Digging deeper in finding better signals on Walksnail Goggles X
Ойын-сауық
Surfing around the Walksnail FB group, i have seen a couple of reports about the infamous Goggles X having weak signals, and some possible work arounds to mitigate this issue. So I tried to investigate further to dig deeper, trying to validate some theories and what's really going on with the Goggles X RF board. Most importantly, how can we get those green signals to our Goggles X.
I documented my tests for the past few days to share it with you. I rearranged the order of test presentations to make it more cohesive. The tests were done mainly indoors, so this is not the optimal environment, but should be sufficient to give you an idea of what's happening. It took me a couple of days trying to figure out factors, and finding the holy grail of green bars. It was not a single run test, I had to repeat some test to verify, also I needed to cool down the vtx after some trials. Feel free to share your thoughts about these.
OBSERVATIONS:
1. The existing routing for the WiFi coax is causing deterioration of signal, maybe because the Wifi Coax will cross the other coax lines with the way it is. Moving the Wifi coax near the PA allows you to route the wifi coax such that it wont cross the other coax lines as well. When you re-route the wifi coax cable, make sure that it will not cross over the other coax cables just to be sure, especially when using stock omnis (and probably other antenna that are NOT BALANCED). Good/balanced antenna are not susceptible to this issue though as explained to me by Hugo (from TrueRC). Unbalanced antenna like the perhaps the stock omnis (and other poorly designed antenna) have the tendency to have their outer coax shields to be part of the antenna, and when the coax touches the wifi coax, basically the antenna touches, dropping SWR. So, move that wifi coax away from the other coax cables if the antenna is not good.
2. The stock heatspreader/big heat sink covers a big part of the RF board. I am not sure exactly how it causes the reduction in signal, but it seems that using slimmer heatsink improves signal too.
3. The stock omnis are not the best thing to have on the goggles X (read number 1). maybe yes, if you consider putting it back into the goggles case. But not when you are concerned with range/ penetration.
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NOTE:
The signal bars are not referring to signal strength, but rather noise floor. It just gives us the idea on which channel is the cleanest.
This video is not narrated, I just demonstrated and included some captions. Those should be more than enough. ;-) Just background music, mute it if you don't want to listen to it :-)
Goggles X FW : 37.42.4
Moonlight and V1 VTX FW: 37.42.4
Пікірлер: 41
Many thanks again for sharing this invaluable information with the community.. Great work as always!
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
glad you appreciate it
Great work with the heatsink. What I see with the wifi cable is that it leaks some power from wifi and it goes to amp. So theese RSSI bars look better but SNR should be worse. It SNR goes higher with wifi coax than I dont know what kind of black magic is going on. :D
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
nope, It's more like the existing routing of the wifi coax is problematic, with the wifi coax crossing over the other coax, or maybe causing some noise near that area. But when routed near the amp, it's more free, the wifi coax can be routed to avoid crossing other coax lines. the SNR is not worse too, i have checked the GSNR while doing the test, value is still good where the wifi coax moved, near the amp.
I rerouted the cable as shown and tried literally dozens of different antenna type combinations both LHCP and RHCP with mixed and inconclusive results. Except maybe that 3 orange bars across the channel spectrum is the norm.
Thanks bro, I also re-route the Wifi cable, seem it get little better, let me try to change the stock antenna and see what will happen.
What cable do you use for HDMI output? Mine stuck at the goggle-x case, it won't plug all the way. I can't comprehend what the designer is thinking :D
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
let me get back to you. But i used 2 different hdmi cables that i found in my stash, both plugged in perfectly..
great! btw. do I need wifi cable connected? or may wifi module get damaged then? actually i dont need the wifi...
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
That wifi module is just capped to 50mW anyway,I guess it won't get damaged.
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
Just a follow up, someone said in the WS FB group that goggles won't start up without the wifi UFL plugged in, just check if the same goes for you 😉
@dynashot1
3 ай бұрын
thx!@@windfpv
@dynashot1
3 ай бұрын
it starts normal and connects to the vtx... just ripped the ufl port on the wifi module ... grrr@@windfpv
WS should’ve known this and fixed it. Hope WS is watching this.
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
CADDX has already addressed the heatsink-rf issue with the slimmer heatsinks, they have been sending out that slimmer heatsink to replace the big one. As for the wifi coax noise issue, it's more like the a stock antenna issue. If you use better antenna that coax won't be a problem. The stock antenna is unbalanced. We can't expect caddx to make a significantly better version of it as it will also significantly increase the costs.
Cool mean if u move the cable a bit it s getting better with good antenna ?
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
you would want to route that wifi coax such that it does not cross those goggles antenna coax, thus, run that wifi coax near the power amp. Unless you are not using stock omnis. Balanced antenna are not susceptible to such issues. Otherwise, don't let the wifi coax touch the other coax
definitely wouldn't cut off part of your heat sink since overheating has been an issue. also wtf is up with the fast forwarding??? how can anyone read what it says??? why???
@windfpv
2 ай бұрын
Nope, no issues on my goggles even with the stock Tin heat spreader, even before I installed the big heatsink. The reduced heatsink also went well, tested under 37C outdoors without overheating on Led1 and Led2, summer here goes 40C, peaks at 42 to 43C sometimes, i am confident it will hold perfectly.
Hello, what app do you use to connect your goggles to your phone?
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
USB Camera pro
@dmitriy_fpv
3 ай бұрын
@@windfpv thanks 😉
How do you get this on your phone ?
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
I used a mini HDMI (from goggles) to HDMI cable, then connected that to a HDMI to USB capture device (plugged on my phone). I am using the USB Camera app by the way
@onclefly8450
3 ай бұрын
@@windfpv Great I want to do that.
@fenuaenata
3 ай бұрын
U using a iphone or android?
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
Android,, Samsung S23
Seems like everything os got to do except the lhcp and rhcp, they should be the same as the transmitter, itay be working in thos case on the bench, but once in the real world you'll have a weaker signal that's jist the way it works.
Try and aim your Googles X directly at your Crossfire transmitter antenna while your radio transmit. Come close enough and the googles jams, with lose of video and crashes...
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
The thing is, I don't use crossfire.
this is a great start, but I need to see real life use after the fact. I can get green bars and then when I connect and fly it goes to hell shortly after. So another test with flying after the changes would be a better idea
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
I'm going to see if cleaning it from the ground side will have an impact in real flight, if I can break my 22km record with the goggles X on my next LR attempt then it's a win. Note, the same antenna setup got me 35km with the good old vrx, let's see how it goes
I love my Walksnail stuff but the GogglesX has been an utter shambles so far.
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
Yeah, that's quite true for the first batches indeed.. newer batches are good. The wifi coax issue though is related to the poor stock omnis. So an easy fix is to change them to better ones.
@derelictfpv
3 ай бұрын
So you are saying to run RHCP on top and LHCP on the bottom? How can that work better?@@windfpv
@windfpv
3 ай бұрын
no. Im saying to use better antenna, not the stock omnis as they are unbalanced. I have written on the description of this video what using unbalanced antenna implies. I have placed a "better" antenna on top ports (one is Rx, one is tx port) to illustrate how better antennas work well, or how stock omnis are poorly performing