Drone Headset: VR or FPV?

[Ben Waldorf]

They come in all sizes and features. Fatshark makes one. So does Spectrum. For those not familiar with the FPV product, goggles are considered an upgrade due to a more immersive view that is unaffected by sunlight. Even those who have shortsightedness can use the goggles provided that they can see an object clearly enough from 2-3 meters away.

Personally, I have never had an experience with goggles for a simple reason, I am too consumed at looking at the drone in the air to make sure I am not hitting anything. I am sure there are those who would claim that flying with the goggles would be safe enough. However, I have never been completely sold on this fact.

Goggles are divided into two categories: FPV (for racing) and VR for Consumer Drones.

 

[Tom C]

They come in all sizes and features. Fatshark makes one. So does Spectrum. For those not familiar with the FPV product, goggles are considered an upgrade due to a more immersive view that is unaffected by sunlight. Even those who have shortsightedness can use the goggles provided that they can see an object clearly enough from 2-3 meters away.

Personally, I have never had an experience with goggles for a simple reason, I am too consumed at looking at the drone in the air to make sure I am not hitting anything. I am sure there are those who would claim that flying with the goggles would be safe enough. However, I have never been completely sold on this fact.

Goggles are divided into two categories: FPV (for racing) and VR for Consumer Drones. Here is what is said about both:

Ok so I'm not sure whether I'm the only one to notice this or if I just happen to be one of the first people to read this thread but after I read through the thread then even clicked on the link & went & read the rest of the article, it has me extremely puzzled as to whether or not the author of this article has ever flown any drone or much the less been around anyone that was flying a drone with goggles. I'm not sure where the author of this article came up with all everything that he has written but I can tell you one thing & that is that he has absolutely NO CLUE as to what the difference is between VR & FPV is. Where he talks about the FPV goggles having low latency & therefore providing a very low limited to no lag situation for drone racing he is correct. But when he talks about VR goggles & being able to have head tracking to allow you to simply turn your head as the pilot to see in one direction or another, he has no idea what he is talking about at all because to start FPV stands for is (First Person View) meaning not only are you as the pilot able to fly the drone as if you are really inside the cockpit but also that it is in real time, VR stands for (Virtual Reality) ie "VIRTUAL" no part of virtual means in real time. There is such a technology called head tracking, but there are 2 entirely different kinds of head tracking. One type of head tracking in the drone world is if you have a drone/uav that has a camera & flight control board that is capable & setup for head tracking then what that is, is while the pilot is controlling the drone just as normal using the transmitter he'll also be wearing a pair of FPV goggles that feature the head tracking technology & so while flying if the pilot turns there head from side to side while the drone is still flying straight forward the attached camera will turn side to side to give the pilot those views of each side. When someone mentions head tracking with VR goggles it means that they are watching a Pre-Recorded video that was either recorded with a 360 degree camera so that the person wearing the goggles is able to turn their head in any direction all the way upto a full 360 degrees around or what Parrot has done with their "Bebop", the camera that is mounted onto the Bebop first of all is entirely stationary meaning that it is not able to move in any direction at all separate from the drone meaning that to be able to look to one side or the other the entire drone would have to alter its heading to one side or another so they have done something to make people feel like the camera does in fact move by using the 14MP on board camera & say for example the lens on it has a FOV (field of view) of about 110 degrees they split the area that is viewable to the pilot into 3 separate sections so at any one given time the pilot is only able to view something like 65 degrees FOV which makes it possible for the pilot to turn their head to one side or the other & then even though the cameras FOV or the drone hasn't changed it's headings the pilot is able to view a different part of the split up screen view.

To be able to use FPV goggles on a Yuneec Typhoon, you are able to use the normal type wireless goggles but my biggest fear by using those is that the 5.8Ghz signal that is going back & forth from the H is already fairly weak as most all of us already know because our screen start flickering at around 1500 feet so I fear that if I were to add a second device to the same band that it may mess with the 5.8Ghz like for instance instead of having our H's get out to 1500 feet before it starts to flicker on the screen it may only be able to get out half the distance but I dont know & I dont feel like being the first person to test that theory out. Other then the Yuneec made SkyView goggles there are quite a few other FPV goggles that have the ability to accept an HDMI Cable so the answer is no your only option for FPV goggle if you own a Yuneec product is not just the Yuneec Skyview Goggles.

 

[CraigCam]

Ok so I'm not sure whether I'm the only one to notice this or if I just happen to be one of the first people to read this thread but after I read through the thread then even clicked on the link & went & read the rest of the article, it has me extremely puzzled as to whether or not the author of this article has ever flown any drone or much the less been around anyone that was flying a drone with goggles. I'm not sure where the author of this article came up with all everything that he has written but I can tell you one thing & that is that he has absolutely NO CLUE as to what the difference is between VR & FPV is. Where he talks about the FPV goggles having low latency & therefore providing a very low limited to no lag situation for drone racing he is correct. But when he talks about VR goggles & being able to have head tracking to allow you to simply turn your head as the pilot to see in one direction or another, he has no idea what he is talking about at all because to start FPV stands for is (First Person View) meaning not only are you as the pilot able to fly the drone as if you are really inside the cockpit but also that it is in real time, VR stands for (Virtual Reality) ie "VIRTUAL" no part of virtual means in real time. There is such a technology called head tracking, but there are 2 entirely different kinds of head tracking. One type of head tracking in the drone world is if you have a drone/uav that has a camera & flight control board that is capable & setup for head tracking then what that is, is while the pilot is controlling the drone just as normal using the transmitter he'll also be wearing a pair of FPV goggles that feature the head tracking technology & so while flying if the pilot turns there head from side to side while the drone is still flying straight forward the attached camera will turn side to side to give the pilot those views of each side. When someone mentions head tracking with VR goggles it means that they are watching a Pre-Recorded video that was either recorded with a 360 degree camera so that the person wearing the goggles is able to turn their head in any direction all the way upto a full 360 degrees around or what Parrot has done with their "Bebop", the camera that is mounted onto the Bebop first of all is entirely stationary meaning that it is not able to move in any direction at all separate from the drone meaning that to be able to look to one side or the other the entire drone would have to alter its heading to one side or another so they have done something to make people feel like the camera does in fact move by using the 14MP on board camera & say for example the lens on it has a FOV (field of view) of about 110 degrees they split the area that is viewable to the pilot into 3 separate sections so at any one given time the pilot is only able to view something like 65 degrees FOV which makes it possible for the pilot to turn their head to one side or the other & then even though the cameras FOV or the drone hasn't changed it's headings the pilot is able to view a different part of the split up screen view.

To be able to use FPV goggles on a Yuneec Typhoon, you are able to use the normal type wireless goggles but my biggest fear by using those is that the 5.8Ghz signal that is going back & forth from the H is already fairly weak as most all of us already know because our screen start flickering at around 1500 feet so I fear that if I were to add a second device to the same band that it may mess with the 5.8Ghz like for instance instead of having our H's get out to 1500 feet before it starts to flicker on the screen it may only be able to get out half the distance but I dont know & I dont feel like being the first person to test that theory out. Other then the Yuneec made SkyView goggles there are quite a few other FPV goggles that have the ability to accept an HDMI Cable so the answer is no your only option for FPV goggle if you own a Yuneec product is not just the Yuneec Skyview Goggles.

The H is a lousy choice for FPV. With the explosion of FPV racers and technology I can't see why to even buy the sky view. As far as I can tell, the video is not on any of the known frequencies used by FPV goggles or receivers which does mean connecting to the ST16 HDMI port to connect to goggles. That has no bearing on reception and will not change signal strength or weakness depending on line of sight. Most FPV is using 200mw transmitters and are good for park flying but won't cover any distance well over 1/4 mile. I'd want at least 600mw on an H for its distance capabilities. Also, you'd want a wider angle lens than the CGO3 provides to give you better peripheral view when strapped into goggles. To fly the H in FPV you'd want to install a dedicated camera and transmitter that you could tap off the H power. A small 70vl CMOS camera and corresponding transmitter attached to the frame would do the trick. Finding a home for the antenna is the hard part. But again, I can't see why as you'd be removed from the video camera and shooting which is kind of the point of this platform. My retired blade with 350s are awesome FPV non racing fun flyers and I've even piloted my Chroma through the GoPro as that's a real time rig but it's still weird as the GoPro is not very good looking up close in the goggles. Also, I can't fiddle with the focal length for my vision with goggles on a fixed lens like GoPro or CGO. I personally think it's a recipe to destroy an expensive hexacopter.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro