Pixhawk Range extensions

PX4 Autopilot Configuration & Flight Modes ⚙️
1

Good day and thank you for reading.

I just want to make sure I understand correctly how to extend the range on the Pixhawk

So by reading the antennae tracker page over at Ardupilot, I understand the following.

To extend the range of the Pixhawk to the ground station I need 2 sets of telemetry radios and a High Gain antennae. I do not need to setup a Wifi access mode as the Pixhawk has its own wifi network

If I do want to add the pixhawk to a wifi extender i need to use this setup

http://dev.ardupilot.com/wiki/making-a-mavlink-wifi-bridge-using-the-raspberry-pi/

Am i correct in my assumptions?

2

What range do you want to extend? Telemetry, RC, Video??

Giving an example for RPi Wifi I suppose you want to be able to have the telemetry extended…

Using 433 or 900Mhz telemetry radio for the Pixhawk will give you much longer range than WiFi…

Vasil

3

Hello Vasil.

Telemetry RC and Video.

Want to control the drones as well with Ground Station joystick BVR.

4

The Telemetry and Video ranges depend on the TX/RX pairs you use. For telemetry choose 900Mhz if in US and you can buy 500mW units from HK or other vendor. This way you will be able to control the flying machine with a Joystick from QGC at a pretty long distances. Give special attention to the antennas! For the video you can choose between 1.2-1.3; 2.4-2.5 and 5.8Ghz, depending on what quality you need. If you need range go with 1.2-1.3Ghz video TX/RX. Remember the antennas are more important than the power of the RX/TX units you use in both video and telemetry.

5

Thank you once again for the Reply Vasil.

I am in South Africa and will be able to get what ever is needed here.

6

It is either 433Mhz or 900Mhz for the telemetry. The other bands are free for all territories with exception of 1.3Ghz you have to check for South Africa…