Venturing in to FPV

[Younggun]

Jumped up a bit with a more powerful Vtx, better Tx antenna, better camera.

Mounted it in a Parkzone T-28. It's typically made for flying within a couple hundred yards. I have a slower plane that would be a better option except I removed it's receiver with self leveling ability and put it in this one. Give me a chance to flip a switch and pull the goggles if I were to lose video without worrying where the plane is crashing.

The antenna for the plane receiver isn't really in a good spot. Lots of metal push rods around it, not really an issue for the plane when flown in its normal radius of a couple hundred yards. The controller has plenty of power to get the signal through.

I set up the FPV with my primary goal of not causing the plane to fly funky and crash, and just get it set up so I could test the new camera. The video TX is only about an inch away from the planes Rx, blasting it with video signals. Not on the same frequency, but that close it still has an effect.

By any real standard this is a pretty terrible way to set things up. But I figured I could fine tune later.

I was able to fly out to around 1,000 yards. At that point I noticed control of the plane was starting to get a little glitchy. Flipped it to auto leveling mode to turn around so it wouldn't crash in during the short lapses in signal. The video was still clear. Once I got turned around I caught some static. It seems it was an issue when I was in the "shadow" created by the motor blocking the signal from the video Tx. Can reduce the effect by moving the Vtx further from the motor.

Brought it back and landed uneventfully.

With a few changes to the setup I should be able to easily get more range out of my Tx, as of now I can see further than I can fly. Will get on google earth later for a better estimate of the distance flow.




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[orbitup]

Do you land it with the googles too?

 

[Younggun]

Yeah. It seems to happen a lot faster with the goggles than when I'm watching it come in. Still not good at it, not good at judging distance yet.


I could set it to auto level and pull the goggles to land, but where the fun in that. And it seems like it would be weird to switch mind sets mid flight. Not a huge issue, but you get in the zone.


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[Younggun]

My biggest fear is crashing in to myself.


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[orbitup]

My biggest fear is crashing in to myself.


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You'll have to wait until you can record to do that.

 

[Younggun]

Lol.


I could set the apprentice up to use the GoPro, but it has to be mounted under the plane and I'm not ready to do that yet.


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[Younggun]

Google earth measures it at .65 miles at the furthest point, but control was hit and miss at that point so id say .6 miles would be considered a safer range with the current set up.


Should be a little further once the humidity drops. It eats up the video signal and the control signal to a lesser degree.

Will have to solder up some extensions for the camera and video transmitter so I can move it, and route the receiver antenna away from the pushrods and servo wires and see where that gets me.


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[Younggun]

Been doing some research.

If I want to go further I will need to upgrade to a 7+ channel receiver. They are built for larger planes and have better antennas and filtering.

That will cost me my auto leveling, non of the other receivers include it as its meant to aid in training. It can be replaced with a flight control board. That with GPS, compass, and on screen display (imagine HUD in aircraft) will run about $250 and require a channel or two on the remote for choosing flight mode.

Working on building a pan/tilt rig for the camera so I can look around while flying. Otherwise it's like driving a car and having all the windows blacked out except a 1' square in front of the steering wheel. That requires to channels so I'd need an 8 channel transmitter.

Looking at about $600 total.

Might be possible to get by on the 6ch if I give up the ability to tilt the camera and only pan. Not sure as the information for the flight control board isn't very clear on channels required.


Seems I've hit the $$$ wall.


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[orbitup]

You wouldn't really need to tilt anyway I would think.

 

[Younggun]

Tilt is for up and down, not as in side to side.

It's nice to look up if coming out of a dive or in a sharp turn, or to be able to look more down when landing.


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[orbitup]

Tilt is for up and down, not as in side to side.

It's nice to look up if coming out of a dive or in a sharp turn, or to be able to look more down when landing.


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I know what tilt is

You wouldn't be able to look down much with the cowling in the way. Not where you have it mounted now anyway.

 

[Younggun]

Not much, but a little bit is nice. It would mostly be for looking ahead while banked over to turn. Or I could play with mounting below the plane.


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[Texan-in-Training]

I'm not a FPV guy, but I saw this elsewhere and thought it might be enjoyed here.

 

[W5LF]

I use a Typhoon H as I can record very definition movies, or stop in one place and take some very good stills. I use it for fun, and checking out places to hunt without venturing into the area. I keep it at 400ft altitude and the video is good enough to map all or most trails and such. I brought it down once out of interest and found the biggest rub/scrape I have seen out where I hunt (Terlingua). FYI, I use the Typhoon H as its a Hexacopter and my last crash (Phantom 4) resulted in the death march to the dumpster after one motor loss. Oops!