New Phantom FC-40

[Uhrlto]

ok, I hope that someone will have the answers to these questions before tomorrow at 8pm pst.
I had to send back my phantom 1 to amazon due to ESC and motor problems. My options were to get another Phantom one or to order a phantom FC-40, I went with the 40 thinking that the 5.6ghz freq would be better and that it has to be a better craft then its predecessor. After it was ordered I started to do some research which prompted this hectic email. It seems that the FC-40 is a lesser piece of equipment then the Phantom 1. So I need to know some basics stuff.
My phantom one was for aerial videography mostly. I have a GOPRO hero 3 and tarot 2d gimbal plus carbon fiber props. I did not use it with FPV or did I care about fantastic range.

1. I do need to know if the FC-40 will support the 7th X1 channel for tilt functions?
2. Do I need to buy a separate kit for tilt functions?
3. What is the real range (line of sight) for the FC-40 (stock)

I called a number of hobby shops and got varied answers to these questions, USA hobby in Las Vegas said that if I had a Phantom 1 the FC-40 is virtually identical Is that the truth?

Thanks in advance for any help here.

 

[Mandrake]

Answers
1. Yes it does have the 7th channel -
2. Needs the lever add on kit ..
3. Should be the same as Phantom 1 - I lose sight of mine around 300 metres ( bad eyes !! )
4. See 3 above ...

The big problem with the FC40 is getting OSD to work as the thing runs on 5.8Ghz not 2.4Ghz - however the little FC40 camera is pretty good for FPV - with the right phone / tablet / monitor ..

Hope that helps ya a bit ...

Mandrake

 

[Jermz]

The difference in the phantom itself us the 5gig transmitter vs the 2gig. There isn't any other difference in the hardware. It comes with a 2.4 wifi camera, and that's really it. The controller doesn't have the pitch control lever on it, that's a ten dollar part and about half an hour to get it going. The gimbal goes on, no trouble. I have the cheap Chinese gimbal on my phantom, and it's no issue.

You can use the wifi from the gopro, it's helpful for setting up shots, I never use it to pilot the phantom. A hero 3+ has about the same lag time as the fc40 camera, the hero 3 is a bit more laggy. The fc40 camera is actually not too darn bad, obviously it's not a gopro, but it's much better than I expected.

If you want to add osd or do serious fpv, it's a bit more difficult with the fc40. Most of that is made yo tin on 5.8, and finding it on 2.4 or 1.2 is a bit harder, it doesn't seem to work as well on the lower freqs.


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