FPV in Roban MD-500E 700 Build

[Gravythe clown]

Yeah I blame DCORSAIR on stuff like this. Always good to have someone to blame.

Gravy

[PawPaw]

Dude pawpaw you nuts. Lol
ive done lots of FPV, even a 120 mph F-16. I don’t think I would feel safe enough to o FPV a helicopter. I thinks it’s cool as hell, but I’m sure I would end up doing so carnage.

Gravy

Tell that to sfcfury! He made me do it!

[PawPaw]

You’re right. I shoulda waited to the second paragraph, at least.

[Gravythe clown]

Dude pawpaw you nuts. Lol
ive done lots of FPV, even a 120 mph F-16. I don’t think I would feel safe enough to o FPV a helicopter. I thinks it’s cool as hell, but I’m sure I would end up doing so carnage.

Gravy

[sfcfury]

I didn’t intend to take on a new hobby, but sfcfury saw to that shortcoming when he sent me a vid of some guy flying his helicopter FPV. I’ve mounted cams in 2 of my Roban helis but only for DVR. So, being absolutely new to FPV and seriously ignorant, thought I would pass on my experiences and hopefully garner a few tips from those folks who really do know what they are doing! Here’s my setup…

Roban MD-500E 700 Conversion Kit
PhoenixTech 600 Mechanics stretched to 700 size (6s)
Scorpion Tribunus 120 ESC
Beast X FBL
Futaba 3008SB/T10J Radio
BAG Gimbal
Caddx (Dji version) Cam and Air Unit
Dji V2 goggles
Motionsic Head Tracker

So, after watching several vids of guys flying FPV in planes, I started looking at FPV equipment. It’s confusing. Ok, I just decided to go with Dji because it looked to be the easiest setup and so far that assumption has been correct. Not the cheapest…but less stressful. So far. My initial goal was to purchase the BAG gimbal unit and Caddx cam/air unit first simply because I needed those in hand to plan out the MD-500E build, then buy the pricey goggles later.

I appreciate you throwing me under the bus right out the gate!!!

[PawPaw]

Forgot to mention another BAG item: I had originally planned to use my RunCam Split 3 Nano in the BAG. The BAG includes a thin metal strip meant to adapt one hole mounted cameras but it’s very flimsy and doesn’t work well. This mount is really designed for 21mm cameras that have 2 mounting holes on each side. Any smaller camera that needs a silicone adapter to fit within the mounting arms will just drag on those arms when the camera tilts, also.

[PawPaw]

My next step was to couple the BAG tilt and pan servos to the heli’s elevator and rudder servos just to have movement, and fly it like that awhile to check out any operability or video issues. A “Y” wouldn’t work because the BAG servos were reversed, so I just set them up on aux channels with a P-Mix, and set the max pan/tilt travels that way. BAG works great! Third lesson: The Caddx air unit works just like any receiver….must be linked to operate. So much for my “just fly it first in DVR mode” idea. Ok, Dji goggles purchased (much earlier than planned). Ordered the Motionsic “Tallyho” head tracker also.
Got the goggles’ software downloaded and registered ok. Lesson four: The head tracker comes with a 3.5mm mono trainer cord which fits anything else but what I have (Futaba). The instructions state “Futaba adapter sold serarately”. Where? Emails to vendor unanswered. No phone number listed for Motionsic. So, as of this date, still no reply. I did find a 3.5mm mono-to-Futaba square mini cord at Helidirect which may work, if it doesn’t require a stereo mono plug. Motionsic didn’t specify…
Good news is once I linked the goggles and air unit, the video signal looked great through the MD windshield. Couldn’t record as my SD micros haven’t arrived yet. I did see a popup message in the goggles “Recording unavailable in low power mode” so don’t know if that’s due to no installed SD cards or my 9v BEC needs to be a higher rated one. Manual says 7.4v min. We’ll see…

[PawPaw]

I used all 4 of the hard foam spacers to mount the BAG to help with vibration plus I needed extra height to get the proper pilot eye level position anyway.

[PawPaw]

Here’s the first lesson I learned: The BAG gimbal has 2 Savox micro servos that are 6v. Well, my helis are 7.2v, so I looked for a HV micro servo to replace the Savox ones. It appears those guys designed the BAG around those 257MGs because there is no room for a larger tilt servo in the frame, and I couldn’t find same size HV ones. So, I reset the ESC to 6.1v. Second lesson: The Caddx air unit needs 7.4v minimum by spec, so not wanting to add a separate battery pack, I ordered a BEC just for that. Still not concentrating, which is my normal method, I bought a 9v Castle BEC. It works, but 12v would have been better. Here’s the BAG mount I made for the copilot seat in the MD cockpit…

[PawPaw]

I didn’t intend to take on a new hobby, but sfcfury saw to that shortcoming when he sent me a vid of some guy flying his helicopter FPV. I’ve mounted cams in 2 of my Roban helis but only for DVR. So, being absolutely new to FPV and seriously ignorant, thought I would pass on my experiences and hopefully garner a few tips from those folks who really do know what they are doing! Here’s my setup…

Roban MD-500E 700 Conversion Kit
PhoenixTech 600 Mechanics stretched to 700 size (6s)
Scorpion Tribunus 120 ESC
Beast X FBL
Futaba 3008SB/T10J Radio
BAG Gimbal
Caddx (Dji version) Cam and Air Unit
Dji V2 goggles
Motionsic Head Tracker

So, after watching several vids of guys flying FPV in planes, I started looking at FPV equipment. It’s confusing. Ok, I just decided to go with Dji because it looked to be the easiest setup and so far that assumption has been correct. Not the cheapest…but less stressful. So far. My initial goal was to purchase the BAG gimbal unit and Caddx cam/air unit first simply because I needed those in hand to plan out the MD-500E build, then buy the pricey goggles later.