Custom FPV Solution

[alfpope]

Hi folks,

I thought it would be fun to make my own FPV with OSD setup using my smartphone, Google Cardboard, and a Raspberry Pi 2. After many hours I finally got something working reasonably well so I thought I'd put it out there in case anyone else wants to give it a try to contribute improvements (there's plenty of room for it!).

(Anti-)/Features:
* Configurable video resolution, FPS, bitrate, telemetry rate
* OSD pitch ladder, altitude display
* OSD autopilot mode display, battery state, link quality
* Obscene power consumption


Requirements
* Cleanflight-based flight controller (connects to RPi with USB). I have tested the Naze32.
* Android smartphone (I've tested with Nexus 5 and Nexus 5X)
* A Google Cardboard viewer
* Raspberry Pi 2 (or presumably an RPi 3) with Raspbian
* Raspberry Pi camera (connects directly to the RPi)
* A 5GHz-capable WiFi adapter that supports AP mode in Linux (I use the AWUS0502NH). Assumption is that your TX/RX use 2.4GHz. This is how the video and telemetry are streamed to the smartphone
* A good BEC that can power the RPi2 - use the GPIO header instead of the microUSB to avoid a rather large voltage drop. Just be sure you use the right pins to avoid damaging your RPi. I also recommend a large hold-up cap, e.g. 1000uF.
* Ability to build Android apps, Linux software, etc.

Source code
I made a GitLab group with the relevant projects that you need. Each project has more detailed instructions on how to build/configure/install.
DroidHUD at GitLab

Feedback and/or contributions welcome! I'm hoping I can get a couple of savvy users/devs initially and then once it's a little more polished I can make it easier to setup and use for those uninterested in development.

Photos
Here it is attached to my RCExplorer.se tricopter.




Here is a screenshot from the app


EDIT: clarify some things

 

[octodreamerFNG]

wow... thats crazy.

just starting to get into the Pi and i can barely get it to kodi properly. lol.

nice work, got any video of this thing in action?

 

[alfpope]

I wish...doing this while simultaneously recording video is actually pretty tricky from what I can tell. It's somewhere there on the to-do list though...

 

[bhursey]

Any lag?

 

[alfpope]

Yeah the latency is definitely not as good as a pure analog setup. I need a better measurement system but it seems like the video is in the neighborhood of 90-120ms. Not something you'd want to race with. The telemetry (i.e. attitude indicators) should be better, but I don't have even a mediocre way to measure that.

 

[LitterBug]

I have been pondering doing something like this with a RPI2 but using the RCA video out jack into a standard 5.8Ghz VTX. That would elimnate a good part of the lag. Should make for some interesting FPV video using the NOIR camera and an IR-pass or UV-pass filter.

Some sample pics I took with my RPi2 a long time ago with various filters.
Full Spectrum


IR-pass only


UV pass only


Cheers!
LitterBug

 

[LitterBug]

Come to think of it, the pi could be used as an HD recorder and use the RCA out for the FPV stream....

Hmmmmm....

Cheers!
LitterBug