Mad idea?

[SIMON CRAGG]

Having resisted "drones" since they first appeared, I have recently bitten the bullet (and after buying / selling a few duffers), have ended up with something which seems perfect at my stage of the game. (EACHINE EV800D).

Anyway, as this is 5.8 FPV equipped, I thought I would get a set of goggles. (DVR / Diversity equipped). Again, so far so good.

Then found an all-in-one camera / VTX unit (£15.00), which on the face of it can be attached to any type of model, and flown via the models TX / RX and the goggles.

My plan is to attach it to my "Winter Hack", and give it a go.

I have researched to topic to death, and think it should work ok!.

Anybody else tried this or similar?.

Should be fun either way!.

[Caveman]

Hi Simon,

You're not alone, I also had exactly the same mad idea!

I bit the drone bullet by building a small drone by following BEB's (RIP) tutorial on this forum. I then bought an Eachine Racer 250, an altogether more capable machine.

Then I followed that with some Eachine EV800 'goggles.

All OK except the camera on the Racer suffers badly from flare when flying into bright sunshine, and not being a real drone fan I haven't flown it that much.

However, a fellow club member is a keen drone and FPV flier and I was interested to tune my goggles into his FPV flying and it looked good. He stressed how easy it is to fly FPV.

So I bought a cheap all-in-one camera/VTX from Banggood, the TX02 Pro.

I mounted it on top of my Multiplex Funcub and it powered from the main battery via a 5v BEC. At the field, I started by taxiing around to test the system, and, with everything working satisfactorily and me feeling somewhat anxious, took off.

Well, it was just as easy as claimed and really enjoyable!!

The downsides of my (really cheap) system are:

* I can't wear glasses while wearing the goggles - fortunately I'm short sighted but my eyes are about half an inch too close to the screen, so I can't see it 100% in focus

* Even if I could remedy the above , the resolution of the camera/screen is really not that good. Good enough to see where I'm going, but not good enough to show fine detail. My fellow club member has a DJI drone which has really sharp video, but for what it costs it should be good! I can't justify the cost!

* I can't record my flights, so will need to make a twin mount so I can use my Mobius camera at the same time.

Even given the above shortcomings I'm looking forward to having some more FPV flights as soon as the weather improves.

GDB

[Frank Skilbeck]

Yep have used the all in one units from Bangood with some Fatshark v2s, used them on a flying wing, MPX Easy Star, Easy Glider (off the slope) and in the "passenger" seat in a 1/5th scale T21, flown them all FPV, the T21 aerotowed to height.

Also bought a video receiver which plugged into my phone and have given rides in the T-21. Had a panning camera in the T-21 great for looking down the wing.

I'm also very short sighted, I made up so diopter adjusters to go in my Fatsharks from an old pair of specs, this worked very well. Only problem I have on some days is that the googles keep misting up.

[SIMON CRAGG]

Sounds good so far!

One of the reasons I went for the EV800D version of goggles, was that they include a video record mode on a micro SD Class 10 card.

I'll have a look at the TX02 Pro and see how it compares with the EWRFTS 5823 which I purchased.

I am not expecting perfection for £15.00, but it all sounds very promising so far.

Looking forward to some decent weather so I can complete some trials!.

[Toni Reynaud]

I did something similar last year - a cheapo all-in-onecamera/Tx from Banggood, a single screen headset (cheaper than goggles!) and fitted it to a Gentle Lady with an electric power pod. Powered the camera with a lead from the battery plug on the Rx. It all worked well from the FPV point of view, but having a spotter was quite necessary - height judgement is not easy when flying over a ploughed field next to the patch! Well worth doing, and I hope to geet more flights this year.