Quadrocopter recommended flying with video goggles. How do you learn how to fly using the goggles? Any tips?
I'd start by using AerosimRC and switch your computer display to a lower resolution so that it corresponds to the lower resolution you'll get from the FPV glasses. Switch Aerosim to only show you the FPV camera. Spend five to ten hours flying the simulator like that. Then switch over to a real copter with FPV and a display screen. Only then switch to goggles and be prepared to come "out" of the goggles at the first sign of disorientation. Andy.
Alex - we sometimes fly with full-wrap FatShark googles, but a far better approach (in my opinon) is to use a small monitor mounted at eye level on a tripod. This allows you to fly FPV from the monitor while keeping the copter in your peripheral vision at all times.
Typically yes, Pavlos. The problem is that if you have the 3-Axis gimbal, it doesn't necessarily provide you with a forward-looking view so there's a risk that you might fly into something like a tree. Ask me how I know.. I have two FPV cameras -- one looking forward and slightly down, and the other looking straight down (so I know when I'm directly overhead of some object). Andy.
True. Where I use FPV is when I have to fly in close quarters and neither the cam op nor I can tell at 200 meters how far the bird is from trees, bushes, barns and other hazards to navigation. We humans just don't have adequate depth-perception beyond about 20 meters (or some number like that -- our eyes are not far enough apart!) That's when I like to glance down at the FPV camera and get a sense of whether I'm going to fly into a tree. (And yes, I need to get better at doing that so that I can keep my "arboreal counter" at only two....) I'm going to try some goggles because, as a pilot of light aircraft and a self-launching sailplane I want to see what the experience is like. However, I'll still have a SmallHD monitor set up too because, intuitively, I need to be able to come out of FPV into real-world quickly to fly safely. Andy.
Andy, I've been meaning to ask you about your FPV setup. I, too, have the SmartOSD and MK stack. Would you mind briefly describing how you have your system configured to switch between the FPV cams, and to switch between Smart OSD Screens? That seems like a lot of switches! Thanks.
Steve: I use two WDR-770 video cameras mounted on the same U-bracket (I had to make two circular holes in the standard U-bracket so I could mount two cameras side-by-side. The video from those two cameras feeds into a two way video switch from DPCAV. The output from the video switch goes into the Smart OSD and that output from the Smart OSD goes into the Lawmate Tx for downlink. I'm debating whether the Smart OSD is degrading the FPV camera signal and whether or not I should extend out the switching so I can also switch to a direct feed from the cameras too. Andy
Andy, is this the switch you're using? And have you used it in conjunction with the HDMI convertor or the composite video output of the CX760? http://www.dpcav.com/xcart/R-C-Controlled-Dual-Video-Switch-2-Way.html
Yes. That's the one. I've only used it with the WDR-770 cameras not with the FF HDMI converter or the composite output of the CX760. But, as you know, in the software business, the adage "it should work, I've only changed one thing" applies. Andy.
Steve, that's the one. I run/ran a similar setup. My difference was the way I setup my system. My main fpv camera went to the Smart OSD and then to the switch. My HDMI board being fed by the main camera did not go through the Smart OSD board, just direct to the second camera position on the DPCAV board. Reason for this was that the output from the HDMI when routed through the SmartOSD was unreadable. Probably could have been adjusted on the SmartOSD pots but then would be messed up with the regular FPV camera. As to switching on the MX-20 I had SW8 set to drive the switching between cameras on the DPCAV. For triggering the various screens on the SmartOSD I used SW9. That one is a momentary switch and each activation would scroll through the SmartOSD screens. Hope this helps. If you are running an Iftron buy some extra camera cables from them so that you can cut them up for splicing, etc.
Gary, that's super helpful. Thank you. And you, too, Andy. Forgive my naiveté, but with my Radians (2-axis) running off two ports of the GR24, plus the ganged stuff for the MK stack, how/where does one wire up these two switches? Or are you using a 3-axis with two transmitters?
I use one of the ports on the GR24 Rx to control the switch as the FPV cameras are on Boom #1. If you want to switch cameras on the gimbal, then I'd use one of the Aux ports on a Radian sensor. Hope that helps. Andy.
I was running a 2 axis. But the I used the switching controls on the MK FC board. Single wire to the Smart OSD switching pin and normal servo wire for the DPCAV. OSD was on Servo 4 and the DPCAV was on Servo 3 on the FC board. Appropriate further settings in MKTools to do the proper mapping of the MK ports to the recv ports. I only had two wires going to the GR24 (in my case a GR16). One was the PWM wire and the other was the regular servo wire as shown in the MK wiki setup your recv/tx pages.