Hello and a question

[Wmcewan]

Hello all!
I rec’d a whoop drone for Christmas, and I’ve been having a blast!!

My question is around video reception and DVR recording quality.
This is the BetaFPV VR01 goggles, and a Nanohawk (25mW VTX) on channel R1.
I lose signal pretty quickly and the DVR recording looks even worse.

What makes the DVR recording so poor, and are there ways for me to improve it?
Here’s a link to a sample video:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4ccmLHVxiJViKogV8

Is the DVR in the VR01s just junk?
Or the cheap SD card I put in it?
Or the dipole on the nanohawk and the antenna on the googles?
Or is 25mW just never going to be enough? (And is it worth adding an external VTX?)

 

[Tench745]

I am no FPV expert, they'll be along shortly, but here's what I do know:

The recording quality of the DVR in your goggles will only ever be as good as the signal it is getting. I'm sure your SD card is fine. If you want a nice clean video you'd need some sort of on-board recording. A different antenna may increase your range or signal strength in a given direction, but I'm not informed enough to offer advice on that aspect.
25mW is not a whole lot of power, but it'll do fine through a wall and/or over a reasonable range. Flying around with an entire house between you and the quad will cut out signal pretty quickly, as you've noticed.
You could go to a higher powered VTX, but you start running into FCC regulations and Amateur Radio licensing when you go that route. I'm not clear on all the specifics there either.

 

[Wmcewan]

I am no FPV expert, they'll be along shortly, but here's what I do know:

The recording quality of the DVR in your goggles will only ever be as good as the signal it is getting. I'm sure your SD card is fine. If you want a nice clean video you'd need some sort of on-board recording. A different antenna may increase your range or signal strength in a given direction, but I'm not informed enough to offer advice on that aspect.
25mW is not a whole lot of power, but it'll do fine through a wall and/or over a reasonable range. Flying around with an entire house between you and the quad will cut out signal pretty quickly, as you've noticed.
You could go to a higher powered VTX, but you start running into FCC regulations and Amateur Radio licensing when you go that route. I'm not clear on all the specifics there either.

Thanks for all that info!
Yea, one thing I’m considering is just getting a mobula6 HD. Certainly that would give me a better recording!

 

[Merv]

You should be sure both the vTx & vRx are on the same channel. Some channels are very close, if you do an auto scan, it can pick a channel that is close but not spot on. Good enough for close in but you will quickly run out of range. If both are on the same channel, try a different channel, it’s possible there if some interference in your house.

 

[JasonK]

@Wmcewan - if your on analog, the resolution is something like 640×480, however standard 'HD' TVs are 1920x1080 and 4k TVs are 3840 x 2160. you can see the difference in size of a bunch of resolutions here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution#/media/File:Vector_Video_Standards8.svg your googles are only being send PAL or VGA resolutions... your used to HD or higher resolutions

 

[JasonK]

on the range thing, I can get out quite a ways on 25mw on my plane (as far as anyone can track it LOS - it has a 24in wing span) if I am on the correct channel and I had that 'auto seek to the wrong channel happen to me the last time I was out, had some really weird video artifacts from it.

 

[Wmcewan]

You should be sure both the vTx & vRx are on the same channel. Some channels are very close, if you do an auto scan, it can pick a channel that is close but not spot on. Good enough for close in but you will quickly run out of range. If both are on the same channel, try a different channel, it’s possible there if some interference in your house.

Yeah coming there definitely on the same channel. After trying a lot of different options it seems like race one works the best for me

 

[Wmcewan]

on the range thing, I can get out quite a ways on 25mw on my plane (as far as anyone can track it LOS - it has a 24in wing span) if I am on the correct channel and I had that 'auto seek to the wrong channel happen to me the last time I was out, had some really weird video artifacts from it.

Yeah, so that tells me I should keep troubleshooting. It's not the resolution that bothers me at all, it's the significant levels of breakup.

 

[PsyBorg]

DVR tech really sucks to date. It is taken at the receiving end so ANY tiny amount of break up shows even on the best systems. It records at a lower BPS which is why it is always crappy. Resolution is only part of the quality. If it recorded at a bit rate equal to the actual stream the latency would be so bad trying to put the quality onto the video instead of the view screen you would not be able to fly. The new digital stuff is better because It does not capture and convert at the vehicle and acquire and uncompress at the receiver like analog does. Digital does not change how the video is viewed as all it does is record the 1's and 0's and the decoding gets done when viewed where analog gets decoded before being recorded.

As far as 25mw on a plane vs 25mw on a quad that is a whole different animal between the two. Fixed wing or multirotor when up high have longer unobstructed line of sight so less interference to degrade the signal. Flying low around and between object the signals can bounce or be absorbed in like around your house is way different.

The only thing you can do is to have matched set of antennas AND find the channels where you fly that give the best signal. Antennas are "tuned" to the center of a band. Each frequency in a band is is a little further away from that tune so the power and quality drop off the further from center frequency you get specially at lower power.

As an example a frequency close to center on a 200 mw system can be as high as 300mw radiated while the furthest away from center on the same system same band can be as low as 35mw. All dependent on how close to that center frequency both antennas are made.