Jagdpanzer with FPV
 

Yeah I said it, this is the first 1/16 scale FPV system available that would take a few tweaks and you can pop it in almost any tank. My prototype is a Jagdpanzer because it had lots of room and an FPV system is perfect for a TD.
I will have this ready with this in about 3 weeks, still early but I am getting very close to having a finished system that will be very easy on the wallet, cost will be somewhere around $250
Real time video and recordable on a Micro Sd card, I am using a 32gb card, so far I have recorded 9 minutes of video without a hitch. The card will do more for sure.
Here is the tank the system is inside, I had to enlarge the drivers port for the camera but that is a small sacrifice for high definition video of my battles. Targeting tanks with the IR system using the camera is childs play.
And here is a video of the tank just driving around
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWtINqrarSw&feature

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2023574http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2023575

This looks cool.

What wavelength is the FPV signal on?

Very cool. Can we see some photos of how the gear looks in the tank? How about battery time? Does it draw enough juice to shorten the life of a battery charge? Is there any soldering required?

That looks good. I have had FPV in a couple of tanks, but in one of my systems there was a lot of interference where the video would glitch out and detract from the experience. This video seems clear and stable.

I used a Fatshark system with the Video glasses for a total immersion effect. Tank battling becomes a bit of an adrenalin rush when carried out like this. Viewing through glasses and not having the Helicopter view of the battle field really limits what you can see. You are fearful that there is a tank waiting for you as you clear the next building.

I really think this is where the advancements in battling need to go. My experience has been that FPV with goggles enhances the experience more then tweaking the IR side of things.

Here is a link to a thread I did on an FPV set up. I got some pictures showing how I mounted the system in Sherman. I need to update the thread as I ended up with the camera sunk into the commanders hatch and tied in to a servo to allow me to pan the horizon.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-t...d-sherman.html

I got all my stuff from HK back then. I would be interested in seeing what you have put together, so keep us posted, Nothing would make me happier then to see this side of Tank battling move forward.

A pure FPV battle? Count me in.

FPV also lengthened's the battlefield since you don't have the complete overhead view as we usually do. Complete FPV battlefield wouldn't have to be very big especially with towns,
though there would be a bunch of busted recoil units me thinks!

I would absolutely love to battle FPV, think of how inportant camo would become?

As mentioned above, a battle field could be so much smaller, 'buildings' could be just flat facades, decorated on both sides creating two lanes without requiring much space.

I've been occasionally looking at the systems as they improve, the only thing that stops me is price, I'd need to buy 3. As far as getting a club to do it, it seems pretty hard to get a group together for a regular battle, I can't imagine having enough members outfitted with FPV.

It'd be a hysterical sight, the edge of a field lined with a bunch of guys sitting on chairs, staring off in space with headsets on yelling at each other while tanks roll around the field getting exercise.

Guys this is a 5.8 ghz system with 9 seperate channels so max players would be 9 at current but I do not forsee this limitation in the near future.
Range of the unit is roughly 300 meters line of sight, but it can get sketchy with obstructions in the way ( it is 5.8 after all ) the radio running it all is 2.8 ghz and has oodles of range and model matching so you do have the potential to Platoon up to 15 tanks at one time:cool:, switching from one tank to another takes all of 5 to 10 seconds.
Battery life - so far I have recieved about 2-1/2 hours on one charge, currently I have the camera running of a 3S lipo but I have devised a hookup that plugs into the on board 7.2 volt. How this will affect life is unknown but I don't forsee a life reduction that makes the system unusable. There is onboard sound as well and I will have a tweak done so it picks it up directly from the speaker so that any engine or gear noise is washed out.
I will be doing a video shortly that is more of a planned thing and I hope to be able to show the radio ( The radio has a 3.5" high def screen built in ) running the tank on a split screen with the drivers port on one half.
Set up properly in a bigger tank ( you need the space for the Tx units ) and you could have a camera in the gunners port and a camera in the divers port, under movement and remotely you could switch between cameras while you recorded both. Of course the camera sending a live real time feed is just icing on the cake

You set-up looks very good. I want to see more. I just love that perspective. It is VERY hard to battle that way. You need a keen & sharp eye to find your enemy...and a load of patience to battle that way. I'm sure some of you have seen my tank mounted videos on YouTube, from both Danville and NEAD events in the northeast. Back in 2008 I battled against my buddy and super tanker Jimmy Kuhn who teamed with my daughter Kim. My wing-man was Dana CO of HEAT. I mounted a mini-cam on my favorite tank (Panther G) fought via a large TV in the corner. Jimmy and I fought it out in the town. It was just like the battle of Cologne(Koln) .....but this time the Panther wins the battle. Once I was sure the camera and TV were in sync it I fought via the camera only (R/R of the video).Dana and I both lived to fight another day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivDNOPrNXUE Enjoy, Bob

it is a bit fuzzy. Old school camera pre HD. The humming at around the 20 second mark is my transmitter interfering with the video as I lean over to turn on the tank.. RF/interference is enhanced indoors.

There are drawbacks...BTW. It is hard to tell if you hit your enemy, you rarely hear anything other than YOUR tank sounds and you hit many more obstructions on the field. You have poor visibility, no peripheral vision and very bad depth perception.

Some things I discovered while dabbling with FPV (some things you have already addressed):

- FPV setups that ride on the same 2.4ghz wavelength are prone to interference and freezing if there are multiple 2.4ghz transmitters sharing the same bandwidth. 5.8ghz is probably the ticket, but I don't know how many channels are available;
- Ideally, each tank should have two cameras, one for the gunsight and one for the driver. There were times that I get "crossed up" because I'd turned the turret but didn't know what orientation the hull was at. Even a simple MechWarrior-style bar scale on the video feed that lets you know how many degrees you have turned will be useful to keep track of your turret rotation;
- FPV cameras work better outdoors than indoors or dark environments, simply because frame rates slow down and/or video noise graining becomes apparent
- While we're on the subject of wishlists, telemetry would be good. If FPV RC planes could be informed about their altitude, heading, battery voltage, hopefully someone like Clark could produce a complete product that tells you the number of hit points you have left?

As a whole, FPV tank battling is quite different from the IR battling we have come to know. No birds' eye view situational awareness, and the pace of battle is slower and much more cautious. As Brett says, it has the effect of enlarging a battlefield so clubs could do more with less space. The one bad point is that it raises the barriers to entry further in terms of cost. But it could actually be so realistic that tanks could probably ditch the 45 degree defense and use 360 cones with drastically narrowed-down IR emitter tubes to better simulate tank battles.

If I were to construct my own FPV tank, I would be choosing the tank with the biggest interior volume possible, with as little external detailing possible (I wouldn't be able to see it anyway), with an emphasis on camouflage, along with a HD 1080p feed to a clip-on monitor on my transmitter carry-handle. It wouldn't replace my regular RC IR tanks, it would be a foray into a different aspect of RC tanking, but it would take a while for enough people to adopt this before we can see 4 or 6 a side battles. The technology needs to catch up with what we want...

I like that last point you made Cleong... this would be a great chance to build a dedicated FPV tank while still maintaining the existing & battle compatible fleet of IR tanks. What nobody wants and the hobby definitely doesn't need is something that makes older products obsolete or simply not fun.

Gives me a better reason to build something with lots of room like a Tiger II, Maus, Abrams, IS-3, etc etc ;)

Curtis I can't wait to see more videos on this and shots of the physical setup inside & outside the tank. This is cool stuff.

I would really love to see battles like that.

As for camera positioning, I would say to put one out of a roof hatch on a mount you could perhaps rotate, but that get in the way of the apple unless we get cheap super tiny cameras (with good quality video) sometime soon

King Tiger FPV
 

Alright, you finally got me to stop lurking and register just so I could reply with my latest project. Apparently great minds think alike, this thing is a blast to FPV. So far, everyone has had a cheesy grin as soon as they start driving and shoot a few things. I've had some issues with the drive train, but Erik at Imex has been awesome in getting me running again. Everything is mounted on the rear of the turret on a mount made of styrene tubing and sheet, painted with "custom" colors blended from random acrylics I had laying around.

Taigen King Tiger (airsoft)
Mobius camera w/integrated 600mw 5.8ghz vtx (my creation)
ImmersionRC RHCP antennas
Castle BEC powering both from main battery
7200mah 2cell lipo

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...porary-134.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...porary-133.jpg

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t...porary-132.jpg

I just replaced the stock receiver antenna with a longer one from an old Traxxas rx I had laying around. Getting it up and away from the motors has helped out the range and interference a lot. Hopefully my buddies can get theirs going soon, battling lime this is going to be awesome!

~Chip

That's completely insane.. and I love it. Wow great job.

What are you using as a display?

..and welcome to RCU! Lot's of fun to be had here, and in amongst the random babbling and incoherent nonsense there is a real layer of wisdom and tank know-how!

Here is some video of a camera mounted in the commanders hatch on a Sherman. I have it mounted to a servo so I can scan the horizon ahead.


Sorry Curtis, but lots of people seem interested in FPV so I am just adding on to this thread.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f21VPPsDXXU

Remember guys the field is not flat and you tank will tilt and dip. You need a camera that moves horiz/verticle. I learned many years ago that I needed a camera that would elevate and depress with the gun barrel. I took me quite a while to find a HD camera that suited my needs. Now my camera looks anywhere my gun barrel points. A TD is a much easier tank to drive with a camera than a turreted one. I felt you pain Leong. With depression I never lost my hull and turret orientation. You will fiind yourself much more like a real tanker and driving much less.

It is a load of fun however:

Without camera tilt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebwY...m45MJ47wobWY2g

With camera linked to main gun barrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWvL...m45MJ47wobWY2g:




760/780

Has anyone tried 900 mhz systems for the FPV

I believe 900mhZ would cause too much trouble to those that use servos. I would think the 1280MHz band or the 5.8GHz band would be plenty. If anything I would go with with the 5.8GHz as you can get stereo audio out of most of the 5.8GHz systems. Stereo audio would make a huge difference in FPV battles.

Hi gentlemen,
There are 2 men tank idea using in Japan as you guys already know that and also there are also some persons in other country apply 3 cameras in a tank like Benny Zulkarnaien did in these clips.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itW7jmQGW6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itW7jmQGW6s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mzj5Tb_-Ulo

And another one from Julius Perdana...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bzWDzrzDTo