FPV

Flying electronic RC planes from the ground is fun. Piloting a FPV plane from First Person View is really cool. With the arrival of light and powerful video stream transmitters and long range remote RC transmitter modules , the range of flight has increased from line-of-sight to an order-of-magnitude wider.

Research

To build a reliable platform I want to begin with the fundamental basics and then extrapolate more specific products.

• One energy-source, single set of batteries
  • Minimized weight, as batteries contribute as the heavies components
• Parallel 3S 11.1V Lithium-ion Polymer batteries, both on plane and ground station
  • Prevents voltage drop if one cell is bad
• Power- and signal-wiring separated as much as possible
  • Noise from motor can degrade digital signals if coupled with signal-wires
• Shielded components and twisted wiring to eliminate noise and oscillation
  • Minimize both ambient noise and interference from nearby components, think of a long wire as an antenna
• Frequency of video-transmitter on a higher band than RC-transmitter
  • Lower frequencies will have longer wavelengths that propagate further
• Video-transmitter, as well as RC-receiver, powered by 5V voltage from main Lipo-batteries
  • When the main engine batteries are drained, for 3S the low voltage limit is 9.6V, the rest of the system can still function
• Clone aileron servo signal to use two servos per wing
  • Prevent loss of control on servo failure, must be mounted close together to drive force-drive the dead servo, might drop this
• Proper cooling of video-transmitter using an appropriate heat-sink and thermal-adhesive

Gear

Video systems

• Lawmate - Range of different models
• EagleEyes

Control systems

Transmitters

• EzUHF Transmitter - 433 MHz frenquency, 200mW or 600mW power

Receivers

• EzUHF Receiver - 4 or 8-channel, diversity signal/dual antenna
• Duo 2500 Diversity Receiver

On-Screen Display =

• EzOSD
• ET
• DOSD

Planes

• Zephyr - Foam base
• Multiplex Easystar - Simple glider-plane [1]