- Joined
- Jul 5, 2014
- Messages
- 109
- Reaction score
- 20
After losing my previous Phantom2 to the Pacific Ocean last month, I've regrouped and built another P2 system consisting of:
- Phantom 2 w/Zenmuse H3-3D v2.0
- 500 mW Boscam TS352 Tx, 3-leaf pinwheel
- Boscam RX-LCD5802 monitor/receiver, FPVLR pinwheel + helical 4.5 turn
- Mini iOSD
- Flytrex Core2
- RMRC DVR
- RaceRender3 for PiP video editing
I promised myself I would wait a while before flying over water again, but I couldn't resist!! So here are a couple of flights over the ocean. A few observations with the new setup:
1. Flight time of the V2.0 Phantom2 is about 1 to 1.5 minutes shorter than the previous Phantom2 model. I like the tilt dial better than the lever of the older controller, but I'd much rather have the extra minute or so of flight time. For my needs the previous P2 incarnation would have been fine.
2. Newer P2 model seems to hover in place better than the older model, but this may be subjective.
3. The TS352 on channel 4 (the highest output channel) produced a lot of interference on the monitor at relatively short range. I switched it to channel 1 and the interference went away.
4. The onset of video signal loss with the 500 mW TS352 seems no better than the 400 mW TS353 (you can see signal loss around 3:45 at 2km out in the first video below). After these flights I switched back to my spare TS353 to save power and weight (yeah, I know the savings are minimal).
5. The RMRC FPV1000 DVR is great. You just need to set it to "Medium" quality recording or else it will lock up. I like to use its internal microphone to record the sound around me.
6. The DVR+iOSD combo also serves as a poor man's GPS tracker. If you crash into a tree, the azimuth and distance values from the last frames of DVR recording will allow you to pinpoint the Phantom's location to about 95 feet at 1 mile distance. (Too bad the iOSD firmware doesn't output azimuth to one-digit past the decimal. This would give you about 10 feet accuracy at 1 mile.) Of course if you have a flyaway and lose video signal, all bets are off.
7. In RaceRender you can blend the audio from both the DVR video and the GoPro video so you can hear both the motors and the ambient sound around you. It's fun to hear what people say as they look over your shoulder.
Thumbs up to the developers of RR for making the software intuitive to sync two videos and blend sound tracks.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLYU8n0AR_I[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hstiw0stdOM[/youtube]
- Phantom 2 w/Zenmuse H3-3D v2.0
- 500 mW Boscam TS352 Tx, 3-leaf pinwheel
- Boscam RX-LCD5802 monitor/receiver, FPVLR pinwheel + helical 4.5 turn
- Mini iOSD
- Flytrex Core2
- RMRC DVR
- RaceRender3 for PiP video editing
I promised myself I would wait a while before flying over water again, but I couldn't resist!! So here are a couple of flights over the ocean. A few observations with the new setup:
1. Flight time of the V2.0 Phantom2 is about 1 to 1.5 minutes shorter than the previous Phantom2 model. I like the tilt dial better than the lever of the older controller, but I'd much rather have the extra minute or so of flight time. For my needs the previous P2 incarnation would have been fine.
2. Newer P2 model seems to hover in place better than the older model, but this may be subjective.
3. The TS352 on channel 4 (the highest output channel) produced a lot of interference on the monitor at relatively short range. I switched it to channel 1 and the interference went away.
4. The onset of video signal loss with the 500 mW TS352 seems no better than the 400 mW TS353 (you can see signal loss around 3:45 at 2km out in the first video below). After these flights I switched back to my spare TS353 to save power and weight (yeah, I know the savings are minimal).
5. The RMRC FPV1000 DVR is great. You just need to set it to "Medium" quality recording or else it will lock up. I like to use its internal microphone to record the sound around me.
6. The DVR+iOSD combo also serves as a poor man's GPS tracker. If you crash into a tree, the azimuth and distance values from the last frames of DVR recording will allow you to pinpoint the Phantom's location to about 95 feet at 1 mile distance. (Too bad the iOSD firmware doesn't output azimuth to one-digit past the decimal. This would give you about 10 feet accuracy at 1 mile.) Of course if you have a flyaway and lose video signal, all bets are off.
7. In RaceRender you can blend the audio from both the DVR video and the GoPro video so you can hear both the motors and the ambient sound around you. It's fun to hear what people say as they look over your shoulder.
Thumbs up to the developers of RR for making the software intuitive to sync two videos and blend sound tracks.[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLYU8n0AR_I[/youtube]
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hstiw0stdOM[/youtube]
