What equipment for FPV without line of sight

[lomenak]

Hi all, first of all thanks everyone who is contributing here. This forum is a great knowledge base!

I am just in the process of getting Phantom 2 and ideally would like to get FPV equipment with it straight from the beginning. I have read A LOT about it all in here so I know way more than I did a few days ago but I am still a noob. I am not after a setup with a crazy long LOS range - I think 1.5 km would be all I wanted the longest, but I would like a setup with a good penetrating capabilities to get through trees and shrubs when I am controlling the drone from a bush or in hilly enviroment.

At this stage I am looking at Black Pearl or Lilliput 329/DW monitors with built-in receivers. I am not considering the Boscam screen as that doesnt come with a battery that I can swap while in the field. Which one of these would have a stronger radio? Is there much difference here or is this mainly affected by the antennas?

For the TX I was looking into the Immersion 600mW or FatShark 250mW - these two getting are getting good reviews here. The Immersion should be stronger but I read some opinions around here that the Fat Shark is actually the stronger one. Is there a 'winner' between those two or is it more of a personal preference?

What antennas would you recommend for a combo of the above? I guess combination of some helical directional antenna and cloverleaf antennas? If you could put links with your suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[wkf94025]

Can't attest to tree/bush impact, but I am very happy with gear listed below. Don't find much difference between IRC's 250mw and 600mw VTx. Both are IRC, I believe, not one IRC and one Fatshark. But Fatshark and IRC sing well together. Attitude SD goggles very good on reception from IRC VTx. Use Sprironet CP on P2, extended down a ways, and circular patch on goggles, with 2" flex extension to point it at bird. Duo receiver with CP and helical gun or CP and circular patch gives awesome coverage to Lilliput, and 2nd output for DVR. Not a cheap setup, but quality of video and range that exceeds most of what I read here.

Kelly

 

[thestone11]

My setup for FPV:

Immersion RC 600mw Transmitter + black pearl monitor. I have a pair of fat shark goggles too, after using the black pearl, I find it hard to go back to goggles. I use two spironet antenna on my black pearl and one on the transmitter.

I flew this moring, I am getting very nice video signal 700m away from me and 120m vertically.

http://youtu.be/GgoQR6kTXMo

 

[landmannnn]

Just a couple of thoughts...

The Boscam battery isn't swappable, but mine lasts plenty of flights so unless you are taking 5 or 6 batteries out with you it won't be an issue.
If you want to get fpv through or around solid objects then you will need to use a completely different frequency, effectively the 5.8ghz is line of site only. For example it won't work if you fly over a hill and down the other side.

 

[lomenak]

What is the real world battery use for the Boscam screen? I am thinking about getting 4-5 batteries to have around 1,5 hours of flight time.

Can you put anything with other frequency than 5,8ghz on the Phantom? I don't want to fly around some big hills when you have no sight of the bird for a few minutes. It is more about if you can lose sight of the bird for a few seconds due to large trees or 'corner' of a hill if your ground station is elevated etc. is that possible at all?

 

[wkf94025]

It is more about if you can lose sight of the bird for a few seconds due to large trees or 'corner' of a hill if your ground station is elevated etc. is that possible at all?

I think both your 2.4GHz control signal and 5.8GHz video feed are likely lost then, and your bird will go fail safe / RTH. Suggest you stay mainstream 5.8GHz FPV, and avoid such situations as best you can.

Kelly

 

[lomenak]

Thanks Kelly. Not really an answer I hoped for but better to learn it here than the hard way! Can you please share your antenna setup? I can see that you have the Helical from IBCrazy, what else are you using for your rx and tx?