Best Source for FPV

2tall

Fly Often - Fly Safe
I'm a hobbyist and will soon be adding FPV to my F550. I'm looking for a reliable source. For me, customer service is as important as pricing. Your recommendations for a good retail source would be appreciated.

I have no plans to intentionally fly out of my range of sight. The FPV additions are only to give me a better idea what my GoPro is seeing. I'll probably start with a small ground station monitor, but may upgrade to the "Data" look down the road. Suggestions on equipment would be appreciated as well.

Thanks,

Jon
 

kloner

Aerial DP
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/
http://www.urbandrones.com/
https://hobbywireless.com/

in that order for me. there is also bevrc.com, foxtech.com, but there chineese and even when there right there for you, it takes a month to get anything back to them for credit or exchange so in my eyes, it negates most of the CS.

assuming you have a 2.4 type rc control, i'd go with an immersion 5.8 600mw vtx and an 5.8 uno receiver. it doesn't have the best non line of site, but it aint bad unless you want to fly through the forest. if your able to get over the forest, your golden. the 1.2 and 1.3 are powerful, but honestly unless you can get the lawmate vtx's, it's a waste of time. the parts inside these others are super succeptable to interferrence. the immersion stuff is made for rc vehicles, lawmate is a surveilance camera parts............. After that all you need is a 2.5 mm a/v cable to hook into your gopro, readymade has one that snaps in for ya and has a 90 degree elbow so it's not sticking straight out the side then you need a monitor. Anything with a/v inputs or the yellow, red and white. I don't bother transmitting the audio unless i want to know how the signal is as in i won't hook a mic to it, but i'll hook my receivers audio to my tv, you hear static right before the image goes bad so you get a warning

the data you speak of is called OSD or on screen display. There are alot of em, but again, the immersion is very easy, plugs inline with your camera with cables supplied, then if you get into a more solid link, not necesarily to fly further, but so you don't loose it to a cheap 2.4 rc connection, the EzUHF by immersion goes inbetween em all and gives you good data like how well your radio is linked to the craft in percentage realtime, etc.
 


kloner

Aerial DP
my first helical was crazyib 5.8 black cannon. it was awesome, but, transporting it was harder than hell. had the dowel break off the metal backing, broke a solder joint at the bottom. it is way overkill for a multirotor. Try a 4.5 turn or a 3 turn, absolutely awesome. if you saw that video of my disco going over the windmills yesterday, that was 3 turn, probably just over a half mile away, only junk was when i got behind them and made the turn to land, my truck got between the back of the 3 turn and the multirotor. You can tell my the look of it wasn't gonna lst long like when a signal is leaving ya. nothing is worse than a video screen going black on ya mid flight, had it once and hope to never again
 


RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
I'll second RMRC, they've gotten lots of my $ and it's always been fast shipping and excellent service the one or two times there's been a problem.

If you're only interested in what the GoPro is seeing then get a cable that will connect the video out port to an Immersion 600MW video TX and an Uno or Diversity receiver. Use a cloverleaf antenna on the TX and with a diversity RX I'd use a SPW on one side and a crosshair or small helical on the other, for an Uno I'd just go with the SPW if you plan to not go beyond visual range, the only place you won't have good signal quality is directly overhead in the null of the two antennas.

My favorite 5.8 setup is the Immersion 600 with cloverleaf antenna and a set of Dominator goggles wwith a small crosshair antenna I built, ultra clear video to any distance I care to fly a multirotor to. I also have an Uno RX with a 3 turn helical that connects to an FPV-Japan DVR to record the flight. For farther and lower I have a 2.4 setup with Immersion diversity RX and for the best in behind solid objects at a distance an RMRC 1258 setup with 1500mw vTX and an Omni Horizon antenna on the RX end.

Ken
 

kloner

Aerial DP
the 5.8 setup hes talking about is simple and very affective. Put a small helical or crosshair on a set of goggles and your superman

this was on a 2.4 immersion rx, the bottom left pnp part. That is the exact feed sent to my monitor with a dvd inline. 3 turn helical


my all time favorite is the 2.4 lawmate 1 watt with the immersion duo rx, that's what your looking at, that's what i'm changing everything over to. I'm quickly becoming a fanboy of there products

that bottom left number is my ezuhf signal strength. The quad can't get far enough away to make it suck, love it
 
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2tall

Fly Often - Fly Safe
"...but may upgrade to the "Data" look..."

My bad.

I was actually thinking of the Star Trek character "Data". He always looked like he was wearing FPV goggles - which are the possible future upgrade (from a small monitor).

OSD is another possibility down the road, but a lower priority for now.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Jon
 

kloner

Aerial DP
I ordered stuff from all three of them guys this morning, all my tracking info is here and there all dropped off. when i shop i hit rmrc first, but there always out of stuff i want soooooo, i aint a waitin

when i first got to fpv, i was getting lost like crazy. a gps navigation osd is huge when you want to head off somewhere and leave line of sight..... HUGE

goggles to me aren't too big of a deal. i prefer the biggest monitor i can bring. The 16" naxa is working killer. Super clear, alot clearer picture than the 22" had and alot more detail than the 7" offers. all the same price, both 12v or 3s lipo ready
 
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Maverick

Member
I can vouch for RMRC as well. Top class service, and very fast - even to Ireland!!! Great selection of products. Love the "individual" section. I also recommend IMMERSION RC gear as well. Very plug and play, which for a beginner, is what you want. EzOSD firmware is upgradable too. I have IMMRC 5.8GHz VTx, EzOSD with Current Sensor. I've gotten 1.9km so far, using my SkySurfer plane, and that was just using cloverleaf on VTx, and SPW on FatSharks AE. Started getting radio glitches with my 2.4GHz Futaba at that distance, so I turned around and headed back.
 
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