Anyone know of a decent priced LCD monocular?

[Kogashuko]

Got my quads flying and been doing a lot of manual flying. However, I find FPV would be useful. I got a very cheap pair of LCD glasses and tried flying with them. Even with the Gopro in wide mode I found it very very hard to judge distance and altitude. I also didnt like the fact that I could not see the quad. So, I scrapped the FPV in favor of using autopilot.

I looked at fatsharks but I dont know that they would be much different. I also looked at small LCD screens that attach to the controller. This looks good but seems like it would be a problem with sunlight. I have seen the military with monocular LCD screens that can be flipped up for their EOD bots. I also see a lot of little DVR glasses with little screens or google glass type devices. Does anyone know of any glasses with a video input with only one LCD? Or what about a better option?

Thanks.

 

[andybenton]

http://www.adafruit.com/products/910

Copy paste into your browser. The link takes you to a 1.5" LCD screen that runs on like 6-12v and takes VGA input. sconce it's so tiny just mount it up to a bit of head gear... I'd be Doug this if I had the fund and time. But most of my cash is allocated to other projects.

With a little DIY spirit I think this could be your ticket. And it's cheap.

Not affiliated with the company, but I've bought a lot from them. Never any issues.

Let me know what ya think
Andy

 

[andybenton]

Forgot to mention, there's an assortment of sizes also

 

[Kogashuko]

Very cool. Let me look into this some. I am kind of wondering about optics for focus but I am sure I can probably find something tomorrow. Thanks.

 

[Cyberdactyl]

Going astray from the topic slightly. . .One thing that is going to change the gaming market by storm soon is the Oculus Rift.

It's a stereoscopic headset built of two high-res 1080P (soon to be 4k!) somewhat large displays that are fish-eyed corrected, head-tilt and motion integrated, and see flat and full vision.

John Carmack, the inventor of the 3D genre (some of you older guys may remember 'Wolfenstein' from the early 90's), is the chief technical officer. He may do with 3D what he did to first person shooters.

But my point is, it may not be but a year or two before we have full immersion FPV goggles. . .

It reminds me of the VR phenomenon called the "Oasis" in a book I read recently, "Ready Player One".

 

[baddox]

The crazy thing is, the Rift developer kit is only $300, and I assume the consumer release will be that or less. Once FPV gets going on these, even if it's just 2D (I don't really see the point in 3D FPV unless it's very fast close quarters flying), I think it will be awesome. I can do it now, but it requires carrying around a laptop that takes the video from my FPV RX and turns it into two lens-warped frames to be compatible with the Rift's lenses. Not very convenient at this point, so I stick with my Fatsharks since they're much smaller and lighter anyway. We just need a little Arduino/Raspberry Pi/Android/etc. accessory that takes a video input, does the two-frame manipulation, and outputs HDMI to the Rift.

 

[andybenton]

Yeah, the rift is seriously BA. I'd like to try one hands on...

That company... The one I linked. Sells a 7 and. 10 in monitor with two video inputs... If one of the inputs goes blank, it switches to the other automaticly... Prebuilt no nonsense diversity??? And for sub 100 dollars for the display, the 7 and 4, inch of course not the ten...


I'm not sure if it would work, maybe I'll pick one up and try it out. Sorry to also hijack lol.

 

[Cyberdactyl]

The crazy thing is, the Rift developer kit is only $300, and I assume the consumer release will be that or less. O

What I'm reading is the full-featured retail version will have full head tracking and point-in-space orientation software along with 3 or so games, like DOOM 3 fully coded for the goggles, and the price point will be in the neighborhood of $500. But with 4K coming, it's surely to be massively popular.

 

[Johan]

The crazy thing is, the Rift developer kit is only $300, and I assume the consumer release will be that or less. Once FPV gets going on these, even if it's just 2D (I don't really see the point in 3D FPV unless it's very fast close quarters flying), I think it will be awesome. I can do it now, but it requires carrying around a laptop that takes the video from my FPV RX and turns it into two lens-warped frames to be compatible with the Rift's lenses. Not very convenient at this point, so I stick with my Fatsharks since they're much smaller and lighter anyway. We just need a little Arduino/Raspberry Pi/Android/etc. accessory that takes a video input, does the two-frame manipulation, and outputs HDMI to the Rift.

There are some guys on youtube that did exactly that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyIUk2ABlqM

This one is "Virtual FPV" (rendered, not real)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LPPdV2Md1c

 

[Cyberdactyl]

There are some guys on youtube that did exactly that

Cool!

And I can see true 3D coming, but as baddox said, it wouldn't be that useful unless you can separate the cameras by much more than the human eye's ~55mm . . .say 300-400mm. Then objects in a field radius of 100 feet or more could be easily judged. I suspect having widely separated binocular vision would give the feeling you're flying in a 'scaled down world', and any objects up close (<20 feet) might cause a bit of disorientation or even nausea.

 

[Johan]

Cool!
I suspect having widely separated binocular vision would give the feeling you're flying in a 'scaled down world', and any objects up close (<20 feet) might cause a bit of disorientation or even nausea.

LOL, might be handy for FPV: feel nausea? Imminent crash warning !!

 

[andybenton]

Well I'll be buying and attempting to build a monocle. I'll props ly use a fresnel lense to help with focusing, when I get all my stuff in ill start a build log

 

[xuzme720]

Well I'll be buying and attempting to build a monocle. I'll props ly use a fresnel lense to help with focusing, when I get all my stuff in ill start a build log

I built this one that mounts to the top of my radio. It's not a monocle, but it works in any light and is instant to come out of if you need to go to LOS.

http://forum.flitetest.com/showthread.php?5325-Small-screen-FPV-hood

 

[andybenton]

Yeah I was browsing somewhere and saw it. Pretty cool, but not my style.

It's a personal thing. Right now the set up I'm using is a 10.1 inch screen on a tripod. We sit in a folding chair and the screen is at eye level. I've gotten used to it. And now I want goggles. Thinking of building a monocle and a set of goggles.

Safety is important, so we allways fly with at least one spotter, most of the time two. And unless I'm not there we buddy box also.

Like I said yours is cool, but not my style

 

[JasonEricAnderson]

On a related note (rift and such) one of the things I hear from everyone that has tried the Rift is that they are somewhat disappointed in the resolution of the current models. Castar has 720p resolution for each eye. It also has three modes for viewing.

1. Projected on retroreflective surface (not much use in FPV, maybe cool for passengers to watch)
2. Augmented reality with semitransparent view overlay on real world (could be awesome hybrid mode for line of site/FPV/Heads up data)
3. Full immersion (Full over eyes view with no view of the outside world, like the rift)

Lets think about #2 and #3.

#3 Imagine if you could get a full 720p FPV feed x2 arranged for HD binocular FPV. Imagine flying over the treetops with full HD 3D. It would feel like watching an IMAX 3D movie that you could actually direct. 'I think I'll sweep down into that grove over there, or that canyon.'

#2 Imagine this, you have the glasses on and you are looking at your plane. You can get your telemetry displayed as a floating heads up display. Signal, battery, temp, altitude, heading, all floating at the edge of your field of view like something from IronMan.

You take off line line of sight style. You could have a small picture-in-picture feed of your FPV camera floating in your field of view and be flying in a hybrid LOS/FPV mode. Now imagine you flip down the cover to block out the outside world and that activates mode #3 above. Flipping it up again switches you back, perhaps even with a compass indicator across the top that always points to where your aircraft is so if you've lost orientation in FPV it will indicate where to turn your head so you will be facing your air frame.