Author Topic: I need more power or a bigger antenna  (Read 4559 times)

Offline rjhodgefamily

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I need more power or a bigger antenna
« on: December 08, 2015, »
You can insert your own Tool Time grunts if you want but I need to figure out a way to boost the power for my wireless transmitter. So I run the light show for the entire cul-de-sac 13 houses in total. We use a version 2 TX/RX and every year things have expanded this year we have finally completed the loop including the 4 houses right in front of us.

I have a small problem though the houses farthest away in particular the 4 in front of the cul-de-sac often seem to have intermittent signal issues. In particular when a car drives by or what not. So we are trying to figure out if there is an easy way for this year to boost the power or use an external antenna. We are looking at reconfiguring for next year to possibly place the TX/RX  in a better location. Unfortunately not possible this year.

Because a picture says more than a thousand words I have added a map with box locations for our neighborhood. Let me know what you think.

Map Legend
Red Square - TX/RX and Etherdongle about 20 feet in the tree
Yellow Square - EX/RX version 2 attached to version 5 LE
Purple Square - version 5 LE hardwired to nearest EX/RX
Green Area - Sometimes glitches and freezes
Blue Area - Regularly  glitches and freezes

Thanks again for any help.

Offline jnealand

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2015, »
I think you should be looked at using multiple Raspberry Pis using the Falcon player in multisync.  You will have much better luck.
Jim Nealand
Kennesaw, GA

Offline tbone321

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #2 on: December 08, 2015, »
How exactly is the multiple PI in multisync going to help?  You still need to find a way to transmit the sync signal across the street and going this way will require a whole lot of equipment.  Sure, if in the future the multiple houses go with RGB and thousands of channels then that would be the way to go but for a handful of LE's ......  There really are only two ways to deal with this.  One is to raise the height of both the transmitter and the receivers on the other side of the street.  The other is to add a second transmitter and put it on one of the properties directly across the street from the ones having issues and again, make sure that the transmitter is high enough so as not to be blocked by traffic.  Just set the second transmitter and the 4 receivers across the street to a different channel.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline bisquit476

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #3 on: December 08, 2015, »
Is it possible to use a 2nd TX/RX running off the DMX out of an LE? If need be, use one of the other 2 channels to transmit a seperate frequency?

Offline rjhodgefamily

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2015, »
Ok so it may be possible for me to get a second tx/rx unit I have a board and most of the parts to build one. Just missing the TX/RX chip. I was going to use this part: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login as a replacement for the TX/RX module. It was referenced in this post as a possible replacement. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login But then there was never any follow ups that I saw that said if it really worked. So never actually purchased one.

As far as channels how do you set the TX/RX and the EX/RX to a different channel? Is that just changing the uni jumper? And if I change those do I need to change how the lights get broadcast? And how do I get the signal to the new TX/RX across the road?

Offline tbone321

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2015, »
I don't know if that part will work or not.  You may be better off putting in a request to buy in the buy / sell forum for another TX/RX unit.  I have seen a few people selling them.  The unit jumper is the channel that it is transmitting on.  You are probably set to channel 1.  If you get another transmitter, set it to channel 3 or unit 3 and change all of the ex/rx units to channel 3 as well.  There is no need to change how anything is broadcast other than changing the channel number on the selected ex/rx units.  I doubt that you would need a TX/RX on the other side of the street, just put it on one of those corner properties and it should work.  Simply connect it to the DMX output 2 jack on one of the LE's and it will transmit the signal across the street.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline rjhodgefamily

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2015, »
Well we got that sucker a good 40 feet into the tree and seems to be helping a fair amount. Not sure how I am going to get it down but hey I have a month to worry about that. Next year we will look into adding the extra TX/RX box.

Thanks Everyone!!!

Offline tbone321

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Re: I need more power or a bigger antenna
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2015, »
Your welcome and have a great holiday season.  Don't forget to post a few vids of the display.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving