.

I requested a quote, will receive it soon. but even if the price tag is steep. the ability to switch to PPP is priceless for me.

I shield reach itself but it’s not an M+ (first version of reach) so without casing.

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