Friday, September 26, 2014

Black Snapper - smooth flight in the mountains and low over a river

I still have many nice flights recorded before I lost this quad in a crash. First I wanted to throw all these wonderful flights into one best of - but there is so much eyecandy I couldn't cut it so short to fit all in one vid.
So there's more like this to come in the next weeks and month (and this will helps us through the cold and unflyable time.

If you plan to get a decent, foldable copter check this out. They made a 2014 version with some improvments (longer arms, ZenmuseH3 ready, more space)
If you're uncertain about motor setup: I just finished a repaired snapper for a friend and went with the Tiger 4006er and 12x5 Aeronaut props - very quiet, smooth and 11,5mins on 4cell 5000mah - only 3046mah used!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

FPV Cam review: Runcam Sky and PZ0420H - setup tips, image comparison, DVR footage



I got these two cams and first I thought with this pricetag it wouldn't be useable on a miniquad because image and lighthandling must be "cheap". But 3 flights with the mini in difficult lighting convinced me. So definitivly a recommendation!
I would prefer the silver one - not really sure about the plastic. The pz0420h has infrared filter as accessory - maybe that and black as preference for anyone?
Weight about the same, air drag with silver is less, image quality should be a bit better with silver.
SKY (silver one with 650TVL)
PZ0420H (black plastic, 600TVL)

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Fatshark Dominator HD Review

Update: beim Video unten kann man jetzt deutsche Untertitel einschalten!


I was one of the lucky FPVers that got his hands one the first few Dominator HD goggles that were shipped - so I hurried to review it you. First tests were a bit dissapointing. I compared them against RCV922 and AttitudeSD.
RCV922 has 46° fov and funny: it's sharp without diopter for me (I'm short sighted). AttiSD require diopters for me.
Initially I didn't use diopter glasses and thought the DomHD are no way as sharp as the 5 year old rcv922 ;-)
After putting on the diopter lenses now (the ones from AttiSD fit) - the picture is really good!
Most notably you get blown away by the color quality. Also you get less barrel distortion. These optics sure were hard to design! - See more at: http://flitetest.com/articles/fatshark-dominator-hd-review-rcschim?preview=1#sthash.wOZUWrKD.dpuf



FOV - screensize
For me it was always the most important factor to really get immersed with FPV - big screen! The RCV922 were great regarding this - but you couldnt read OSD info in the edges...
AttiSD were better for OSD - but not so good immersive feeling.
DomHD now delivers both - quite sharp on the edges and huge screen. On the last FPV meet I tried many different models (AIO, Skyzone, Cinemizer). Most of them have around 30° fov - way to little for my taste!

Wearing comfort:
I always preferred the foam from rcv922 over the rubber eyecaps. So old ones are nicer to wear for me.
With AttiSD and now DomHD I get ugly eyerings with fpv sessions ;-)

IPD adjustment:
is fine for me - almost sharp in all corners - much better than with RCV922 for sure.

DVR:
Super option! I tend to fly just with 5.8 nexawave RX without groundstation. Just makes no sense flying miniquads with huge groundstation. Keep it portable here! So DVR is a good safety option if you crash. One wish: please make the DVR autorecord after powerup. May be energy waste and SD card wast - but also use cycle recording!
And: if you crash and panic and tear away your goggles you may be dumb enough to just unplug power and not stop DVR rec first. In that case the DVR recording is lost.
So we have to get used to always stop REC after crashing ;-)
Other than that: rec quality is really good, 720x480 30fps with 8mbit

Verdict:
First I was a bit dissapointed - but now I don't wanna use the other goggles ;-)
Diopters were needed - that was one dissapointment - and I couldnt believe the high price (650€ in germany!) - but now I learned here from Fatshark that the LCDs are making it so expensive.
Funny: altough my shop stated rx module and headtracker is OPTIONAL I got at least a headtracker module preinstalled (now with multicopters I don't really need it - but maybe I can apply it to Zenmuse tilt on my Phantom2). - See more at: http://flitetest.com/articles/fatshark-dominator-hd-review-rcschim?preview=1#sthash.wOZUWrKD.dpuf