FPV Flying, Where gamers go to die, reality.

end_of_the_tunnel said:

Price and range of diversity in products has come so far. Pretty amazing. Wonder what affordable and recommended dvr devices are available nowdays. Always thought that would be a handy backup for reviewing flight data in case of mishaps, losing craft.

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I'm looking at a couple of cheap options for the ground station, I have a DVR in one pair goggles, but it's crap. I don't need a great image, just good enough to see where the craft went down and to see the last GPS data. There are other better DVRs that do HD 1080p in the $40 US range too. I expect to use a 1200 TVL camera on the planes, so it might be worthwhile to upgrade, but these are so cheap, I might as well try one and I can use it as a backup, if I upgrade.
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Mini FPV DVR Module NTSC/PAL Switchable Built-in Battery Video Audio Recorder

HMDVR Mini DVR Video Audio Recorder

I got the ground station partly completed, now I just need to get one of those old portable DVD player screens working or just output the AV to my goggles. Once I test it to make sure it's working, then I'll bench range test it a bit and if everything is ok, I'll see about mounting it on a tripod and bringing the rig to the field to see how it works with the drone transmitter. I'm using RH circular polarized antennas including the directional patch.

I built it on a leftover piece of dollar store foam board and hot glue and have everything except the cord mounted with velcro and plugged in. I reinforced the wire ties with pieces of an old bank card and plan on mounting on a foot long piece of PVC pipe with a tripod nut mounted in the bottom of one end using epoxy and wire tied onto the PVC pipe on the receiver end.



I've completed the receiver and antenna assembly and have it on the tripod now for some testing with the goggles, then I'll see if I can get one of those old DVD screens working

I was poking around on Banggood and I ran across this interesting item, I didn't realize these were so cheap, I'd buy two and have diversity reception on the ground and 2 transmitters to use in long range planes. A pepperbox directional antenna could receive a good signal from this 10 miles out at least LOS. I would just need a diversity video switcher.

Partom FPV 1.2G 1.3G 8CH 800mw Wireless AV Transmitter And Receiver For FPV RC Drone

The ground station build had a setback, but it will get an upgrade! It seems the receiver doesn't want to work, so I figured I do some shopping for something better. I've got a couple of things in the cart and will hold off on the order for a couple of weeks until I have further look around. I want a 5.8 Ghz ground station for planes and an RC rescue boat for crashed plane retrieval and a ground station on a high point will give me plenty of range.
For now I've got 2 things in the cart that should improve it quite a bit, the first one is a better quality receiver and the second is a big triple feed array directional patch antenna. I figure this new setup will give be significantly more range and better quality video.

I'm not in a big rush for a 5.8 Ghz ground station yet, I just put it together because I had all the parts. I have a nice case for a build to hold a screen and DVR in the lid with Bulkhead connectors on the side for video and external power etc. Might be a winter build, I think I'm gonna fly year round this year, don't like winter, but there are some nice days and with a remote 900 mhz transmitter module mounted on the roof of the car with a magnet and the ground station on a tripod a few feet away, I can sit in the warm car and fly a plane. I just need to launch it and put it in RTH so it orbits my location then get in the car and FPV via a screen or goggles. Any consideration of a ground station build will have to be car friendly and I'll want the screen on the steering wheel or dash, come to think about it the car is a good place to hid out from mosquitoes in summer too!

Here is one of the pioneers of FPV and the guy who owns TBS that makes and sells quality gear like the popular crossfire UHF system. Here he was flying with Stu on a visit to Hong Kong, UAV futures has almost 200, 000 subscribers, mostly young guys who are interested in long range for quads and might be interested in wings and planes. This is great free advertising for him and a good subject for Stu. Stu understands the social nature of the hobby and the fact that many people are isolated in the hobby, his videos tend to be social events and help form part of an online community. He focuses on racing quads for the most part and stays nice and legal down under. Trappy is probably commercially licensed to fly and has a ham license etc
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10km+ LONG RANGE with the GRANDDADDY OF FPV! TBS TRAPPY!!!

Wing racing attracts an older crowd generally than quad racing and the wings are cheaply made from foam board to a standard design and there are videos that show you how to DIY your own. Wing racing is cheaper than quad racing and you can recycle most of the parts from a crashed aircraft into a fresh pre built airframe pretty quick. Wings are cheap and many show up at a weekend race with a half dozen or more ready to fly, all ya got to do is move the receiver to the new plane and your back in business. There are generally no legal issues with wing or quad racing and some folks are right into it.
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This is Wing Racing
FPVWRA hosts a FPV wing race at the annual CFLFPV Meet.

Introduction to the FPVWRA

FPVWRA Spec wing V2 build
Center of gravity: 7" back from the nose. Set CG by moving the motor forward (usually 2")

FPVWRA wing build

Foamboard spec wing tutorial and plans

The plans can be downloaded from here: https://fpvwra.net/wp-content/uploads... This is the FPVWRA Spec legal foamboard airplane. This is 100% free to share and build or even produce if you want to make your own kit. I am giving this free of charge to the RC community to allow the foamboard builders to be able to race in the FPVWRA's most popular class: Spec wing. The DXF file is the one I used for my CNC laser. The motor mount can be made from 1/4" or 1/8" plywood.

More on the wing racing world and how to build a cheap wing launcher.
How to Build a Portable FPV Wing Launcher

Buying a wing kit is simple and makes a build much easier.
Here are some kits of approved spec wing kits sold by members of the FPVWRA

Ya know, I could even race my ar mini wing in this class.
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FPVWRA Sport wing class overview

These guys are pragmatic too and are looking to get the younger racing quad crowd into wing racing too with various classes or races. This class is made for drone people and uses the same batteries and other components recycled from racing quads. This is a cheap hobby to get into, just a pair of FPV goggles and a transmitter, nothing special, everything is short range and legal, you can practice in an empty park or soccer field. You are free to experiment and innovate with in limits, these guys want to keep things cheap and affordable. IBcrazy the guy in the videos, owns VAS who make popular antennas for FPV and is a big wing racing fan.
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FPVWRA mini class overview

Here is something I might try since it only costs a couple of sheets of dollar store foam board a few glue sticks and some packing tape for the air frame. Plans are in the Youtube description, kit is not available. Maybe there are some better designs though, but this looks neat and should hold a lot of stuff, wouldn't care too much if I destroyed it as long as I can get the parts back! I wonder if anybody else posted a build and test flight.
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FT Spear - BUILD | Flite Test

The FT Spear is Flite Test’s newest wing aircraft! The Spear is designed to carry everything you need in a reinforced, lunchbox-like compartment.

Someone has. Found this.

Thanks alot for sharing all that information and video!

I didn't realize the hobby had come so far in RC planes. This is a pretty wicked hobby man!

I've been looking for something new, you may have just planted a seed.

Thanks again!

end_of_the_tunnel said:

Someone has. Found this.

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She looks smooth in stabilized mode, if he was using a Gopro7 black with image stabilization it would look steady as a rock. Pretty impressive for a couple of sheets of foam board, an example of how modern materials and electronics have made the hobby affordable to most people. Also buying direct from China has collapsed the old hobby wholesaler/retailer setup and made things much cheaper for many things. Electric propulsion helped lower the costs and simplify things too.

Bruce has been flying RC forever and runs a very popular youtube channel, a retired electronics engineer with long experience in the hobby, he also runs the xjet channel with is more about policy and regulation lately. The RC community is trying to fight back against excessive and stupid regulations, a flying cockroach has more right to the sky than us guys.

Bruce doesn't have affiliate links and gives straight up reviews. In this age of electric propulsion everybody needs a good battery charger and depending on what your flying a half dozen batteries can keep you going all day with one of these hooked up to your car battery. If your gonna drive 20 miles to fly, you might wanna pack a lunch and spend the day or go for a weekend road trip, with enough batteries this thing can keep you in the air with a pair at a time. Just $64 US
ToolkitRC M6D 500W 15A DC Dual Channel MINI Smart Charger Discharger for 1-6S Lipo Battery - Black
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ToolKitRC dual 500W pocket charger (Review)

Enjoy his videos. Interesting history with his xjet channel. Pity anyone crashing when he is about.

The videos are breathtaking. I imagine flying with VR goggles is a trip.

Too bad much if it is illegal. Regulation ruins most fun things.

Like building model rockets back in the day outta potassium nitrate and sugar. Illegal now.

DrKiz said:

The videos are breathtaking. I imagine flying with VR goggles is a trip.

Too bad much if it is illegal. Regulation ruins most fun things.

Like building model rockets back in the day outta potassium nitrate and sugar. Illegal now.

Click to expand...

Legality depends on what you want to do, if you want to race quads and wings, it's close proximity etc. General FPV and long range stuff has moved underground, nobody is looking unless someone complains and even then it's hard to find you and bust you. If you go to private locations and away people nobody will bother you. If you want to post, make another youtube account and take precautions. If you fly 250 gram craft or less you don't need a license and if I was flying really long range, I wouldn't register the plane. I don't anticipate too many problems and I'm hoping the law will change for the better, we have right to the sky too and there should be areas set aside for free use, restricted airspace for drones and RC planes, air parks. All the FAA types and those who make the regulations are or were pilots and figure drones have not right to the sky at all, nobody has ever been killed by a drone and I don't think an RC plane killed anybody either.

It's cheap to buy a set of goggles like those posted here, a $100 transmitter, a few other odds and ends and buy or build a small $50 racing wing. You can fly these things at empty parks and schools on the weekends, depending on where you live facebook could hook you up to others who race wings locally. If a fellow wanted to put a couple of hundred bucks a month towards his hobby, you could be pretty well equipped with everything you want for planes and maybe a racing quad or two, $2400/yr will buy a lot of stuff, it depends on what you want to do. It's a lot cheaper than cars or golf, and a great thing to get a kid into, very educational, safe and good clean fun.

VIETNAM • 4K Cinematic FPV • FLog 120

Nano Talon mods
I've been working on the nano talon this morning and getting it flight ready with some mods for better performance and adjustments. I've got a ZOHD flight controller on the way for it and I'm gonna pull the simple flight stabilizer board out of it and put in the flight controller that will give me GPS RTH. First I wanna get the airframe ready with some mods and test fly it like that to work out any physical bugs in manual mode. I have an older version of the Nano talon with dihedral in the wings, the newer EVO edition is flat winged and has a few other changes and improvements. I'm kinda hoping I can use the old nano talon flight stabilizer on the AR mini wing

The two biggest issues are with sloppiness in the controls, the elevons were too stiff causing the long thin servo wires to flex because of resistance, I applied Uncle Bruces (RC Model Reviews) fix and cut away some foam and I'm working the hinge line to soften it up. I've got some plastic pin hinges in my shopping cart for dirt cheap that should resolve the issue permanently. There is a bit of sloppiness in the ailerons from the linkage, but I don't think it will be an issue, the ailerons are well hinged and move very easily. I trimmed away a bit of foam from around them and I also removed the packing tape laminate from them to for better airflow. I laminated the foam with 2" heavy duty clear packing tape, there are moulding marks on the foam that should be sanded off first thought, lamination reduces drag and greatly strengthens the plane.

Next I did an antenna mount that didn't go so well, I need to use a small drinking straw for an antenna tube in the wing and a vertical mount for the diversity receiver. Perhaps I'll just buy a bunch of cheap antenna tubes online. Next I unplugged and relocated the ESC to the lower mapping camera bay at the rear and dresses up the wiring, I haven't bothered to fasten down the esc yet. Next mod might be a taped hinge on the front hatch to tilt it up for access, I might even use a plastic pin hinge or two for this when I get them.

I want to easily slide the side receiver antenna into it's tube when I clip on the wing and likewise when I put on the rear cover for the vertical mount.
I hacked a channel in the foam on the underside of the wing and hot glued in a couple pieces of shrink tube, Now I need to remove this and replace the tube with a piece of small drinking straw or some other small plastic tube. If you were going to laminate this model it would be advisable to remove the tiny moulding marks by sanding them off.


I moved the esc to the bottom bay dressed up the wires with some hot glue and left the esc loose for now. I have the video vtx on the front cover and want to hinge it at the front because I have wires going from the power supply and to the camera, with a hinge I just need to flip it forward and have no strain on the wiring. I added the heat sink to the vtx, You can order them on ebay with self adhesive thermally conductive adhesive cheap as beans for 10 or 20 lots, they will make Vtxs and escs last longer by running them cooler. There is still room to mount my runcam2 on the bracket, but there's too much roll in the video for my liking.




Here is what the one with the stock FPV system looks like, it has an OSD that tells you your flight time, battery voltage and what channel you are on.
This is a maiden flight of a recent purchase, so they might have made some improvements based on reviews.
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ZOHD Nano Talon Evo Maiden Flight