Hooked and now looking for advice on my next build - a quad with FPV.

[DarrenG]

 I very nearly bought a Phantom until a friend alerted me to APM and suggested a self-build was a much better option and I';m delighted I took his advice.

So, thanks to all the great help here I';ve gone from knowing the square root of nothing to a full APM powered quad build with brushless gimbal and I love it. I';ve actually enjoyed the build phase almost as much as the flying too. I specifically chose Tiger motors and a 9XR Tx and FrSky Rx on the basis of the advice here and am grateful for all superb resource that this site and the contributors have built.

So, now that I';m hooked, naturally I';m looking towards the next build which will be a quad for FPV.  I';ve just ordered the FPV550 spider frame from UnmannedTech having seen one in action.  Haven';t yet decided on which motors I';ll go for but may pinch the T-Motor 2216';s from my Q650 and upgrade that to pancake motors.  Already got a set of Blue-Series 30A ESCs in the spares box.

Undecided on controller too. Not sure if I want to stick with another APM for this or try a Naza. The new cheaper Naza makes the cost differential almost non-existent and I don';t need waypoints etc for FPV. Might be nice to try Naza if only for a change?

The one area I do need help on is the FPV. Aside from a camera, and a Tx, is there an OSD that everyone favours? Assuming I go with Fat Shark goggles, what else do I need?  I';m not clear on the power requirements for the transmission gear, do they run of the flight battery or do I need a dedicated video battery and how do I provide the necessary voltages for the camera, OSD and Tx?

All help appreciated.

[crumpled]

If you want an all in one osd solution I';d recommend the immersionrc EZOSD kit. It comes with its own GPS and power regulator which daisy chain between your main battery and power distribution board. All the leads (power and video connections) are supplied and it the immersion vidoe TX that came supplied with my Fatshark goggles. All the normal OSD type info available, alt, dist from home, battery V, battery Mah, compas etc, etc (http://www.immersionrc.com/). Down side it doesn';t pick up any specific APM info (mode) and costs around £100. I did try the minim OSD which is much cheaper and does pick all of its information (gps, battery, mode etc) up from the APM but it was one of the very early versions which had power problems and managed to fry itself.

At the camera end I use a mixture of CCD and an HD Ion Air Pro which worked out much cheaper than a GoPro but gives excellent HD results.

Finally am still experimenting with aerials. Not quite there yet. Quickly discarded the standard fatshark stubbies and moved on to basic clover and skew planar. Still getting alot of video drop out so have just brough a matched pair of immersionrc spironet omni antenna. My problem may not be down to antenna alone and i';m experimenting moving the VTX around the frame.

Hope this helps.