FPV Ground station

FPV (First Person View) Projects
(always fly within AMA guidelines)
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Neons
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Re: FPV Ground station

Post by Neons »

Found a guy in RC Groups - Ground Stations that made inexpensive Goggles with a 4" lcd screen and magnifier. He will be making a 5" next. This is what it says in the thread.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I suppose this is my ground station, so I'm showing it . It uses a $20 4.3" LCD monitor mounted on a $10 head magnifier using a shoe box. The RC-305 VRx and 1300 mAh LiPo are mounted on the back of the headband using velcro to balance it up. It is comfortable and works remarkably well, and I can read the in-focus OSD display from my G-OSD3 Mini easily from a #16 V2 camera (providing the DVR function) and TX5823 VTx. I find this method of FPV view much better than a tripod mounted monitor as it is more immersive and there is no screen glare.

The great advantage of this system, for a glasses wearer like me, is that I can very rapidly switch to direct view from FPV view, and vice versa, by just flipping up/down the magnifier+monitor without removing my glasses and with only one hand. I will try the same thing with a 5" 800 x 480 monitor when I receive it, though understand from others that this may well crop the image and that the current monitor may be better.
there really isn't much to add to the head bucket. The attached photo shows the underside. The bottom of the cardboard fits onto the underside of the magnifier lenses, and the foam pad rests on the nose. The "flaps" of duct tape on the bottom keep out stray light. I didn't bother to paint the inside of the shoe box black and there is no internal reflection. On the previous photos you will see a heat sink on the bill of the headset. This is for a 9V regulator as it says the RC-305 VRx is good up to 12V, but I doubt if this is necessary as I'm sure it would handle 3S 12.4V. I'm also sure a smaller LiPo would be possible.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-10X-Ligh ... ddb&_uhb=1

If you want to make one of these, better wait until I get my $40, 5" 800 x 600 monitor from BG. I will try this out without dismantling the current headset and, if the OSD is seriously cropped, may stay with the current monitor. I will report here on my results.

I have now received one of these $10 head magnifiers from eBay as a replacement for the one which is now in the headset and it is equally useful, though it's rear head band clamp is weaker than that in my old one.
Attachments
Homemade Goggles 01jpg.jpg
Homemade Goggles 02.jpg
Homemade Goggles 03.jpg
Bob Pacheco
tomapowa

Re: FPV Ground station

Post by tomapowa »

Cool Bob!... but I think you'd have a head-ache after a flight with that thing hanging from your head... can't be all that light... ;) (certainly not as light as our fatshark goggles)
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Neons
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Re: FPV Ground station

Post by Neons »

It is a good beginner place to start without someone spending an arm and a leg to fly FPV. In another note I did a lot of researching this week to get my Head Tracker connected to my Polk's Tracker III transmitter. It can be done but it is risky. One wrong connection and it can burn the goggle HT board out. Fatshark will not warranty any mistakes with it. It is from what I see 3 wires.

The other thing I had negative luck with is the Endoscope Camera connections. There are 5 wires in the Scope. I tried red, black, and white with no luck. There are markings on the board but I can't see which is video output. I put it aside. It did not work on my computer either. It may be a bad one. I have to find a camera for my mini quad and WL Toy multis. I also want it portable to put in a small park flyer planes by just velcro or elastic mounting.

Maybe you have some idea what I am doing wrong. Do you have a good lead on another small camera that may work? I have a keyfob early 640 camera and the newer 808 #16 HD with the wiring also. But they are bigger and I would have to dump the case for the smaller Mini quads.

The pictures below come from - FPV Ground Station Design and Idea's found here
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthre ... st27511842
Attachments
Taken from: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1127491&page=248#post27511842
Taken from: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1127491&page=248#post27511842
This is a Black Pearl 7" monitor with 5.8 diversity receivers built in. I also has a  1.2mHz on top as well.
This is a Black Pearl 7" monitor with 5.8 diversity receivers built in. I also has a 1.2mHz on top as well.
Bob Pacheco
tomapowa

Re: FPV Ground station

Post by tomapowa »

Bob, this is another mini camera I purchased and probably had shown you last time... it's slightly bigger but still pretty small and light... worth every penny in my eyes! (and much better quality video as those endoscope cameras)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-24V-wide-volt ... 2a299c20cb

Image

They also sell some 600TVL micro camera but they run around $40-50
http://www.ebay.com/itm/wired-2-4-G-wir ... 4aca6ce9e4
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Re: FPV Ground station

Post by Neons »

Got a new micro camera for my micro Fatshark transmitter. Got it all set up on my WlToy copter. It is nice. I have it attached with velcro and an elastic. It is easily removed and transfered to a plane, ground, or another copter. Very light weight.

In my web surfing I came across a small DVR at a low price. It has good reviews in testing. There is a flaw in the 12v inputs. If your battery is dropping down to far below 12volts it may stop the recording. A 4s battery is fine in the ground station though. My batteries are Life batteries 3s and will be a problem. A small motorcycle battery will work at 12volts also. The SD card can be up to a 32 gigs. It overwrites footage that is older if the card gets full. I want it to record ny flights as a backup if it goes down someplace. It could help me find the multi or plane for example. Only $26.47 with free shipping.
http://www.tmart.com/Mini-Portable-Digi ... 71652.html

Read the review by a FPV flyer.
http://innominatethoughts.com/technolog ... _card_dvr/

This is going into my Ground Station.


Update on Voltage Findings


http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost ... count=3761
Last edited by Neons on Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Bob Pacheco
tomapowa

Re: FPV Ground station

Post by tomapowa »

Cool Bob!...
I might record ground-station video also using a small MP4 A/V recorder I have... or by using my laptop using a frame grabber like this...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/360870298710

Image

My main plan though is to use a 808/16 keychain camera for recording (best recorded video you can acquire) while also using it as my FPV camera.... using this cable which connect the 808 to a A/V transmitter...
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0 ... le&_sop=15

Image
tomapowa

Re: FPV Ground station

Post by tomapowa »

By the way, not sure if you have any better source but this is the cheapest I can find the 808 #16 camera... you know of any cheaper?... I need to get 12 of them for a customer's project ;)
(by the way, most of these on Ebay come with the video connecting wire needed to connect it to a video Tx)

$38 - Regular Lens: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301095848154

$43 - 120 degree lens: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301094190645
tomapowa

Re: FPV Ground station

Post by tomapowa »

By the way, not sure if you have any better source but this is the cheapest I can find the 808 #16 camera... you know of any cheaper?... I need to get 12 of them for a customer's project ;)
(by the way, most of these on Ebay come with the video connecting wire needed to connect it to a video Tx)

Image
$38 - Regular Lens: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301095848154


Image
$43 - 120 degree lens: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301094190645
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Neons
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Re: FPV Ground station

Post by Neons »

I have had my 808 #16 camera since they came out. Page 1 on this site tells who sells a legitimate trustworthy camera. For a while there were bad clones being sold as this camera. Maybe getting rid of older stock early versions passed off as an 808 V16. This is the best site on the 808 V16 but has grown immensly, The first few pages tell all.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1556994
Bob Pacheco
tomapowa

Re: FPV Ground station

Post by tomapowa »

FWIW, Just ordered another #16 808 keychain camera on Ebay for another FPV project... offered $35 and he took it... ;) Cheapest yet!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1017824426
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