Long range FPV quad, (HOW TO)

Many time, I'm asked what are the spec of my quad... so here is the part used, some pics.

I call it reliable cause, til now, it have not failed me and I can do great distance with it without too much problem on video or radio link.

Before event to start to put some FPV gear on a craft, you need to make sure that craft will fly good, but, I mean real good. When it come to multi-rotors, the main enemy is and will always be, vibrations. So, you have to make sure that your propellers are well balanced, that motors do not vibrate too much, that your flight controller react good to your command without jitters. This is not an easy task and it's not that easy to find the good combinations. So, here are the parts used to build my craft.

First, the frame, personally, I don't like propeller in front of me when I fly, plus, that do not make some cool video.

So, I use the HT-FPV from hoverthings. This is a great frame, quite strong, event if G10 is a bit fragile to crash, things is, we don't build to crash. But, it is quite heavy with all spacers and screws. So, I'm slowly switching to the TBS discovery. The Discovery have many advantage over the HT-FPV one. It is lighter, DJI arm absorb well vibrations compare to G10 and are cheap to replace, and you have the power distribution board and some other cool things like receiver signal distribution that can prevent you to have a flying spaghetti monster.

The rest is

1. Motors
   
2. props and props
   
3. ESC
   
4. One of the most important things, the Flight Controller
   
5. and here is the receiver
   

That combinations give some amazing result. Motors by default run super smooth. Props don't need some balancing usually or very few. ESC are quite important cause they improve flight smoothness. Common ESC was designed for airplanes and wont react as fast as those designed especially for multi-rotors, they will still fly well of course, but... more reaction is fast, more the craft will fly smooth. The draw back will be... they create big electronic noise... They fly good but, they are still some cheap ESC. 

Overall, here are the parts used to build a quad that will fly real good. Now, we can thing to add some FPV gear. 

One thing important when we merge a video transmitter and a receiver is... space. We have to put the video antenna as far as we can from the receiver antenna and, those frame give the opportunity to do so. 

Another thing is the electric noise cause by the ESC. So, a good LC filter and some ferrite will improve those. And a good OSD is more than important to monitor the vehicle in flight. 

So, personally, I use something already proven to work well from a company dedicated to FPV. ImmersionRC

here are the FPV parts

1. Gopro Hero2 as cam
   
2. Video Transmitter
   
3. Antennas
   
4. Low Pass filter
   
5. OSD
   
6. LC Filter
7. Ferrite

So, the receiver combined with the OSD will provide all information needed to monitor the craft in flight. You have RSSI, voltage, amp consumption, speed, direction to home, altitude... some alarm on RSSI and voltage at your convenience and a flight summary. 

The LC Filter goes before all video equipment, it will filter noise from those ESC. A ferrite near the camera or near the video transmitter can help also but may not be required.

The low pass filter will prevent some obstruction on the 433Mhz... I'm not totally sure that the 1.2Ghz can interfere with the 433Mhz, but, well, now, I always used a low pass filter on the video transmitter cause I had too much problem before without it :)

I personally used 1.2Ghz, 1280mhz to be more precise because it offer a good penetration between trees and obstacle.

And here some pic

In that pic, we can see how I try to put the video transmitter as far as I can from the radio receiver

Usually here, I add a foam between the camera back and the frame to squeeze the camera and make it more... tight

Here is a picture of my discovery frame, this one will get some update soon.

Some people say it's not a good idea to fly with the gopro as main camera... Personally, I've never had an issue with it... It's not real secure because the battery can ran out in flight... But, for now, it's quite impossible, at least for me, to have a craft battery that will last longer than the camera battery... and, I see also the cam battery state in the OSD :)

If you have any question, feel free to ask.

And if you have like it, rate it :)

Note 1: I use only one 3s 5A battery for all the electronics on the craft. 

Note 2: Those motors won't support 4s batteries.

Note 3: 433Mhz antennas are home built following this tutorial