Starting out on FPV

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Been flying FPV 8 years now. Started cheap with OK used or closeout gear and have upgraded over time. Never have gone full bore "premium". Started with the AIO cameras and have flown a variety of setups between then and now. Analog AIOs STILL have value as a quick and easy way to put FPV on just about anything. Still fly them on my tiny whoops and one Strix Nano Goblin. Occasionally on other planes I usually fly LOS just for fun. My "best" setup now still uses my old transformer goggles with a Walksnail VRX and a Walksnail Moonlight camera. I have a set of Walksnail goggles, but I still prefer the screen on the Old Boxy Transformer goggles.

I started out with AIO cloverleaf cameras. The problem with the cloverleaf antennas on AIO cameras is they are VERY EASY TO BEND/BREAK. Can't tell you how many AIO cameras I killed before switching to Dipole, and have not regretted switching away from the cloverleaf. Dipole in a "good environment" gives a better signal. (ie outdoors in an open field without much metal to reflect signals)

Where the cloverleaf (circular polarized) antennas are better, is minimizing reflected signals as long as you are using the same polarization on the RX as the TX.

If you are picking an AIO camera, Make sure you pick one that is legal in your region. Some may have frequencies or power output that is not legal in your region. (this is true of ANY FPV transmitter)

AIO cameras tend to have a VERY wide field of view. This is great for tiny whoops flying indoors, but not so great flying outdoors. You loose the sense of speed, altitude, and they have bad fisheye. They also are not adjustable. I have three tiny whoops, with three different AIO cameras, One has great contrast and brightness adjusting to flying around lights as well as going down dark hallways. I have two others that the picture is blown out and hard to see in bright light. Work OK outdoors and in low light.

Cheers!
LitterBug
HAM Licensed FPV Flyer
 

Houndpup Rc

Well-known member
Been flying FPV 8 years now. Started cheap with OK used or closeout gear and have upgraded over time. Never have gone full bore "premium". Started with the AIO cameras and have flown a variety of setups between then and now. Analog AIOs STILL have value as a quick and easy way to put FPV on just about anything. Still fly them on my tiny whoops and one Strix Nano Goblin. Occasionally on other planes I usually fly LOS just for fun. My "best" setup now still uses my old transformer goggles with a Walksnail VRX and a Walksnail Moonlight camera. I have a set of Walksnail goggles, but I still prefer the screen on the Old Boxy Transformer goggles.

I started out with AIO cloverleaf cameras. The problem with the cloverleaf antennas on AIO cameras is they are VERY EASY TO BEND/BREAK. Can't tell you how many AIO cameras I killed before switching to Dipole, and have not regretted switching away from the cloverleaf. Dipole in a "good environment" gives a better signal. (ie outdoors in an open field without much metal to reflect signals)

Where the cloverleaf (circular polarized) antennas are better, is minimizing reflected signals as long as you are using the same polarization on the RX as the TX.

If you are picking an AIO camera, Make sure you pick one that is legal in your region. Some may have frequencies or power output that is not legal in your region. (this is true of ANY FPV transmitter)

AIO cameras tend to have a VERY wide field of view. This is great for tiny whoops flying indoors, but not so great flying outdoors. You loose the sense of speed, altitude, and they have bad fisheye. They also are not adjustable. I have three tiny whoops, with three different AIO cameras, One has great contrast and brightness adjusting to flying around lights as well as going down dark hallways. I have two others that the picture is blown out and hard to see in bright light. Work OK outdoors and in low light.

Cheers!
LitterBug
HAM Licensed FPV Flyer
is there VTX power limits for specific counties or just country?
 

Houndpup Rc

Well-known member
Hey guys! I think I finally selected everything but can you guys check to make sure that it will all work together? Thanks!!!!

 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Litterbug how do you like the Moonlight camera?
Meh. It's ok. They should have called it the 4K. Not having to carry a seperate 4k camera is great. The update process can be a pain with the nano connectors. The Pro has better low light capability.
 

Shurik-1960

Well-known member
While the author keeps asking..
I was given a faulty 24-inch LG TV with an external 12-volt power supply. Today I repaired it and connected it to a new FPV system (I gave all the links earlier -#16). In the spring, I will fly a large 2-meter model, just sitting in the car.))))
 
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LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Clear compared to what, and under what conditions?

This is the goggle feed from the walksnail moonlight setup on my Stratosurfer at dusk. (sun is down)

 
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AIRFORGE

Make It Fly!
Moderator
Yeah I know, it just seems like there isn't any noise in hd and I was wondering how?
Digital starts as analog and is converted to digital before sending to the goggles/RX. The process of converting to digital increases latency but allows for a clearer image quality. If there is significant signal drop out, video can be completely lost until signal is regained while video quality remains clear when you have signal.

Analog does not get converted to digital but still gets processed before being sent to the goggles/RX. Better latency than digital. More prone to interference. When there is interference, it will be seen in the goggles as static, discoloration, blurring, etc., but you will still have video in most situations. Analog is relatively lighter and cheaper. Most whoop/quad racers use analog because of the low weight and low latency.

As Litterbug shows, analog can provide very good quality vid.
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Modern consumer camera image sensors are digital, even in analog video cameras. Analog out is created by the camera chipset which reduces the resolution of the imaging sensor down to SD resolution and into the appropriate NTSC/PAL SD Analog format. SD formats are old low resolution standards for over the air broadcast television from the early years of TV up to when HDTV formats became the new standards. Maximum "Full Frame" resolution for NTSC is 720 × 480 at 30 frames per second, and PAL is 720 × 576 at 25 frames per second. The WHOLE picture is transmitted for every "full frame" with no compression. SD formats are interlaced into Even and Odd fields. 1,3,5,7,9... and 2,4,6,8,10.... The vertical sync is 2x the frame rate (whole picture refresh rate 60/50hz) and only half of the lines are sent for each sync period, Odd or Even. Pixels can basically be sent as they are read since there is no compression or error correction in the signal. This gives Low lag at low resolution. if there is an error in the data stream, it affects only the the immediate pixels where the interference occurred. This generally shows up as snowy signal as the signal gets weaker.

When HDTV formats came out, they were trying to cram higher resolution formats into the same amount of analog RF bandwidth that the SD formats used. This was made possible by Digital signal processing and compression. HD cameras start with higher resolution imaging sensors. The minimum HD format is 720P which is 1280 × 720 and goes up from there. There is compression, checksums and error correction built in to the signal. This extra overhead takes time which increases lag. So while you have a prettier picture, there is a tradeoff in time/lag. If there is an error in transmission, then the errors in the compressed data can affect whole areas of a picture. Small errors can be corrected by the checksums in the data. The picture is broken down into blocks and each of these blocks can be corrupted separately, up to the whole picture. The whole picture is NOT transmitted every frame. Depending on the level of compression, the whole picture is only transmitted every X number of frames. The higher the compression, the more frames go by before the whole picture is retransmitted. So errors in the data can affect multiple frames on the screen. This appears as blockyness, pixelization, or whole picture loss as the signal gets weaker or if there is more interference than the error correction can compensate for. The HD FPV gear builds on the HDTV standards to attempt to mitigate the lag and each does it in their own-ish way. Unlike HDTV, HDFPV gear is a bidirectional link so they can adjust the compression on the fly, retransmit the whole frame on demand, and change how much of the screen they send. Unlike the old Analog OSD systems where the OSD data was integrated between the camera and the transmitter, the OSD data is sent in digital format over the video link and the image is integrated on the receiver side. This reduces the amount of processing power needed on the transmitter side for video manipulation.

This is just a high level overview. You can get a quick and dirty overview of the progression of TV signals here:

Cheers!
LitterBug
 

Houndpup Rc

Well-known member
Modern consumer camera image sensors are digital, even in analog video cameras. Analog out is created by the camera chipset which reduces the resolution of the imaging sensor down to SD resolution and into the appropriate NTSC/PAL SD Analog format. SD formats are old low resolution standards for over the air broadcast television from the early years of TV up to when HDTV formats became the new standards. Maximum "Full Frame" resolution for NTSC is 720 × 480 at 30 frames per second, and PAL is 720 × 576 at 25 frames per second. The WHOLE picture is transmitted for every "full frame" with no compression. SD formats are interlaced into Even and Odd fields. 1,3,5,7,9... and 2,4,6,8,10.... The vertical sync is 2x the frame rate (whole picture refresh rate 60/50hz) and only half of the lines are sent for each sync period, Odd or Even. Pixels can basically be sent as they are read since there is no compression or error correction in the signal. This gives Low lag at low resolution. if there is an error in the data stream, it affects only the the immediate pixels where the interference occurred. This generally shows up as snowy signal as the signal gets weaker.

When HDTV formats came out, they were trying to cram higher resolution formats into the same amount of analog RF bandwidth that the SD formats used. This was made possible by Digital signal processing and compression. HD cameras start with higher resolution imaging sensors. The minimum HD format is 720P which is 1280 × 720 and goes up from there. There is compression, checksums and error correction built in to the signal. This extra overhead takes time which increases lag. So while you have a prettier picture, there is a tradeoff in time/lag. If there is an error in transmission, then the errors in the compressed data can affect whole areas of a picture. Small errors can be corrected by the checksums in the data. The picture is broken down into blocks and each of these blocks can be corrupted separately, up to the whole picture. The whole picture is NOT transmitted every frame. Depending on the level of compression, the whole picture is only transmitted every X number of frames. The higher the compression, the more frames go by before the whole picture is retransmitted. So errors in the data can affect multiple frames on the screen. This appears as blockyness, pixelization, or whole picture loss as the signal gets weaker or if there is more interference than the error correction can compensate for. The HD FPV gear builds on the HDTV standards to attempt to mitigate the lag and each does it in their own-ish way. Unlike HDTV, HDFPV gear is a bidirectional link so they can adjust the compression on the fly, retransmit the whole frame on demand, and change how much of the screen they send. Unlike the old Analog OSD systems where the OSD data was integrated between the camera and the transmitter, the OSD data is sent in digital format over the video link and the image is integrated on the receiver side. This reduces the amount of processing power needed on the transmitter side for video manipulation.

This is just a high level overview. You can get a quick and dirty overview of the progression of TV signals here:

Cheers!
LitterBug
Wow! Interesting. Think I will stick with analog as for of right now :)
 

Houndpup Rc

Well-known member
Am I right in thinking this is how I wire these two components?
I will have the VTX hooked up to my receiver......not the battery.


Screenshot 2025-01-21 at 23-14-14 JHEMCU VTX30-800 5.8GHz Video Transmitter PIT-800mW 7-26V Sp...png