Sky Pirate
New member
Hello everyone, I need advice. I have been flying FPV fixed wing for a while now and would like to get an OSD unit. Here were my original criteria:
Speed
Altitude
Home Arrow
Distance
Battery Monitoring (V and mAh)
GPS Coordinates
Artifical Horizon (optional)
Vertical speed (optional)
I found the Hobbyking Mini OSD w/ GPS (AKA the Excellence OSD). The default overlay is horrendous, but I discovered uOSD, a reflash for the G-OSD, Mini OSD w/ GPS, and similar units. You can choose which items are displayed and it met all of my criteria. Sure the GPS is only 1Hz, but I'm flying fixed wing so it is not the most important thing. Then I discovered a replacement GPS that can do 5Hz and a 57600 baud rate and works very well with this unit. Here are the prices:
Mini OSD w/ GPS - $25 (HK)
USBasp (to reflash the OSD) - $5 (HK)
ublox GPS - $9 (BG)
USB TTL (to reflash the GPS) - $3
Making the approximate unit cost for this OSD setup: $43. Not bad tor a GPS equipped OSD. It looks very nice and clean in action and I have been researching it for a while. I was all set to buy it when I made the fools mistake to Google 'OSD's' and discovered the minim OSD (I'd known about it but the addition of boards/sensors/etc... seemed, well, complicated). I looked a bit more into it and found that you can get more features such as artificial horizon, vertical speed, throttle setting, wind speed/direction, etc... The only things that I would need for it would be the OSD, a flight control board, and an external GPS. After adding these up the price is similar to the Mini OSD:
micro minim OSD: $12 (HK)
Some sort of USB connector (to reflash OSD): ≈$4 (?)
Afroflight Naze32 Acro - $20 (HK)
ublox GPS - $9 (BG)
USB TTL (to reflash GPS) - $3
Making the approximate total: $48, only $5 more than the Mini OSD w/ GPS, a pretty good bargain to add windspeed, airspeed (not just ground speed, not that I fly in very windy circumstances), vertical speed, a compass indicator, and an artificial horizon. I'm about to start studying aerospace engineering (college) and am thinking about a flight controller anyways for more complex setups. I do plan to reflash with minimOSD Extra R800 or something similar. Unfortunately this setup is shrouded in mystery to me, so I have a few questions:
-I fly Spektrum and none of my receivers are satellite receivers (I believe I use an AR610??? It's in my FT BN Versa right now, buried deep within the wing). Are the Naze32 and my receivers compatible? Do I even have to connect to the flight control board? Could I get RSSI out of my Rx with the Naze32?
-Is there any reason to put a flight control board on a fixed wing aircraft? Google has been inconclusive. So far I've seen flight stabilization and RTH, but I don't think the afroflight board and do this, and I'm not sure I'm willing to invest the extra $25 for the full version. This OSD setup is already a large investment for this high school student without a job
.
-Could I get some sort of RTH or autopilot on the afroflight Naze32? It might be a cool feature and a good investment for down the road.
-Can I connect an external ublox GPS to the afroflight Naze32? Can I get a compass, GPS coordinates, etc...? I've seen one post of someone doing it.
-The videos I've seen show that you get windspeed/airspeed/vertical speed/compass heading. Are these only possible with the full Naze32? Do these rely on the barometer/magnetometer?
Thanks for the input guys!
Speed
Altitude
Home Arrow
Distance
Battery Monitoring (V and mAh)
GPS Coordinates
Artifical Horizon (optional)
Vertical speed (optional)
I found the Hobbyking Mini OSD w/ GPS (AKA the Excellence OSD). The default overlay is horrendous, but I discovered uOSD, a reflash for the G-OSD, Mini OSD w/ GPS, and similar units. You can choose which items are displayed and it met all of my criteria. Sure the GPS is only 1Hz, but I'm flying fixed wing so it is not the most important thing. Then I discovered a replacement GPS that can do 5Hz and a 57600 baud rate and works very well with this unit. Here are the prices:
Mini OSD w/ GPS - $25 (HK)
USBasp (to reflash the OSD) - $5 (HK)
ublox GPS - $9 (BG)
USB TTL (to reflash the GPS) - $3
Making the approximate unit cost for this OSD setup: $43. Not bad tor a GPS equipped OSD. It looks very nice and clean in action and I have been researching it for a while. I was all set to buy it when I made the fools mistake to Google 'OSD's' and discovered the minim OSD (I'd known about it but the addition of boards/sensors/etc... seemed, well, complicated). I looked a bit more into it and found that you can get more features such as artificial horizon, vertical speed, throttle setting, wind speed/direction, etc... The only things that I would need for it would be the OSD, a flight control board, and an external GPS. After adding these up the price is similar to the Mini OSD:
micro minim OSD: $12 (HK)
Some sort of USB connector (to reflash OSD): ≈$4 (?)
Afroflight Naze32 Acro - $20 (HK)
ublox GPS - $9 (BG)
USB TTL (to reflash GPS) - $3
Making the approximate total: $48, only $5 more than the Mini OSD w/ GPS, a pretty good bargain to add windspeed, airspeed (not just ground speed, not that I fly in very windy circumstances), vertical speed, a compass indicator, and an artificial horizon. I'm about to start studying aerospace engineering (college) and am thinking about a flight controller anyways for more complex setups. I do plan to reflash with minimOSD Extra R800 or something similar. Unfortunately this setup is shrouded in mystery to me, so I have a few questions:
-I fly Spektrum and none of my receivers are satellite receivers (I believe I use an AR610??? It's in my FT BN Versa right now, buried deep within the wing). Are the Naze32 and my receivers compatible? Do I even have to connect to the flight control board? Could I get RSSI out of my Rx with the Naze32?
-Is there any reason to put a flight control board on a fixed wing aircraft? Google has been inconclusive. So far I've seen flight stabilization and RTH, but I don't think the afroflight board and do this, and I'm not sure I'm willing to invest the extra $25 for the full version. This OSD setup is already a large investment for this high school student without a job
.-Could I get some sort of RTH or autopilot on the afroflight Naze32? It might be a cool feature and a good investment for down the road.
-Can I connect an external ublox GPS to the afroflight Naze32? Can I get a compass, GPS coordinates, etc...? I've seen one post of someone doing it.
-The videos I've seen show that you get windspeed/airspeed/vertical speed/compass heading. Are these only possible with the full Naze32? Do these rely on the barometer/magnetometer?
Thanks for the input guys!
