Connecting a remote ground station/ Ubiquity

[irowe]

Okay so the last couple of times that we have run flights with Ubiquity M5 modems, we have lost connection about 20 minutes into the flight. I think there are a few things that we need to do to fix this, but I need to figure out how exactly to do this. Here are my questions.

For the remote connection: How can one connect to the payload modem with a laptop/modem at the launch site to feed the stream to the internet, then connect a ground station modem down the road and continue the stream? I can't seem to wrap my head around how this handoff occurs. Perhaps someone could show me the correct order of operations for connecting things, and say if any settings need to be changed. So far we have only been using ground stations at the launch site.

For the range/power output for the modems: How can I adjust these settings for maximum range? Also, will this affect testing at close range? I have been told we cannot test within 20 feet if the power or whatever is turned up. 

Here are the settings for my ground station M5: 

Here are the settings for my payload M5:

Thank you so, so much for your help.

[leviw]

Those look like the default settings as far as I can see. The tx power is turned up to max on both and there isn't much you can do to the modems to increase the range.

I expect the real problem is that your dish isn't aimed at the payload accurately enough. As the payload rises, the distance grows and the signal becomes weaker until it just can't maintain the connection anymore. We have been fighting with this problem as well and in our case, we believe it's caused by accuracy problems caused by the IMU or tracking software.

We have been working on our own tracking software in an attempt to debug and improve the pointing accuracy, but it isn't ready to release yet. Maybe someone else will chime in with better advice here.