Tried my first fpv flight with my t-rex 450 today and it was sooooooo differcult.
I put the Fatshark goggles on my girlfriend yesterday and flew for a couple of minutes just to be sure the video link worked and she said it work just fine.
Tried myself today and was not as impressed.
I consider myself quite good in general flying but with the glasses on i´m completely lost.
It might be the bad camera i´m using because on my first try i almosed flew into a tree 100 meters away but removed the goggles and saved it.
On my second try i crashed after about 5-10 seconds straight down.
I know that if the picture had been better and if i could fully trust what i see it would be so much easier but as it is now there´s just no way to pull this off!
It might be easier to move the camera back a bit and use the landing gear as a reference!?
The pictures shows before and after
and the setup is pretty temporary to try this out.
Any suggestions for a good camera?
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(11-28-2010 09:22 PM)Gadget Wrote: [ -> ]Tried my first fpv flight with my t-rex 450 today and it was sooooooo differcult.
I put the Fatshark goggles on my girlfriend yesterday and flew for a couple of minutes just to be sure the video link worked and she said it work just fine.
Tried myself today and was not as impressed.
I consider myself quite good in general flying but with the glasses on i´m completely lost.
It might be the bad camera i´m using because on my first try i almosed flew into a tree 100 meters away but removed the goggles and saved it.
On my second try i crashed after about 5-10 seconds straight down.
I know that if the picture had been better and if i could fully trust what i see it would be so much easier but as it is now there´s just no way to pull this off!
It might be easier to move the camera back a bit and use the landing gear as a reference!?
The pictures shows before and after and the setup is pretty temporary to try this out.
Any suggestions for a good camera?
FPV flying on a heli is the hardest in my opinion. My first FPV flight was with a trex 250! I flew the thing after being very cautious but you know what I didnt like it because it required so much concentration that it just didnt make it fun. After that I took what I learnt from that flight (which was a lot) and now Im moving my FPV project to my new quadcopter. I bought this quad just for FPV because it has several advantages which are:
- Flight times are 25minutes
- stability is much better,
- nothing is made out of carbon fibre (which was an issue I experianced when using 5.8ghz at the time).
-I have a lot more room to mount my tx rx etc on, spaced out without interfferring with gps
-functions like gps-position hold and coming home are useful for things like aerial photography and recovery when loosing orientation
-Simple structure and the only moving parts on this thing are the motors+props (less moving parts = less problems especially after a crash), this also means its dead easy to repair.
-It can handle a lot of payload compared to helis (My trex250 could handle a maximum of 150g extra payload) but my mk l4-me which is 3cm longer can handle 700grams
-If you can fly a CP heli you can fly this
I origionally didnt like the look of these quads etc but I couldent dismiss the advantages, you get over its looks quickly when you realise your far better off.
What camera do you have at the moment? I dont recognise it, but I would recommend getting either the sn555 or kx131 as they seem to be the most accepted cams amongst fpv'ers. Also im not sure about other fpv flyers but I find a lot of the video quality is lost in the goggles. When I look at the video on my tv it looks very respectable quality compared to what I see on my goggles.
Also something to note is FPV flying takes real getting used to, on my first flights I got dizzy from flying the thing lol so just keep at it and make changes to what you learnt on those flights if needed.
Hi Gadget
I agree with Malcr001. Flying 3D helis FPV is somewhat difficult. They are designed and built to perform insane tricks are as such are very powerful and twichy. I would first tame the machine down a little with dual rates and some expo. Make it fly more scale like. Make sure your pitch/throttle curve is not too agressive also.
If you want that helicopter feel, but in an easy to fly package, you cant go wrong with a quadcopter. They are easy to fly, are stable and can move quite fast if you want them to. Quads don't suffer vibrations like heli do. And like Malcr001 said, they can carry alot of gear. I am having lots of fun FPV flying my gaui 330x-s.
best of luck
Thanks for the tips.
The camera is a crappy camera from an electronics store and i´m not sure how big of a difference it is from a quality one but i might just try.
The reason i choosed the 450 is because it´s pretty cheap to crash and is far less dangerous from my 600ESP.
Maybe i should try using the helicommand!?
I was also thinkin about an easy star but my girlfriend is hard to convince...
(11-29-2010 05:34 AM)Gadget Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks for the tips.
The camera is a crappy camera from an electronics store and i´m not sure how big of a difference it is from a quality one but i might just try.
The reason i choosed the 450 is because it´s pretty cheap to crash and is far less dangerous from my 600ESP.
Maybe i should try using the helicommand!?
I was also thinkin about an easy star but my girlfriend is hard to convince...
HeliCommand should definatly help, if I had it I would be using it but I dont know what kind of effect it would have on payload.
I may have come accross you camera before but if Im right it has 380 tvl which isnt a lot. The Sn555 has 540 and I dont know how well yor camera handles lighting conditions either. Do you have a link to where you bought the camera?
Also a 450 may be less dangerous than a 600 but I would still consider it to be dangerous
Many of the heli FPV fliers I have seen all end up moving to quad's or planes its just a matter of time
I will quote a quoter who quoted:
Quote:"Flying a radio controlled helicopter is like watching a horror movie, you know something bad is going to happen you just don't know when!"
http://fpv-community.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=628
Also when I was flying my heli FPV I found that putting the trainer landing gear helped prevent a lot of crashes, why dont you do that the next time? It's only a temporary thing once you get used to it as landing these thing can be very difficult under fpv.
I have a GoPro HD and i´m going to hook it up today to see if it´s better, too bad you can´t use live out with the casing.
What systems are you using? I bought mine from electronicarc, 1,3Ghz 500mW but still i´m not very happy with it which is strange since i´ve seen people flying several kilometers with this setup.
I´m also using the bigger "rubber duckie".
I´m also going to experiment some with the Helicommand this week since i´m missing a part for my 450.
I really appreciate all the info!
(11-29-2010 12:05 PM)Gadget Wrote: [ -> ]I have a GoPro HD and i´m going to hook it up today to see if it´s better, too bad you can´t use live out with the casing.
What systems are you using? I bought mine from electronicarc, 1,3Ghz 500mW but still i´m not very happy with it which is strange since i´ve seen people flying several kilometers with this setup.
I´m also using the bigger "rubber duckie".
I´m also going to experiment some with the Helicommand this week since i´m missing a part for my 450.
I really appreciate all the info!
I origionally used 5.8ghz with real expensive iftron kit I still have (yellowjacket reciever) but at the time I was using this with my trex 250 which is all mainly metal and cabon fibre which is a bad combo for a direct line of sight frequency, at the same time i was using two patch antennas when really I should had been using 1 whip 1 patch. On top of this I live in an urban area so I think this all collected to not make such as a great experiance with it. As a result I decided to go for 1.3ghz 400mw (1240mhz) and I like it much better just because the frequency can pentetrate better. Im using this with a 1.3ghz patch antenna + standard reciever and eagle eyes diversity system. You shouldent be experiancing any problems under that frequency but you will allways get a glitch if you tilt the antenna 45degrees. Make sure you either mount your antenna totally up right or flat horizontally. Also tell me if Im wrong but it looks like your using the reciever antenna on your transmitter? try just using the standard antenna for now.
If nothing in your flying area is using 1.3ghz a 500mw tx should be great.
Why are you not happy with the video tx does the video glitch/cut out a lot?
(11-29-2010 01:31 PM)Malcr001 Wrote: [ -> ]I origionally used 5.8ghz with real expensive iftron kit I still have (yellowjacket reciever) but at the time I was using this with my trex 250 which is all mainly metal and cabon fibre which is a bad combo for a direct line of sight frequency, at the same time i was using two patch antennas when really I should had been using 1 whip 1 patch. On top of this I live in an urban area so I think this all collected to not make such as a great experiance with it. As a result I decided to go for 1.3ghz 400mw (1240mhz) and I like it much better just because the frequency can pentetrate better. Im using this with a 1.3ghz patch antenna + standard reciever and eagle eyes diversity system. You shouldent be experiancing any problems under that frequency but you will allways get a glitch if you tilt the antenna 45degrees. Make sure you either mount your antenna totally up right or flat horizontally. Also tell me if Im wrong but it looks like your using the reciever antenna on your transmitter? try just using the standard antenna for now.
If nothing in your flying area is using 1.3ghz a 500mw tx should be great.
Why are you not happy with the video tx does the video glitch/cut out a lot?
I use the antenna that came with the kit, the one for the Rx looks the same.
Could you just breifly explain about diversity and also if there´s a difference between the different channels.
Couldn´t find the cable today for the GoPro but it doesn´t matter because both my helicopters are crashed since yesterday, just ordered the parts i was missing.
I´m not sure about glitches since my first fpv experience lasted for about 2 x 5 seconds.
A diversity system is used for when you typically hook up two recievers to the diversity controller. The system then picks the best video signal from either one of the recievers which means if you have a bad signal on one reciever there might be a chance that the other reciever is good which means your less likely to experiance signal breaks. A diversity system isnt needed but it is handy but honestly for now a standard reciever would do fine with a 1.3ghz tx. As mentioned before the 45degree tilt of the tx can cause problems so just make sure you dont do any heavy banks or anything.
To be honest it doesnt sound like youve given youre video system a chance but it doesnt mean you have to wait until your heli is fixed. Your video system should be entirley separete from the heli so you could just go out some time and do a range test and record the video if you havent got someone with you to go out a distance. Also if you tell them to tilt the tx antenna you will see the glitch Im talking about. I remember when testing my first video system I found it intruiging to get a signal straight to my tv, dont ask me why. One gets tempted to strap it on my cat and see where it goes during the day lol
Theres also antenna tracking which appears to work more effectivley as most people say you only need one patch antenna with that. Antenna tracking units basically track the direction of the transmitter and a pan tilt system on the ground with servos connected are used to direct the patch antenna in the right direction of the aircraft as a result you should recieve constant good signal (in theory). Pretty cool stuff but my knowledge with that stuff only goes that far lol.
(11-29-2010 09:32 PM)Gadget Wrote: [ -> ] (11-29-2010 01:31 PM)Malcr001 Wrote: [ -> ]I origionally used 5.8ghz with real expensive iftron kit I still have (yellowjacket reciever) but at the time I was using this with my trex 250 which is all mainly metal and cabon fibre which is a bad combo for a direct line of sight frequency, at the same time i was using two patch antennas when really I should had been using 1 whip 1 patch. On top of this I live in an urban area so I think this all collected to not make such as a great experiance with it. As a result I decided to go for 1.3ghz 400mw (1240mhz) and I like it much better just because the frequency can pentetrate better. Im using this with a 1.3ghz patch antenna + standard reciever and eagle eyes diversity system. You shouldent be experiancing any problems under that frequency but you will allways get a glitch if you tilt the antenna 45degrees. Make sure you either mount your antenna totally up right or flat horizontally. Also tell me if Im wrong but it looks like your using the reciever antenna on your transmitter? try just using the standard antenna for now.
If nothing in your flying area is using 1.3ghz a 500mw tx should be great.
Why are you not happy with the video tx does the video glitch/cut out a lot?
I use the antenna that came with the kit, the one for the Rx looks the same.
Could you just breifly explain about diversity and also if there´s a difference between the different channels.
Couldn´t find the cable today for the GoPro but it doesn´t matter because both my helicopters are crashed since yesterday, just ordered the parts i was missing.
I´m not sure about glitches since my first fpv experience lasted for about 2 x 5 seconds.
I did some testing just walking with the tx but the signal wasn´t "good" until i got up in the air.
Also as i mentioned I first put the fatshark on my girlfriend while i was flying just to be sure but still i think the quality was to bad to be able to fly.
Maybe it´s just a matter of getting used to it!?
Could you please tell me if there´s a difference between the diffent channels in my rx/tx in terms of strenght etc.?