improving FPV video quality, stability and range

[Bc-hud]

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[HighTechPauper]

It is the holy grail of FPV, clear stable long range video reception. FPV is like a first of its kind color TV on rabbit ears flopping around is a strong wind, sometimes it gets pretty bad and you definitely need to learn to fly through the fuzz and glitching. Some think it will be like their DJI Phantom but alas that is waaaay too slow for what we do as every microsecond of delay is critical, it needs to be as real-time as possible. And every quad I have is... different, radically sometimes, even among duplicate equipment one will be better than the other, but you don’t know that until you have flown enough different lenses, day and night, on enough different cameras to say “crap, why don’t they all work the same”, and the answer is, they kinda do and sometime you can’t do much except fly or not fly.

Obviously, if you were near another pilot, and they had a good running rig or multiple rigs you can try some things and figure it out.

I have tried multiple top line antenna and... again some of the top rated give me issues and others give me noticeable better performance.

Sometimes I swear it is the luck of the draw on how good your video will be.

I use a mad mushroom (goggles) and triumphs (quad) and I am still searching for better... but for my rig that is the best I have found so far.

 

[Bc-hud]

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[HighTechPauper]

I think it all makes a difference, and it isn’t just about specs of optics or higher gain antennas. You don’t get anything for free, when you increase the gain of an antenna you lose overall coverage for greater reception in a reduced footprint, and how well someone likes fit and focus of one goggle over another is such a personal preference based on head size, inter-pupillary distance, wear glasses or not, just to name a few. I know this much, with a little practice I can fly wearing anything, but I have some highly rated stuff, it works pretty well for me, and I am always looking for a significant improvement if I can find it. If I had to says there was a minimum to get, it would be the eachine Goggle2, and the best is probably a fat shark goggle or HD box goggle or maybe commanders or some skyzones. But really, I can fly with my $50 Tactic box goggles if I have to no problem, but I tend to wear my HD3’s or my Commanders because they are a better experience overall for me... but even they aren’t perfect by any means. Unfortunately there is no 1 size fits all, or any single right answer to your questions.

 

[Wayno52]

Hi Bc, and welcome to the forum, I think Randy pretty much covered it there but it is an ongoing conversation everywhere.
Which goggles are best. The thing is that there is no right or wrong, no better than yours, it costs more so it’s better.
Goggles are most likely the one thing that we will all never agree on. It comes down to personal preference and we are all different.
If you have a local club near you then go there and ask questions and see if you can trial what they have.
A lot of the well known and highly respected pilots in here love the box goggles. For me, I have them but cannot fly well with them so my choice is skyzone. But hey I haven’t tried others.
Best of luck on your choice.
Wayne

 

[theGreenOrange]

For antennas, you would do well to have one omnidirectional antenna and one patch (directional) antenna [edit: that is on the goggles, always put an omni on the quad]. I like the farvew pagoda omni and also the aomway omni ones are good for the price. Be sure to match RHCP or LHCP with the antennas on your drone and goggles. Also, adding a capacitor on the battery leads can clean up the video signal.

 

[Bc-hud]

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[Bc-hud]

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[VirtueViolater]

You simply solder it across the positive and negative battery leads where they solder to the PDB/ FC.
Make sure you get the polarity correct or they go boom!

 

[Bc-hud]

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