looking to get into FPV

ORIGINAL: NJRCFLYER2

Why not just stick with video games and leave the RC flying to actual model airplane hobbyists?

ORIGINAL: t_low37

I think I've spent more on fpv equipment then food over the past 4 years. Only one set of goggles. Headplay for the past year and to be honest I just started using them when I bought the 3d fpv cam from EMR Labs/NGhobbies. I do think the quality is great when you learn to get them adjusted right, but the connection to the ''liberator'' (anything but liberating) is so touchy that I keep a small tv running vid just incase I fart near it.

Cameras - all purpose - SN555 from hobbywireless (its a kt&c camera with the prefix vsn500 I think. if you do some searching you will find it cheaper through security cam stores)

Transmitter/receivers - stick to the industry standards Hobbywireless, nghobbies, rangevideo, future hobbies. 2.4Ghz tx/rx should be airwave or lawmate guts and 900Mhz should be from DPCAV.com Pro Series. Best I've owned and great customer service. If you want to go cheaper then the Rangevideo 500mw tx is the same without the added low pass filter/power lead. Its the same guts without the frills (warning if you use 900Mhz and want to use osd with gps then save yourself the trouble and get the filter, ferrites, and twist any extension wires.

900Mhz pros, great for penetrating trees and other obstacles, cons RX technology is behind that of the 2.4 gear and wide bandwith of rx gives some noise you don't see with 2.4. lookup saw filter mod for 900mhz tx, fire up the soldering iron and have at it. great improvement in picture and range.

2.4Ghz pros, better video quality with stock components (IMHO), super simple 2.4Ghz goof proof patch antenna instructions online. (i've built 10 or so and they out perform any 14dbi patch on the market. 7.00 dollars to build. doesn't mess with your gps reception.
Cons sensitive to interference in populated areas (which we shouldn't be flying in anyways right?) Needs really really clear line of sight.

Plane - Now this is strictly a personal opinion but I HATE the EZ* I don't care how many videos you see online or how many people sing this planes praises its still a flimsy foamy and I have never been able to justify dumping all the expensive gear in packing material. I love the Hanger9 alpha 40 (E-Conversion) the Great Planes Electro stic RXR this build takes about half an hour and you can shove lots of gear in it without much thought. Just watch it because it gets out of range real quick if you not careful. if you must go with foam then I've had success with the radian, the ez glider, UHU Electro, EZ* (i know I bashed it but it does work, just a pain in the ass to get all that gear in and it sounds like my blender)

OSD If you have the money the RVOSD IV is great but get ready for some real work when you get into is waypoint sequencer, RTH mode etc. Looks easy on the site but trust me it took a long to to get it right. Worth the time if your into that.
Eagle tree OSD Pro W/ Eagle eyes looks great for the price. I fly the osd pro without eagle eyes (use Immersion rc tiny telemetry with antenna tracker and oracle for diversity but this setup costs a great deal more to do the same thing I hear)
Cheap and easy OSD that I still fly on my smaller setups is the Blackstork OSD. I fly the first version and it was simple to set up and gave me that direction to home arrow that saved my but in the beginning. Also own inspire osd (sucks, only use it for shudder control for aerial photos)
and EZosd (another solid easy to use setup for antenna tracking and telemetry).

Pan/tilt/tracking antenna. I hesitate to advise on this one because I have only used the Immersion RC gear. I'm going order the eagleeyes ground station soon to compare but aside from a few glitches here and there I've had great success with it.
NOTE: If your using 900Mhz gear stay away from the medium duty pan/tilt mount from servocity.com it can't handle the 900Mhz patch unless you buy 2 hs-765 sailwinch servos which are a bit expensive. I've seen a nice lookin mount at fpvpilot.com (I think)

Pan/tilt camera mount. Build your own by watching online tutorials or if you want a pretty one, the pandora pan/tilt setup is pretty nice looking especially if you solder it together.

Head tracking gyro, (on a flytron mag tracker but have yet you use it) heard good things about trackr2 Immersion rc.

Diversity get the 900Mhz you have three options Nano docking station available at future hobbies (Good quality, metal case, works well)
Oracle diversity controller (Works equally as well, don't like the plastic case) or incorporated eagleeyes ground station ???
2.4 Ghz I have only owned the immersion rc and it worked very well for me. Yellow Jacket was too expensive but if you have money to waste let me know how it works.

Long Range RC Scherrer UHF LRS is the only system I've used and I love it. with the 1w setting I can fly 5.5 miles. My video is fading yet I have no drops. I hear dragonlink is as good if not better. The two systems programming were both done by the same guy (danial wee I think) and you can't go wrong with either. Immersion RC has a system too but I can't comment on it. I never bothered to keep up with the long range rc developments because unlike any other component, I'm completly satisfied with Thomas Scherrers system.

Antennas L-com or diy patch. Just a suggestion, trash any stock wire antenna comes with the cheaper transmitters. Get a low dbi 0-3dbi tops on your transmitter end and a higher dbi patch or omni if you only have on RX or yagi/patch or duel patch combo if you have diversity. I haven't had much luck with narrow beam parabolics even with tracking.



Probable more info then you wanted but I cut and pasted it from an email to a guy I built for. I don't do too many builds for profit anymore it costs me more in time then I seem to have but if you need any help PM me and I'll be glad to help.