FPV question

M

Magilagor

New Member
I just bought an Ares Ethos qx 130 and I was wondering if anyone here has ever had one or seen one that had an FPV system on it. It seems like the quad could handle a little extra weight added to it. I just would like to know first off before I shelled out the money for one only to find out that it doesn't work. Any help would be nice.

Thanks!
 
I have just bought the same quad and would like to know the same thing.

I have been wanting a quadcopter for a long time and was recommended to get this as a "starter" one to learn on. I got the little camera add-on and am quite impressed by the videos I have made so far, but I think flying it "fpv" would make it even more fun!

I am not quite ready to jump in and spend hundreds of dollars on goggles etc. yet, but from the research I have done I figure I might be able to start with a simple base-station monitor/receiver/dvr (such as this- http://www.foxtechfpv.com/foxtech-pvr58-58g-8ch-dvrfor-foxtech-vtx-p-1357.html), along with a simple all-in-on camera/tx unit (like this- http://www.foxtechfpv.com/58g-20mw-mini-wireless-tx-with-300000-pixel-cam-palntsc-p-210.html) which looks like I may be able to take off the big power plug and power it from the QX 130's 1S battery (according to this thread- http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1691835).

I know neither the quality nor the range is going to be great with this set up, but the camera/tx is light and cheap- I'm just getting started so some of my "landings" are not exactly gentle ;) And this way I figure I can get my feet wet without spending a fortune or being too upset if I crash and burn.

Thoughts anyone?
 
I just skimmed the material quickly and saw that your quad has a 500ma battery. The video camera and transmitter power draw should be very low for it to work. Your relativity small battery will now have to power the quad, camera and transmitter. The transmitter can be a big power hog. It may all work perfectly but only give you a couple of minutes of flight time. With a little research you can easily calculate all of that stuff and find out if it is feasible. Without diving into all the details everything looks like it will work, but how much will your flight (battery) time be reduced by adding a transmitter. Also, just adding additional weight to your quad will reduce the flight time as well.
 
The linked DVR/receiver looks interesting, but you see from the YouTube video what people don't like about 5.8! It doesn't penetrate well.
The problem of course is that on a mini-quad, using anything else means using a larger antenna, more weight etc. I can tell you that even a super IPS display is going to bite it in the sun, so unless you're covered with a black cloth shroud (which is going to look pretty strange), FPV with anything but goggles is going to be pretty difficult. Even a shield doesn't work as well as you might think because if your eyes see any appreciable amount of bright light, they adjust down to that and your screen looks like nothing.

I've been looking for goggles without internal receiver(s). I'd happily use a separate receiver (1.256GHz looks good in tests - see what Flite-test did) and find goggles that take an external video signal. If I had goggles with HDMI and composite inputs, that would be ideal.

The Ares Ethos is pretty small. You may just want to relegate that to flight training and fun and build something bigger that can do a lot more.
 
There's a field here in my area that RC enthusiasts have permission to use. One guy uses a ground station with a 10" screen. He sets up under a tree in the shade and its very comfortable and the screen can be easily seen. Too bad there can't always be a tree to set up under. I think OSD works better with a screen (without glare) than goggles but can't say for sure because I don't have OSD on my quad yet. It sure looks nice on that guys 10" screen though. I think OSD is imperative with FPV because once your quad is a few hundred feet away you can't even hear it anymore. You need it for battery voltage at a minimum.
 
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