Suggested designs/products

[IBCrazy]

This thread is for you guys to suggest what stuff I should stock or design for my store. I am focusing mostly on RF communication, so it's mostly antennas, cables and adapters right now. I might stock some cameras, transmitters and receivers in the near future.

What should be designing?

What products would you like to see me carry?

What is the next tutorial I should do?

-Alex

[Avenger GBU-1H]

Alex,

As a suggestion, I think you should have a section on rf cables and connectors. Many of us are always looking for specific or custom length RF cables with various connector configurations. You could offer to make custom cables, or perhaps offer for sale bulk cable, connectors, prep tools and instruction videos for terminating cables. I personally hate RF adaptors because they induce too much loss. Most adaptors I have come across are junk (I.E. Pasternak). If I have an antenna with an "N" female and I want to connect to my receiver that has and "SMA" female, then I would like a cable that is "N" Male to "SMA" Male and is "X" feet long. Forget the adaptors. I realize there are some situations when they are unavoidable, but a well designed tx or rx system should have no adaptors whatsoever. I'm just sayin.... Keep up the great work!

[IBCrazy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I added a few cables and adapters to the website. The adapters I sell have less than .5 db loss. Convertin "N" to SMA is a totally different ball game. F to SMA and SMA to RP-SMA is easy.

I also just placed an order with my supplier for male to female jumper cables in lengths 15cm, 30cm, and 75cm. This way you can extend TX and RX antennas as well. I know this induces some loss. My tests show only about 1 db with a jumper.

I have TONS of RF plugs and could certainly make custom cables too. I will have to add bulk cable to the website as well.

Thanks,

-Alex

[Avenger GBU-1H]

What is the website for your company?

[IBCrazy]

www.videoaerialsystems.com


-Alex

[Trappy]

Alex, got your antennas. thanks a lot, will test on weekend if weather is right. One thing I immediately noticed is that the TX CP antennas you sent me desperately needs a "right angled" brother. Most people I know place their VTx flat, which makes installation without an extension cable impossible. I'll see how I can install it properly on my plane, I might need to purchase a right angle adapter.

[IBCrazy]

Good suggestion. I'm going to order more right angle plugs tonight just for this.

I anxiously await your results with those new antennas.

-Alex

[Jameson]

Alex, what about something like these: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showp...&postcount=652 - they are easy to make and we don't need to order spare SMA connectors... I would take two (if I can't get the SMA connectors here)! :-)

[IBCrazy]

I would carry those, but that's Sander's design. I carry the turnstile instead. The turnstile is higher performance, but the truth is few people will really need more performace than what Sander's antenna gives.

[Pollux]

Hi to all, and thanks to IBCrazy for all his work. I'm a noob in RF design, and I have made great progress thanks to these so clear tutorials (made some 800m+ flights on a 10 mW Tx and non VSWR tested non tuned CL and SPW).

Two suggestions related to antennas:

1/ 1280 and 2400 MHz antennas, especially the SPW and CL, are cumbersome (and somehow fragile).
Is there any way of reducing their size? maybe with capacitors and coils, strategically placed...?
making a very low profile CP antenna (while keeping it omni, here is the challenge) would also be a great solution. This could allow us to place them in (or on top of) the wing.

2/ almost none of the homebuilders have sperctrum analyser nor SWR meter. A great tutorial or even product, would be a simple SWR meter (one design for each band: 900, 1280, 2400 and 5800 MHz).
I wanted to try this one: http://www.radialmind.org/projects/58-ghz-swr-meter
But it seems to be not very resulted and my setup was probably wrong, so I couldn't get any clear reading (and nothing at all at 10 mW).


Pollux.