FPV Racer where to start?

[bigpops]

I still can't bring myself to buy some Kiss ESCs. At first it was because they caught fire (the 18A), then you could never get hold of the 24A. Now you can get them as lots of people now resell them, now it's the price and the fact BLHeli-S will soon flood the market and they should be just as good as the Kiss is stopping me.

I agree on the Aomway antennas. Great value. I'm mostly using home made antennas I built, but have some Aomways too. Unless you're wanting to break distance records (and therefore the law) then the expensive antennas don't get you much for your money. You certainly don't need them for racing.

VTX wise, I haven't used the Aomway. Eachine I have used. One of them the LEDs started falling off, the other came apart in a crash. These days I use the FX799T and ImmersionRC raceband VTX. I wish the immersion VTX was smaller as it gives the best picture with no ESC noise at all creeping into the video. Even on 4S direct with no LC filter.

Xracer F303 v2.1 is also my choice of FC. I also have the Kiss FC, Dodo, SPF3, Naze Rev6, and I have a spare Xracer 2.1 and a V3.0 with the SPI MPU6000 on the way. I'm going to give the Kiss FC another try next build. I did try it but could not get it tuned on my 6" quad. They don't seem to be as forgiving with the tune as 5" machines. Even on Betaflight @4KHz with the F303, I had to go miles away from the default PIDs to get rid of the wobbles.

Props wise, I'm using the DYS 5x4x3 until I run out. They were £7 for 4x sets when I bought them. They're very similar to the DAL T5040 V2 (don't buy the V1, they suck) and HQ 5x4x3. I also like the DAL Q5040 4 blades. Neither load the motors too much at part throttle, and I'm running "old hat" Cobra 2204(5) 2300KV motors. I do have all the other 5" DALprops so I've tried them all except the Q5030.

[chrisleematt21]

I can heartily recommend the following.
Frame, Impulse RC Alien 5" or Lumenier QAV-R with the optional bottom plate. The Lumenier is a tiny tad lighter and more agile but the Alien reeks of quality and is super solid.
Kiss FC with 24a race ESCs is the best I've used by some margin but the X-Racer F303 v2 and littlebee V2's are excellent too.
Emax RS2205 red bottoms are excellent and DAL 5x4.5 triblades V2 are a good pairing for them.
HS 1177 camera.
Aomway 25 VTX has been very good for me but some report issues with them randomly changing channels. Eachine have been good for me too. Aomway antennas are awesome and half the price of Fatshark or IBcrazy.
Cheers
D

What is the camera quality like? are they wide angle of narrow?

[maddog7]

What is the camera quality like? are they wide angle of narrow?

Really good, especially for the money. Not sure on the camera angle, medium I'd guess. Needs setting up though, out of box performance is mediocre. See the guides on YT by Dark Peak or MrSteele.
Important though, if you calibrate the WB with a piece of white paper in daylight that it be done in bright direct sunshine or you'll get a yellow cast to the sky.

Cheers
D

[waveydavey]

Well, a little experiment on Saturday and a totalled 6S pack Wasn't a good one but had good IR and balanced well, same setup as my 4S so no changes. Little B 30amps, red bottoms 2300's and I think it was a little better and the pack weighed in a little heavier, pulled well but I think the KV needed to be a little lower to make use of it. Funny though

[chrisleematt21]

What range do you get with the FPV setups?

[bigpops]

What range do you get with the FPV setups?

How much do you want?

You can go UHF for control link (if your radio has a module bay), and 1.3GHz for the video and go 10s of miles. I'm not sure if either are legal, but flying beyond unaided visual range isn't, as you need a spotter by law if you're flying FPV.

Our field is about 400m x 250m, and I've flown all around the perimeter with a 200mW VTX and crappy dipole antennas with only minimal glitching on the video.

[hedge]

... with a 200mW VTX and crappy dipole antennas with only minimal glitching on the video.

Just for clarity for people who don't know 200mw is 8 times the legal uk limit for un-licensed broadcast. Completely ignored of course and certainly the lesser of the evils carried out by the FPV gung ho crowd.

i was under the impression that the UK official fpv racing rules dictates a legal 25mw vtx

[_tj_]

I must laugh though,
Ofcom removed my ebay listing for a 200mw stating how illegal it was.

Then I look at all the shops selling them in there emax nighthawk kits and things.

[waveydavey]

I must laugh though,
Ofcom removed my ebay listing for a 200mw stating how illegal it was.

Then I look at all the shops selling them in there emax nighthawk kits and things.

A single listing, Jeez. Theres all sorts on ebay, 200, 600 etc

Aomway Mini 200mW VTX & FPV Tuned 600TVL Camera PAL MINI Racing Drone Quadcopter | eBay

[bigpops]

Just for clarity for people who don't know 200mw is 8 times the legal uk limit for un-licensed broadcast. Completely ignored of course and certainly the lesser of the evils carried out by the FPV gung ho crowd.

i was under the impression that the UK official fpv racing rules dictates a legal 25mw vtx

Yep, 25mw at all organised races, even though I'm pretty sure they run illegal frequencies at all those events when they have more than 4 racers flying at once, which is apparently a more servere offence than running too much power. For those that don't know, the entire Boscam E band isn't legal in the UK. At least not for video transmission. 25mW is plenty for racing. They provide excellent base stations for all the pilots at organised races.

I'll happily run a 25mw VTX (and I do in my 180). I have an Immersion 5800duo diverse receiver and good helical and cloverleaf antennas, so I get good video over the whole field, never mind the tiny portion where the track is.
The problem is that everyone else runs 200mw, and some even 600mw, that they bought because they figured "more is better". So if I want to fly with anyone else (ie, race) then I have to run 200 or I will just see a mess.

[bigpops]

I must laugh though,
Ofcom removed my ebay listing for a 200mw stating how illegal it was.

Then I look at all the shops selling them in there emax nighthawk kits and things.

Are you sure it wasn't a rival seller making up stories to ebay? Sounds like something my cousin would do if someone was selling the same item as him. He used to email all the bidders on similar auctions to point them to his back when the bidders names weren't hidden.

There's nothing illegal about selling 200mW video transmitters, or 600mW for that matter. Every quad supplier I know of (including the helis shops), all sell them.

[_tj_]

It could of been, and then fleabay used the ofcom excuse.
But I'll never know.

[chrisleematt21]

How much do you want?

You can go UHF for control link (if your radio has a module bay), and 1.3GHz for the video and go 10s of miles. I'm not sure if either are legal, but flying beyond unaided visual range isn't, as you need a spotter by law if you're flying FPV.

Our field is about 400m x 250m, and I've flown all around the perimeter with a 200mW VTX and crappy dipole antennas with only minimal glitching on the video.

A few hundred metres would be good, i've got 75 ish acre's to fly around, I stand in the middle ish and would like to be able to fly around the whole field.

[hedge]

A few hundred metres would be good, i've got 75 ish acre's to fly around, I stand in the middle ish and would like to be able to fly around the whole field.

Well you know the legal stand point now so it's upto you.

the challenge with all set ups is you want to sit in the middle. The antennae are all directional so you would need tracking set up. Go big 200/600 and sit to one side or other and you will be fine. Go legal use a diversity vrx and a couple of 13dbi patch antennae set to perfectly overlap their directional range - should giv you about 140degrees arc to play with- this "might" be ok. I used to get around 410m with a solid link using a similar set up but on an aerial photography platform - so high up uniterupted los