3DR Video/OSD System Kit

Posted by DG on July 26, 2014 at 11:32pm

Anyone experienced with this? I'm satisfied with the performance of my Y6 now and would like to try FPV.

 At $189.99 the price seems right. Any reason(s) not to use this system?

I already have an AV-USB adapter to start out using a laptop, may get monitor to mount on the tx later.

Thanks.

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Replies

  • Felipe Rabat November 23, 2014 at 7:56pm

    @Eric Bradstreet

    If your gimbal is controlled by your tx, you may want to give this a shot....

    http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1677559

    I already got most of the components to make mine...

    Felipe

  • DG August 6, 2014 at 9:15pm

    Any pics out there of your Y6 FPV configuration such as how/where the tx/antenna is placed, what type etc.?

    Is it best to have the antenna up or down? I've heard it should be at opposite ends from the rx and one facing down the other up. Others say just keep them separated front to rear. Others say.....

    If the transmitter is placed by an ESC will there be interference? What about GPS interference?

    Any other info is welcomed.

    • nickthecook > DG August 7, 2014 at 6:17am

      I don't have a pic handy, but here's my setup...

      I have the video tx from 3DR mounted on the back of the right front leg, antenna connector down. I have cloverleaf antennae from 3DR; they come out of the connector at 90 degrees, so parallel to the ground in my case, but I bent the flexible antenna shaft  The antenna shaft is flexible, and I have it bent so the end of the antenna is pointing up.

      It's good for me up to 1km or so with good antenna placement on the ground and clear LOS. If a leg or body plate occludes the antenna at that distance video gets spotty, but otherwise it seems to work really well. Also, not having it stick up off the top of the craft means it's protected in case of a flip on takeoff or landing. I broke my 915MHz antenna that way.

  • DG July 28, 2014 at 10:49am

    Amos,

      What range are you getting with the 3DR setup with the ImmersionRC antenna?

    • Haygood > DG July 29, 2014 at 11:07pm
      You might give 3DR a call about what they recommend for their kit. My 2914 Y6B shipped from them with a 4s LiPo and their video kit all wired up. I think the video kit just runs off battery voltage. I think the power comes off the power distribution board. I don't recall seeing anything in there to step voltage down, but a quick call to 3DR would make sure. Either way they might have an easier solution than the filter, not that there is anything wrong with that.
  • DG July 28, 2014 at 9:20am

    3DR offers this antenna:

    https://store.3drobotics.com/products/clover_antenna

    Probably not as good as the ImmersionRC product, but I'm working within a budget .

    The TBS camera is nice. Again, breaks the budget.

    Thanks for the info, ordering the 3DR kit today. Haygood, thanks for the tip on the cable.

  • DG July 27, 2014 at 12:04pm

    Thanks all.

    I'm not well versed in FPV but did watch several videos and searched multiple websites for FPV kits. The Sony camera from 3DR appears to be good quality. 

    Many of the FPV kits were out of stock or out of the U.S. which I have had bad luck with ordering. Hobby King? Well, two weeks to receive an item that's in stock in the U.S. warehouse isn't worth the few bucks saved. I wouldn't know what to get and don't care to spend that much time researching.

    I'm finding it difficult to locate a FPV kit with a decent camera and batteries that is competitive with 3DR's kit which includes everything except a monitor.  200mw is weak, but I think at 5.8 ghz it's more wise to get the better antennae than increase the power for the range <1.5km, and it needs to be LOS with 5.8 anyway. Increasing to 400-600+ mw just doesn't make sense to me for the distance gained. Also, nearly every single kit uses the mundane rubber duck antenna as standard.

    There was one website that had stuff in stock, but of course I didn't bookmark it, and it may have been an overseas outlet which I don't care to risk. One place even had a warning about customs holding up this type of equipment.

    I'll do some more searching, but as it stands the 3DR kit doesn't look like a bad price, plus at least since I purchased stuff from them I receive it in a few days, and their customer service has been very good (had a bad telemetry radio, returned it for replacement no problem).

    If anyone has a specific place to get better FPV kits close to 3DR's pricing (under $250), feel free to post the link.

    Here's a sample URL I used as reference:

    http://fpvlab.com/forums/showthread.php?116-FPV-PILOT-TRAINING-CENT...

  • nickthecook July 27, 2014 at 6:50am
    I have that kit, with the red and blue clover leaf antennae from 3DR to replace the stock antennae (as Haygood said, they're terrible), and I'm pretty happy with it.

    Using a video capture device with my macbook for viewing, and I'm happy with it. Makes recording FPV easy, and I'm getting good video back from about 1km.
    • T3
      Richard Boyhan > nickthecook July 29, 2014 at 4:04am
      Hi Nickthecook,

      What video capture device are you using with your Mac?

      Thanks,
      Richard
    • nickthecook > Richard Boyhan July 30, 2014 at 9:19am

      I'm using an August VGB200:

      http://www.amazon.ca/August-VGB200-Quality-Capture-Adaptor/dp/B008F...

      It does the job. A quirk with the app on Mavericks is that if you change the window size in settings, it will go back to the video native size when you hit the record button. The only issue with this is that you can't record if the window is full screen. You can use the Command+Scroll Up trick on the Mac to increase the size of the video window on the screen, you just can't use the capture app's built-in full screen capabilities. If you get a different one and can go full screen while recording, let me know!

      Works well with the camera from the 3DR kit, but I haven't tested with the GoPro yet.

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