Fat Shark Attitude & GoPro Hero 3 Black - Dark Video Image?

[Hands0n]

Well I took the plunge this week and ordered up a set of Fat Shark Attitude FPV goggles. They arrived in my sticky mitts Friday evening.  And today I have had my first four FPV flights with the things.  I';ve got to say that I do rather like the whole paradigm and it is exactly what I had expected and wanted of FPV.  Its quite thrilling to "be up there" with the action rather than watching from the ground.  I';m in. 

But the one niggle I do have at the moment is that the video image in the goggles is rather dark, even on a bright day.  The camera, a GoPro Hero 3 Black, records the flight perfectly, the images being bright and vibrant - I will post a YouTube video link to my first FPV flight later in this thread once it finishes cooking on the Mac.

The GoPro is connected by its USB port to the Fat Shark VTX, I have video, ground and left audio channel connected only. The GoPro is powered by its own internal battery, fully charged before flight. I am not using the quad';s own power supply for the camera.

The actual resolution of the image in the Attitude is very good, clear, best I';d imagine for VGA quality display.  The GoPro is set to its maximum image capture size, but it must be downgrading it for output via the USB I';d have thought.

Does anyone have ideas of how to solve this bijoux irritation?  Can I get the image brightness turned up at all?  Or is this it? Am I stuck with a darkened FPV experience for life?

[Biffa]

Ain';t FPV great

Have you played with the display control thingy on the top of the goggles?

[Hands0n]

Ain';t FPV great

Have you played with the display control thingy on the top of the goggles?

Oh gosh yes, "great" is such an inadequate word for the sheer rush I got today!

Display control? Err .. I';m going to feel really silly in a moment. Aren';t I?

[Hands0n]

Aaaaannnnnnnddddd pow!     I do indeed feel completely silly   

@Biffa, you was right, the little dohickey thing on top of the Attitudes does indeed control brightness and contrast. Its rather good when you can see clearly LOL  Thanks for the tip, it was driving me bonkers, and for the life of me I didn';t twig from the manual that seems to call it several different things. 

[Biffa]

Glad to help and now you';ll enjoy it even more you can see what';s going on

[Gearymeister]

i am just awaiting delivery of my Fatshark Dominators.
cant wait!!!
reading things like this really boost the excitement for me.

thanks man,

you also saved me from making the same mistake lol

chris

[Hands0n]

I';ll say that the wait will be worth it  I didn';t quite anticipate the rush that this gave me!  If there were such thing as the never-ending battery I swear I';d still be stood by that field.

There was one chap who was fascinated at what I was doing, stopped his car and called out to me. I let go the sticks, the quad went into loiter (it was in GPS Atti) and we chatted. After a minute or so I excused myself to land it and then continued the chat. He was amazed and gobsmacked in equal measure. 

A little while ago I went up in a two seater light aircraft owned by a friend. That was exciting. I have to say that this was every bit as, if not more so as I had the controls from lift off to landing.

[Balders]

Another victim of the fpv bug...muhahahahaha 

[Gearymeister]

my main reason for getting the FPV is because i am an ROV pilot. so operating the Sub is all done using the on board sensors and the cameras. there is so much similarity between the ROV and the Quad. So i was hoping i';d be better at controling it with the FPV and overlay.

I tend to get confused when i have the quad coming towards me and the controls appear to be reversed.

cant wait!

chris

[Hands0n]

I tend to get confused when i have the quad coming towards me and the controls appear to be reversed.

I did also .. that is until this thread started on here http://www.multi-rotor.co.uk/index.php?topic=3889.0  -  I did a bit of practise with a Hubsan and then transferred that learning to the 450 quads and not looked back.  I';m not quick at Nose In yet, still make mistakes that are corrected.  Maybe one of the many suggestions will help 

[nickyb]

Hi mate,

I';m prettty new to all this, but when I';ve been looking at various links I';m told not to use the GoPro as the FPV camera,

1. Safety - in case the GP crashes or hangs, meaning you then don';t have any visuals, espeically when out of LoS

2. Lag - I';ve been also told there is lag (especially on earlier GP models) and its not ideal to use the GP as a FPV camera for this reason

3. Image - you mentioned the image being dark, I';ve heard that a dedicated FPV camera, like a Sony CCD as something called ';wide dynamic range, WDR'; which means even if the camera/quad is pointing to a bright sky while in flight, the ground is not darkened out and thus the image remains in good overall contrast and exposure.

I know not all FPV cameras have this and I think you can get a half-decent CCD with WDR for around £50 or less now.

Might help,

Nick

[mutley2]

2. Lag - I';ve been also told there is lag (especially on earlier GP models) and its not ideal to use the GP as a FPV camera for this reason

3. Image - you mentioned the image being dark, I';ve heard that a dedicated FPV camera, like a Sony CCD as something called ';wide dynamic range, WDR'; which means even if the camera/quad is pointing to a bright sky while in flight, the ground is not darkened out and thus the image remains in good overall contrast and exposure.

I use the Gopro hero black as my only camera and there is no lag, as for it being dark I';ve got a pair of Fat shark Dom';s and they have a contrast button and a brightness button but have never needed to use either when fly FPV. Just my 2p worth...

[Hands0n]

Hi mate,

I';m prettty new to all this, but when I';ve been looking at various links I';m told not to use the GoPro as the FPV camera,

1. Safety - in case the GP crashes or hangs, meaning you then don';t have any visuals, espeically when out of LoS

2. Lag - I';ve been also told there is lag (especially on earlier GP models) and its not ideal to use the GP as a FPV camera for this reason

3. Image - you mentioned the image being dark, I';ve heard that a dedicated FPV camera, like a Sony CCD as something called ';wide dynamic range, WDR'; which means even if the camera/quad is pointing to a bright sky while in flight, the ground is not darkened out and thus the image remains in good overall contrast and exposure.

I know not all FPV cameras have this and I think you can get a half-decent CCD with WDR for around £50 or less now.

Might help,

Nick

Hi Nick

Cheers for that.  I am not at all worried about using the GP camera as it is completely up to the job, as much as any other camera could be.

1. Any camera could "crash" and I';d be in the same place.  The thing with FPV, in my opinion, is to have a failure strategy (or two) for such an occasion. It may not, however always be possible.  So, in my case, as long as I fly in an environment where their is no ceiling (ie. building or canopy of trees) then I have the option to use RTL to get me back.  But before that I would go for an immediate halt followed by a climb above whatever it is I';m flying in or around. With sufficient altitude the options to recover become more realistic.   With a ceiling I would have to consider landing blind and then going in to recover the aircraft.  Those are my core three strategies - the rest would be completely winging it on my part 

2. I have not witnessed any video lag with the GPH3B using the USB video out signal to the VTX.  There is a definite lag across the  Preview WiFi link to the smartphone GoPro apps, but I wouldn';t even consider using those.  Yesterday, as I moved the sticks the image in the Fat Shark Attitude goggles responded in kind immediately. Zero lag.

3. Dark Image - that was entirely my fault, I had not at that time located the Brightness/Contrast button on the top of the Attitudes.  Having done so, it now shows a perfect image in the screen. 

So all in all, I don';t think there is anything particularly disadvantageous in using a GoPro camera for FPV, although I recognise that many people fly with two cameras, an FPV and the GP. Quite a few use video switchers to go between the two (?) which adds weight to the aircraft.

I';m sure that much can be done to develop my current set up.  I';ve a Tarot gimball waiting in the wings    But there';s a bit of learning and skills developing in FPV to be done first   

[Gav]

similarly, I have had my Dominator goggles since last year but never played with the brightness contrast button before realising last week that';s what it does, what a muppet.  Not really needed too though, until recently when using a HD19 as a fpv cam, which has a very dark video output!

I also use a GoPro Hero HD (v1) as a fpv camera on my 450 rig.  No lag and excellent picture.

[flybywire]

hands0n- Glad you';re loving the fpv!  I';ve managed to press that button on top accidentally before, scratched my head for a few annoying minutes when it seemed much darker than normal!!
I do however think the gopro advice is sound, I had no luck myself with my hero 3 white, as I';ve mentioned hereabouts before, but even if it did work, I';ve had instances where it';s stopped recording, saying ';full'; (when I know it';s not).  Board camera';s on the other hand (IMHO) are bullet proof, I own loads of them all different flavours and resolutions, not once in 3 years has any of them ever let me down, the GP however...
Don';t get me wrong, I love my Go Pro, it captures footage beautifully for the size etc, but wouldn';t dream of rellying on it for fpv.
I know you have contingency plans for getting back ';blind';, but trust me, ';Murphy & Sod'; are not that kind to fpv';ers!  You';ll be hurtling thru the air at 40 mph plus, toward a brick wall, the day good old GP decides to have a fware fit, and then it';s goodbye beloved quad/hex/octo etc.
Please heed the warning hands0n, before it';s too late, doom, doom doom!!

Andy