Pagoda Antenna Assembly
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- Опубліковано 29 жов 2016
- A step-by-step guide to assembling the Pagoda antenna. The Pagoda antenna is a circularly polarized 5.8 GHz FPV antenna designed by me. You can find the specifications, test results, design files, parts etc. here:
www.maartenbaert.be/quadcopter...
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First song: Current
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Second song: Solar Wind
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itunes.apple.com/us/album/not... - Ігри
I measured these in an anechoic chamber and they are phenomenal. I'm surprised that more people haven't jumped on the Pagoda-2 bandwagon!
Thanks Maarten for a great open source design!
Josh Bardwell reviewed the farvew pagoda and it held it's own well.
I've got more kits on the way to make for friends.
Subd!
I am very grateful for your immense contribution to the evolution of our hobby.
Amazed at Pagoda's range and clarity on my Foxtech monitor. Thanks for designing these amazing antennae's
Kudos Maarten! I just finished the soldering on my kit from Far View and cannot wait to test the antenna on my Quadcopter with my TBS Unify Pro HV!
Thanks Maarten for a great open source design.
Thanks Maarten, just wanted to add my appreciation for the design and instructions as well.
Just put 4 together. First one was a bit of a hassle, second much easier, last two flew together! Thank you for the video!
Maarten,,,A BIG ThankYou from Moncton NB Canada! Love when Gifted people like Yourself share Your knowledge within this great worldwide RC hobby community! God Bless! Unrecoverable FPV Drone Addict,,,,Rudy! lol
Maarten, these are the best I have ever used!
Thanks Mate
Vancouver, Canada
Thanks Maarten, I built some of the Far Vew kits, and what a great antenna. Thanks for the design, and open sourcing it.
Can't wait till my materials come. thanks for the design, the video is better than a store bought that I was using My first pagoda met with disaster so I plan to build several now.
Best antenna ever! Many thanks for your superb work!
Thank you Maarten! All credit goes to you!
Maarten you are fantastic!
Best antenna I own
Hi Maarten, very nice design! Can you tell me how much these antennas weigh? I was wanting a weight of a bare stubby build with just 1"/25mm of cable just below the Pagoda-2. Thanks
Could you also cut the coax to a half or quarter wavelength?
Nice video. So I'm about to order a few of these and figured I would watch the vide first. I would have done a couple things a little differently, but the basic assembly is the same.
I think you for got the mention that the PCB traces between the first and second one should be opposite, although I see it was assembled that way at the end of the video.
I would have also used flux, something like an Amtech tacky flux. But not on the first PCB because you don't want the solder to flow on the shielding before getting the second one in place or it might not fit over the shielding.
For the second and third one I would have used flux, with the second PCB, maybe some on the shielding before putting the PCB over the shielding so it would have pulled the solder down the shield to the first PCB joint for a solid connection, and since it doesn't need to bend at that point it would be better. In fact I think the design of the antenna works better if the PCB board stay parallel.
Then flux with the small reflector PCB in the back, and with the main SMA outside part also. Maybe a dab of flux on the coax wire before putting the pin on it just to make sure more solder flows inside the pin to grab the wire.
It's was a nice assembly. I think I'm going to order a few now. Thanks for the videos.
I just noticed the lines every third on the PCB, I'm guessing those lines need to match up and this will align the antenna traces in the PCB properly. I just don't remember seeing that mentioned in the video. But I'm in a iPad currently and sometimes overlay text added after the fact doesn't show on videos played on mobile platforms.
Somehow this got flagged as spam so I didn't see it. Flux is usually not necessary here, there's enough flux in the solder to make it work most of the time. Sometimes I add a bit extra if I don't like the solder joint, but usually it's good enough on the first try.
Spam, weird. That usually happens if a URL is in the post. Thanks for replying. I ordered 6 or 8 of them and haven't put them together yet. Still working on some other builds and projects and now V2 was released, figures. But for 2 of my quads one will be under between the landing gear so I don't think it needs a cap for protection. And the other one is a micro 90mm brushless I'm building so I'm trying to keep the weight down anyway and would probably not cap that one either for less weight. These seem durable just as the PCB from other videos I've watched. I guess when I build a 250 that's when I'm going to want to order the V2 PCB's so I won't assemble one of them and just keep the V1 PCB's as spares.
Does the material for the cap make a difference between ABS, PLA, Nylon and such? I figure carbon fiber fused PLA would be bad, its light and strong but with the carbon fiber conductive properties it would probably act as a shield. I was just curious to what plastics were tested with V2?
It's difficult to find accurate data for RF characteristics of all types of plastics, so I'm not really sure. I suspect that nylon will be the best, followed by ABS, followed by PLA. But the material properties also depend on things like density and thickness. Basically you need a material that has a low loss tangent at 5.8 GHz.
Awesome! So easy actually to do!
Little question, if we want to protect the antenna from crashes, what kind of material can we use without compromise too much the performance? Rubber? Plastic? TPU? ABS? PLA?
Milion of kisses for you Maarten!
Unfortunately the material properties can vary a lot because there is more than one way to make a certain type of plastic. Very few manufacturers publish accurate specs at RF frequencies for those materials, so it's difficult to know what will work best. I would avoid TPU because I know that polyurethane has very high loss at RF frequencies, but I can't say exactly which of those will work best. The ideal choice would be PTFE (teflon), and PE (same as HDPE/LDPE) is also a good candidate. Both materials are commonly used as the dielectric in coax cables because of their good properties. Polycarbonate also has pretty good RF properties.
Will it matter in the performance if I shorten the RG402 length?
Dear Maarten, could the design be made into a stubby model. i.e. a very short coax stem ?
salut maarten. es tu francophone?
ça serait bien d avoir la meme chose pour du 2,4ghz.un grand merci pour ce design
I wonder why the heatshrink. Isn't the coax ground exposed anyways?
you show here a male connector but how do you make it into a RP-sma?
mooi hoor
Beautiful and accurate Design concept. Exactly what's needed at this high a frequency. I assume the design is centred on 5800mhz..? What is the average SWR of your assemblies? Love to make one myself, where can we get the all important Laser cut Jig from? I Design Laser Cutters BTW....Retired now though....LOL.
It's all on my website. Read the description.
Hi Maaten....Yes, I visited thanks....very informative.
Gave these a go for the first time today coming off a Triumph antenna on both my quad and receiver and installing pagodas on both ends and my first impressions are not good. I was expecting more penetration. I'm just flying on my street and there were a few problem areas that actually seem to be worse when compared to the Triumph. Is there anything I can double check on my antenna setup to make sure its not just me?
Difficult to say with so little information. I have never tested the Triumph antenna myself (I don't know anyone who owns one), but based on range tests from RCModelReviews and Joshua Bardwell it seems to perform similarly to the Pagoda. If you are seeing a significant reduction in range, it could be a mechanical defect. Where did you buy yours? Or did you assemble them yourself?
If you are testing in an area with lots of obstacles and reflections, the reception will be very erratic no matter which antenna you use (i.e. every flight produces different results), so objective comparisons are difficult. You can compare antennas more easily in an open field with a direct line of sight connection, especially at low power levels. RF power meters are even better for objective comparisons.
Maarten Baert thanks for the reply. Bought kits directly from you that I soldered myself. I was hoping I could get better reception in just a few key problem areas where the triumphs where falling short and it just seems like in those areas the pagodas glitch up in the same spots but the picture almost goes away completely. I'm sure these are fine antennas and I was just maybe looking for suggestions on orientation and such. Would the V2 kits have been even better without a cover? I don't plan on using a cover as i don't crash often cuz I'm not trying to be the next UA-cam FPV celeb. Just trying to do some relaxing flights.
It sounds like you're just flying in a difficult environment. You can't beat the laws of physics, even a theoretical perfect antenna will have dead spots if there are too many obstacles.
So which are the best to get.. I've read some of the results on Martin's site but only s few manufacturers have sent in there product for testing..
Anything with decent build quality should have very similar performance. The only ones that perform really badly are the ones that didn't follow the specs at all, e.g. the Honeydrop. For the transmitter, I would go with those that have a protective shell, such as the one from MenaceRC or FarVew. For the receiver I prefer the ones without shell since their efficiency is about 3% better, but it really doesn't make a huge difference. Shipping costs are also a big factor, probably far more than the marginal differences in performance.
I'm worried about the heat melting the insulation in my coax. Is there a way to get the heat in a little faster, like preheating with air or using a high mass soldering iron?
The dielectric of RG402 coax is made of PTFE (teflon) which has a melting point of 327 °C. Solder melts at 188 °C (leaded) or 217 ˚C (lead-free). So it's unlikely that this will happen, unless you are using a soldering iron that is way too powerful. Since the coax tends to act as a heat sink, it's hard enough to get the solder to melt in the first place, I don't think you need to worry about melting the dielectric. Just because you set the soldering iron to 400 °C doesn't mean that the coax itself will ever get that hot.
Ideally you should use the lowest power/temperature possible, just enough to melt the solder. Switching to a higher power soldering iron will just make things worse.
That is reassuring since some of the other coax have PE foam dielectric and I have seen that melt and make an ugly mess.
PE is used mostly for lower frequencies. For 5.8 GHz you should try to use coax with PTFE since it has lower losses.
Maarten, where can you get the Jig??
Is it necessary to have 9cm of wire? That's just an arbitrary number right?
Hi Maarten , I have a stupid question. I will be running one of your antennas on the bottom of my Skyhunters wing ( upside down) Do I need to run a different polarization on my receiver? Or do they still need to be the same.
Nope, just use the same polarization as always.
can we take less then 9 cm of coax
Hi, just wondering where I an find that jig here in Belgium.
I have ordered the pcb's, if they arrive I have some solder work to do ;o)
Thanks for making this design open sours Maarten !
I did the laser cutting for my jig myself, KULeuven provides laser cutters that can be used by anyone for open hardware projects (see www.fablab-leuven.be/). So if you live close to Leuven you can use that option. Expect long waiting times though - it's first come first serve and some people laser-cut 10-20 wooden panels in one session (which takes several hours).
Thanks Maarten for the info, I'm not living nearby Leuven, but you give me a good Idea to go to a local school nearby to ask if they have a laser cutter, (that option slips my mind), Can I use the '' jig_pagoda_3_5.8ghz.dxf'' file for that and how thick must be the plywood for this file?
Depending on the type of laser cutter, you may need to use the DXF file (most common) or the SVG file (for printer-based laser cutters). You need 3mm MDF for this. Plywood may work too but MDF is usually easier to cut accurately because it has no grain.
Thanks for the info M., I gone get my lights up on some local schools here to see if they can do the job for me. Cheesr.
can it be assembled with other coaxial cable? I can't find RG402 but I have some RG316...
No, that won't work. It needs to be exactly the same diameter as RG402.
when you say 400 degrees for the soldering iron is that Celsius or F
Celcius.
Hey Maarten, any way I can buy/get a jig off of you?
Nope, I don't sell antennas or jigs. But you can get them from Farvew.
Maarten Baert can't blame me for asking lol, the one place linked, the German place, for the carbon fiber jig is impossible for me to navigate. Can you link someone who you know and trust to have the best jig? Thank for your help and time, I love your work!
I have never tested any of the assembly jigs other than my own, but people seem to be pretty positive about the one that Farvew sells: farvew.com/antenna-kits/41-pagoda-assembly-jig.html
Good afternoon.
Please tell us why you gave the name to the antenna, Pagoda?
And on which syllable to emphasize? How to properly pronounce her name?
Because Pagoda in the Efteling? ... Dutch and Belgian people know what i mean XD!
can you send me the files in dxf ??
I have added the DXFs to the design files on my website. You can download them there.
no for assmbl jig for the antenna
the greber files from the antenna in dxf if it is impossible !!! ossas-@hotmail.com
thanks
i need the greber files to dxf to engrave it to my cnc thanks maarten
Like I said, the DXF files are available on my website now.