FPV range... upgrades? options?

[Byroman]

300 meters is a bit of a limitation for the fpv. I know its just hitting the market, but are there (or will there be) any options available to upgrade the WiFi extender, or add on another fpv system that will Work with the vision camera? I guess the latter will not work with the features of the phone app....your thoughts?

 

[martcerv]

I think upgrading a vision is a little pointless, if you want more then what it gives you in terms of control and fpv range your better off with a regular phantom, FPV and a gopro. Changing any of these parts means your wasting any extra features the vision gives as these wont work well with any other gear available atm. Extending video range you may be limited by the stock radio and changing the radio doesnt allow for any stock 2.4g systems as thats what the vision is using for video.

 

[Byroman]

Thanks martcerv,
As you stated, the features of the vision are really the selling point. And 1000' is certainly adequate for general camera work.
Since I'm new to FPV, can you recommend a good FPV system and viewer to accompany a gopro. I see some manufacturers bragging a lot of range. There are so many choices out there!

 

[martcerv]

Thanks martcerv,
As you stated, the features of the vision are really the selling point. And 1000' is certainly adequate for general camera work.
Since I'm new to FPV, can you recommend a good FPV system and viewer to accompany a gopro. I see some manufacturers bragging a lot of range. There are so many choices out there!

I can only go by what I use and thats the DJI AVL58 setup, for a 5.8 setup its pretty easy to setup only a few cables to connect and possibly solder to the aux port if you dont want to hook up to battery each flight.

Range wise I have easily got up to 2.5km with this and a futaba radio getting good clean video feed out of it in far from ideal noise free locations. Then you either need some goggles or a screen to view it and there are lots of options. I dont like goggles that much so went with a cheap screen at first but then went and got a much better 7 inch screen from Skylark their very bright 7in sunview screen and hood.

Here is a basic example of it in flight but the screen looks better then it does on the video here with it chest mounted.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0kGB28FAKY[/youtube]

Here is a longer range FPV flight out to over 2km away.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahu_QauUu0c[/youtube]

Pretty happy with this setup and got the DJI mini OSD so it works pretty well, limitations are no remote camera control but much better range and video quality with lower latency. One thing I am amazed nobody has done yet is make a usd av input that can use a smartphone as your fpv screen. Surely this cant be too hard to do but nobody has done so yet, most tablets and higher end smartphones have much higher quality screens then cheap fpv screens and the larger ones at 5inches plus wouldn't be too small to use.

I think the vision is a great setup and Id love to have its battery and flight times, the rest of the stuff though I think you either keep as is or go for a regular phantom or v2 that should have the extra battery life and features without the camera and video link. The vision will still end up quite a bit cheaper then going the path I took but it gives much more then what you can from the vision. I also have a 2 axis gimbal to add on soon so this will give me better smoother video then possible with the vision.

 

[Alex G.]

I have been looking into the DJI AVL58 as my fpv system for my phantom, and almost everywhere i've looked it says the top range for the system is 1000m, but you say you've gotten 2.5 k out of it. I am just wondering if you've modified it at all, maybe changed the antennae? Otherwise it would be pretty awesome if you got that far of a range stock. Thanks