Long range 2.45 GHz (WiFi etc.)

[eV1Te]

I have recently noticed the vast amount of 2.45 GHz equipment that is not only used on short range but also over long distances (several km). Especially radio controlled airplanes/helicopters with live video link back to the pilot on the ground (see video below). These persons generally use directional WiFi antennas for this purpose, however the data protocol is often proprietary or specialized.
I would love to see someone put some clever and powerful app for your smartphone (or preferably your old smartphone) which allows you to put your phone in the radio controlled aircraft, and use the accelerometers, gps and possibly camera, to transmit this back to the ground to a directional WiFi antenna there. Even more powerful if it could default to 3G if WiFi signal is lost for a backup recovery mode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX1JC9d2x0s

[Eric]

Great idea.

I would begin with investigating how performance and connectivity varies with range when communicating with a basic WiFi access point. I tried to find whether someone has done an investigation into this but failed to find anything. I would suspect the WiFi radio performance varies much between different mobile devices. Further investigations could use different antennas, e.g. directional antennas, and different sensitivities and transmit power for the access point.

Assuming that the range is satisfactory, I would prefer to use an Android device to avoid any software restrictions on e.g. eventual needed radio parameter tuning. The software could keep check on and/or report signal strength etc. through using the Android WifiManager so that the remote controlled vehicle has some failure handling.

A very quick and fun start of this could involve just connecting two mobile device's by WiFi and investigate their range and performance. Just enable WiFi sharing on your device and let your friend connect to it

[micke]

Hi eV1Te,

Evothings Studio is now available if you wish to test it , with client apps for Android and iOS. Check out the download page:
http://evothings.com/download/

Very cool video btw!

Best regards, Mikael