Just arrived  the world's leading Fat Shark FPV RC Vision System with Pan tilt CMOS Camera :

http://www.gowiththeshark.com/RCV922_Aviator_Edition_RC_aerial_video_glasses_wireless_camera_500mW.html

It comes with a 10 mW On board transmitter .

This system can be upgraded subsequently with the  add ons like :

OSD ( On screen Display ( like HUD )
Head tracking system for camera pan and tilt with pilot's head
500 mW  transmitter  which will enhance range to 1.5 Km

Price of FPV RCV922 Pacakge is Rs 24,500/- + courier  
As usual 1 set goes to me   .

Multiplex planes like Easy Star , Twin Star , Easy Glider , Easy Cub etc are great Platforms for using this FPV.

Sai

Did a ground check today at our flying field had no distortion is Video and audio feed when I did a Circle with a radius of  around 300 - 400 mtrs  so I assume range in air would be better at around 1/2Km at least for a 10 mW Tx, .
So should be trying it out on Sunday if all goes well.

Sai

Sai,
Plz try and get us a video from the fatshark

Regards
Pramod

Sure will try to do it this week end , but one thing I realized during the ground check itself and that is that flying orientation will have to be re worked .  
Now  flying has to be with Markers specially identify able from the air  now trees , rocks , houses etc  are far more important than what they were till today  eg. Venkat was standing with the goggles  at our usual flying location while I circled round him holding the camera  and the transmitter  round the field in my car in  radius of  around 300-400 mtrs , though he could  see everything  where I directed my camera it was difficult for him to fix the location of my car  at any point of time  as till date the markers around the field were not very important  as he could see the model so only major markers were mentally kept  which related to landing approach , turn for circuit etc .

We are so used to seeing the model and flying that the only problem I think is judging the location of the model thru the cockpit when wearing the goggle.

So I think this will be a new learning experience  

Any suggestions on how this can be overcome are welcome .

The camera has servos for pan and tilt , I am thinking of  connecting these to the receiver Flap and another channel  to activate these with the Knob on my JR 8103 , don't know if it will work any ideas  

Quote from: rcforall on August 25, 2009, 09:30:25 PM
The camera has servos for pan and tilt , I am thinking of  connecting these to the receiver Flap and another channel  to activate these with the Knob on my JR 8103 , don't know if it will work any ideas  

Checked on RCG and some FPV forums it seems that is the way to do it.
Hopefully should have it going by Sunday.
sai

Connected the pan and tilt servos to channel 6 and 7 and fabricated a Balsa Canopy for the twin star.
Pan tilt work well in case of static tests .
Dr. Avijit Basu gave me a good idea as far as orientation is concerned of fitting 2 markers on either side at the tip of the nose this will help to get a fix of the camera position in relation to the nose of the plane .I think Surgeons like him will know the importance of orientation .
Chan suggested having a bit of the nose always in picture .

Thanks  for these suggestions  which  are practical and useful.

Sai

Dear Mr. Sai.
Long back i also fabricated a balsa Pan and tilt system for my web cam (Creative) just for my own hobby purpose. which was connected to the standard 6 channel receiver. elevator and rudder/airlon channel was used for this purpose. best suggestion will be to use an additional 2 or 3 channel tx, 6 volt battery and receiver, if the plane can handle an extra payload. the camera can be controlled by second pilot very easily.

Actually I found that not knowing where the Model  was by sight was not really a problem   as I thought earlier .
With  land marks the visible from the air Take off , flying and Landing the FPV for Venkat did not pose any problems at all  after the 1st run where he was getting used to the FPV  and watching thru the goggles  while I piloted the plane . This helped him to get a bearing of the plane from the air.
Once this was done then after that he knew where the plane was just by looking at land marks in the air .

It was like  flying  during the Good old days with  just  land marks as the  navigation aids .

The Video on the goggles was great but I had a down link problem where the TV Tuner card  connections were a bit loose  hence the  recorded Video quality is not  good . The disturbances on the Video were  not there on the flying goggles but were there  due to ground based down link connections . I read later that the Video recording can be done with a VGA device on board  any idea how that can be done ?

Can I get something like a Micro SD card Drive which can be connected to the 2.4 G transmitter on board to record Video's to be down loaded on to the lap top after landing  

The  motor and wind sound is from the stereo mics placed on the camera on board, so it gives the feel of being inside the plane actually . You can plug in ear phones to the goggles to hear this sound as you fly.
sai




Here is the  demo flight by fat shark with the same camera :
Model name:  CCD Killer PAL
Imager:  ¼"
Lens:  3.6mm (with IR filter)
420 TV lines, stereo microphones
System:  PAL




The lack of disturbance and clarity is mainly due to on board recording I guess . Should do this by next flying day if possible  

Sai

hi sai

congrats on the FPV median 

b/w the clarity is not so good i have seen better stuff but may be its due to setup,what don't you try a directive antenna or patch antenna will give you better range/performance

try googel lots of info on how to mod n stuff

sahil

Sahil ,
Thanks the clarity of my Video is bad  due to down link problems , but the second Video of the fat shark guy is very clear because of on board recording from the Video out of the 2.4 Tx using a VGA set up .
The quality on Goggle is great so flying it is not a problem at all.
The 10 mW Tx on board is also insufficient , hence looking at upgrading to 500 mW I think that should solve the problem.

The important thing was we were able to fly FPV from take off to landing.

Sai

Congrats on the FPV. I guess you are the first one in India to try it out. Thatz the coolest part in being a vendor!.. 

Ya, the video quality needs to be improved. When seeing the video, I am kind of reminded of the famous movie "Terminator - Judgement day". The flashes in the video are similar to the scene where the Terminator will die and soon afterward the aux power will kick in..

Quote from: izmile on August 31, 2009, 02:52:03 PM

Thatz the coolest part in being a vendor!.. 

Add  the risk and the responsiblity  as well

Thanks anyways Ismail

Sai

You will soon have another FPV'er on the forum.
The other fat shark is sold

Sai

Flew FPV again today though with limited range due to the FPV Tx being 10mW .
Had an interesting observation at full throttle the disturbance was higher and at around 1/2 throttle the disturbance in the Video down link reduced significantly. Hence I wonder if the ESC could be causing some disturbance in the Video communication due to the low power of the Tx..
Wondering if covering the ESC with aluminum foils will isolate this possibility

Sai

This week end  flew a few sorties of FPV on the Twin Star :
These are the two Videos :
RCPA Field ( Sunday ) :

Kovalam ( Saturday )


Earlier Kovalam run  about  a month back is earlier on in the thread  .
The improvement is good but need to improve further .
The Image is better in the goggles though 

Have upgraded the on board system with an Airwaves 500 mW Tx  and a base receiver which does not seem to be good enough .

Hence looking at upgrading the ground station  should  do it along the way.

sai

this video system doesn't work with a 2.4 g radio transmitter right.? 

Right , I use 72 mhz to fly FPV .
You do get video systems in 900 Mhz  etc as well
sai