FPV Equipment discussion

[tovrin]

I want to open the discussion on what equipment is best for different situations.

1. what the tiniest Camera and TX setup? i have a hubsan X4 i want to mount a FPV setup too, Ive seen the 808 keyfob cameras, but i remember someone posting something smaller before, a sony CCD i believe.
2. whats the best setup for range? lots of people talk about different antenna, some home made, some with great ground station platforms that track your bird, etc.

3. is a monitor better or goggles for FPV, i have heard both, but it seems that a monitor would be safer so you can keep a visual on your bird while FPV-ing.

I'm sure there is many more questions i havent though of yet, so i will post what i do know.

gopro video out for fpv


FPV antenna video


this guy has a nice groundstation build


a ground station that tracks your plane and moves the antenna to face it





great video series on FPV

thats all i got for now, i hope this starts a lengthy discussion so i can make my purchases wisely!

[scrat]

First you must decide what you want to use. Is that FPV googles or monitor.

[tovrin]

I figured i would go with a setup that connects to a monitor, maybe pick up some goggles later. seems smarter to me.

[scrat]

I have started to fly fpv one month ago and with googles. For me it's better. LCD monitor is not so good if you have a lot of sun.

[crashlander]

IMO and experience googles are the only real thing! Absolutely necessary for proximity or otherwise precise flying.
Monitor is always too small/dim and it cowers too small FOV.
I also switched from 5.8GHz to 1.2GHz for behind the trees and bush flying.

Regards
Andrej

[NikTheGreek]

talking for googles....have you seen those ?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Virtual-Private-Cinema-Theater-Digital-Video-Eyewear-Glassess-52-Wide-Screen-with-Earphone-free-shipping-wholesale/727817556.html

[crashlander]

@NikTheGreek
sad part about those cheap (or better not so expensive) goggles is resolution (320*240).
Have not tried lo-res goggles but IMO those are useless for our purpose.

Regards
Andrej

[rbirdie001]

talking for googles....have you seen those ?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Virtual-Private-Cinema-Theater-Digital-Video-Eyewear-Glassess-52-Wide-Screen-with-Earphone-free-shipping-wholesale/727817556.html

Hi,
I have very similar ones from Hobbyking and they are so-so useable, but not very good. Disadvantages are:
1) Small visual angle (you feel like of you are watching small screen at the end of a tunnel. Difficult to see details.)
2) Small brightness and no protection against ambient light. (You have to build them into e.g. ski gogles to be able use them in the sun, still image is quitedark and colours are not very bright.)
3) Fixed distance between eyes - if you have wider face (like me), you can't see well with both eyes. (One image is good and the other distorted.)
4) 320x240 resolution, but this is surprisingly not the biggest problem - image is quite sharp and even OSD numbers are readable.
Conclusion - you can use them, but it's not much pleasure. I tried to use them for one year and at the end I bought FatShark base. (But they also have downside: Image in the corners isn't sharp.)
I hope it will help.
Regards
Roman

[rbirdie001]

Guys, also I have question to discuss:
what radio would you recommed to buy for medium distance FPV? I'm not planning to fly over 1km distance but I need really reliable link. I have bad experience with 2.4GHz Spektrum DX6i and even my second 35MHz radio isn't perfect for FPV. With Spectrum I crashed many times for lost control (e.g. when I got behind my back and TX was transmitting through my body). Then I started using 35MHz, this is better than Spectrum but still I yesterday crashed when I got (just a little) behind the horizont in distance of 220m. I lost RC control while I still had 200mW/5.8GHz video link! Also 35MHz antennas are uncomfortably big...
I don't want to spend much on it but in the other hand I don't want to buy again something like Spektrum.
Telemetry would be nice but if the system is cheap, not 100% necessary.
Thanks for ideas!
Roman

[scrat]

Guys, also I have question to discuss:
what radio would you recommed to buy for medium distance FPV? I'm not planning to fly over 1km distance but I need really reliable link. I have bad experience with 2.4GHz Spektrum DX6i and even my second 35MHz radio isn't perfect for FPV. With Spectrum I crashed many times for lost control (e.g. when I got behind my back and TX was transmitting through my body). Then I started using 35MHz, this is better than Spectrum but still I yesterday crashed when I got (just a little) behind the horizont in distance of 220m. I lost RC control while I still had 200mW/5.8GHz video link! Also 35MHz antennas are uncomfortably big...
I don't want to spend much on it but in the other hand I don't want to buy again something like Spektrum.
Telemetry would be nice but if the system is cheap, not 100% necessary.
Thanks for ideas!
Roman

With FrSky gear you can get more then 1.5km.

[crashlander]

Guys, also I have question to discuss:
what radio would you recommed to buy for medium distance FPV? I'm not planning to fly over 1km distance but I need really reliable link. I have bad experience with 2.4GHz ......
Thanks for ideas!
Roman

With pair of APC802_43 one burned Atmega8 ESC or ProMini (and some soldering) you can build 433 MSP TX that you can connect to your DX6 (I believe it is same as DX7) and you will get really robust system for less than 100EUR. Later you can add receivers based on APC220 (40$ pair).
Less soldering with OpenLRS...

Regards
Andrej

[PatrikE]

@rbirdie001

I have had almost same experience.
No problem when flying LOS with my quad.
When i added FPV gear on it and started to fly around, my Frsky started to warn about rssi at <100 meters.
*FW450
*Tgy plush 25A.
*cheap RcTimer 1100kv motors.

On 2 meters Altitude.
At 150 meter I lost control and had to take a walk over the meadow.
Videolink 5.8 was crystal clear laying in the grass.

After a LOT of tests...
HiGH Gain antenna on TX was almost worse!
Switched between 5.8 & 1.3 vtx No difference.
Tested OpenLRS with sander antenna reached 170meter....
should go +2km with no problem....

Separate power to RX was the cure after several days of headache.
The power from the Esc took out the receivers!

Afterwards i made a bec with a 7805 and 2 electrolyte Caps.
Now the TX don't make a single beep at +200 meter.
I haven't really tested total range but i'm sure The power from my esc's is not clean enough!

I know i will always use a separate bec in future!...
A cheap insurance even if you buy it.

/Patrik

[rbirdie001]

Hi!
Thanks for oppinions, I think I'll buy Hobbyking orange OpenLRS modules and start playing with them. I'm only afraid, that it's another developement project and I have big talent for finding faults or having troubles with projects which for most people work fine .
BTW (Patrik and Andrej, you are both here) my airplane RTH PID still not work well (height control) so I decided to work for a while on my multicopter, but there I found several troubles with I2C GPS (some general but some unique just for me...) so I'm little discouraged for another developement, but anyway I think I'll try it with OpenLRS...
Roman

[crashlander]

@PatrikE & rbirdie001
With my before-mentioned configuration (TX APC802, RX APC220) I always lose video (on 5.8G or 1.2G) before control. My flying stile is low but not slow and control goes beyond 400m when I'm only 1 to 2m high (even behind trees, bush or high corn field and power-lines). When I was using 2.4G for TX-RX the video outreached control by fair amount...

Regards
Andrej

[rbirdie001]

Hi Patrik and Andrej,
today I got my Orange Open LRS TX + RX. After first quick test with stock firmware it works but again there is a mystery. I bought "Futaba" version TX http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=40032 and installed it into my old (originally 35MHz) Hitec Optic 6. It works BUT only when trainer switch is UP. This sounds normally because people ofter use trainer switch to hack radio to output PPM on trainer port. But this is not my case! My radio is unmodified and LRS module plugged regular way onto pins, where 35MHz module used to be (and works again with trainer switch down, when replugged). Here on pin 1 radio outputs PPM when trainer switch is DOWN (normal state) and doesn't output anything (just log.1) when trainer is UP. I checked it with the oscilloscope and it's exactly like this! But in UP position I CAN control servos on RX and in normal DOWN position NOT.
Where Orange module gets valid PPM signal when it's not on pin 1 where it should be and why it doesn't read it when it's there
There is only one more pin not clean to me - pin 3 which should signalize to radio that HF output is present so maybe it have some role here
I'll make extending connector between Radio and TX module, get from work better scope and I hope to discover it, but for now it's a BIG MYSTERY (One of many in my life )
Any ideas?
Roman

[scrat]

Hi Patrik and Andrej,
today I got my Orange Open LRS TX + RX. After first quick test with stock firmware it works but again there is a mystery. I bought "Futaba" version TX http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/stor ... duct=40032 and installed it into my old (originally 35MHz) Hitec Optic 6. It works BUT only when trainer switch is UP. This sounds normally because people ofter use trainer switch to hack radio to output PPM on trainer port. But this is not my case! My radio is unmodified and LRS module plugged regular way onto pins, where 35MHz module used to be (and works again with trainer switch down, when replugged). Here on pin 1 radio outputs PPM when trainer switch is DOWN (normal state) and doesn't output anything (just log.1) when trainer is UP. I checked it with the oscilloscope and it's exactly like this! But in UP position I CAN control servos on RX and in normal DOWN position NOT.
Where Orange module gets valid PPM signal when it's not on pin 1 where it should be and why it doesn't read it when it's there
There is only one more pin not clean to me - pin 3 which should signalize to radio that HF output is present so maybe it have some role here
I'll make extending connector between Radio and TX module, get from work better scope and I hope to discover it, but for now it's a BIG MYSTERY (One of many in my life )
Any ideas?
Roman

Flash this Tx and Rx LRS from hobbyking with this FW and you'll be good: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1782034 and http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1778553

[brewski]

Pretty scary what FAA have done in USA & we all know that most Aviation Authorities follow FAA. FAA has basically banned all FPV & placed tighter restrictions on all RC flying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYs815t ... e=youtu.be

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-uni ... l-vehicles

follow the link , sign the petition on the right side of the page


http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitC...2014-0396-0001
type in FAA-2014-0396 in search field