Setups Curious

[corsair_pilot]

Looking into the FPV thing, and looking into the some of the control boards with autopilot and things.
I was curious, can some of these boards be used in fixed wing aircraft?
That would be something for fun and was curious if I could plan a few waypoints to lead to a "straffing" run, take auto pilot off, fly the sortee, and then auto pilot it back to the landing circuit and land myself. Just something that would be fun.

In terms of true FPV I've been looking at the Scarab multirotors and they seem like a nice platform. What i'm trying to work out though is what rx should i look at to get distance out of the platform.

What I'd like to try and get the unit capable of doing is getting video footage of us out mountain bike riding, or four wheel driving or even getting out with the huskies and sledding.
Any hints, suggestions, ideas would be fantastic.

 

[Stambo]

As far as fixed wing is concerned I know some of the boards can be used for stabilization but autopilot I'm not so sure about.

Just had a look at the Scarab, looks nice but personally I don't like the round arms.
A friend got a hex with round arms and every time he had a little bit of a heavy landing the motor mounts would rotate ever so slightly making it fly different.
We had to start setting up all over again.

I guess the biggest question is your budget.
Buy what you can afford to crash.
I'm not saying you are going to but it's something to think about.

If I was to start again with FPV gear I probably would not get what I have now.
I bought the Fatshark kit, now the only part of the original kit I still use is the goggles.
Fatshark/Immersion uses different frequencies than everyone else so the micro FPV stuff I bought can not be used directly with the Fatshark goggles. I had to get a new receiver.
Diversity makes a big difference in received image consistency.

Do a youtube search for this . Success in FPV Part:1 - What is FPV?
It is a series of videos on FPV done by a guy called Alex Grieve who I believe designed the first cloverleaf style video antennas as well as many other designs. He is also an awesome FPV pilot.
He has probably forgotten more on FPV than I will ever know.

 

[Lee]

Many of the boards can be used for Airplanes. Open pilot, Ardupilot 2.5, The KK2 board can be flashed with firmware for airplanes, and many more.

The Ardupilot can be set with way points. I've seen video of guys setting a wing off from one point and filming it fly itself to another point a few miles down the road.

The Scarabs look a little delicate to me, and delicate is not what you want as a first quad. The DJI 450 frame is a good strong option, and if money is an issue they sell clones frames in many places for as little as $14.

I have a DX8 like you Jonathan. It's not the best for FPV but I haven't had any issues yet. If i had the cash now, I would go for a FRSky radio and RX. There signal strength is very good. Unless you go the long range route, it seems to be the best and most common system out there for FPV.

Fatshark googles are the industry standard. As Stambo said they have a different set of frequencies to the other brands, which did restrict you to only a select few TXs. Now though they have a built in RX for the googles that cover all channels that are readily available. So you can use Immersion RC and any of the chinese model frequencies.

Filming your sports should be no problem. If you have seen some of my videos, you'll see the possibilities. Only thing to watch for is, 5.8ghz is susceptible to drop out if you fly behind objects. So as long as you keep the aircraft within line of sight and don't fly behind a bunch of trees, you should be fine.

Good luck.

 

[corsair_pilot]

Thanks guys.
The main thing I was interested in was for the multi rotor set up and filming, but it would be pretty cool to set it up in one of my planes and have an autonomous flight.

I was thinking of getting the Taranis after I see what a few more people think of it.
I have a 9xr running the frsky at the moment for the sake of my club. The 9xr will go to the old man eventually, but will keep it for now, but if the taranis turns out to be good, then I'll probably have a 2nd radio with module support.

I've seen some of your videos Lee, and that's what's made me get back to looking at this again. I really wanted to start flying etc, so that I could film stuff, and some of my activities, as well maybe a few other things.
With what I want to do, there is a good chance trees will get in the way, so I should maybe look at something lower in the frequency range that will cope with the trees and interference.
VTX and TX i'm assuming run on different frequencies from what I understand.

Will get going and do a whole bunch of research and reading again. As I get questions I will ask then.

Lee when you're doing your videos, what are you recording? Is it what you're seeing through the fpv goggles, or do you have a 2nd camera, and that's what's doing the filming?

 

[Lee]

The Taranis, does seem to be a good option. Its what i would get now if i had the cash.
I record with my go pro and receive video to my goggles from a small sony cam. I have friends that take the video signal straight from there gopros as well as recording, but i don't want to take the chance of the Gopro shutting down and loosing visual.

For Video 1.3ghz seems to be the most popular for all round use.

 

[corsair_pilot]

Will be keeping an eye on it, I can see myself getting it. Using it for fpv and a other such things, but the DX8 is so easy to set up etc I love it.

But yeah will see whats there.
I've noticed lot of boards talking about direct soldering etc... I haven't gone into it more, but what is the PCB board? What is the advantage of direct solder?