5.8GHz FPV omnidirectional antenna shootout
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- Опубліковано 20 жов 2024
- In this video I compare a range of 5.8GHz FPV antennas for RC model planes or multirotors or drones, and seen which produces the strongest signal as well as which has the best rejection of reflected signals (multipathing). The results are very surprising.
While the expensive antennas from Circular Wireless and ImmersionRC/Fatshark performed well, the Aomway skew-planar wheel gave the strongest signal and the uber-cheap Chinese antenna from SurveilZone gave the maximum rejection of reflected waves.
Another big surprise was the very poor performance of the Aomway 15dBi patch antenna which I can only assume was defective for some reason.
Not a surprise was the fact that the dual-band 2.4GHz/5.8GHz antenna was utter crap and hardly worked at all.
Once again, the helical antenna (naturally) gave the strongest signal, albeit at the cost of only having a 60-degree beam.
This video also very clearly demonstrates the almost total inability of the standard "rubber ducky" FPV antenna to cope with the reflected signals that cause multipath interference and dropouts.
Aside from the Aomway patch, the dual band antenna and the standard rubber ducky, any of these antennas will do a credible job on your FPV gear so choose according to your budget.
product links:
Aomway patch antenna (provided for review by HobbyKing):
www.hobbyking.c...
Aomway skew planar 4-lobe antenna (provided for review by HobbyKing):
www.hobbyking.c...
Circular wireless skew planar antenna (provided for review by Circular Wireless):
www.hobbyking.c...
Dual band (2.4/5.8) circularly polarized antenna (provided for review by RCTimer):
rctimer.com/pro...
BeeRotor circularly polarised antenna (provided for review by RCTimer):
- pre-release-
Immersion RC circularly polarized antenna (provided for review by Fatshark/Immersion):
www.hobbyking.c...
Cloud Spirit low-cost Chinese antenna:
www.surveilzone...
Also used in this review was the Quanum Elite Autoscan FPV receiver from HobbyKing reviewed here:
• Quanum FPV ground stat...
The Quanum autoscan receiver reviewed here:
• Quanum 5.8GHz autoscan...
and the nice10-inch FPV monitor (with the crappy reflective screen) from HobbyKing:
www.hobbyking.c...
![☀ Правильные антенны на FPV очки. Какую связку выбрать? [FPV Goggles Antennas]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-K7LmlSJn-c/mqdefault.jpg)
I love your explanations sir. Thank you for your time and effort
Great review, can you please list the commercial names of the good antennas or links to where one can get them? Thank you
COME ON GUYS?!?! Bruce has over 116k subscribers and only 264 are willing to throw him a few bucks on Patreon to support this awesome guy's selfless work in our hobby?? Bruce deserves much more of our support. Sign up for a $1 a month AT LEAST!! I'm disgusted that more of us aren't giving our support in the form of a few bucks a month. Bruce is a retired guy supporting his wife by giving us his TIME and EXPERTISE on a daily basis. Hell, he even will take our CALLS if we need his help in all things RC related. MAN UP!!
+currdog44 www.patreon.com/user?u=2951605
+Gary Balliet Thanks Gary I should have included that link.
+currdog44 How do i donate want to chip in as well
+orangeriderz thanks for steppin up dude! See Gary's post above, click on link and sign up! Its easy peasy.
+currdog44 - After all Bruce has done for us, we should probably send him our credit card bills. It's all his fault! Or maybe we can blame Barry?
Thanks for everything, Bruce and it's only fair that we support you as all of this has been very difficult over the years. I am now a supporter!
It looks like cheap is the winner today! Horray!
I saw a lot of people using these patch antennas these few weeks and last time i had chance to see some in action, i was not so impressed by the performances and your results confirmed my thought. From my experience for 5.8Ghz cloverleaf and helical is the perfect couple even for proximity, 3~5 turns for proximity and 10~15 turn for insane kickass long range...
I would love to see a video of your homemade cloverleaf :)
Thanks for sharing and happy midweek
I use those cheap amonyway antannas and they work great... thanks for the test results, now i feel like picked a good one to use with out ever wasting my money on trying something else. you are the man Bruce.
One of the most useful videos you've made! Very helpful.
I recently maidened a plane with that cheap chinese antenna you reviewed favourably. I have most of the other antennas (VAS, CW, you name it) and many not mentioned. But I am glad to know this cheap antennas (came with a vtx) tested so well.
What is the name of the antenna shown at 3:41, is it omnidirectional? (similar wi-fi antennas are caller omnidirectional)
Thank you for taking the time to do these tests for us. This information is gold for us RC enthusiasts.
Hey Bruce, at the start of the video showing which antennas you would be testing you included your own "home-made" one but you failed to show it in the test?
I changed over to the Aomway 4-lobes some time ago. All my quads and receivers are equipped with them nowadays. A great all-around antenna which is also very, very tough and is at a good price (about $15-22 for 2). I've even lost 1 at the park and stumbled on it 2 weeks later after the council lawnmower had run over it and spat it out - no damage and I'm still using it to this day.
thank you for this video it really helps to see through all the vodo of fpv amnidirectional antenna's and to see a good starter cheaper antenna
I like the Aomway skew antennas too, tried them, and have about half dozen now, I've spent much more money on more expensive 5.8 antennas, but now the Aomway is my go to for 5.8. I love how sturdy they are too.
I'd like to see the difference in construction in these mushroom antennas, especially the white one.
And I'm a bit sad you didnt test your DIY antenna.
That was awesome, thanks for the time and effort you put in. Very useful info for me.
Looking fwd to the home made green unit video one day too.
Thanks again.
Great tech video. Bruce is no kid. He is one knowledgeable dude. It takes years to pick up the ability to analyze something and come up with logical ,demonstrable comparisons. He has a truelove analytical mind and the ability to explain his conclusions. I have an IQ of 136. I imagine ,if tested, he would score several points higher. We,who can, should help him as much as possible financially as well as supporting his channel. D.Fish
+Don Fish Jr. (The Flying Fish) www.patreon.com/user?u=2951605
+Gary Balliet Thank You very much.
Great video. Actual numbers are great science, way better than the "other" youtube videos that just have two ambiguous videos side by side. My aomway patch also performed very poorly.
You bring such joy from the word CRAP made me giggle every time :D
Good to see the Helical still working well for you Bruce 👍
Let me know if you ever need another
Cheers and a great shootout
do you still sell these bignose??
looking for a helical 4 or 5 turns
+wippo76 yes mate, message me interested
cheers
Hi Bruce, I've just done a comparison test myself using a 250mw IRC TX (using TBS Triumph at the TX) and found the Aomway skew planar is good but the TBS Triumph is better still!
Despite being very small the TBS Triumph really cuts out almost all breakups from reflections and gave me a useable signal out to 2000M LOS My Skew planar ratings are:
1,TBS Triumph,
2, Aomway,
3, Circular wireless and
4, fatshark.
Great work Bruce , what would we do without you
+Fredy Lievano I just learned that he's on Patreon. So you can support $1 or whatever to keep him going. www.patreon.com/user?u=2951605&u=2951605&ty=c
I got a set of those Aomway 4 leaf CP antennas from Banggood for super cheap, and they are working just as well as the Fatshark ones I paid nearly twice the price for. And I can say from much personal experience they hold up in a crash. :)
+Stephen Clute Exactly the same as me. I got my first Aomway 4 lobe a while back, now I've switched to that antenna on all my quads. Very happy with it, and price vs performance is stellar compared to the others I've tried.
Stephen Clute --
But how did the Aomway one do? It's my favorite antenna. Just wish It had a hard case over it.
thanks Bruce for this great review again!!!! Unbiased, nicely told and including alle the numbers one needs. (Recently I ordered some of the Aomways just as cheap ImmRC replacements...not sure now... maybe they should become my new number one antenna's... too man good reviews coming out on them these days)
I remember reading somewhere that the 'front' of the Aomway patch antenna is not intuitive, so its possible you had it backwards? I tried to find my source on this info but I couldn't.. It might also be crap..
I hope you can show the inside of the Cloud Spirit antenna in a later video.
B.t.w. I like the small locking connectors on those new transmitters. They waste much less space than those huge molex connectors on Fatshark transmitters. I just wish they were readily available as spares.
Hi Bruce, I'm fairly new to the hobby (only about 60 hrs of flight-time) One question. Why do people use three leaf antenna on FPV tx and four on rx?
Great Video. You are a very good presenter. Love to listen to you talk.
Nice and clear review..This has got to be the most comprehensive antenna review I've seen on UA-cam.
Btw, one question, regarding the aomway patch antenna, I just thought that it was supposed to be receiver antenna and not a transmitter antenna that's why it didn't perform well.
+Jan Bobis By what I could see, he put a little FPV setup somewhere around the runway (with the transmitter), and he changed the receiver antennas on the ground station.
Did you test your home made one?
This video is the best could you please please please do prop shoot out for racing quads different brands as well as 2 vs 3 props in 5 or 6 inch cant find any good usefull information on youtube about it and your channel is the best most reliable source of information about quads. Ps Love your channel.
Bruce, would you please post the vendor of the 20dB RPSMA Attenuator? I am doing tests of my store bought and DIY. I have no SWR meter so I am using the RSSI out from an RX5808 module. I have done an exhaustive search of the net and come up empty handed!! I'd use an SMA adapters but for every connector there is further attenuation of signal.
Wouldn't it have been better to also test the metal reflector in front and to the side at 90° (parallel to the path)? That way you would also get results for the helical. What is the range of the RSSI signal from that receiver? Lowest I saw was about .625 volts when you had no antenna attached, and with a high of .95 V. Is it linear over that range vs. dB? Could .95 V be the max level and thus not showing the true signal strength of the helical for example? Easy to test if you take the attenuator out and put the TX and RX close together to see how hight it goes. Thanks for the review, Bruce.
Did you use the Chinese TX antenna on the receiver? I opened my set to check them out. The TX is a clover and the RX is skew planer. Both my sets randomly shipped were also left hand polarised.and why did you leave your optimised antenna out? I was curious !
Bruce, How about your homemade antenna? Did you test it?
Cool review. Did you use the cheap Chinese Transmitter antenna (TX) angled SMA instead of the receiver antenna (RX) Straight SMA on the base station receiver?
Thank you for the awesome education that you provide to us all. :-) Always looking forward to your next video!
Bruce, It would be interesting to see if the cheap no-brand antenna consistently performs well from part-to-part, or if you just got lucky with a good one. Also - do you know if any of those antennas (e.g. the Circular Wireless one) use a ferrite choke or RF absorber along the coax to minimize the radiation of the coax feed?
It's because it's an ugly antenna. That is why it works better. Everyone knows that ugly things perform best.
They have to work harder to get the same respect
But I’m ugly and still work really bad.
_...that's what she said!!_
+xjet Few notes I made. First the cheap chinese one you noticed to get great RSSI. I have one pair looking like that and I have noticed that the beam of the antenna is very narrow. Looks nice when I fly it but when you flip the video breaks.
Second point is that those antennas might be in different tone. For example. I got few really good quality antennas from a guy that lives close to me. He tunes all his antennas (both tx and rx) to match. When I flew with good tx antenna and with another cheap rx antenna i got no range what so ever. Figured out that they must have been differently tuned.
So heres my ideas how to improve your test:
1. test antennas first in matching pairs
2. move the transmitter antenna in different positions to determine if the radiation pattern is good.
Otherwise very well done!
Bruce:
I particularly liked that you gave a summary of your review in the text below the video.
Did you do the radiation pattern on the Aomway skew planar antenna? Would love those results. That one looked like a winner.
Also looking for the results and construction on your home brew skew planar (green one) mentioned but not compared here.
Jim
Very, very good, useful video, good methodology and testing - keep up the good work.
Hi Bruce - great Test as always! Super idea to show the multipath rejection.
Have you opend the white Chinese surprise? It says TX on it - maybe a 3 Lobe one? Does this change reflections that much?
CWL expectedly good - but not immune to crashes :)
AOMWay SPW - nice - will try it myself - but as it looks I will test the AOMWay Patch (I also have it) and see if I get similar bad results.
Why dont you like helicals? Cause they are directional?
Love the fact that they have same gain as patches but double the beamwidth!
Only didnt use my two helicals from CWL now since a few month cause I thought they are the wrong polarisation (thought they were LHCP but they are RHCP and fit to most my SPWs...
greets, Mario
excellent review, thanks Bruce, where did you get the helical antenna from, I think that is the way to go!!!
This man would be dangerous if given a proper production budget. If a slot opens up for a Mr. Wizard re-do, can we please have Mr. Simpson at the front of the audition line? Good smattering of choices to represent what's being used out there, I've been hanging a cheap Chinese antennas off my Fatsharks for a long time, (the Immersion antenna, without a 90 bend, were infuriating!) while VAS Blue Beams are on the valuable quads and planes. Look forward to your reviews of the new FPV hardware like the Quanum VTX!
Bruce what recording/video editing software do you use? Does anyone recommend a cheaper one specifically? Many thanks! :D
Thanks for this exzellent test.
Greetings from Germany
PS.: 99% of mushroom antennas look the same inside so no matter the cost its all the same.
I'd love to see a video showing different types of video interference to help us diagnose problems. It seems you can have at least multi-path problems, f-zone issues, interference from other onboard electronics or motors, environmental interference, and just plain distance fall-out. There are probably plenty of others. Videos showing what these look like would be great.
How did you get all of those antennas to work on the receiver? I assume some are RP-SMA and some SMA? Would an adapter affect the test results?
Nice video, I was looking for a great starting antenna and I think the cp aomway fullfill my needs, Thank you for the tests!
Fantastic Video and very informative! Thanks, Bruce.
Can you explain how you hooked up the receiver to the volt meter? I understand that the RSSI is not output just as a voltage, it is a pulsed width modulated signal (PWM) with variable high-low ratio depending on signal strength. It can be converted to a voltage easily using a low pass filter (Resistor-Capacitor filter). This would be good to know in order for us to test our own antenna. Straighten me out if I got that wrong. Cheers! David
one concern sir! about the chinese antenna from surviellzone... you put the antenna with the label TX instead of RX which makes me think about the performance of the RX" labelled antenna.
Great video - useful and instructive. I wonder, do you suppose the results might be influenced by the degree of match between the transmitter antenna and the receiver antenna? Would you get a different ranking if you used a different transmitter antenna?
Another great review, Bruce! Thank you I was hoping Alex could send you an sample to test, of his "Blue Beam Ultra" antennas.
Sensational video and review, very helpful information. Thanks Bruce. :)
I've just noticed that the cheap chinese antenna that performed so well was labelled as the transmitter antenna (with 3 lobes) as opposed to the one they have designed as the receiver antenna (which has 4 lobes). Just an interesting coincidence or maybe some good reason?
Good to see your still here i was getting worried as your normally quite a prolific uploader.
How do diversity receivers perform with multipathing? Also what would be the ideal combination of antennas on a diversity setup for range and dropout minimization?
By the way Bruce thanks for the videos they really are a reference for technical information.
what if I use 2 totally different type antennas? Like a patch/mushroom on my monitor and clover leaf on the reciever? Or do they have to be the same? And is it any different if I cut off the sma connector and just solder the antenna to the reciever?
Excellent review Bruce! An essential subject.
Bruce, did you do a build video for your green skew planar antenna?
Very interesting Bruce. How about doing the same for RC transmitter antenna??? with all the types available that promise extended range. There must be a compromise either by way of a different radiation pattern or going "illegal" due to exceeding the permitted ERP. I am sure thaere are many of us who would love to see a shootout for these items.
I have that antenna as my first bundle, at first I want to replace it with a fatshark/immersion one because it can be bent, but after this review I might actually stay with it, it's white and actually helps with the orientation.
I would like to see a detailed review of the Bee Rotor antenna. I don't know why, but the look of it sparks my intrest and curiosity.
Bruce, could you not simply take a RH circularly polarized antenna, and see how well it rejects signal from a LH circularly polarized antenna?
Hi Bruce, does it matter much whether you use RHCP or LHCP? if I had RHCP on my Goggles do I have to have the same on the Drone or should the drone be opposite LHCP?
Dear Bruce, thank you a lot for this review.
I do have a question regarding the role the antenna pair: Is it completely irrelevant which TX antenna you are using? Can it not be, that using a certain TX-RX antenna combinations will better work than others?
IT would be very nice to hear (read) some comment about this from you (or someone else in the forum).
Cheers
Ah, and there is another question I have: Can you comment on what happens when antennas are positioned vertically, i.e. matching their rotation axis, so to say, something which happens when your model is exactly over you had?
(I suppose the signal will be minimal or even absent, but i would like to understand it from the wave geometry) (just a note, I'm really fresh in this whole stuff, but I'm trying to get more into it in the next coming weeks).
Love the real world tests, thanks Bruce!
I got three of these beerotor antennas and all three seem to have some lobes with a slight bend in the middle, but a couple are straight? I'm wondering if they are supposed to have a bend in the middle.
Just out of curiosity, what would the signal be like with an omni directional antenna on the transmitter and a "rubber ducky" on the receiver? I just bought the Eachine TX02 5.8gh camera and (what is effectively) the Eachine RC832 receiver that comes stock with the rubber antenna. Of course I plan to replace that antenna with a proper one as soon as I can, but I'm quite new to the fpv hobby and I just thought I'd ask the more experienced crowd! :)
Hi, Bruce. I've been thinking about getting a FPV system where I can get good clear signal in a 5 km radius. What would be the cheapest system that could give me that? (It's a prototype, I don't wanna spend so much)
What do I have to know to chose the right antenna? What power do you recommend for the system? (2 W?) And what frequency?
I own the Aomway RHCP omni, and I like them a lot more than the farsharks, for price, and performance. I also have the Aomway Blue Patch, and mine is total garbage as well. but I must say, I did just pick up some VAS Airblades....they're absolutely incredible
If I understand correctly.... If I use a 3 lobe LHCP antenna on the Transmitter and a 4 lobe RHCP antenna on my Receiver I would essentially receive no signal except for any reflected signal.
Is there logic in that Bruce ???
Also what are the effects if using 2 identical 3 or 4 lobe, RHCP or LHCP antennas on the Transmitter AND Receiver ???
Have you tried any of the quadrifilar helix antennas? I'm curious to know how well they perform.
Bruce have you tested the TBS Triumph before. If so what are your thoughts?
Where did you purchase the cheap Chinese white antennae that did so well?
@ Bruce, where can I purchase the 5 turn Helical antenna?
pNoid2k1
I also like to know that.
Holly crap Bruce really aren't just pretty face....Cheers great video
Bruce do you have the antenna review numbers in text form on the Web?
If so would you include your home-made antenna too? Lots of folks here are asking for that to be included. Some of the model magazines should hire you to write these real time reviews for them instead of the reviews that just use published manufacturers numbers which we know are manufactured just like their products.
Do you still recommend the Cloud Spirit TX low cost Chinese as the best performing antenna on the list?
Do you have any videos that discuss quadrifilar antennas? CP with gain basically. Well, that and increased construction complexity.
Since most people buy and fly in matching pairs wouldn't you want to test the same way? That would have eliminated your questions about the bird's eye antenna. Love your stuff it gave me the confidence to start my own scratch builds.
Could you do a video on the difference between vertical and horizontal mounting of the Vtx antenna? some say it is better to keep it vertical but who can prove it? Thanks René.
I'm a big fan of the bignose13 helical as well, I haven't had to use my 5 turn yet as I got 5km from a 3 turn - and that was a long way for me :)
do you find the 60degrees manageable while flying? Do you use it for quadcopter flights?
Nice video, thank you. From Poland with love Bruce
Hey, very informative video (esp the multipath-rejection testing!).
One thing comes to mind when you tested these antennas, did you take into account the lobe directions? One would think it would make a significant difference to RSSI in your test whether the antenna's "lobe" is directly towards another antenna or if the another antenna is "in between" your lobes. If you just roll them to connector, its a bit of a lottery how it goes..?
+reikku and if there is any substance in what I tried to say there, it would be "easy" to just rotate antenna slowly like 90 degrees and record the high and low RSSI, dont you think?
Are they capable of 5ghz wifi signal? To use them in a wireless hdmi solution , i don't know if the analog vs digital makes a difference in those antennas
Helical product link missing? And did I miss it or didn't you test your DIY antenna?
I understand the benefit of having a clover leaf antenna due to the UAV pointing in all directions while flying.
But as I sit, the UAV is usually on the side of me some where and rarely straight above me.
Would having the "Rubber Ducky" antenna on the receiving end be a benefit?
Helical or patch would be better
What happened to your antenna Bruce. Would love a build video
Well done...loved the reviews. If you can find some 3D patterns for those designs it might help show how they do what they do...
Thank you for taking time to do the reviews...good content...nicely done.
I have a question, in which finaly is the best choice for a drone system. Especialy for a Dji mavic transmitter. We have to stand in the fact that we can not change the drone antenna. So the only modification we can do, is on transmitter. And here we have two different facts.
1. Frequencies are changing between 2.4 Ghz to 5.8 Ghz.
2. We have on controller two antennas (one transmitting controll signals- one receiving fpv signal)
In order to accieve stronger signal (not nessasary for longer range but for more reliability) on both, which is the best antenna selection and configuration?
A dipole for transmitting and an aomway kind circular polarization for receiving is the ideal configuration?
I believe dipole antennas of a biger db gain are the most logical solution. But i see some people using helicoil antennas or even directional ones have better results than stock ones.
Finaly which is the best solution?
Thanks
If I mount a right handed polarized antenna on the bottom of my phantom 3 Standard facing upside-down, will it be changed to left hand polarized?
I'm looking at getting the Omway set.
This post is before I watched your post
Hey Bruce, I bet you've got a TBS Vendetta, when you review it can you fly it 6s?
Also where's the TBS Crossfire review?
hi Bruce...your contribution to the hobbyworld is amazing and appreciated!
I was wondering...if the patch is linear wouldnt the tx antenna need to be linear also? and the fatshark antennas that look like that patch are circular polarized....Thanks
+mrebysan The TX should also be V or H polarized matching the RX unless he was attempting to show the RX RSSI from mismatched polarities.
I actually quite like those BeeRotor antennas, they're cheap and anecdotally they work pretty well. I really like their short pigtail too.
Bruce, the little white 'Chinese' model you were surprised with had a 90° bend on the connector. Did you mount it differently than the rest?
+Ken Penner from what i remember he mounted it horizontally and vertically and had the same result
Isn't the white unit marked TX? Shouldn't you use one with RX tag?
Was there a TX antenna in the mix of RX antennas? One of them had a TX label.
hi could you help I am new to this and I am setting up my fpv ,are you meant to put a little black ring inside the antennas before screwing it in ???
how did you connect that multimeter to your receiver to get those values?