I made a Quanum/Cardboard/4X HD FPV Viewer from my phone

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I am sure I am not the first to do something like this but I thought I would share what I made from my old Quanum FPV viewer leftover from my first mini drone. I first cut out the styrofoam edge that held the original composite low quality screen in place since it was smaller than my chosen phones screen size. Then when the opening was wide enough to view my entire phone screen, I mocked up a cardboard phone holder that is pretty much designed the way Google Cardboard (the actual cardboard version) uses. I did add some extras like insulation foam to keep the phone centered, snug and it also helps block light from coming in. To hold the flap at the top I just put some good old Velcro (another Google idea ripoff). Just be sure to leave a notch for your cord to come out. To not look as ghetto I went ahead and used a black sharpie on some of the cardboard to make it black. I may make it look better later but it works just fine. Then comes optics. The Fresnel lens that Quanum uses pretty much sucks. I mean it is functional but it was not only too small for my phones larger 5" screen but it distorts the image greatly. If you opt for NO lens then you need better eyes than me because my phone is a total blur at a few inches from my face. I tried a few pair of reading glasses I had around and the 4X magnification ones seem to do well at making the screen clear and even a little bigger. Since they are reading glasses I really didn't need to make anything adjustable. They are pretty much jammed into the "box" of the Quanum and I scooped out a little foam on both sides so the frames didn't have to crush. They now stay right in place just fine with no glue. That way I can remove them when I need to. I also needed the headset to be a bit further out since the glasses were close to the outside. I added some more of the 1/2" foam that I utilized in the cardboard phone tray as a foam "face gasket". I left the area just below my nose open so I wouldn't fog up the Quanum and it is also a hell of a lot more comfortable with my nose not being crushed, which seems to be the case in every headset I have tried on so far. The original side straps were enough to hold the contraption on my face but I may add a top head band later or just attach this thing to a baseball cap like I used to when I used it before as a regular Quanum FPV. Today I went outside, sat down in a chair, powered on my P3A and put on the FPV viewer. I took off and had a nice 20 minute flight to about 3/4 of a mile away, then I came back, hovered near myself for a minute just to see how crazy I looked to the joggers I heard run by me a few minutes ago, then I pointed the camera down to see the actual altitude and landed it just fine, totally from FPV view alone. I never pulled the headset off anytime the props were turning and it worked great. The screen quality in most phones is very good even when magnified. I can see even better results or more of an IMAX type experience when I get my new 5.7" Samsung Note 5 in a few days. I plan to probably just use my Samsung S4 as a FPV screen only. It is only worth about $50- $75 on the open market anyway. Where can you buy an HD display with 441 ppi (Pixles Per Inch), built in wifi, GPS, etc. for $50 today? People like to find a use for old phones, well I think this is a great use. I can also use this to watch movies, etc. To deal with the need to touch the screen to start and stop recording, etc. I just ordered a cheap $6 Bluetooth phone remote with mouse feature. Even if I had to pop open the back and hit record to start my video without a remote, it is really not that big of a deal. Find an old phone with HDMI out (some Android phones had this) and you can run a cable to a big monitor for friends to watch. I know there are phone holders out there already so I did not invent the wheel but for NO money beyond the $6 remote I ordered I think I have a pretty good FPV setup made from stuff I had in my garage already. The Quanum is super light but if you don't have one, Styrofoam and black latex paint is not hard to find. I hope someone finds this useful and improves the design. I may use bigger lenses and a bigger screen.
 
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I don't see all pictures
 
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I am not sure why, but it kind of ruins the post without the pictures to see what I am talking about. I see them when I look at the post. I used the media embed link and added all my photos that way. I am new to the forums maybe that is part of it. I also have them in a album called "Quanum". Anyone have any advice on how to fix my post?
 
I just logged out, closed my browser, reopened it and came here via a Google search to avoid pre-cached links. I still see the photos but I am the guy who made the post so I may have cookies that let me see them. Can anyone else tell me if the 9 photos are there or not? I feel like a foo for having a long paragraph with no visible photos of what I am talking about. I am new to this forum but it seemed pretty straight forward how to add photos to a post. I guess it is not. Maybe I should have reduced their size before uploading??
 
It works great with my Note 5. I now have an S7 though. It works fine with any phone. You are basically using reading glasses to allow you to get close to your phone without it being blurry. This also shields all the outside light so it really is immersive.
 
As far as I know, NO ONE makes anything like this. That is why after hours of searching in vain I decided to just make my own.

P.S. there is ONE thing that is similar. The new Quanum 2 Pro from Hobby King seems to be like this and allow a pocket to put your phone into. It actually may be the best bet. I may even buy one to see if I like it better than what I have made so far. I am sure I may want to mod it a little bit too, but it would be the best choice for someone starting out with nothing.
 
Reading glasses, eh? How hard is it do adjust your eyes to this? Seems like it would still be a pretty close apparent distance.

I REALLY like this idea though...there is no need to split a phone's resolution in half if you're not doing actual stereo 3d imagery. I may be copying you real soon....BRB there's a drug store across the street :D
 
The "closest distance of distinct vision" which is basically how close can you see one thing with two eyes, varies slightly among people but it is right at 5.5" - 6" for me. That means to make this thing as small as possible I have the lenses very close to my eyes (like when you wear glasses) and the phone screen is about 5.5 to 6" away. Like holding a bucket of water in your outstretched arm the phone gets heavy when away from your face and pushing the viewer down onto your nose.
 

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