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Anyone else thinking about going into FPV?

I love my mavic mini and air2... but i think i want to do fpv goggles..

Also, a hobby is no fun unless its a challenge... Anyone else?
My brother started with a Spark, then quickly moved to FPV. I was given his Spark, bought the MA1, lost it, bought the MA2, love it.

He's been trying to convince me to go FPV for years... I'm just now starting to feel the draw.

But, that being said, I also feel like Gimbal Stabilized drones are going to be my go-to for years to come.



I downloaded a really good FPV sim for my S20, and when I flew his 5" for the first time in real life he was blown away. I didn't even crash once, and landed softer than he did. ?
 
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My brother started with a Spark, then quickly moved to FPV. I was given his Spark, bought the MA1, lost it, bought the MA2, love it.

He's been trying to convince me to go FPV for years... I'm just now starting to feel the draw.

But, that being said, I also feel like Gimbal Stabilized drones are going to be my go-to for years to come.



I downloaded a really good FPV sim for my S20, and when I flew his 5" for the first time in real life he was blown away. I didn't even crash once, and landed softer than he did. ?
i have a s20... please provide sim lol.
 
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I had a Spektrum DX9 radio lying around so I got a Vortex 180 and hooked them up to some Skyzone 02x googles, later I got a mini whoop a
URUAV UR65 for flying indoors

It's definitely harder than the stabilised drones, but the FPV experience is awesome
 
I have for a long time, just haven't done it yet. As a retired airline pilot I am used to the bird's eye view. With the old Phantom it was a production trying to use them, plus the DJI goggles were not out yet and you were doing the third party goggles with the many limitations. I have a new Zoom and smart controller that I think would be the cat's meow for the DJI unit.
 
Yep, with a few hundred hours with camera drones I've been into FPV lately.

What I've found is that a racing drone of any size, like an EMAX Baby Hawk or a big Eachine, is freekin lethal under the fingers of a noob and I can't even keep the thing on my property reliably. I stopped trying when it bounced off the driveway and flew off at maybe 100 mph into the side of my neighbor's house. They are crazy powerful, amazingly responsive, and too easy to overcontrol even with the EXPO set high on the controller.

I've also found that FPV goggles are a blast, mine are FatShark Attitudes. But, it's a hassle for me, still a noob, to pull them off and on.

I found the Team Black Sheep Tango radio with a built-in FPV monitor and although it's not nearly as immersive an experience it made a big difference in learning to fly FPV. I can focus entirely on the monitor and develop FPV skills, look up quickly at the drone if needed, and don't have to rip the goggles off to find it in a bush.

There are also 'phone holders' for some of the remote controllers. I found one that works fine to clamp a little 4.1 inch FPV monitor to my Taranis QX7 and it worked fine, looks like a Mavic controller with a phone clamped to it.

After giving up on the Baby Hawk, I down-sized to the little 'FPV racing trainers'. Since I'd gotten FRSky Taranis XQ7 for the Baby Hawks, and a FRSky JR module for the Tango, I've stuck with FRSky drones.

For this rig, I believe the Team Black Sheep Tiny Whoop Nano is one of the best indoor trainers. It's got brushed motors that are not crazy powerful and helped me learn with FpV very quickly. It's got ducted props and at about an ounce it can bounce off stuff, level itself, and keep flying.

An EMAX Tiny Hawk II was a good next step up for indoor flying, and is beefy enough to fly outdoors in a little breeze. It is not so easy to control with very responsive brushless motors, is challenging, is good practice, and its ducted props are a drone-saver.

The EMAX Tiny Hawk II Race suits me fine for practicing outdoors on our heavily wooded lot. After twenty hours or so of practice with the Tango 2's FPV and the TH2Race, I'm able to fly off a couple sets of batteries with the FatShark goggles and love it.

Next chance I get, I'll take a Baby Hawk out somewhere there's plenth of room and no people and see if I'm up to flying it yet.

FPV drones are wicked hard to fly. The EMAX and Tiny Whoop Nano let you switch between Horizon, Acro, and Angle. Horizon is easiest, where the drone will level itself with the gyro if you center the right stick. Acro limits the pitch and roll, and Angle turns off the gyro so it's your eyeballs and fingers that stabilize the drone, or make it do wild aerobatics unencumbered with the gyro.

Mavics are very tame and easy to fly, even in ATTI mode. I guess somebody can get one, take it out of the box, and fly it without a first crash.

With FPV racing drones I bet there's nobody who doesn't crash a lot.

I'm nowhere near the Drone Racing League and won't ever be, but these things are great fun, challenging, a whole nother thing compared to a Mavic.
 
Hi,

I am kinda coming from the opposite end of the drone pilot spectrum. I flew FPV for about two years before I got my Mavic Mini, and it was a totally awesome experience. I started out by buying and Inductrix FPV+ from horizon hobby which I hooked up to a DXe that I had from a RTF airplane. I bought Eachine VRD3 googles from banggood and got about 100 flights out of that setup. After flying a brushed whoop for a while, I got pretty bored, so I went online and found the mobula 7, which I bought for $100. I later realized that it wouldn't bind to my DXe so I wound up buying a DX8e. With the mobula 7, I had to do a lot of "programming" to get it t bind and fly correctly. It was an absolute blast to fly on 2S, and I got 40 flights from it before it started coming apart. Heres what I would've done different: Spend the extra money. Me being a teenager, I wanted to save as much money as possible and that was why I bought cheap goggles and a cheap drone. What I should have done is put in the money for the FatSharks and a decent 5" quad. I think that to really enjoy FPV, you need to have reliable equipment so that you don't have to go in and change settings every time you fly. Another thing to consider is buying the DJI FPV system that came out a couple months ago. Its like seeing real-time feed from your quad but in 1080p. There are tons of options for FPV, but if you have the cash, get FatSharks and a 5 inch. Starting on whoops can be good, but definitely have plans and cash to upgrade once you learn the basics of Acro mode. Speaking of Acro, one thing you have to make sure of when flying FPV is that Air mode is on. What this does is allows you to control the drone while inverted and falling through the air with only roll input. If its not turned on, you will have to add throttle to change direction, and this can become really messy especially when performing tricks. I guess that all I'm trying to say through this post is that you should definitely invest in good equipment, and don't do like I did with buying crappy stuff. Sorry for rambling.

Happy Flying Guys!

--Noah
 
I love my mavic but, I live in Port Angeles where almost the entire city is restricted air space. In order to fly unhindered I have to drive 20 mi. I have my part 107 and a certificate of authorization to fly here. We do not have LAANC so to fly I have to call whidbey island ATC. So in order to fly without having to call I bought a Happymodel Modula 6 Whoop drone (20 grams) and some skyzone 2x goggles and started out flying indoors. What a blast. I finally wanted to fly in the back yard, so I call Whidbey to get permission. I told him where I was and that I wanted to fly the 20 gram drone in my back yard and that I wasn't planning to fly higher than 50 ft and he told me to go ahead and fly it. He didn't ask me my name, address or time I was planning to fly. I now enjoy taking it out in the backyard on calm days to fly it. I also thought that this would be a great drone for inside building inspection after a disaster because its small enough to get inside and look around without endangering human life to look for survivors. The drone was less than $90 so it got lost in the debris, it wouldn't be that big of a loss. I have been practicing slow stable flying from room to room and looking around and then critiquing my video on how well I flew and how well the drone behaved out of sight.
 
I've flown RC helicopters and airplanes for years, so I was flying the Mavic confidently before the first battery was at 75%. For some reason, the desire hit me to buy a Tinyhawk 2 a few weeks ago. First using a cheap video receiver and an old phone, then buying some goggles. Been out of the helicopters for a while, so flying without FPV is still a bit of work. Thankfully, I'm picking up using the goggles fairly quickly. So much so that I've already got the parts to build a 5" freestyle quad on order. :cool: Been using my Taranis with the Velocidrone sim on my PC.

FPV drones are wicked hard to fly. The EMAX and Tiny Whoop Nano let you switch between Horizon, Acro, and Angle. Horizon is easiest, where the drone will level itself with the gyro if you center the right stick. Acro limits the pitch and roll, and Angle turns off the gyro so it's your eyeballs and fingers that stabilize the drone, or make it do wild aerobatics unencumbered with the gyro.
You've got the modes mixed up a bit (angle and acro backwards). Angle mode self-levels when you center the right stick and limits the max angle on pitch and roll. Horizon mode also self-levels, but allows full pitch and roll control (loops and rolls). Acro (or Air) mode leaves you in full control of flying all the way to the crash site.

As I believe most people would expect, I thought I'd do better starting out flying the Tinyhawk in Angle or Horizon mode. But found it very hard to control during many maneuvers. That's because it was always trying to self-level anytime the stick passed the center position. Once I switched to Acro mode, my old helicopter reflexes started to kick in and I did much better.
 
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Can confirm.

Any of the mavic drones is like driving a fully loaded Tesla minivan (if they made one) to the mall on a Sunday afternoon.

A decent FPV drone is like strapping yourself into a Lamborghini.

Also, the best way to fly them is to have zero gyro stabilization. Unlimited movement on all axis. It’s a completely different way of flying. Imagine on your mavic to go forward you push the stick forward and hold it. On an FPV drone you would do front somersaults until you lawn darted.

Also- there are no 30 minute flights. 3 to 6 minutes depending on the drone.

It’s fun though. I fly both, just depends on what mood I am in.
 
Thanks for this thread! i was wandering about googles too

There is a rumor that DJI is going to be introducing a FPV drone, which is logical given they have a digital FPV system
Although there are other brands who already have compatible quadcopters.

 
Looks like fun, but maybe not now. Was expecting a 60% decrease in income, but got 100%.
 
I recently decided to give it a go with fpv I used to have a friend that built quadcopters flew fpv and sense I was already craving to learn the get down. So I had gotten the mavic air due to work sense I travel alot it was perfect, I've been mechanically inclined and self taught mechanics and micro management if u would. The mavic air was what made me feel like I wanted more once I crashed It and open it up was done fixing it but 4 mavic airs and a mavic pro, I think somewhere down the line I can buy better and prob make something up. I was 2 yrs making nothing out of goals to go fpv... And about a month ago I took aim and fired. I ended up getting the emax buzz 4s bnf with the 24kv motors and a taranis x9 lite s. So far I haven't gotten it to work as easily as the seller claimed, or maybe it's the severe ADHD or the fact I get bugged by my gf all the **** time but it's been a virgin to the air and a mistress to my work bench/table.
 
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