Stech WernerWhen racing using RC drones, one of the very best ways for you to really immerse into the entire experience is actually to see your drones flying in real-time. This entire experience is called the FPV, or first-person viewing. It really allows you to view from the drone’s perspective, hence giving you a different dimension of fun. It really beats using the regular controllers and viewing your drone from a 3rd party perspective. Now, you can finally view it from a first-person perspective! To be able to allow FPV, there is some essential equipment that you will need.
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What Items Are Required For FPV Flying
Of course, there are some drones that do have FPV capabilities already, nothing beats building up the FPV experience from scratch. The entire FPV setup does require you to invest some money into purchasing essential equipment. The equipment is actually very mainstream stuff that you can get easily. You will need just 5 items.
- Camera
The purpose of the camera is to capture the images and passes them to the transmitter. It should be mounted right at the front of the drone itself. As a general guideline, you should not purchase an FPV camera that is too heavy. This is because a heavy camera can mean that the entire drone is lopsided in terms of the weight distribution, and this will affect the way the drone fly. Also, the heavier it is, the tougher it is for the drone to fly, and this will have a direct impact on the battery life of the drone. Choose a camera that has a better resolution as well as refresh rate too as it will allow the best of quality to be transmitted down the entire chain itself. - Transmitter
The transmitter’s main function is to transfer the captured image from the camera to the receiver itself. Typically, most transmitters communicate with the receivers via 4 frequency bands, with 2.4 GHz frequency being the most commonly used frequency. The reason why this is so is that most countries do not require you to have a license to use 2.4GHz frequency. - Receiver
As mentioned, the transmitter will transfer the image from the camera to the receiver via a frequency band. - Display Unit
This is where things get a little interesting. Once the receiver gets the signal, it will then convert the information and display the captured image on the display unit. There are two types of display units, which are the FPV Display and FPV Googles. Typically, you would have the FPV display unit on your controller. But this does not give you the additional excitement as compared to viewing it via the FPV Goggles itself! - Antenna
Typically, there will be an antenna that comes with the FPV setup itself. However, the range of it is usually low due to the stock antenna that they use. As such, it will be good if you could purchase an upgrade so that you can fly the drone further. I mean, what is the point in having an FPV drone without having the capabilities to fly far?
In our experience, the most critical item here is actually the goggles itself. A good pair of goggles will really allow you to have the best visual experience when it comes to flying an FPV drone. The best one out there is actually the Fatshark Teleporter V5. Let us take a closer look at the Fatshark Teleporter V5 review.
Fatshark Teleporter V5 : Is It That Good
When it comes to beginners who are new to the entire FPV flying experience, the Fatshark Teleporter V5 will be a good fit. It is titled to be a full-function goggle that has everything that you will need to have a good FPV racing experience. All you need to do is to plug it in, power the system up and you can start to have fun! No need for unnccessary change of settings of fidgeting with the installation process at all.
Features
The Teleporter V5 has features that are awesome for something that is relatively cheap. It does have a head tracking technology which allows the display unit to zoom in on the image without the need for any additional equipment.
The awesome head tracker itself controls the window, and it does have the ability to pan and tilt due to the servos located in the goggles itself.
Picture clarity
There have been mixed reports about the picture clarity. There are some that commented about the grainy pictures while others claimed that the images are solid. We put on the Fatshark V5 on ourselves to test out the quality of the pictures.
We were pretty amazed to when we don the goggles while flying our drone. The pictures were clear on the bright screen. Note that due to the lack of night vision capabilities, all you can see at night is just black and white images. But that itself is also pretty clear due to the resolution of the screen itself, which is at QVGA 320 X 240. This beats most of the FPV systems out there.
Here is a video on the review of the Fatshark Teleporter V5.
What To Note When Flying FPV Drone For The First Time
When you first start the entire FPV drone experience, there are certain things that you might want to take note of.
Take It Slow
Granted, you might be very experienced in flying the drone, but the entire FPV flight experience can be pretty tricky since you are new to this. As such, you will need to take it slow so that you can get used to the entire experience before you start flying fast.
Practice Often
During the first few tries, you might not be able to fly well due to the new perception of depth. Also, you will surely not be accustomed to viewing things in all ways possible. There are possibilities of crashing, so the best thing you can do is actually to practice often. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect!
Know Your Area
This is something most drone racers fail to note. It will be extremely important to know the area that you are flying in so that you will expect the kind of dangers and pitfalls that are present. Try to avoid the heavily wooded area as the possibilities of newbies crashing or losing the drone to the woods is high. Also, avoid places whereby there are huge water bodies. You wouldn’t want your drone to crash dive into a lake!
Laws
There might be certain areas at which drones are strictly off-limits. Do check this before flying your drone in PFV experience. I shudder to think of having to view the drone, only to see an image of an airplane appearing in the FPV Goggles itself.
