HDzero Long Range The Simpo Way
Reference:
The Island
Summer 2021 - The yearly family pilgrimage to Tenby, Wales. I decided to take my drones for a bit of evening flying on the vast beaches, I could also show a few family members what it was all about. A comment was made by my brother in law that started an obsession over the coming months.
“Go on then, can you fly out to Caldey island?”
Well on a 5” freestyle drone with a small battery, no of course not - the project begins.
I had an old set of box goggles from years ago that had a nice screen and an analogue video receiver, the idea was to create a spectator screen so that when we return to Tenby in Summer 2022, not only would I be able to fly around Caldey Island (now flying fixed wings too!) I would be able to show my brother in law the flight via the spectator screen.
The Wing: AR Wing Pro
Link to build: https://photos.app.goo.gl/JWi5wryLAzskuENp6
This was V1 Screen:
This worked great, but along came HDZero, a digital video system that blew the pants off the 1980s style video we had all been flying for years.
The main problem with this was that the V1 screen was locked to analog signal and not able to be anything else, So with upgrading the Wing and racing drones to HDZero I still needed to have a way to spectate - to eBay!!
Bought a 1080p 4:3 panel and driver board and had some other bits left from previous projects that enabled me to fill the brief, 1 input signal (HDZero Video RX) to be split into 2 using a 5v HDMI Splitter - 1 to go back into the screen and the other out to my FPV Goggles.
Link to build: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ftwfi3zroUFePvFA6
So after a few flights with my fixed wing on HDZero, I decided it was a bit lackluster. I LOVE it for racing, but for relaxing long(ish) ranged flights the image quality of the DJI HD Goggle system is far superior, and thus presented another challenge. I found an app/os for Raspberry Pi called Digiview which allows use of the USB C port on the DJI goggles to be used for video out so I power the Pi from a 5v BEC and link the HDMI to the screen. In the future I will incorporate it into the back panel of the screen so it is a bit tidier.
Really enjoyed the project, it has by far been my most elaborate 3D Print project to date - spent countless pounds and hours - all because my brother in law made a joke about not being able to go around Caldey island!
Can't wait to get it done in the Summer! :-)
Planned Mission: