The journey to FPV begins!

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Ok, after shooting some video in "third person", I've realised that to get good video (within my budget), I need to go FPV. To that end, the first of the purchases arrived today...a Bluebeam 5.8ghz set and a minumOSD. Fatshark Atitude kit is in the post.

The video Tx will be mounted in the port pylon (nose is to bottom in this pic). The onboard 3DR telem radio has been removed, and the minumOSD located under the output servo leads:

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The video itself will be a VGA feed from the GoPro. The gimbal has since been re-stabilised to accommodate the weight of the cable. It's not a pretty picture with the cable hanging loose, but the gimbal glitches at the slightest snag of the wires otherwise.

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Already planned my test flights. The advantage of living in Switzerland is that there are often easy spots overlooking uninhabited farmland valleys. This makes LOS vast...a good test of range, and allows to me to practise with no real obstacles to worry about either.

The only unknown element, is power.

I can power the v0.1 OSD from the telem cable (5V), if I solder the pad, and this is recommended since there are stories of overheating on 12V. No problem there. The GoPro is self powered too, so no problem there either.

It's the tx...It comes with an in-series filter for the balancer port on 2S or 3S, but I'm wondering if my 900mAh Lipo is enough now - It's already powering the APM, 2 x remote LED's, GPS, telemetry, navigation LED's, spektrum rx + telem, the alexmos + 2 x tmotor 2208...and now it will power a 250mW Tx as well.

My 10900mAh flight pack is giving just under 20 mins flight time (landing at 3.5V under load - 3.6/3.7V idle) with gimbal + go pro, but my little 3S is already feeling the strain - the difference between idle and load is 1.5V - 10 mins into flight it's already reading 10.8v, which is worryingly close to the 3.5v alarm!

Can't wait to get this all fired up though...

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  • Jan - that is a very good point, but I have to mention I FPV with a Gimbal mounted GoPro3. I agree, it is quite disorienting at first.. especially if you are used to FPV'ing with a fixed camera. Using an OSD horizon indicator provides a very easy way to tell what position your quad is really in, so just a little getting used to and you will have no issue. 

    I'm pretty sure you must power the minimOSD with a 3s AND the 5v from the APM. 

    https://code.google.com/p/arducam-osd/wiki/minimosd

    "It has the Max7456 chip powered by two stages to avoid noises from servos attached to ArduPilot Mega board.
    It provides an extra clean power line to feed the FPV camera and video link.

    The approach is to use two external power sources: 12V from a Lipo Battery and 5V from APM"

  • I have same minimOSD board and  5.8g video transmitter. I got problem to get the video signal from CAM. Would you sharing your OSD wiring layout.

  • Euan,

    I use even a 2S on my gimbal with Alex Moss controller and works quite well.
    As said by John and Jesse be carefull when using the output of the gopro as live feed.
    Since it is on the gimbal you will not 'feel' the quad.
    I'd suggest a seperate cam just for the fpv part.

    I can tell you one thing... FPV is fun :-)

  • I've decided to go with a 1500mAh 3S with a good C rating - turnigy's nano-tech probably. The only big draw is the 2208's - the rest is low amp electronics. So I just need more amps, rather than more volts.
  • You and me both Tony!

    The FPV via gimbal is a tricky one - time will only tell! My thinking was that I want stabilized pitch for FPV flight, yaw is also ok via the gimbal - but an indicator of roll is missing. I will get the horizon from the OSD.

    Will OSD horizon do? Only one way to find out I guess.
  • I have just got mine yesterday as well! set it all up and its raining so no joy today.

    (this is coming from an inexperienced but very well read noob)

    i agree it would be confusing to use you gimballed camera as you fpv camera.  plus from what i have read the gopro is not infallible and losing  your vision 1km away would be scary!

    i recommend getting a dedicated fpv camer,

    i am also very interested to see what you figure out with the power , that does seem a little underpowered

  • I struggled flying FPV with the gimbal because I had no reference.  I quickly lost orientation... but I always just thought that was my uselessness... I'd love to know how you go with it!

  • Looks good. Just one thing I was thinking about when getting a video feed from the gopro in the gimbal ... Will it be difficult to register the orientation of the copter since you're always seeing level (from the gimbal) but the copter may be tilted one way or the other. I know you have a reading from the osd but its not as quick a reference. Just curious to see how it works and if others have flown successfully with the same setup. I know when I'm flying fpv, especially high speed, it helps to 'feel' the orientation of the copter in order to quickly react without taking focus off the actual terrain.
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