A few r/c companies have come out with surface FPV. Dromida had a couple that seemed to last about 1 year, but they are discontinued now. I picked up the Monster Truck, and I enjoyed it.
So I decided to try a setup on my micro crawlers. This is just my first test using the ECX 1/24 Barrage.
FPV Gear:
-FatShark Recon goggles
-Tactic FPV-RM2 for DVR
-AKK A5 5.8Ghz 25mW FPV Transmitter 600TVL CMOS Micro Camera
-E-flite 1S LiPo Battery Pack 25C (3.7V/150mAh)
Here is video from my 2nd run.
This is definitely a challenge, but fun. And yes that is a cat tunnel. I am going to try and do a cleaner setup on this truck, and try to get some of my other micro crawlers setup.
My first blog post of the year. I am so bad at posting.
Anyways, I'm slowly getting around to my r/c videos. And I do mean slowly.
Not sure how it will work out, but I am going to try and do Friday Fly-days. This will also hopefully get me to fly more, as I haven't really been doing much. So here is my first one. Even though I have uploaded today, I did do the flying on Friday.
I recently picked up the Blade Helis Inductrix FPV RTF quad. Along with it I also got the Spektrum Headset kit, extra canopy colors, and extra blade colors. My first impression is this is a great little FPV quad. I don't want to use the term Tiny Whoop, as for me that actually refers to the real Tiny Whoop. Since I picked this up, my plan to do some upgrading on my regular Inductrix have been put on hold.
I am really enjoying this quad, and right now it is my most favorite. The RTF kit does come with the monitor and a mount setup to have it mounted to the radio. I went for the goggle setup by also ordering the Spektrum Headset Kit. Even though it is bigger than the Fat Shark goggles, I still have to take off my glasses to use it. Luckily I can still see pretty good without them. This is definitely a great little FPV starter. The main reason I went for this is that I don't have to solder anything. All parts are modular and easily replaceable. Another thing I like is they have a few color choices on canopies and props, so we can customize the look. The other reason I went for a tiny FPV is so I can fly it indoors.
Now for the cons on this quad. First off there is no DVR function. If you want to record in-flight footage, you will either need to get a set of goggles that does this (like the Fat Shark Dominator V3) or a DVR monitor. I'm not R&D, but I would think that including a DVR function to micro SD wouldn't cost that much more to include. The only other con so far is flight time. The kit comes with a 200mAH batter, but even with the 210mAh total flights are under 5 minutes. I will have to bind to my DX6 to get more accurate flight timings.
For starting out in FPV, I recommend the RTF kit and add the Spektrum Headset kit. If you already have FPV gear and want to go small, then go with the BNF as long as you already have a Spektrum compatible Tx too.
I just uploaded three new quadcopter videos. They were actually filmed back on October 30. My at even made a guest appearance in one. Kitty was not harmed, and I didn't chase after her too much. She never got corned, she always had an escape route.
For one of the videos, I tried out using the slow-motion to sync with certain parts of the songs used. I think it turned out OK. When the video does slo-mo, it has some skipping for some reason. I think that it might be how I am doing things. I recorded the video at 120fps on my iPhone5s, but did the video editing in Pinnacle Studio on my iPhone7+. Not sure if it's that, or a limitation of the video editing app. I actually like how it goes overall, and I will be doing more of it. Just need to find some more songs that I can do this with.
And now for the videos!
Blade NanoQX 3D with the slo-mo parts:
Blade mQX:
Blade Inductrix with special guest star Piper the Cat:
Hey, I'm getting more videos up. Another from a breaktime office flight, and two flying at home. I also figured I would try out some new things. I have started using some of the theme templates for titles, and video filters to give a Halloween feel to them. I'll be trying different setups to see what I can do.
On the home flights, I used the phone mount from the Glimpse. It's supposed to be used to monitor the live feed from the Glimpse camera, but since the iOS 10 update (and as of this post) the Glimpse FPV app will not connect to the quad. And I am not the only one this happens with. But that's for another post. I did figure out that I can use it to hold the phone on the transmitter and still record with the main (back) camera. This does allow me to try and follow the quad as I fly it. Only problem is that it only works for those quads that I use my Spektrum DX6 radio with. Well it will give us something different with the camera shots.
I just uploaded another set of 3 videos. Woohoo! These include some dark time fights (can't really say night time as the Sun was still up outside), and one gets an obstacle. One of them has some video filtering applied. I'm trying to get some different looks going, especially for around Halloween.
Well I've been a little busy with some work projects and I haven't gotten in much flight time. What I have been doing is trying to get some of the footage together in to mini videos and uploaded. I have been flying mostly my micro and smaller quads. I was flying in the warehouse, but have now moved to flying in my office on my breaktime.
For all of my r/c videos, if you did not already know I am filming and editing on my iPhone. I would edit on my iPad, but the raw footage is getting recorded at 720p with 120 fps, which the model iPad I have cannot process. Could this be an excuse to get a newer iPad? Probably, but I could also drop the frame rate down. We'll see how things go. Anyways, here are the apps that I have been using:
ProCam 4 (I was using FiLMiC, but file names were not in standard Apple format. But then there was an update and now ProCam 4 doesn't save file names in standard Apple format so I may go back)
Action Movie FX (I love making my r/c's blow up! Well with digital effects that is)
Pinnacle Studio (of all the video editing apps, this is the best that I have come across)
Apple iMovie (not as good overall as Pinnacle, but great for making some trailers using templates)
Exploder Cam (has some simple explosion effects, and a good teleport effect)
LumaFX (a recent app I came across to change the look of the video)
There are a few others that I have tried in the past, but these are my "go to" apps. There are a few others that I have downloaded but haven't tried yet. I'll list them if and when I get to them.
Recently for music, I have been using some video game soundtracks. I have been using music from the DOOM and Quake franchises, and also some from the DOOM 2005 movie. I do try to make sure that I give credit to the title that the music is used from. If I do miss any or get credit wrong, please kindly let me know so I can make corrections.
So to make a long story short (too late!), here are 3 recent uploads.
Blade Inductrix office flight on 8-29-2016
Estes Proto-X office flight on 8-30-2016
Blade NanoQX office flight 9-6-2016
Remember, I do these for fun. They are me just flying my quads, and trying to film it. I'm not a super skilled pilot or videographer, but hopefully I will improve. If you have any recommendations regarding the video side, please kindly let me know. Right now, I'm just doing whatever I think of at the time.
