FPV is the way to go!

[smartroad]

Yesterday my FatShark FPV kit turned up from UMT and I was able to have a quick go with it today (though not for long given the blustery winds and risk of rain, I love my APM too…). It is such a different experience flying though the headset to flying just by eye. I loved it, just a shame it is so windy at the moment to really enjoy it.

Last night I was able to design and print a mount for the camera, which used some anti-vibration grommets and an old servo. The servo, running from my APM, is to stabilise the camera for the tilt of the quad. Between that and the grommets the video was reasonably smooth, more than enough to fly with.

Next purchase will probably be the circular antennas, but are they really as good as people say? I did have a some breakup with the stock aerial, nothing major however the quad was only about 20 metres up and about the same across the ground away from me.

[smartroad]

A little write up on my blog:

Simple FPV Tilt Stabiliser

[unmannedtech1]

Thanks for sharing your progress and experiences, with some nice pics as usual

@smartroad

Next purchase will probably be the circular antennas, but are they really as good as people say?

I think they can be better particularly for moving platforms. I remember a great video which I just posted which explains why circular polarization has its advantages!

FPV Antenna Fundamentals

I was asked the other day if the circular polarized antennas are worth getting and I remembered this great video I found a while ago and figured it would be useful to share! Its a very nice illustration about how the various antennas work so you can choose the best one for your application, whether its for FPV or telemetry! http://vimeo.com/8826952 Here’s a video i did to illustrate some of the fundamentals of Antenna configs, looking at gain, patterns, diversity setups and polarization prin…

Otherwise your mount looks great, did you manage to have a flight with it yet? In my opinion I prefer to have the FPV camera not to be stabilized so I get a better feel for what the aircraft is doing, but I guess if you are recording the video feed from your quadcopter having some stabilization makes things much nicer to watch!

[smartroad]

Glad you like to photos and thanks for the video help loads!

I have had about 5 minutes flying with FPV and the servo gimbal. I only wanted stabilization on the tilt axis so that the camera is always looking forward to see where I am going (the camera is pointing slightly down, about 70/30 ground/sky split) even if I go fast! I want to get out to have a really good go but the weather is rubbish either too windy or raining! Hopefully later this week

[smartroad]

Test flight with Shark FPV equipment

Short video of my second FPV flight It is such a great way to fly! Anyone else who FPV’s notice they look down with goggles on?