Why?
The Bluetooth Modules in Mobile Phones are very limited in Range ( for reasons of power consumption and size) - which is OK for normal usage of Mobile Phones but was a problem for some use-cases of DUBwise.
What?
The range extender is a little box which contains one long-range-module (ZigBee or RadioTronix) ; a Bluetooth Module and the power supply. The long-range-module and BT are crossed ( rx=>tx ; tx=>rx ).
Now you can connect to the BT module in the box with the Mobile Phone ( which is <10m in range normaly ) and the (long) distance to the MikroKopter is Made by a ZigBee Pro connection. ( specifyed range ideally by 1mile / 1.6 km ). If you need more range you can use wi.232 with a yagi-antenna on the ground and get > 6km of Range.
How ?
JoKo created some Board-Layout:
Holgers simple Version with 6km range
a simple version without the PCB
Yagiantenna for highest range
It is a UHF-TV-antenna like this UHF43
We use that in long range flights and measured 6km range
You need:
- 2 Wi232-Modules incl. adapter
- 1 BT-Module incl. Adapter
- Flat cable and 4 batteries
(This range extender also works fine without the yagi-antenna) in that case the range is still about 1km