DJI Mavic, Air and Mini Drones
Friendly, Helpful & Knowledgeable Community
Join Us Now

Yesterday's [FPV] flight review of Litchi, DroneVR and DJI Fly in cheap VR goggles vs DroneMask (aka MagiMask)

vindibona1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2020
Messages
3,977
Reactions
3,961
Location
Democratic Peoples Republic of Crook County
I had a chance to get out in a wide space yesterday to see how I can make VR flying with my Mini 2 more enjoyable (less cumbersome). So here goes without a preamble or introduction.

I really thought I'd like Litchi VR. Because it has a split screen for VR goggles and easy to read data I thought it would be my favorite. The control device was an iPhone XR, not the latest, but my iPhone 6s Plus always worked with the Litchi, Go4 and DJI Fly. The VR features allow you to tilt the gimbal and yaw the drone if you turn or move your head up and down. This *should* provide the ability to fly like you have a cameraman on board pointing the camera where you turn your head. And it works- but to a point I felt that the transmission, and command response at least the return transmission to the phone was sluggish and it seems like I lost signal at a relatively short distance. The Mini 2 was always within VLOS and I popped in and out of the googles frequently, staying far away from buildings and structures. I have to wonder if my iPhone 6s Plus might be better suited- or I need to put the phone in airplane mode to possibly preserve more signal power for the XR?

I had better luck with Drone VR. I like drone VR a little better with one caveat; The lettering is a bit too thin. Two great features not available in the other VR programs is that you can set the pupilary distance and distortion in the app, but if the letters are too small there is a magnification function to enlarge everything. I set that to 150% which helped. I've been flying with the "Jet" HUD, but I have to try the standard display mode. In Jet mode altitude is displayed on the left and speed on the right and a bunch of stuff on top. The jet mode also indicates how much your drone is "leaning" to move left or right or compensating to stay level. Not essential but cool. I'll want to play more with this.

The two programs were flown with Shinecon brand goggles (not the ones with the ear phones). I saw it on Amazon yesterday for $17 (I paid $26 weeks ago. These goggles make it easy to access the phone to make changes on the screen and then reinstall with the least amount of hassle. Better than the ones that have a "tray" that pops out.

Lastly I wanted to try the DroneMask the rest of this is about the DroneMask, cost $160 USD. I purchased this one whose is that you don't need a split screen program to fly FPV. And they actually do a good job without a split screen app, but require developing a routing and some practice to reduce the amount of cumbersome-ness that these goggles gave me at the beginning, but I've mostly figured it out. I only tested it with the DJI Fly app and it was probably the easiest to deal with, but there are a few things that I have to figure out in terms of the physical handling. But I've got 80% of it under my belt..

Unlike the other goggles, these just magnify what's on your screen and enclose you. The phone is mounted in a flip-up lid that gets zipped. While it seems logical to completely zip the phone inside, it's not necessary and counter productive. I found that the lid flips completely open to make your screen adjustments and settings. This would mainly happen off your head and if you're sitting it is no problem as the mask would sit in your lap. I have to figure out what to do when I'm standing up.

But I learned a trick to make easy adjustments... DON'T ZIP THE ZIPPER COMPLETELY WITH THE PHONE INSIDE. I now zip just the corners to make the flap sit close to the body of the mask. When I want to access the phone I unzip one of the zippers, only about an inch being necessary to flip up the lid enough to stick my finger inside. The magnification allows me to see what I'm doing with my finger on the screen, then a quick 1" re-zip and I'm back in business. Obviously this mask (as far as I know) won't allow you to dip or turn your head to influence the gimbal or yaw, so it's all sticks. But that makes it simple. You get immersion without having to practice how the drone moves when you turn your head.

While I liked the coolness of the movements caused by the head turns, I have to figure out why they aren't as responsive as I'd like. I've just downloaded Maven which is supposed to have a VR mode but haven't had a change yet to read the tutorials.

In case anyone is interested, I've seen these goggles for all sorts of cheap, from $26 down to $12 (same thing in white, I think) but the cheap-cheap ones could take a month to get her. . The key is to buy ones where the phone just slides down into the front with no tray or hinges.
Here is the link to the set that I bought. Some come with earphones/headset at much more money and are unnecessary for flying.
Shinecone Black $26

NOTE: I STRONGLY SUGGEST USING A LANYARD ON YOUR CONTROLLER. If you're in any VR mask it is so helpful that the controller is attached to you. I'm trying to figure out how to "park" my DroneMask while standing and need it where I can access the phone without dismounting the phone. Essentially the phone needs to stay in the mask when in use. You could remove it, then you're dealing with the mask and phone separately.
 
Lycus Tech Mavic Air 3 Case

DJI Drone Deals

New Threads

Forum statistics

Threads
130,600
Messages
1,554,267
Members
159,605
Latest member
petravka