Can the Pixhawk antenna tracker be used without a directional antenna using only reported Mavlink information over telemetry radios?
Rick
Probably. But why go to the trouble?
Why are you asking me quetsions?
| omni-dir. ant. w/o tracker | uni-dir. ant. w/o tracker | omni-dir. ant. w/ tracker | uni-dir. ant. w/ tracker |
|---|---|---|---|
| high VOW | low VOW | high VOW | high VOW (due to tracker) |
| low range | high range | low range | high range |
| no setup required | no setup required | setup required | setup required |
as you can see from the table, you don’t have any benefits from using a tracker with an omnidirectional antenna but still have the setup trouble. Without the directional antenna, you can just forego the tracker and use the antenna as is.
I’m using 2 different frequencies with the tracker. 433MHZ for telemetry, which gets a fairly good distance on its own with an omni antenna. I’d like to be able to use this to point the tracker in the right direction so that my high gain 5.8GHZ video system will get better range.
I don’t need much range. The 433 radios get 5 miles with 2db rubber ducky antennae. I can get the same range with my 5.8 system with a high gain antenna. Otherwise I only get about 1 mile or less. If I can use the telemetry radios as is to direct the gimbal it would solve the problem. So would a smaller, directional antenna.