Photon Remote: Best DIY remote?

ufl antennae connectors are overdue imho in the esk8 world. If only the remote was able to be used by the other 50%…

@longhairedboy

this remote is going to be the sickest shit ever once the kinks are ironed out, and i would say they’re well on their way to being ironed.

:point_up: …said by Gatorman himself. Case closed.

Simply… the best.

Is there any idea on a timeline for these remotes? Other than soon.:nerd_face:

Order one… It’ll take a few weeks

Cheers mate, I’m just starting my build but it looks like this is the remote for me. Just ordered😁

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Half of us who use finger throttles would say this is pretty close to not useful at all, and some of us are jealous as fuck

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@Wajdi is there any difference in connection if we were to replace it with this?

No

Ufl and sma are standard RF connections.

The only think that matters is -use a tuned antenna (2.4ghz whips for Omni directional, we could use a pcb patch antenna that points straight up as well to narrow fresnel zone and increase dbi pointed at the rider like so ( https://alofthobbies.com/pcb-receiver-antenna-frsky.html ) -do not power the receiver without an antenna as it is technically a transceiver (transmit and receive) and the transceiver will die or be damaged without a load -rf antenna loads are typically 50ohm. -these modules look to be ULRF(ultra low RF power) under 10mW. 10mW of 2.4fhss with a whip should give about 1.2km in open air… So the likely-hood of failsafe is super low unless you box the thing in carbon

@longhairedboy make sure you don’t power it without an antenna attached. The sma connection is asking for a non RF person to power it without the antenna screwed in…leaving a damaged module @Wajdi I would seriously consider switching to whips for any batches you plan to send out…to minimize RF noobness factors of powered with no load

/Says my HAM

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Everything that @Deckoz said is correct. To summarize, there are two important things:

  1. Never power on the receiver without the antenna attached, it will damage it as there is no load attached.
  2. Always make sure that the antenna has 50 ohm impedance and designed for 2.4ghz operation for a better signal resonance and good range.
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Actually it’s ok to turn on most “receivers” without it’s antenna on…what you don’t want to do is power on a “transmitter” without the antenna because it will not provide enough resistance to the tx module and burn it out or damage it over time. You were close…if it’s a bidirectional device (receiver and transmitter) such as a telemetry device that transmits and receives data back, they will typically have two antenna, but some don’t so good idea to never risk it…the tx power of small telemetry tx’s is also sometimes not enough to damage themselves and they typically have built in antenna…but it’s better to be safe than sorry…

I would ask or find out how much power this transceiver is using and or if it has a secondary built in board antenna for short range telemetry…

I have left the antenna off of good telemetry receivers in the past for range testing without any issues, the telemetry worked fine due to being a secondary device and tx module on the device itself, it just depends on the design I suppose…I have never seen telemetry that matches the power of the tx, it’s always a after thought, uses minimal bandwidth and power…

This is a transceiver. Not a receiver or transmitter, but both. So yes it requires the antenna to be connected otherwise you will slowly damage it over time if not initial burn up.

Just like all the frsky stuff you probably fly, all the x4rs with telemetry are transceivers. Since your familiar with these, go get a RF Explorer from one of your race organizers close to you, and look at the rf levels of a fresh x4r. Then look after you unplug the antennas, then plug the antennas back in and check again. You will forever have diminishing RFpower until it dies.

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In our case the Photon receiver is actually a transceiver, it does both receive and transmit data. The antenna should always be connected and not powered up without it, or you will slowly damage it if not immediately. When the antenna is not connected, there is no load on the final stage of the RF transmitter, and this causes the whole incident wave to be reflected back into the transmitter, which is not a good thing. For a more advanced design, to protect against accidental antenna disconnects, we can add a directional coupler, that way we can sample out both incident and reflected waves, and see how much is getting back into the transmitter, and throttle the output power accordingly to prevent damages.

Thats actually the case on the Photon remote, both remote and receiver uses the same chip, nrf24, operating at same bandwidth and power :slight_smile:

That’s pretty cool, In my drone applications we try to preserve as much bandwidth for the control due to the ranges involved (miles), but for this, it makes sense unless you need tons of control channels…Why don’t you guys go with a soldered on antenna solution then? or an internal one to prevent the problem from happening? I know frsky recently took off the SMA jack in favor of an internal antenna for this reason, remember that no design survives 1st contact with the enemy (humans). lol And if your power is enough to kill the module with feedback then range won’t really be an issue, no need for creative antenna placement or upgrades, right? A simple omni 1/4 wave should work fine…even inside an RX. I think the tuned PCB antennas are overkill for this application by the way…I would just cut a wire to 1/4 wave and solder it on…

That’s correct, a 1/4 wave cable is enough in this case, I’m experimenting with new modules that use a simple quarter wave wire, and will see how it performs.

Crossfire dude… 500mW will net you ~19-20 miles on a force full link on the full size diversity. If your using the micro… ~14miles. Up to 1000, 1500 or 2000mW and you start dealing with ionosphere refraction issue limiting your distance due to the curve of the earth at 40-60 miles out.

How far you flying dude??

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I’ve been 1 mile on 72mhz, a mile on the L9R and an undisclosed distance on dragonlink, lol…but to be honest I have been flying short range proxy fixed wing for the past several years and a taranis works fine for me with any d or x series rx. I’m friends with trappy and he recommended I stick to what I have when I inquired about his system recently actually. Those high power openLRS systems (2watt) get a good workout from my friends sometimes though. I’m sitting on a ezuhf module as well, never quite trusted it but the band scanner in its firmware is useful. I also use a bandscanning diversity vRX and really nice antenna for proxy flying, for its all about penetration, lol

@Wajdi and dude, those look perfect!!

Yea…we’re all friends with trappy :stuck_out_tongue: my buddy has been flying for blacksheep for almost 4 or or 5 years…

@pshaw :wink:

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