Am I buying the correct FPV setup?

Posted by Nathaniel Frosland on May 24, 2014 at 4:40pm

Background... I am flying a 3D Robotics Iris with a GoPro Hero 3 Black on a Tarot 2-axis gimbal.  I am shooting homes and properties and am wanting to stay in visual sight of my quad while in flight.  I have no plans to fly the drone over 300-400 feet away from me.

What I want... I want to have a 7" (approximate) screen on my transmitter so that I can line up my shots and still look up and see the quad.  I want the video tx to be transmitting the video feed from my Hero.

I have a guy who will build me the following:

-Hero 3 FPV Cable

-Boscam 5.8 GHz 200mw vTX

-Boscam 5.8 GHz Video Reciever

-Bluebeam style 5.8 GHz CP Antennas

-7" LCD Monitor w/shade

-Radio Mount

I get that for $290 shipped.

Is this a good deal or should I do something else?  I need everything by June 9th... 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You need to be a member of diydrones to add comments!

Join diydrones

Email me when people reply –
Follow

Replies

  • Christiaan van Vollenstee June 26, 2014 at 5:58am

    Don't let any one tell you the gopro is not a good FPV camera because it is the best there is no comparison. I have tried everything and what the gopro does to light correction when moving away and to the sun is amazing.

    200mw will give you about 100m of range on 5.8ghz I would say go with at least 500mw. If I were you I will go to hobbyking.com and add the fpv equipment there and do shipping to see if the price is right for you that price looks a bit high. 

    • David Pulvermacher > Christiaan van Vollenstee December 29, 2014 at 2:39am

      I have a quad with black GoPro 3+ on a Tarot 2D gimbal. I have made a plate which sits behind the GP on which I have mounted a RunCam 600TVL FPV CCD camera, the resolution of which seems to be better. The CCD cam rotates on the gimbal next to the GP. The motor settings on the gimbal roll had to be beefed up, and I have also balanced the tilt arm to compensate for the extra load of the FPV camera. Seems to work OK, but I still can't help wondering whether the extra load if the FPV camera is worth it?

  • Gary McCray May 24, 2014 at 4:52pm

    Hi Nathaniel,

    Price sounds reasonable but I have a couple concerns.

    I am not sure of practical use of GoPro with cable as an FPV camera, I know it has the capability, but as a practical matter it doesn't seem to be implemented much.

    Also, if you do run that cable, you are going to need the Brushless gimbal to be able to supply sufficient power to overcome its physical resistance, most of these little GoPro mounts don't have much excess power.

    (At the least you may need to put a strain relief loop in the FPV cable.)

    Most people who fly FPV have a separate video FPV camera in addition to their GoPro, but I suspect you want the FPV camera to see the same image as your stabilized GoPro for non-commercial hobbyist use house photography (as approved by the FAA).

    In any case it is certainly worth a try and if it doesn't work out, it is very easy (and cheap) to add an FPV video camera.

    Best Regards,

    Gary

    • Mike Downey > Gary McCray June 26, 2014 at 5:49am

      I think the older GoPro cameras has some issues with latency, but the Hero 3 camera seems quite stable to me. I dont have any noticeable lag on the analog output of mine. Unless you are doing fast flying where fractions of a second count, you should be fine. Obviously for setting up shots, its much better to see what the camera is seeing. 

      I have my FPV setup using the video from the gimbaled GoPro and it works great for me. My equipment sounds pretty similar to the ones you listed there. That seems like a reasonable price, especially if they are doing the integration for you. 

    • Nathaniel Frosland > Gary McCray May 24, 2014 at 4:57pm

      Thanks Gary for the reply... Yeah, the fpv is solely for setting up the shots.  I still intend to use los for flight.I was planning on stripping any excess sheathing off of the GoPro adapter cable  and secure it so that it wouldn't cause any stress to the gimbal.

      Is a 200mw transmitter enough?  I see them ranging from 200-1000mw.  Should I get something bigger?

    • Gary McCray > Nathaniel Frosland May 25, 2014 at 9:32pm

      You are planning on using close up so 200mw should be plenty, antenna and placement is more important anyway. However I will tell you don't fly it behind anything, both radios really like line of sight and do not go around corners well.

    • Oliver > Nathaniel Frosland May 25, 2014 at 9:31pm

      My understanding, for what it's worth, and I am just really beginning to fool around with FPV (Fatshark 5.8 gear at the moment) is that antennas are more important than raw Tx power. My early trials seem to bear that out. Just something to maybe look into -

This reply was deleted.