I know this is a rather old discussion thread, but I wanted to thank you for the link you posted on the 868 MHz antenna design. Mostly useful and appreciated !!!
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Hello Meshtastic Antenna Folk ! …
My name is Ronald Davis … I am a Mechanical Engineer … My partner Ronald Westberg is an antenna engineer … We plan on developing several MiMo / Multi-in / Multi-out antennas … We believe that their in the area of directional point to point antennas that there an open gap that our antennas can fill but we need feedback from the community to determine if this is correct …
The 1st antenna that is under development is a 400/900/1575 multi-band antenna that has a beam of ~ 60 Deg x 15 Deg … It will have at least 6 dbi … It will be about 4 in x 5 in & will be made of PCB material …
The 2nd antenna will be a 4 element phased array 400/900/1575 multi-band antenna with 12 dbi gain & very narrow beam … This one will be aimed at backhaul / point to point … This will be for mesh expansion projects where “can’t fail in inclement weather” us a must …
I have discovered a 2.4 Ghz Lora radio … I expect 5.9 Ghz radios will come about as well … So the next antenna will be a 1.575/2.4/5.9 Ghz MiMo antenna …
So my question to the community is do people see a need for special purposed antennas like these because I am seeing a lot of vertical antennas being used at this point …
Ronalds,
Your expertise on antenna design will be welcome, but as the Meshtastic radios are (mostly) using their regional ISM frequencies, 433, 868 & 915 MHz, there’s no need for multi-band antennae.
I’ve had some informal success with vertical wire colinear in plastic tube, and also bi-quad wire with sheetmetal reflector. I mean to test that further with bi-quad wire ‘reflector’ and maybe even ‘director’ for lightweight and low cost build. Styrofoam should be low loss enough for element spacing.
Keen to see a few easy-to-build designs:)
73
Greg
VK2GTH
Greg,
To say their is no need for a MiMo antenna I believe would be incorrect … It means that it would be universal so
that it can be paired with any radio …
Please help me here … Do the current Lora radios have built in GPS or is it a separate antenna ? … Our current
design is for a dual output antenna … Either a 433 / 868 + a separative output for 1.575 / GPS & a Either a 433 /
915 + a separative output for 1.575 / GPS …
The dual Frequency means that no matter if you connect it to 433 / 868 / 915 the antennas will always work …
This will allow for an increased volume of antennas to reduce costs …
Please give me your thoughts …
-ronald davis , Mechanical Engineer , KK6AFE
| greghall-au
March 16 |
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Ronalds,
Your expertise on antenna design will be welcome, but as the Meshtastic radios are (mostly) using their regional ISM frequencies, 433, 868 & 915 MHz, there’s no need for multi-band antennae.
I’ve had some informal success with vertical wire colinear in plastic tube, and also bi-quad wire with sheetmetal reflector. I mean to test that further with bi-quad wire ‘reflector’ and maybe even ‘director’ for lightweight and low cost build. Styrofoam should be low loss enough for element spacing.
Keen to see a few easy-to-build designs:)
73
Greg
VK2GTH
Ronald,
Some of the compatible devices have a GPS with ‘ceramc chip’ antenna, others rely on the GPS in the connected client device, typ. phone. They do not usually have a coax connector for ext GPS ant., nor is it requured fir this simple level of service.
As I understand antenna design, multi frequency operation will always come at the cost of gain, unless the multis are harmonics of course. The 433/868 should be a reasonable match.
73
Greg
Greg ,
The typical gain in the multi in multi out multi frequency PC board antennas is six dbi … Because of the tuning, there is no sacrifice in gain … The size of these antennas will be about 4“ x 4“ …
We also plan to do a four element phase array that is very highly directional for backhaul … The average gain of this antenna is 12 dbi …
We were thinking about doing a 2.4 / 5.9 Antenna because we have seen 2.4 GHz Lora radios coming out …
-ron
Ron,
These sound good. The LibreMesh community WiFi folks will be especially interested in the 2.4/5.8GHz antennae.
Meshtastic however is 433/868/915MHz. There is some straight LORA activity on 2.4GHz, but we use the lower freqs for better range, so this should be your focus on this forum.
What do you expect the selling price of these to be, assuming that you have them made in quantity by a PCB foundry?
In the spirit of Open Source, do you intend to publish the Gerbers for these PCB antennae?
73
Greg
I use this PCB antenna from Amphenol (EU 868Mhz) in my “black boxes” and I’m very happy with it
https://www.mouser.ch/ProductDetail/Amphenol-MCP/PIOV008NRAA-100?qs=GedFDFLaBXFCaCiGvxFhnA%3D%3D
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