Just remember that you don't need to keep the drone flying, park the drone on the corner edge of a hirise rooftop to cover 270' of the area you need to communicate in.
I use a small electromagnet so I can put a magnet on payloads and drop them off places / pick them up with minimal messing around. Picking up takes some fluffing at times because it's a DJI so it wants to land on it, but I've since learned to use a plastic rod as a stand off about 18 inches long. I only use it on meshtastics though so if I lose them it's $20, but so far I've managed to have some serious fun with mates across some terrible environments. One thing I want to play with is a DIY drone / balloon combo. It'd be much easier to use a balloon to carry the weight and the drone motors to merely keep it in place. I COULD just use tethers to do that, but I don't want to have to carry three fishing reels and lines everywhere. Either way - unlimited potential for us tinkerers. Shame no companies have the smarts we do!
That would seem like it could have some SOS or emergency application. I know they tried doing this with a GPS device but it never got traction. A balloon filled with enough helium to carry a go tenna could have some potential.
It looks like this definitely has interesting possibilities for sure. As others have mentioned the signal would be relatively poor inside the vehicle but by moving the device outside the vehicle greatly increased the transmitting strength. Very interesting review and test for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Yep. I wanted to include the footage of it working poor when inside the vehicle. I was so focused on getting the production cameras setup right that I wasn't thinking about the Mesh placement as much as I should have. Fortunately, we made the adjustment after Uncle Dan realized where it was located.
Great video, I have some and notice the difference with height and antenna placement. I want to make one solar powered and leave in a favorable location.
Completely unrelated, but I just discovered your channel today and binged a lot of stuff for a few hours. I noticed in one of your bag overview videos that you use the same Panasonic earbuds I do, and wanted to let you know that they (and I'm sure a lot of other buds) fit perfectly in an Altoid mini tin. I wrap it around 2 fingers and that makes it the perfect size for the tin.
A fantastic idea. Communications is vital and we often take it for granted. Obviously this system would depend on the battery life of the drone for longer term, but yeah for a momentary 'shedule' or broadcast, this is great. Some good range there too! Another option would also be to use a balloon of some form or even KITE, with the drone attached (maybe for a scouting/foraging trip etc). Great job and probably essential in order to determine range at this time.
RF passes thru plastic. A PVC or ABS upright plastic can atop the vehicle and or a similar atop a structure or peak, may work. Put the node in a window.
Thank you do much, Walter! I had over 2 hours of footage and tried to squeeze it down as best as possible. I'm already ready to plan part 2. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I liked the test, because if under these conditions already had a satisfactory performance, under favorable conditions we can imagine that would be much better... Greetings from Brazil!
I wonder how much more range you would have gotten if you have mounted the car node to the top of, say, a 6 foot CB antenna. I bet a few more blocks., Id say.
Without reading the other posts.... If you can go 34 blocks, from the 400 ft high node in one direction, one can surmise, you can go 34 blocks the other way. So 68 blocks of coverage with the node in the middle is pretty good. Now imagine a few drones/nodes at 400 ft all working in the mesh. You could blanket a very large area until the batteries run dry easy. At noon all drones lift off to create the vary large area mesh so that many users on the ground can make contact.
That's what I was imagining. It would be pretty sweet, as it would allow EVERYONE to participate in emergency communication (grandparents, kids, etc), as long as they have a device. I'm already planning the second version of the test.
i was thinking about this and going if everyone buys a set of these and hands out their extra one you could build a simple local network of sorts. Then i was like what if everyone DID buy a set but didnt hand out the extra one and just set up their extra ones all around the city would be cool. Like if you have like 10 or 20 friends that all dropped 180 to get these things that would be like 40 relay points to bounce the message around a certain area.
GoTenna Mesh operates in the 902 - 928 MHz range. Being inside a car (mini Faraday cage) will not help. Absolutely need line of sight at those frequencies and yes, even tree limbs will impact it. It's all about the antenna, distance and frequency. HAM guy. Get a HAM license. See Julian's channel - OH8STN
Yep. I was so focused on getting the video production equipment setup for this video that I forgot to include the Mesh outside of the vehicle. It performed much better after we reconfigured it. I've been a big fan of Julian for years now. He features much more advanced COMMS topics.
A lot if the 5g studies they have been doing have shown trees with wet leaves to block 70-90% of the signal. Big fights in England over all the trees they're cutting down- thats at a higher frequency which should actually penetrate better.
In the the video I noticed that the Gotenna was mounted on the underside of the metal roof rack. Which will degrade the signal. Always make sure the Gotenna is away from your body and away from metal objects. From a mountain top I was able to communicate 30 miles without a relay. I’ve also relayed messages through 5 gotenna mesh units in mixed terrain while camping where there was no cellular signal. It even out performed my VHF/UHF ham radio gear since there were no local ham repeaters in that area.
Thanks for the commend, James. We're going to retest this scenario with two drones to get an accurate air to air reading. Would you recommending having the Mesh dangle from the drones using a string to avoid it being connected to the drone itself? I believe that the drone legs are plastic, so perhaps it's not as much of an issue.
It was about 2 miles for us (34 blocks). Keep in mind, it was lightly sprinkling and there were trees in the line of sight, so we could probably do a little better in a better environment. So theoretically, I could have put the other paired Mesh 34 blocks from the Drone as well. Then we would have had 4 miles distance between the two paired Meshes, along the same straight path road, that is.
As we were driving around I was thinking "I wish I had OH8STN on the line as a lifeline" during this test. Regardless, we had a fun time playing around with these last weekend.
GoTenna is just the tip ... when they figure out a way to create an app on peoples phones that works as nodes or relays we will all benefit ... but the big cell companies don’t want us to have the ability
briar messenger for andoid has a unique encripted forum sync when one device recives message it syncs to the next and so on. supports bluetooth wifi and tor internet routing and free .. bridgefy supports ios and andoid cross platform messages not as robust as briar but claims to do mesh hops via bluetooth
please do 2 hops by 2 separate drones and publish drone to drone range. can confirm either DJI cheap drones can lift gotenna easily. Or Walmart sells a helium tank and decent balloons for$20
There are some hams who have just about perfected a tethered drone technology that would allow semi-permanent installations. Heard about it on this podcast. Click on the drone photo for more info!
So I'm just discovering this product and I'm trying to understand. This is just for short range communication correct, like I can't put one on my roof and text someone in europe.
Keep in mind, signals/ frequency.. Have a height, for efficiency.. = SOME travel close the ground, some are going to work at greater heights... I'd try at just over the taller tree tops.. = just high enough to clear trees and buildings...
Cliff, thank you for doing this test. What if you take a second drone and attach a mesh node to it and fly it in between you and the other drone. Do you think you could make it all the way to Owen Beach? Also, you could have the first drone fly towards you more and possibly double your distance.
Possibly. There's a lot of hills and trees by Owen Beach. I was just trying to get the radius distance. Technically, I could have kept one paired node at Cheney Stadium, hovered the drone around North 25th/Stevens and might have been able to make it close to the Puget Sound (30 something blocks away) for the other paired device. It would be fun to redo this test after including the suggestions made in the comment section of this video.
You guys I was thinking from the time you get in the car why do you think it’s gonna get out of the car? These things are lying to site. The best thing is having an external antenna on top of the car.
drone has constant two way video feed plus constant 2 way controller communication transmitions . that interferes with goTenna big time. U need helium balloon.
We need a external antenna conect and a auxiliary battery connection. And a helium balloon. And we have our imagination to run wild. Open source. Qui qustodis ipsos Custodies.
@@TheUrbanPrepper Yes it will give us the 95% percentile a chance to break free of the oppressive telecommunication company and their control. We support your channel and the intended audience. 👍💪
Your idea is sound. but to get any real (good) range you must, crack it open, and do an antenna mod. also start your test with your test vehicle already very far away. make another video. do another test.
@@TheUrbanPrepper I mean the small ones which cost almost the same as quadcopters. There was one called 'Spacial halo' but don't know what happened to it. You should do a video about these blimp drones.
@@TheUrbanPrepper It's too bad the Pro versions are on a different frequency and don't communicate with the goTenna Mesh. Even at the much higher price point, I'd love to add a couple of the Pro versions to my mesh network. It's just a lot of hoops to jump through to get the license and approvals.
I'm looking at the GoTenna Mesh for a small, neighborhood community of folks who aren't interested in obtaining an FCC license and just want to communicate with their local region during a grid down situation. Something the size of a neighborhood watch group with people of various ages and skill sets.
I imagine a lot of people would prefer to stick with their HAM's or walkie talkies. I am finalizing my full review of these devices, but I can see value in them during a grid down scenario in a smaller, localized region of town. Especially due to the encrypted messaging and pop up mesh network capabilities.
@Dutch Courage goTenna Mesh is a 100% off-grid, mobile, long-range consumer-ready mesh network. That lets you chat privately in 1-to-1 or group conversations, or broadcast to any other goTenna Mesh devices up to several miles or kilometers away all without using towers, routers or satellites.
You were so far ahead of the Meshtastic craze that has currently become bananas.
Just remember that you don't need to keep the drone flying, park the drone on the corner edge of a hirise rooftop to cover 270' of the area you need to communicate in.
I use a small electromagnet so I can put a magnet on payloads and drop them off places / pick them up with minimal messing around. Picking up takes some fluffing at times because it's a DJI so it wants to land on it, but I've since learned to use a plastic rod as a stand off about 18 inches long. I only use it on meshtastics though so if I lose them it's $20, but so far I've managed to have some serious fun with mates across some terrible environments. One thing I want to play with is a DIY drone / balloon combo. It'd be much easier to use a balloon to carry the weight and the drone motors to merely keep it in place. I COULD just use tethers to do that, but I don't want to have to carry three fishing reels and lines everywhere. Either way - unlimited potential for us tinkerers. Shame no companies have the smarts we do!
@@bashkillszombies if you ever do this be sure to share it so we can all see your success
Being inside a car is really, really bad for the signal.
Ask any Ham operator and he will tell you handheld stations are useless in a car.
Yep. We found that out of the first attempt a made the adjustment to relocating it on the roof.
Yes, a car is more or less a Faraday Cage.
@@TheUrbanPrepper Sorry, I did miss that part of the video
That was funny watching him trying to use it tucked under his visor... I want to try this with a cross band repeater HT...
@@sylla2 I thought you commies loved cages?
That would seem like it could have some SOS or emergency application. I know they tried doing this with a GPS device but it never got traction. A balloon filled with enough helium to carry a go tenna could have some potential.
For someone who has absolutely no idea what a GoTenna is, or what it does, this video was surprisingly interesting 🙂
I still have no idea, tho 😀
Haha... Stay tuned for the full review. This is just an expanded section of the testing done in the review.
No one cares what a communist thinks.
Is it possible the drone was creating radio interference? Maybe tethering it a few feet down from the drone would improve performance?
It looks like this definitely has interesting possibilities for sure. As others have mentioned the signal would be relatively poor inside the vehicle but by moving the device outside the vehicle greatly increased the transmitting strength. Very interesting review and test for sure. Thanks for sharing.
Yep. I wanted to include the footage of it working poor when inside the vehicle. I was so focused on getting the production cameras setup right that I wasn't thinking about the Mesh placement as much as I should have. Fortunately, we made the adjustment after Uncle Dan realized where it was located.
This is an outstanding video to get the old wheels a turnin!
You have once again outdone yourself TUP
Great video, I have some and notice the difference with height and antenna placement. I want to make one solar powered and leave in a favorable location.
Completely unrelated, but I just discovered your channel today and binged a lot of stuff for a few hours. I noticed in one of your bag overview videos that you use the same Panasonic earbuds I do, and wanted to let you know that they (and I'm sure a lot of other buds) fit perfectly in an Altoid mini tin. I wrap it around 2 fingers and that makes it the perfect size for the tin.
A fantastic idea. Communications is vital and we often take it for granted. Obviously this system would depend on the battery life of the drone for longer term, but yeah for a momentary 'shedule' or broadcast, this is great. Some good range there too!
Another option would also be to use a balloon of some form or even KITE, with the drone attached (maybe for a scouting/foraging trip etc).
Great job and probably essential in order to determine range at this time.
This absolutely your kinda fun, guys. Tech toys plus research.✌️🇨🇦❤️🙏
We had a fun time playing around with these devices over the weekend.
Next test. 4 nodes. 2 drones. Launch drone at starting point point, then launch drone at end point farther away true relay network
Now THAT would be a fun test! I just need to track down another friend who owns a Drone.
@@TheUrbanPrepper helium balloon. Ur welcome 🤣👍
@@cerciztopulli1065 I've been looking for one! Any recommendations?
RF passes thru plastic. A PVC or ABS upright plastic can atop the vehicle and or a similar atop a structure or peak, may work. Put the node in a window.
Glad to see another fellow prepper in my area! Keep it up!
This was another informative video. I loved it. I really appreciate the hard work you put in.
Thank you do much, Walter! I had over 2 hours of footage and tried to squeeze it down as best as possible. I'm already ready to plan part 2. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
I liked the test, because if under these conditions already had a satisfactory performance, under favorable conditions we can imagine that would be much better...
Greetings from Brazil!
I dont know what most of this tech is...or why it's useful in reality.... but it's good to know what's out there best wishes from England.
Thanks for watching, Nick. Stay tuned for the full review, coming soon.
I wonder how much more range you would have gotten if you have mounted the car node to the top of, say, a 6 foot CB antenna. I bet a few more blocks., Id say.
Good idea! I'm thinking about doing a redo with the suggested improvements.
I like your videos but I think I like the fun you have more! Your videos are very unique and well thought out.
Without reading the other posts....
If you can go 34 blocks, from the 400 ft high node in one direction, one can surmise, you can go 34 blocks the other way. So 68 blocks of coverage with the node in the middle is pretty good. Now imagine a few drones/nodes at 400 ft all working in the mesh. You could blanket a very large area until the batteries run dry easy. At noon all drones lift off to create the vary large area mesh so that many users on the ground can make contact.
That's what I was imagining. It would be pretty sweet, as it would allow EVERYONE to participate in emergency communication (grandparents, kids, etc), as long as they have a device. I'm already planning the second version of the test.
i was thinking about this and going if everyone buys a set of these and hands out their extra one you could build a simple local network of sorts. Then i was like what if everyone DID buy a set but didnt hand out the extra one and just set up their extra ones all around the city would be cool. Like if you have like 10 or 20 friends that all dropped 180 to get these things that would be like 40 relay points to bounce the message around a certain area.
"Ham" in "ham operator/radio" isn't an acronym; it doesn't need to be all caps.
But this was a cool test!
GoTenna Mesh operates in the 902 - 928 MHz range. Being inside a car (mini Faraday cage) will not help. Absolutely need line of sight at those frequencies and yes, even tree limbs will impact it. It's all about the antenna, distance and frequency. HAM guy. Get a HAM license. See Julian's channel - OH8STN
Yep. I was so focused on getting the video production equipment setup for this video that I forgot to include the Mesh outside of the vehicle. It performed much better after we reconfigured it. I've been a big fan of Julian for years now. He features much more advanced COMMS topics.
A lot if the 5g studies they have been doing have shown trees with wet leaves to block 70-90% of the signal. Big fights in England over all the trees they're cutting down- thats at a higher frequency which should actually penetrate better.
That was really awesome dood.
Dude 👍
Good test! Works the same as a radio. Same issues you would have with a radio you will have with this system.
Yep. That was definitely reproduced here. It would be fun to try this test after making a few improvements.
In the the video I noticed that the Gotenna was mounted on the underside of the metal roof rack. Which will degrade the signal.
Always make sure the Gotenna is away from your body and away from metal objects.
From a mountain top I was able to communicate 30 miles without a relay. I’ve also relayed messages through 5 gotenna mesh units in mixed terrain while camping where there was no cellular signal. It even out performed my VHF/UHF ham radio gear since there were no local ham repeaters in that area.
Thanks for the commend, James. We're going to retest this scenario with two drones to get an accurate air to air reading. Would you recommending having the Mesh dangle from the drones using a string to avoid it being connected to the drone itself? I believe that the drone legs are plastic, so perhaps it's not as much of an issue.
Could you used 2 drones person 1 to drone 1 to drone 2 to to other person.?
This is the first time I herd of the Antenna mesh
Interesting test!
I was wondering if the electromagnetic radiation from the drone was interfering with the gotenna..
Great test, I was wondering the same thing, using something to get some elevation. Curious how far is 34 blocks in a unit of measure?
It was about 2 miles for us (34 blocks). Keep in mind, it was lightly sprinkling and there were trees in the line of sight, so we could probably do a little better in a better environment. So theoretically, I could have put the other paired Mesh 34 blocks from the Drone as well. Then we would have had 4 miles distance between the two paired Meshes, along the same straight path road, that is.
super cool idea! Well done!
Because physics! 😀
As we were driving around I was thinking "I wish I had OH8STN on the line as a lifeline" during this test. Regardless, we had a fun time playing around with these last weekend.
@@TheUrbanPrepper if it was fun, you probably learned something. 😊👍
Hey!! OH8STN brother how are you doing. 👋🏾👍🏽
Cool experiment!! Thanks Cliff!!
Thanks for watching!
Would be really cool for a relay for drone co trol if you could connect the mesh to the drones signal
That WOULD be cool. Not sure how to do that though.
GoTenna is just the tip ... when they figure out a way to create an app on peoples phones that works as nodes or relays we will all benefit ... but the big cell companies don’t want us to have the ability
That would be awesome and totally doable. I agree; the companies won't want that though until they can figure out a way to make money off of it.
briar messenger for andoid has a unique encripted forum sync when one device recives message it syncs to the next and so on. supports bluetooth wifi and tor internet routing and free .. bridgefy supports ios and andoid cross platform messages not as robust as briar but claims to do mesh hops via bluetooth
please do 2 hops by 2 separate drones and publish drone to drone range. can confirm either DJI cheap drones can lift gotenna easily. Or Walmart sells a helium tank and decent balloons for$20
I will. Planning it out now. I need to get a second drone and good airspace.
We're planning the double drone text now!
There are some hams who have just about perfected a tethered drone technology that would allow semi-permanent installations. Heard about it on this podcast. Click on the drone photo for more info!
Great test, that was very useful.
Thanks for watching! We had a lot of fun playing around with this configuration.
So I'm just discovering this product and I'm trying to understand. This is just for short range communication correct, like I can't put one on my roof and text someone in europe.
Keep in mind, signals/ frequency..
Have a height, for efficiency.. = SOME travel close the ground, some are going to work at greater heights...
I'd try at just over the taller tree tops..
= just high enough to clear trees and buildings...
Cliff, thank you for doing this test. What if you take a second drone and attach a mesh node to it and fly it in between you and the other drone. Do you think you could make it all the way to Owen Beach? Also, you could have the first drone fly towards you more and possibly double your distance.
Possibly. There's a lot of hills and trees by Owen Beach. I was just trying to get the radius distance. Technically, I could have kept one paired node at Cheney Stadium, hovered the drone around North 25th/Stevens and might have been able to make it close to the Puget Sound (30 something blocks away) for the other paired device. It would be fun to redo this test after including the suggestions made in the comment section of this video.
You guys I was thinking from the time you get in the car why do you think it’s gonna get out of the car? These things are lying to site. The best thing is having an external antenna on top of the car.
metal car == faraday cage
drone has constant two way video feed plus constant 2 way controller communication transmitions .
that interferes with goTenna big time.
U need helium balloon.
try meshtastic instead. i personally tested mine in a city with both radio @2m high and i got 3km easy.
@0:55 Plutonium Drone powers up and my Jack Russell takes off across the room in semi-fear and attack mode.
Maybe try a real meshtastic board?
I wanna take one apart and hook the guts up to a real antenna. Or maybe even attach one to a balloon...
RF will go through glass, and probably not metal. And how reliable are solar panels near the WA coast?
Solar panels are completely reliable here. Access to the sun is not.
LOL! Fernbark is correct. :)
An amorphous solar panel - as opposed to monocrystalline - will yield less overall power but will work better on cloudy/overcast conditions
PRINGLES CAN antenna. use it like a shotgun wifi antenna
We need a external antenna conect and a auxiliary battery connection. And a helium balloon. And we have our imagination to run wild. Open source. Qui qustodis ipsos Custodies.
Love it! I think the COMMS folks could really do all sorts of cool things with these with just a few minor tweeks.
@@TheUrbanPrepper Yes it will give us the 95% percentile a chance to break free of the oppressive telecommunication company and their control. We support your channel and the intended audience. 👍💪
Your car is attenuating the signal between the devices. You need real device to device line of sight
If this is murs, maybe there was interference with wifi of the drone, who knows. It would be cool to try a helium balloon.
The original version was MURS. This one is in the 33-centimeter (902-928 MHz) band portion of the UHF radio spectrum.
@@TheUrbanPrepper Thanks, I saw it on the other video after I commented.
I Am Legend! What a great movie. Love Will Smith. He sometimes, come to Philly to his home in Villanova, a few blocks from my property!!! Great guy.
So how far was 34 blocks
A little less than 3 miles from what I remember.
No Honda Element anymore?
Yes. It's my commuter car. I used our family car so I could go hands free with the phone call for this video.
A lot of work just to extend the network lol.
34 blocks. How about distance.
The passenger in this video is by far the smartest guy in the video
Your idea is sound. but to get any real (good) range you must, crack it open, and do an antenna mod. also start your test with your test vehicle already very far away. make another video. do another test.
You could get over an hour in a blimp.
True! I'm going to contact Goodyear for the next version.
@@TheUrbanPrepper I mean the small ones which cost almost the same as quadcopters. There was one called 'Spacial halo' but don't know what happened to it. You should do a video about these blimp drones.
How about a weather balloon?
@@tomweir2039 way better!
Test out of car!
This is so useful and would be so beneficial in a grid down situation. The govt. should contract you for development of this tech.
They're pretty fun for a consumer grade product. The GoTenna Mesh Pro is even better for government use.
@@TheUrbanPrepper It's too bad the Pro versions are on a different frequency and don't communicate with the goTenna Mesh. Even at the much higher price point, I'd love to add a couple of the Pro versions to my mesh network. It's just a lot of hoops to jump through to get the license and approvals.
What licenses are required for the goTenna pro?
Just get a hamm radio
I'm looking at the GoTenna Mesh for a small, neighborhood community of folks who aren't interested in obtaining an FCC license and just want to communicate with their local region during a grid down situation. Something the size of a neighborhood watch group with people of various ages and skill sets.
RF energy/propagation...GTS
Not worth the $200 price tag 🤷♂️. Idk
Buahahahaha. LOS can be impeded significantly by, I don't know, the shell of a vehicle!!. Hilarious
Stick to ham radios
For the price I’d rather have a true receiver or walki-talki
wrong
I've only just started watching the video but I imagine he's testing this because at some point, there may be no receiver towers working.
I imagine a lot of people would prefer to stick with their HAM's or walkie talkies. I am finalizing my full review of these devices, but I can see value in them during a grid down scenario in a smaller, localized region of town. Especially due to the encrypted messaging and pop up mesh network capabilities.
You are testing a what ? ... is this the new rage for grown up male adults that gets them to 'play outside' even when the weather is poor ?
@Dutch Courage goTenna Mesh is a 100% off-grid, mobile, long-range consumer-ready mesh network. That lets you chat privately in 1-to-1 or group conversations, or broadcast to any other goTenna Mesh devices up to several miles or kilometers away all without using towers, routers or satellites.