If you could start over in FPV what would you do or not do?

[eosglider]

OK. Just here to quickly report I was not very successful last Saturday.

After my successful RC link range test, I had several issues:
- Rookiest of mistakes: Had elev servo plugged into rudd ch. and rudd servo plugged into elev. ch. so after launch I tried to push nose down, instead it banked, I cut throttle and it lawn-darted from 10ft high breaking spinner and popping the pan servo out.
- Tried again after fixing what I thought were all the issues, but was getting only like 200ft of video. Landed and discovered impact also broke a leg off the cloverleaf on a weak solder joint.
- I tried gluing the broken antenna leg, but it had very little improvement. I still only got like 300ft before video would cut out.
- Tried to fly a little bit at that limited range, and it was cool to be able to pan the camera to look around and stuff, but found it nerve wracking when I lost video and had to locate the plane where my spotter would point to specially since I could not go very far to gain enough altitude.
- Gave it up, removed all FPV gear from the Radian and flew LOS successfully using the FM system the the rest of the morning.

I still have not pulled the trigger on the RMRC 1258Mhz system mainly because I want to make sure I have done all I can with this cheap 900Mhz system. I want to truly feel I gave it my best effort. Since that CL antenna never got a chance to shine, I fixed if properly and I'm going to try that CL/SP combo again. I also made an Inverted Vee (airborne) and Center-fed dipole (ground) antenna set and will try those out too. Since then I already installed a new SAW filter on my VRx, so hopefully I get more range than 300ft this weekend. We'll see.

BTW, I could not find any other area for newbies to post "first time" rookie stories like this, so I hope doing it here is OK. Otherwise, please let me know.

[Vitamin J]

Solder up that antenna and it should work fine.

Your problem could have been solved by a simple control surface check, man! Always check it before chucking it!

That's not a bad FPV maiden by most standards though, you still have a working plane plus you got to FPV a bit.

[eosglider]

Ok, success at last!

So soldered up the CL antenna Friday night, and got all the gear ready for the Sat. morning attempt. Decided to try the fixed-up CP antenna set first, and WOW. Huge difference. Got clean signal beyond what I could approximate were about 1500 ft. before signal started to have any noise. Flew high, but still conservative to maintain visual range. Was very happy when I landed. I finally had a good set of CP antennas that gave me the max range possible with 200mw... or so I thought.

For kicks (testing purposes), I went ahead and swapped out the CP antenna set (SP on VRx and CL on VTx) for the 1/2 wave dipole set (inverted V for the VTx and a center fed dipole for the VRx). Signal was strong and off she went... It was amazing. I was able to fly even further and higher than with the CP antenna set!!! If I had to calculate, I probably got solid clean video for 1/2 of a mile (still within visual range of my spotter).

So I've come to several conclusions:
- My CP antenna set I guess is not quite as accurately made for the frequency I am using. I might have gotten careless with wire lengths and not using a jig does not help this matter either.
- My inverted V / Dipole set is very accurately made and measured with calipers for the specific freq. I use. I made sure of it.
- The SAW filter mod I made to the VRx might have a lot to do with the success also.
- That cheap HK CCD camera SUCKS! Had to tilt the cam down for most of the flight once I knew I was stable to be able to see any ground detail. Might have to start looking at an alternative there soon.

I am very happy that I am finally making some progress. This FPV thing was very frustrating till now. Although I'm sure I'll encounter new frustrations soon. HEHE

Also, I am still waiting for the cheapie HK Simple OSD and a 2.8mm lens (instead of the terribly wide 2.1mm I have now). Those 2 items should help my view from the air a bit, and also prevent premature landings. I am trying to keep things as simple as possible as everyone recommends, but so eyeing that cheapie Nova OSD with RTH. Tempting, tempting! I'll try to hold back.

[X-View HD]

Hello,
I decided to buy everything at once (osd, tracker,uhf,diversity) because i had done almost 3 months of homework on fpv so when i reciced all my gear it only took me a weekend to assemble everything with easy (although i had some questions regarding connectors and stuff)

Setup:
2x Lawmate 2.4ghz Rx
Lawmate 1000mw 2.4ghz Vtx
EzOSD
EzUHF
TBS69
GoPro HD Hero 2 & 1
Fatshark base at start, know dominator
Eztracker
Oracle diversity
UHF rx diversity 2x Sander style antennas
Cloverleaf and Skewplanar 2.4ghz
14dbi Patch 2.4ghz
24dbi grid Antenna ( never used so far) 2.4
9 turn helical 2.4
Uhf yagi 9dbi

Overall im pretty happy with my setup and i dont regret buying everything at once, although when training fpv i used the stock linear antennas and didnt use the tracker for a long time.
Most of the gear bought at readymaderc

[eosglider]

Hello,
I decided to buy everything at once (osd, tracker,uhf,diversity) because i had done almost 3 months of homework on fpv so when i reciced all my gear it only took me a weekend to assemble everything with easy (although i had some questions regarding connectors and stuff)

Setup:
2x Lawmate 2.4ghz Rx
Lawmate 1000mw 2.4ghz Vtx
EzOSD
EzUHF
TBS69
GoPro HD Hero 2 & 1
Fatshark base at start, know dominator
Eztracker
Oracle diversity
UHF rx diversity 2x Sander style antennas
Cloverleaf and Skewplanar 2.4ghz
14dbi Patch 2.4ghz
24dbi grid Antenna ( never used so far) 2.4
9 turn helical 2.4
Uhf yagi 9dbi

Overall im pretty happy with my setup and i dont regret buying everything at once, although when training fpv i used the stock linear antennas and didnt use the tracker for a long time.
Most of the gear bought at readymaderc

WOW. Must be nice...

[X-View HD]

Indeed it is, although i wouldn't recommend this to start with, and i realize the mistake i have done. If i could start again i would have bought just the basic and essential things to start with and learn because it took me nearly 3 months of Homework just to figure out how to connect everything i bought (although i did my HW before i bought everything so assembling it was actually quite easy) and learn about fpv (frequency, antennas, etc). What i did was use almost everything i bought except for the tracker because it seemed to be the most complicated thing to setup.

[scribbleheli]

I got the basics from RMRC
IRC 5.8 600mw
uno5800x2 (waiting on $ for helical to set up diversity)
Bluebeam CP antennas on vtx/vrx.
Jr9303 2.4
ar500 in Hawk sky.


I'm terrified of my plane flying away, I have only done one flight FPV, and a bunch LOS (
View this video on YouTube )

Watching that video to give you an idea of my surroundings. With my set up, do you predict I will loose video first or RC control?

Cuz I have no real way to tell how far away I am with the way my camera is mounted (P/T is on my list) unless I'm pointing down, But if I am trying to gain altitude all I see is sky, And cant tell if im flying away.

And if I start getting fuzzy video as my indicator to turn around, I can work with that. But As you might see by all the large trees. Not something I want to test without expert advice.

[eosglider]

I am also just starting out here, but I would think with that 600mw VTx and the Bluebeam CP antennas, you might actually lose RC control before you lose video. Specially using Spektrum. But again, I'm also just starting out, so take that with a grain of salt. Also noticed in your video that it sounds like your prop needs balancing.

[scribbleheli]

The prop attachment came bent actually. That's why it sounds so awful

[JBeloncik]

@scribbleheli - I agree with eosglider here...I would be much more concerned with your RC link. With you video, you will start getting fuzziness when you reach its limits and will have plenty of time to turn around. You will most likely lose your RC signal first though, get locked out, and have nice video of your plane going down! If you want to keep it basic and cheap, get a $20 used 72 mhz transmitter and a $20 corona Rx and you will be in much better shape.