help with antena for wireless camera system
I just bought a wireless camera system for my car. (http://4ucam.com/Wireless-Backup-Cam...ht-Vision.html). It is designed to help with hooking up a trailer to a truck and it is doing the job well for that. However I tried to put the camera in the trailer to keep an eye on the horse and adding the extra distance, induced a big lost of quality (scrolling lines, lost of image etc) to the point that it is pretty much unwatchable. So I have a two questions,
1) would buying a stronger/better antenna for the receiver increase the quality and image reception ? If so what would you suggest. Because the signal is always going to be from the back of the truck to the front would a directional antenna make a difference ?
2) I have an old antenna for a CB radio. Could that one be adapted to the receiver or could such a big antenna damage the receiver ?
Thank you for you help,
JP
Yes, a better antenna (one with more gain) to replace both that at the transmitter and that at the receiver would improve reception and therefore the image.
A directional antenna will have more gain than an omni-directional one.
However, I have no idea where you might find suitable antennas for that frequency (2.4GHz)
No, c.b. is on an entirely different band and can't be modified for 2.4GHz.
Most of the antennas for wifi router are 2.4Ghz. So they are all over e-bay.
I'm going to try one for the receiver. unfortunately the camera's antenna can't be changed. I guess the higher dB the better.
Thank you
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Stupid question maybe, If I get a stronger antenna would I also increase the risk to catch interference ?
If you can get a directional antenna the risk of additional interference arises only if the antenna points towards a source of interference. That's one of its advantages.
Yo can certainly experiment with antennas but for your application on a truck or a long car, adjusting directional antennas can be tricky and disappointing.
I would rather recommend to try to run a twin-lead cable (used for UHF TV) with a loop on each end, one coupled to the camera antenna, the other with the receiving antenna. The twin lead cable offers a lower loss that the free-space propagation, the only important condition is that you should mount it so that it would not lay directly on conducting (metal) surfaces. There are special mounts for it, a wire loop carrying a plastic disk into which you insert the twin lead cable.
*** luck!
Yes, a brilliant idea!
Good Idea but the whole point of buying the system was the fact that it is wireless. And there is a few walls to cross between the truck and the trailer.
Thank you though
The twin lead can be run on vehicle surface or passed through suitable openings or under the vehicle body. The transmission line of this kind is of very low cost as well as low-loss (3-6 dB over ~10 m). Over ~10 meters distance, the free-space loss
is>90 dB. So decide for yourself what makes a better sense.