Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch*?

[ATOMSK]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

yea just use a razor and cut through the stickers, it'll barely be noticeable. I didn't even bother putting stickers on my new Phantom I just used a sharpie and colored the sticker areas in. next I think I'm just going to paint the whole top part of the shell

CAN-BUS: the first minute and 20 seconds of this video. It's so simple... you just remove those 4 little tiny screws and the little metal loops holding the plug to the leg... you'll discard the 4 screws and loops I believe. after it's loose just remove the little white plug from the larger connector so you can pull the cable with the white tip back up the leg and into the body, then re-attach the port. voila. your can-bus is now inside the shell instead of on the leg.

in that video I linked you, he goes on to describe the manual procedure for soldering the cable but you already have a pre-made cable... but if you aren't 100% sure where you plug into the Phantom main board it's the next bit right after the CAN-BUS port. it's the plug that originally had a 2-pair multicolor cable that ran down a leg and was taped to the bottom of your Phantom along with the gimbal ribbon cable. you'll simply remove that cable from the main board and plug in the appropriate port from your pre-made cable. The other plugs from that cable obviously go to the iOSD mini and Video TX. be sure to run them through the Phantom leg holes and such appropriately so it's tidy.

firmware updates to the Phantom are... not essential but recommended. if you're already on version 3.x then I don't see any reason not to go ahead up to the latest. If you're on 2.x there's maybe some reasons why you'd want to stay, but in my opinion the benefits gained from fixes in newer firmwares outweigh the benefits of staying on old firmware. MY main beef with the newer firmwares is the reduced speeds and I can get those in Naza/ATTI mode when I want them.

you should absolutely update the iOSD mini bios. You've gotta have at least 1 friend with a PC/laptop that could swing by and help ... I don't personally have a mac but I've heard plenty around here about DJI's lack of good mac support.

good luck! let us know if you need any help

I have a P1 and I'm shopping for my FPV setup right now. I don't think i have a CAN-BUS port mounted to the leg... Can i still use the OSD mini?

 

[KimBrown]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

I have an FC40, that I'd like to install a 2.4Ghz fpv setup on. It needs to be cost affective (ok cheap, but functional). I like the mini OSDI but not sure about what I need to connect it to the the NAZA V2. The rest I can figure out. Im not in a hurry to do this, but any help would be handy thanks.

 

[QYV]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

I have a P1 and I'm shopping for my FPV setup right now. I don't think i have a CAN-BUS port mounted to the leg... Can i still use the OSD mini?

I don't know much about the P1's, so don't treat me as gospel but according to my googling the P1 did not come with a CAN-BUS port that I can tell... this thread over at RCGroups seems to be what you're after... looks complicated
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2084795

 

[ATOMSK]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

I have a P1 and I'm shopping for my FPV setup right now. I don't think i have a CAN-BUS port mounted to the leg... Can i still use the OSD mini?

I don't know much about the P1's, so don't treat me as gospel but according to my googling the P1 did not come with a CAN-BUS port that I can tell... this thread over at RCGroups seems to be what you're after... looks complicated
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2084795

Thanks OI Photography, posted that link for me. I am capable of that mod, but i'm not hard up for DJI OSD. I did some research and there is some OSD units that get telemetry on their own. I think the Remzibi OSD might work, but I can add that later down the road.

 

[mickey78]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Great topic. Question for you guys. I just purchased a regular Phantom 2 naked. I have the intention to hook my Gopro Hero 3 to it manually. I just want to have fun for now and I didn't have money for the Zenmuse.

I would like to start gathering info on the components I need for FPV. I would like to go with immersion RC tx + black perl + iosd + pre-made cables. My question is: can I go with this setup even without the Zenmuse? The next question is, if I buy the Zenmuse later, can I switch to it without breaking anything?

Thanks

 

[ATOMSK]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Great topic. Question for you guys. I just purchased a regular Phantom 2 naked. I have the intention to hook my Gopro Hero 3 to it manually. I just want to have fun for now and I didn't have money for the Zenmuse.

I would like to start gathering info on the components I need for FPV. I would like to go with immersion RC tx + black perl + iosd + pre-made cables. My question is: can I go with this setup even without the Zenmuse? The next question is, if I buy the Zenmuse later, can I switch to it without breaking anything?

Thanks

You should be fine. I think there is plug n' play wires for the gimbals too. You might need a can-bus hub.

 

[QYV]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Great topic. Question for you guys. I just purchased a regular Phantom 2 naked. I have the intention to hook my Gopro Hero 3 to it manually. I just want to have fun for now and I didn't have money for the Zenmuse.

I would like to start gathering info on the components I need for FPV. I would like to go with immersion RC tx + black perl + iosd + pre-made cables. My question is: can I go with this setup even without the Zenmuse? The next question is, if I buy the Zenmuse later, can I switch to it without breaking anything?

Thanks

You should be fine. I think there is plug n' play wires for the gimbals too. You might need a can-bus hub.

couple things: no offense to atomsk but I don't understand where the can-bus comment came from. There's no need for a can-bus hub on a phantom pretty much ever. it has 1 port which can be used for iOSD, and I think there's 1 other device (for P2 application) which uses can-bus, I think it's related to the groundstation? anyway that other device has a hub in it (male + female port)

mickey, you're going to find that your videos kind of suck without a gimbal, and it'll be a challenge to set up FPV. the main point of zenmuse gimbal is to smooth out all the vibrations and other movements of the Phantom and create stable video (as well as carry video signal back to the Phantom mainboard). without a gimbal every raw shake, shudder, and lateral movement of the phantom will translate to wild shaky sickening video from the gopro. for example when you move forward and the Phantom tilts nose-down your camera will now be facing down too. that's not so bad, it's all the other vibrations and such that will be rough. you may want to look into cheaper gimbals, I feel like I've seen P2 gopro gimbals for like 150 usd on ebay as opposed to a Zenmuse for 300.

anyway to answer your questions yes, it's super easy to just add a gimbal later... however unless you have a zenmuse which both powers the gopro and takes video signal back to the Phantom mainboard, you won't be able to simply plug-and play with the pre-made cable, those cables are designed specifically for if you have a Zenmuse and get your video signal from the Phantom mainboard. If you do NOT have a zenmuse, you're going to have to snip and solder some cables to patch your video input directly from the gopro.
Assuming you get this cable, you'll also need to get a GoPro USB video cable like this one. You'll snip the connector off the gopro cable leaving you yellow/black wires. You will then have to manually patch that yellow/black pair into the yellow/black pair with the WHITE CONNECTOR from the firstpersonview cable but you cannot simply cut off the white connector! You still have to plug that white connector into the Phantom main board to get power for the video transmitter. you only want to interrupt the video signal (yellow/black) and patch in your direct cable. make sense?

If you're on a budget, consider the Boscam RX-LCD5802 receiver. It's about $50 cheaper than the Black Pearl and is a full 32ch 5.8ghz diversity receiver. I don't have the IRC transmitter but I've heard from some folks here using the IRC and RX-LCD5802 and they say it works fine, better than the 32ch Black Pearl which has issues.

last question, if you then buy the Zenmuse gimbal later you'll either have to re-patch the firstpersonview cable back to the way it originally was... or just buy a new one

 

[mickey78]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

QYV: awesome! Thank you for taking the time to answer. Everything make sense now!!!

 

[KimBrown]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

As far as Gimbals are concerned, I've fitted a Hobby King Quanum Q-2D to my FC40, and made a mount for my FC40 camera.
It's working perfectly at the moment.... Must admit either I've been working, or the weathers not been good enough to get it up in the air yet, but hopefully soon.

At the moment the Gimbal works great with the Wiggle tests, and the pitch control looks like it's going to be awesum....

Only downside to the whole thing was the Post Office charged £8 for a £5 import charge, or there abouts.... But that's life, and it's still worked out as at a reasonable price.....

 

[lucid111]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Don't futz around with anything other than Lightbridge. Period.

 

[QYV]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Don't futz around with anything other than Lightbridge. Period.

you keep saying this all over this forum, and I'm going to keep respectfully disagreeing with you. Most folks don't have the budget for a Lightbridge, many others don't care about SD vs HD FPV and building a "normal" FPV system is now just as or more easy and/or functional as Lightbridge for 1/4 or less of the cost.
So there's that

 

[mickey78]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Well said. I guess some are richer than others!!!

 

[lucid111]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

When you add up the cost of the "Mickey Mouse" FPV kits and cost of lost phantoms from video loss you'll be spending more money in the end. How many FPV fliers in this forum bought another one because they didn't invest in a rock solid FPV system like lightbridge.

Nuff' said.

 

[ATOMSK]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

When you add up the cost of the "Mickey Mouse" FPV kits and cost of lost phantoms from video loss you'll be spending more money in the end. How many FPV fliers in this forum bought another one because they didn't invest in a rock solid FPV system like lightbridge.

Nuff' said.

Do you get money each time you mention LIghtbridge?

 

[QYV]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

I had a reply typed up earlier, then I realized...

 

[BostonPhotog]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

This:

you keep saying this all over this forum, and I'm going to keep respectfully disagreeing with you. Most folks don't have the budget for a Lightbridge, many others don't care about SD vs HD FPV and building a "normal" FPV system is now just as or more easy and/or functional as Lightbridge for 1/4 or less of the cost.
So there's that

And, unfortunately, this:

I had a reply typed up earlier, then I realized...

This dude is either the most hopelessly blind fanboy the world has ever seen, or has some personal interest in pimping Lightbridge (he's a DJI employee, or is paid to pimp it, etc.).

 

[DiscoDrew]

Re: Current Thoughts On Best Parts for FPV Kit *From Scratch

Lightbridge is overkill in a Phantom. If you have money to burn, go for it. However, there is nothing to setting up a P2, Zen, Mini iOSD, Immersion RC vTX with the pre made cable. Nor is there anything 'mickey mouse' about it as lucid111 suggests. It works great. If you can add some nice antennas it works even better. I use all of that with a black pearl for a portable FPV drone setup and love it. I personally won't even use LB on my S900 setup, I just don't trust it and don't see the need for HD to frame a shot and check focus. If something goes down on that system you are done. I have enough other TX/RX gear on hand IF there was a problem, it's easily fixed.