FPV parts, a guide for beginners

• What is FPV?

Small high-speed quadrotor flight, commonly known as FPV, means First Person View, which provides you with a whole new world where pilot and viewers can watch the flight racing process in real time through drone footage and experience sitting in the cockpit. It feels that only those who drive FPV can experience it.

Features: small size, light weight, high push ratio, and large maneuvering speed of 160~200km/h compared with general aircraft

• Three types of FPV multirotor flight modes:

Aerial photography: Aerial photography to watch and record what you see during the flight. This is a great way to explore the world around you and give you a unique experience that takes your photography culture to a whole new level. Aerial photography also has many practical uses, such as showing unique perspectives of real estate, regional mapping, and even filming.

Freestyle: The pilot is usually equipped with a Gopro or similar motion camera to shoot video. Usually, the video has a more visual impact than the normal aerial view. Freestyle also has the added benefit of learning the limits of multirotor aircraft to help you prepare for racing. As a FPV beginner, this is great to start FPV.

Racing: FPV is flying on the track and is ranked according to the time of completion. Test the ability of the player to maneuver the multi-rotor aircraft. Many games boil down to who has the fastest responsiveness and can find the best route on the track.

• FPV category

Mainly based on the wheelbase size, different systems are configured with different wheelbases.

1.TINY: 2 inch brushless, 3 inch machine

2.Racing and freestyle: 210-260

3.Mainframe: X-class

4.Event designation and program recording: 325

• FPV parts

1.FRAME:

The flight platform of the passing machine provides a reference for the installation of all equipments.

Different materials have different advantages and disadvantages. The common frame has a carbon fiber board with a metal casing. High-strength frame ensures a certain loss in the cross-machine bomber.

2.Power system:

The main part of the aircraft.

1) Battery:

The battery is the main source of power for the FPV and has a huge impact on flight time. FPV is typically powered by a lithium polymer battery (Lipo), which adds the most weight to the FPV in all individual components. In the racing flight, there is a high requirement for the discharge rate of the battery. The model and performance of the battery are crucial in the competition and need to be matched with the aircraft. The capacity (Ah) of the battery, indicates how long the battery will last under load when it is fully charged; the higher the Ah, the longer it lasts. The voltage is the speed that affects the motor.

2) ESC (Electronic Speed Control):

It is a powerful component on the FPV. The main function is to receive the flight control signal, and output the high-frequency AC to adjust the motor speed to achieve the purpose of controlling the flight of the aircraft. They do this by taking power from the power system and taking data from the FC and converting it to a three-phase electrical pulse powered by the motor.

Each motor of the FPV has a dedicated ESC to drive it, because in a multirotor flight system, each motor almost always rotates at a different speed than the other motors. This is due to multirotor flight characteristics, balance and external influences such as wind, So ESC is usually installed on each axis. Like the flight controller, the ESC has firmware for driving calculations.

Size category: 30*30 (5 inch aircraft commonly used) 20*20 (3 inch propeller aircraft)

3) Motor:

The motors used in FPV are generally brushless motors and require ESC to provide AC drive with high frequency and phase change. Although relatively small, the brushless motor is quite powerful.

The speed at which the motor rotates depends on the voltage of the battery. The higher the voltage, the faster the motor rotates. Take the KV2580 as an example. If you are using a 6s/22.2v Lipo battery, the motor speed is 2580*22.2v=57276 (ideal status).

Different kv motors need to be matched with different types of Propellers to achieve the rated working current. If improperly matched, the motor will not reach the rated working current or exceed the rated working current to make the motor overheat and demagnetize or even burn.

 4)Propellers:

The propeller provides the thrust of the flight system. They are connected directly to the motor via the motor shaft and rotate as fast as the motor. There are many different styles and sizes, all made with different materials, blade spacing, blade shape and different numbers of blades.

Category: Propellers range in size from 2 to 7 feet, the most common size is 5".

Material: Because the paddle has a very high consumption, and most of them are small-sized propellers, the material is mostly PC, rarely carbon fiber, glass fiber mixed nylon.

Meaning and principle: Take 5046 as an example. The first two digits are the size of the paddle (inches), 50 is 5 feet, and the last two digits represent the pitch, which means the distance the propeller rotates one revolution. Pitch between 4 and 4.5 inches pitch for most 5" Propellers applications

5)Power distribution board:

The switchboard greatly simplifies the wiring of the FPV. On the board, the battery is connected to the board through a connector from which your components are connected to the board. The board is very simple to power all components. In addition to simple power distribution, some boards have features such as power supply filtering that help keep the component's power supply "noise" and provide a cleaner, more reliable power supply. They also have the ability to provide different voltages for different components.

3.Image transmission system

  The image transmission system is the key to fpv. The image is acquired by the camera, and the analog signal is output to the Video transmitter. Finally, the built-in receiver of the video glasses receives the analog signal and displays it on the display module of the glasses.

 1)Camera

The flying camera is the eye of the FPV world. There are many different types of FPV-specific cameras of all sizes and qualities, including the basic 600tvl standard definition camera, which is designed for low light conditions, as well as 1080p resolution HD cameras. But one thing to remember is that the more information the camera provides, the more potential delays in the system.

Category: Photosensitive chip is divided into CCD and CMOS

Relative advantage: CCD is fine at night, CMOS has super wide dynamic in backlighting

2) Video transmitter

The video transmitter sends the video captured by the camera to the Goggle glasses, which are sized, powered and functional, and provide the pilot with wireless technology that makes the entire FPV system possible. The video transmitter is rated in milliwatts (mW), which allows the pilot to know how far the Video transmitter can travel.

Category: 25mw (racing power) 200mw (general power) 600/800mw (long-haul power)

3) FPV antenna

Category: rod antenna (universal antenna), mushroom antenna (the most common antenna for Video transmitter transmission, maximum gain angle), panel antenna (large gain, small angle, inversely proportional to angle and gain, generally used for video glasses reception)

4)Goggle(with video receiver)

With a video receiver, receiving a signal from the Video transmitter, and finally displaying the image on the display module of the glasses

4.Control system

1) Flight controller

The Flight Controller can be said to be the brain of the FPV. It is generally the most complicated component in the flight system. It acquires attitude information by reading its own gyroscope, accelerometer, etc., while reading the receiver command and outputting the signal to the ESC.

2) Radio transmitters and Receivers

Radio transmitters and Receivers are components that take commands from the pilot's radio controller and feed this information to the flight controller. Which radio controller is chosen, which usually depends on the pilot's preferences, but needs to match the receiver of the FPV. Other aspects usually depend on the function and size, as well as the delay of the entire control system. The delay basically means that the time (in milliseconds) required to execute the command from the controller is implemented on the multirotor, and the standard logic is better for lower delays.