DJI digital FPV system

[DarkButterfly]

Looking around youtube at my favourite channels, I saw some interesting videos about DJI releasing a new digital FPV system for mini quads.

There seems to be a lot of hype about it and I'm going to following this one closely maybe at some point 'upgrade' to it.

[ched]

It does look interesting although it's not cheap at all!!!!
Funny how only a few months ago I think Josh was saying that digital fpv wasn't possible!!! Now it's here with lowish latency!!!

It will be interesting to see what FatShark's system is like.

[Sweet Pickle]

Normally stuff like this comes along and I'm in straight out of the gates.
For the first time I think I'm going to watch from the sidelines.

[Bad Raven]

As is usual with me and DJI product, I go into cynic mode as soon as the over-hyping starts.

Is Digital needed?  Of course.

Is this it?  Extremely doubtful!

Long range is not one of my concerns, my usual spotters have normal eyesight, I fly legally.

Lack of interchangeability between Analogue and Digital of this iteration IS though a BIG issue.

AFAIAC any transition period digital headset MUST also offer Analogue. Period. 

Bottom Line - While being fortunate that I could easily afford it, I will not be buying THIS model.  I'll wait for the reverse engineering to take place and a PROPER go at it to emerge. I doubt ultimately that will be DJI, as from 50 plus years around electronics, that's not the way it works.  Three years time certainly, hopefully sooner, but not now.

I didn't buy early Spektrum when it was the only remotely practical 2.4GHz radio, I waited and bought Futaba FASST. Many MANY years on, my FASST gear still works perfectly, faultless over all these years, yet SO MANY around me lost multi numbers of planes due to failed links, etc, had to wait for gear to be repaired, etc, etc on Spektrum.

No, not even remotely tempted!

[ched]

I have spotted a few 'issues' with the new dji digital system here.
They say long range but it appears 4km is USA only with Ham licence and EU may manage 700 meters!!! as there is the 25mW limit. I wonder if there will be any way to 'tell' the system you are in USA otherwise there isn't that much point.
For glasses wearers there seems to be no 'fat shark' type diopter slots. In the listing it says DJI are making diopters for near sighted people but they don't seem to be available yet!! No idea what long sighted people are going to do?

Rumour has it that the Fatshark digital system will allow your own goggles to be used with a receiver!!! I think the only Fatsharks that do any sort of HD are the HDO at 960 x 720. So maybe theses Goggles running 1280*720 will give proper 16:9 but I suspect fatshark will hobble their system to work with the HDO perfectly!

Interesting times ahead.

[Sweet Pickle]

Indeed, if you watch Stingerswarm video you can see the dropped frames equate to really bad latency when you push it in testing environments.
If you consider the 25mw mode and the alleged 700m range it begs the question at what distance or penetration do you start getting huge latency on the EU settings.
I know 25mw in my local scrub with a few high trees causes issues on analogue, on digital it will potentially be unflyable.
Will be interesting to see the inevitable xaomi clone in a few months time.

[Sweet Pickle]

Normally stuff like this comes along and I'm in straight out of the gates.
For the first time I think I'm going to watch from the sidelines.

Yeah, a few beers and the temptation was too much. Retrofitted my old Chameleon over the weekend. Can't fly until this god forsaken rain gives over now.
I'm a sell out whoooer, what can I say?

[ched]

Yeah, a few beers and the temptation was too much. Retrofitted my old Chameleon over the weekend. Can't fly until this god forsaken rain gives over now.
I'm a sell out whoooer, what can I say?

Please let us know how you get on with it. Can't afford at moment but who knows what the future holds. 

[UrbanFPV]

I shall wait till version 2 I think.  If DJI had made the goggles analog compatible out of the box and made the air unit smaller - stack sized then this would be a more interesting proposition.

Hopefully something will come of the fatshark bytefrost/HDZero system.  Foxeer seem to be doing something with the Foxeer Revo (probably another HDZero) so the competition will be interesting in the next six months.

[Sweet Pickle]

So I managed to get a couple of packs in after work.
All the things you see on YouTube are about right. Light leak is bad but once you are flying it doesn't matter as the screen holds its own. So much easier to focus the screen than traditional goggles.
Would like to be able to move the voltage and or flight time somewhere more prominent on the screen as it's so easy to lose track.
Picture is great but focus mode kicks in quicker than I thought it would. The borders are also way more noticeable than they seem on YouTube.
I did fly on 700mw and wasn't impressed with the range. I have ensured the antenna are both in but it can't have been more the 80m before I was in pixel town.
I have absolutely 100% designed my antenna holder with a perfect 60 degrees of separation.
Finally, the fans can be quite noisy and I still got a bit of fogging. My Skyzone never fog and are nowhere near as loud.

TBH I wouldn't have went DJI if there was something to compete. Having seen the first slew of BiteFrost videos emerge there is no way on this planet I'm running a fat HDMI cable to the clunky looking screen. That is NOT an elegant solution and the video is not as good as the DJI.

Oh, forgot another gripe. £175 for the air unit and they can't even stump up for a lens protector.

[Bad Raven]

Joshua Bardwell has just issued a review and comparison between the DJI system and the Fat Shark "Byte Frost".

[ched]

Joshua Bardwell has just issued a review and comparison between the DJI system and the Fat Shark "Byte Frost".

Some good points but picture and range not as good as DJI and by the sound of it they may not go into production! I do like that Fat Shark licence camera spec to others but I wish the rx was a bit smaller without the screen.

Hopefully other systems will start to emerge sometime soon.