Comment by Richard Evans on January 2, 2013 at 8:19pm

Just thought I would post this for those who haven't flown FPV and want to preview what it looks like and how it is much different than the HD video we usually see posted.

Comment by Darrell Burkey on January 2, 2013 at 8:27pm

Thanks for that direct comparison. It's as I expected really. I find the FPV quite acceptable. If we want HD FPV then the gear is going to get a lot bigger and lot more expensive. Quite frankly, I'm amazed we can get things this good for the prices we do.

Can you provide some more info on how you did the OSD display? I've purchased the miniOSD board and it seems quite complicated to get going.

Comment by Richard Evans on January 3, 2013 at 5:00am

This OSD was the EZ-OSD and it was a good choice where the NAZA is involved like on the FW-450 that i used in this video. . I like it for its simplicity and it is a good fit when you are using a NAZA. The NAZA has no data port to supply data like altitude, speed, direction etc, although it has that data, it doesn't share it. Although the EXOSD does a nice job, it has its own GPS, and doesn't have a magnetometer, therefore the direction to the pilot arrow only is accurate when moving. When you hover stationary it looses its sense of direction. The NAZA also doesn't share data with regards to battery consumption so an current sensor is also required when using the EZOSD with the NAZA. This adds weight and duplicity. To compare the MinimOSD and the EZOSD is not apples for apples. the MinimOSD gets all its data from the APM and so is much lighter and has a much more complete set of options in what it can display. for the Arducopter I got, I received the MinimOSD, but haven't gotten it installed yet, but I have heard it is complicated, so I can't make that comparison.  

Comment by John Maffetone on January 4, 2013 at 9:41pm

Excellent demonstration! What frequency and power are you operating your wireless video at? Do you use goggles or a screen? Just wondering because I'm currently researching fpv setups. Thank you!

Comment by Richard Evans on January 5, 2013 at 8:17am

This fpv system is using 5.8ghz (immersion 600mw) for transmit and the 5.8ghz rec module in my fatshark goggles.
I also have a lcd 9" monitor with immersion uno reciever attached as a portable view station. It also has a pocket sized DVR which is how i captured the fpv pilot view. For my new Arducopter, i am going to transmit back at 1.258 ghz and rebroadcast it on 5.8 from my portable view station that will become ax multi function ground station because i am adding the mp gcs to it. I get some dropouts sometimes which arent bad, but want to have more confidence when i get downrange, thus the switch to the less convieniant 1.2 ghz band.
Richard

Comment by Brian Stewart on January 5, 2013 at 3:09pm

Thanks for the nice demo.

I noticed your amateur radio call sign being displayed periodically. Did you program that into the EZ-OSD?

Thanks

Brian

N0UXF

Comment by Richard Evans on January 5, 2013 at 6:31pm

Hi Brian

Yes, it is a standard function of the EZOSD, you just type it in and it takes care of broadcasting it at 1 minute intervals, as well as the accumulated flight time.  Also, not seen here is a fight statistics summary at the end of the flight that gives information like distance traveled, max altitude, max speed and other info.

There is a funny thing about that summary. The default behavior is for the summary to appear when the aircraft comes to rest (assuming the end of flight)   That works fine on a fixed wing, but when flying a quad, when it comes to a stable hover It thinks the flight is over and is triggered prematurely. Fortunately that behavior can be changed as an option so you have to manually press a button to get that display. Thats the way I have it set.

Richard 

73

KD5ZZL

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