Flite Test Fat Sharks

CJGFX

Junior Member
Hi Guys

I'm looking to buy my first FPV setup and have some questions. I'm sure they have been asked already in amongst the forum...
So first of all let me tell you what I would like to achieve with FPV and then hopefully some one can advise on what would be best for me. I would simply like to use my GoPro Hero 2 that I have on my tricopter to film, so basically using the FPV as a view finder whilst I'm recording. I don't need long range and most of the time I'll be over woodland and fields. As I don't need to go long range, I'm hoping to keep the initial cost of the system down too, maybe looking to expand it in the future if I have a need.

Questions:-?
1- What Fatshark system do the guys on Flite test use? (The Knuckle H Quad episode is a good example of what I've like to do)
2- Is the Fatshark Teleporter V3 setup any good for what I need.
3- If there is any other system that some one would suggest please say.

I know these maybe stupid questions for some of you, but FPV kit is something new to me and I'm lost in the language of frequencies and mW's....

Hope some one can advise.....

Cheers
 
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eagle4

Member
the fatshark teleporters are low resolution, great for getting a taste of the hobby but you'd find yourself wanting to upgrade pretty soon.

do you imagine when flying over the wodland areas that your plane or multirotor would be out of line of sight? if no, great, then any of the fat shark systems will be good, right out of the box. Well, i say that but you'd be best to invest in some circular polarised antennas. they will increase your range by a bit, but mainly it'll reduce droppouts as your plane or quad banks in turns.

If however you think you'll be going behind some trees, on a standard 5.8g you will lose your signal. once you lose your signal there is a good chance your plane will crash. if thats the case i'd suggest looking at 1.2g video transmitter and reciever. it starts to get nice and complicated from here on. i've seen some guys have a plane broadcasting on 1.2, it gets picked up by their ground station, then the ground station broadcasts the video on 5.8 which goes to their goggles. allows them long range and nice clear signal to their goggles.
 

knife-edge

Senior Member
We had a discussion about this on rc groups (its on the teleporter v.3 discussion). Basically, we decided that if you can stretch your budget a little further, the predator v.2's are well worth the $80 more. Flitetest is lucky enough to have such goggles as the attitude sd's. It really all depends on what you want to pay. For the price though, the predator v.2's are great. The difference between them and the dominators (aside from adjustments and other little things) is the field of view. The dominators have an amazing field of view but do not come with a module for video or anything elst (just the goggles). The great thing about them is that if you have a camera, you dont have to pay for a new one, but overall they are going to be more expensive. I think that you would like the predators just cause looking at a narrower field of view at the same resolution is like looking at a smaller screen in hd. Dont bother with the teleporters cause as eagle said, you will quickly outgrow them.

As for frequency, if you are going behind trees, you might as well just get 1.2ghz because 5.8 doesn't penetrate through objects hardly at all. The great thing about the fatsharks is that you can go from a ground station to your goggles with the av in port.

This chart compares all of the goggles. Hope this clears things up.

fatshark comparison..png
Image courtesy of fatshark
 

Team_Monkey

New member
As A Teleporter owner and FPV newb, I'm not going to discount what these other fellow are saying. I can say they they work well for what a newbie may be trying.
A friend of mine has a full blown, dragon link, long range radio and 1.2GHz FPV set up that requires a truck to get to the flying field. I've seen guys bring out their antennae and display mounted to a single appliance dolly but even that was more than I was ready to fuss with. The Teleporter set is obviously super portable and at $200 it was still affordable enough for me trying it and if it wasn't for me, I wasn't out much dough.

As for the actual hardware, the camera the set comes with is great. I did opt for the Immersion RC circular polarized antennas though. The 720p cam has phenomenal picture and the white balance was greet right out of the box. I recorded video to a micro SD card for this video over my house. I purposely flew behind a clump of trees (about 4:30+ in the video) to see interference and sure enough the 5.8 glitched. So I have to keep it out of trees and mostly in line of sight, I'm OK with that.

I don't know how the goggles would compare to others. I mean in a quality or field of view perspective in an "on-your-face-comparo". I had checked out that chart BTW before buying the set. Some day I do plan to get a set of Attitude goggles and then these will be for "ride-alongs" or for my sons to use. The short-short version is if you want a good beginner FPV rig that comes with a nice transmitter and camera, the Teleporter is a good value IMHO. It moves from model to model easily and I felt the goggles had pretty good picture. I was in control the whole time and felt like I was in the plane.
 
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