Homemade dipole antennas for 2.4ghz

[yjander]

So I decided to make my own dipole antennas to replace the omni antennas I had on my p3s after my crash. You should follow this thread

Stock birdside antenna replacement

to install the RPSMA connectors on the landing gear.

Anyway, I bought a rpsma male to rpsma male patch cable and cut it in half.

Then I got some scrap coax cable and stripped it down to the bare copper cable. So I preped the rpsma cable by stripping the insulation and underlying shielding. I stripped about 33 mm of insulation and about 30 mm of the shielding so I had some left over.

And I soldered the copper wire to the shielding and then bent the rpsma cable core and the copper wire to make a T shape. Then trim both wires so they are 58 mm total.

Then a dab of hot glue to hold it all togother. I want to add some plastic strengther and cover with heat shrink wrapping to make it stronger.

The whole thing cost me about 6 bucks for two antennas.

Have not had a chance to test it since it has been raining all weekend here in Georgia. But I did put an ohm meter on it and there are no shorts. I'm pretty happy with looks, just need to test it to make sure it works properly.

Here's the link to the rpsma cable I used.

12" RG316 RP-SMA Male to RP-SMA Male RF Pigtail Coax Jumper Cable; US Stock | eBay

Here is a link to the tutorial I followed.
RC Groups - View Single Post - Dipoles for 2,4Ghz Receivers



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[thefrisbee995]

let us know what kind of range you get

 

[Vega]

Plastidip stuff is a nice covering for those.

 

[N017RW]

What is the motivation for this?

 

[yjander]

Well the motivation was hearing on these forums that dipoles get better signal than omni antennas. I honestly don't know if they will work as well as my omnis I have. If the rain will go away I'll do a test!

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[Solly747400]

Good job mate. It's just that much more special if it works and you can say made it yourself.

 

[N017RW]

A half wave dipole is considered a near ideal omnidirectional antenna.
With ideal construction you can gain about 0.5dB by going from quarter wave to half wave but other factors can negate those gains if not tuned properly.
I hope to hear you are experiencing great gains.

 

[yjander]

We'll see what happens. Honestly, I was happy with the results of the straight omni antennas (like wifi router antennas) but I like to tinker so thought I would see how much better it could be.....hopefully I built them close enough to the correct specs

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[Matts175]

Great work. My cable will be here tomorrow and I have Tuesday off work, so you know what I'll be doing. LOL

I wanted to do a "before" test tonight, out over the lake..... but it's crazy foggy here today. I just drove home 3 miles and you couldn't even see 20 feet in front of the truck. Very unusual for my area.

 

[Matts175]

I got the rp-sma cables installed on the bird, now I'm building the antennas. How's this looking?

 

[Matts175]

 

[yjander]

Looks like it cost $50! Great job. I want to protect mine a little bit. The copper wire gets stuck on things and bends on me. Still have not gotten a chance to fly mine. 25-30 mph winds here today.

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[Matts175]

And............................

The range increase is absolutely awesome!!!!! Alright. I know this isn't Earth shattering or anything, but my favorite thing to do is fly down to the lake at the corner. It's 2200 feet. Mind you... I'm in an extremely crowded WifI area, so I guess that's good. Now for the good part. I almost ALWAYS lose video at around 2100 feet. Then I just let it blindly return home, hoping it's coming back because I lost video. Well.... not any more. Video stayed rock solid for the entire flight. I still had 3 bars when i was down at the lake. I could have kept going, I know it, but we are having really crappy weather and I could barely see the ground, let alone over a pitch black lake. Anyways. I'm super happy with this. Spent all of $5.00 on it.

 

[Matts175]

Looks like it cost $50! Great job. I want to protect mine a little bit. The copper wire gets stuck on things and bends on me. Still have not gotten a chance to fly mine. 25-30 mph winds here today.

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Yup. I figured out what to use to stiffen it up. Just the cut off tail pieces from the zip ties that I used in place of anti drop pins on the camera, then just heat shrink over that.

 

[yjander]

Nice. I have that! Just need some heat shrink that's small enough. What size was the heat shrink you used

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[Matts175]

Nice. I have that! Just need some heat shrink that's small enough. What size was the heat shrink you used

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Hmm. Not sure of the size. I have a good, old fashioned mom and pop electronics shop near my house and I buy their variety packs.

EDIT: I just measured a piece. It's 1/8" I.D. before shrinking.

 

[yjander]

Ok that makes sense. I have some .25 inch that is too big. I'll get a combo pack or something. Lucky having a hardware shop near by. Best I have is a big box haven

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[WilliamM]

And............................

The range increase is absolutely awesome!!!!! Alright. I know this isn't Earth shattering or anything, but my favorite thing to do is fly down to the lake at the corner. It's 2200 feet. Mind you... I'm in an extremely crowded WifI area, so I guess that's good. Now for the good part. I almost ALWAYS lose video at around 2100 feet. Then I just let it blindly return home, hoping it's coming back because I lost video. Well.... not any more. Video stayed rock solid for the entire flight. I still had 3 bars when i was down at the lake. I could have kept going, I know it, but we are having really crappy weather and I could barely see the ground, let alone over a pitch black lake. Anyways. I'm super happy with this. Spent all of $5.00 on it.

Great job, so your saying I spent 10x too much?? They do look damm good. Side by side comparison, in looks anyway.

 

[Matts175]

Great job, so your saying I spent 10x too much?? They do look damm good. Side by side comparison, in looks anyway.

Thank you.. Yeah... as soon as I saw these things I was like...... Ohhh? I have one of those in my junk drawer from my Syma X5. I knew I could make more easily enough. Gosh... I almost feel like making more. Maybe charge $25.00 for just the antennas and maybe $30 for the full kit (would come with the u.fl to RP-SMA cables.) ?

Hey thanks for the measurement, BTW. It really helped with our build. I had a suspicion that they were 58mm, but you confirmed it.

 

[WilliamM]

Thank you.. Yeah... as soon as I saw these things I was like...... Ohhh? I have one of those in my junk drawer from my Syma X5. I knew I could make more easily enough. Gosh... I almost feel like making more. Maybe charge $25.00 for just the antennas and maybe $30 for the full kit (would come with the u.fl to RP-SMA cables.) ?

Hey thanks for the measurement, BTW. It really helped with our build. I had a suspicion that they were 58mm, but you confirmed it.

On the selling them part, that's what we have eBay for, right.
On the range question, the other day I got my max distance ever with my dipoles. Now I do have a DBS powered by three amps, but it's still apples to apples for me @ 4559 meters. I turned around it that point because of battery % being in the 50%'s, not signal loss. Had full FPV the whole way, both directions.