Prototype fpv headset

Prototype fpv headset

So I’ve done some fooling around and have come up with a working prototype of my idea of an fpv headset.
Goggles are a non-starter for me because of my glasses and lousy eyesight, so I came up with this. It’s an old welding faceshield with a cardboard extension fitted to the front with a slot that my little 5″ monitor slides into and is held in place with velcro. Between the monitor (which is now about 8″ from your face) and your eyes is a cheap fresnel lens that serves two purposes- it slightly magnifies the screen, but more importantly it makes it much easier to focus on something that close to your face without eyestrain.

The monitor (that used to be mounted on the top of my control transmitter) has a built-in 5.8 GHz receiver and antenna to match the tiny transmitter on the quadcopter that sends a feed from the onboard video camera/recorder.
 This design has the advantage of not only working nicely with my glasses and blocking out the light so I’ll be able to see the monitor when out in the sunshine, but being easily flipped up out of the way if I need to look at the quad directly.

I took it up for a little test in the parish hall and it works great! (although I think I scared Manny when he walked through). I can’t wait to get it outside to try it out where I have some space and height to play with…

The problem with the little quad (it’s a highly modified Ares Ethos QX130) is that it’s so light it either has to get at least 6′ off the floor or be going forward pretty fast to not be affected by it’s own propeller wash bouncing up off the floor, and in the PH there really isn’t much room for that (and it probably didn’t help that I didn’t turn off the ceiling fans!).

It’s been an awesome little machine to learn and test things out on (and it’s very durable- I’ve crashed it a LOT), but it’s really just one step up from a toy. I have managed to make it do a lot more than it was ever meant to do (fpv on this little thing is pretty cool, but it’s carrying way more payload than it was designed for), so I think it may be time to look at building a new, more serious quad. I’ve been watching some very interesting videos on YouTube about building a “proper” quad on a budget… I shall have to do a little more research… 😉


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *