Category: Blog

In an attempt to reduce the all up weight on my FPV FunJet, I decided to try and power the FPV gear from the main battery, and thus being able to remove the 52 grams heavy 3s500 battery that I usually power it with.
This is my first attempt, a 1mH 1A inductor in series and a 470uF capacitor in parallel on the output side.
This worked OK, but there was some small lines still appearing during high current draw. ( You can see them in the beginning of this video)
After that flight I added a few extra small capacitors which got rid of the lines completely. But another problem came to light, I got less range. This is because the voltage of the main battery is often down at 10 Volts or so and the transmitter is made for 12V. That voltage difference is enough to make the transmitter loose output power and reduce the range. I still got good range, but not as good as I get from using a separate LiPo.

So I decided to scrap my homebuilt filter and order myself an AnyVolt micro, which is a step up/step down converter that can handle both voltages above, the same, and lower than the output, which is necessary for this kind of application.

It just arrived and I hope to be able to start testing it soon. Stay tuned!

After the failure with getting the HD camera working on a ribbon cable, I decided to make a crude solution, and here it is!

I use a Turnigy S3101S Servo for the pan and a HTX900 for the tilt.

Those of you with sharp eyes may already have noticed that I’m using a different antenna on the video transmitter. I’ve been experimenting with different antenna lengths and materials. I’m using a single wire isolated cable that is stiff enough to hold its shape in the air, but bends in a crash. So far it’s been working way better than I expected in the FPV FunJet. In fact all my FunJet FPV videos is made with this antenna. I will be doing a guide on how to make one of these antennas soon.

Back to the testing of the Pan/Tilt of the HD camera. I’ve tested it out in the apartment and it works like a charm. So I decided to go out to the field and try it out in the air.
The video TX in the TwinStar II hasn’t been used for nearly a year, in fact I haven’t used it since I had a crash with it. But it has worked fine when I tested it out at home. But as soon as I thew the airplane into the air, the picture went black. Lucky enough, since it was my first flight with the transmitter I didn’t do it in FPV right away, but rather did it visually and recorded the video feed.

Dissapointed I went home. I took the video TX apart, but I can’t find anything wrong with it. It looks like I have to order myself a new 1.3GHz transmitter before I can try the pan/tilt for the HD camera.

(This is the video that’s in the SimpleOSD review)

I can recommend watching the landing at 4:15

This is the SimpleOSD Ultralight Edition from Flytron.com. It weighs about 3 grams and is roughly the same size as an SD memory card.

The OSD came nicely packaged in an anti-ESD bag (a sign of a serious manufacturer). The total package size was tiny, which makes the shipping cheap. The OSD does not come with any physical manual, but you are directed to an online manual. The manual is very clear and full of pictures and diagrams, which explains everything in detail.
The PCB is made from a thin glass fiber lamination making this OSD super light weight. I work in the electronics manufacturing business so I couldn’t help admiring the layout design of the tiny PCB. This designer knows his stuff.
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My comrades… The days are getting shorter and shorter in this dark country. We now got less than 9 hours of daylight a day. Another bittersweet piece of news is that I started working here in Hjo. It’s nice to get the money but I am now away the all the 9 hours when it’s light outside. This means that I can’t fly during the weekdays any more… And I won’t be able to update the blog as much.

I will still continue to build when I have the time and fly during the weekends, and this blog will be updated, just not as often as before.

On a sidenote, for those who are interested in the progress of the Simple OSD. I can report that I’ve now tested it extensively and shall soon start with the review. Stay tuned

he FunJet lives to see another day! I crashed it a fortnight ago, but all it took was some boiling water and glue, now it’s even hard to see that it has been crashed! Multiplex models are the best ones to crash.

After the crash both me and the wife thought that the FunJet was finished. But now it flies just like it always has; awesome.

I got the chance to try out the SimpleOSD Ultralight Edition from Flytron after the remained.

I’m glad to say that it works just fine. I hope to test it out some more soon.

I got a new product to review! This time it’s the SimpleOSD Ultralight Edition from Flytron. I will be doing this review in cooperations with FPV-Community.com, like I did with the Pan/Tilt from GlobeFlight.

The OSD came nicely packaged in anti ESD bags.

I also got the current sensor to try out which is an optional extra. The USB programmer is included in the package.

This OSD is tiny! It weights 3 grams and is the size of an SD memory card! It’s going to be perfect for my FPV FunJet

After the failure to get the remote camera head on the HD camera to work, I decided to test flying it in a fixed possession on the Twin Star II.

Shortly after takeoff I found that the stock lens is horrible to fly with! Way to much focal length, so I decided to modify it a little…

I now use a f3.6 lens that was stock on the KX171 camera. Much better! See for your self:

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I have to admit defeat. I can’t get my modified HD camera to work with a remote camera head. I’ve been struggling with it for over 10 hours without any successes.

This is how it looked after I mounted the ribbon cables. I measured all the connections, but I got no picture. So I started trowing everything I could at it… (more…)

Me and the wife was out taking some more photos of the FunJet in the air. The Funjet flies excellent in the wind and everything seemed to go well until…
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