Which Black widow?

[Cryofix]

Looking at AV wireles tx and rx set for video downlink, was wondering what MW to go with.

I was looking at the 200MW setup...

anyone have any recomendations on what to get or even other wireless AV downlink providers?

Thanks

[dreslism]

If you're just on your heli, the 200 is probably fine.

I have a blackwidow 600mw set. I have had it for about 2 years now with no issues. Just recently I bought a kx161 video cam to use as downlink for my DSLR. Ordered it and had it in 3 days. I bought the bare Tx, Rx for $189 and soldered on some connectors. Much cheaper than buying one that has all connectors on it for you like the digilive.


I am looking for a second Tx, as I just picked up another heli recently and don't want to swap my current one back and forth. All I need is the Tx.

Recently I have seen lots of posts about people trying to get in touch with BWAV, and no responses at all.

Many people are using

http://www.rangevideo.com/index.html

there was a recent thread on ryder about this and many people chimmed in that they have been very happy with rangevideo. I may buy that extra Tx from them for $75. It is a 500mw Tx and should be compatible with my current Rx, so you might want to check them out.

Range or black widow is all I would go with.

A patch antenna from them would also make a big difference.

[Art-Tistic]

Ed,
I have a 600mw TX, 200mw TX and an 8chnl rx from BW that Is sitting around gatering dust. The RX has the standard antenna as well as the 8db patch. the power cord needs to have a battery end soldered on to it, I hard wired the 200mw TX on my logo by removing the RCA jack so you'd have to do the same. the 600mw is custom cased and has an 1/8" plug to connect to video out. Both tx's have recevier style plugs so they can just be powered off of your mounts receiver or you could splice in whatever power connector you'd like. I'd let it all go for $225. Let me know if you're interested, otherwise I'll post it in the for sale section here and on RR.

Regards,
Ant

[Cryofix]

Ant,

Again you are the man I seriously appreciate the offer, however I am going to get the rangevideo setup, I emailed BW today and have not gotten a response all day, then I sent an email about 11:00 pm EST to rangevideo and got a reply in about 3 seconds this kind of response sells me on a product right away.

Complete package is resonable and better priced than BW, including the 14 DBi antenna 500 mW

Thanks again for your generosity! that is a great price too

Ed

[Art-Tistic]

Ed,
Your welcome! Food for thought, I just updated to a 900mhz system to be completely compatible with my DX7.....Think about the big picture and if you intend on going SS with your TX you may want to use the 900 for the DL from the start and not have to re-buy later. The only downside is the TX's are 12 volt and not 5, but that's nothing a 3 cell lipo can't cure.
:wink:
Regards,
Ant

[dreslism]

Ed,
Your welcome! Food for thought, I just updated to a 900mhz system to be completely compatible with my DX7.....Think about the big picture and if you intend on going SS with your TX you may want to use the 900 for the DL from the start and not have to re-buy later. The only downside is the TX's are 12 volt and not 5, but that's nothing a 3 cell lipo can't cure.
:wink:
Regards,
Ant

Anthony,

How does the Tx power rate on the 900mhz? Is it 200mw 500mw or whatever?

the SS DX7 sounds nice, but I can't live with 7 channels. They had a 6 channel out, I can't understand why they did not just go to 9 channels.

6 -> 7 seems like a waste to me. I fly solo so I need the pan, tilt, and shutter on one Tx.

[Art-Tistic]

Scott,
The TX is a 500mw unit. The DX7 has many improvements over the 6 the biggest is that it's designed for larger ships. I understand that many will want a 9 chnl, for me it works fine because I always have an operator. The operator is so important to a successful AP/V business in more ways than just controlling a camera. It's another set of eyes and ears. etc... (that's another thread alltogether) :idea:

Regards,
Ant

FWIW, If you plan to do this type of work professionally you need to have your gear be as bullet-proof as possible.

[GGoodrum]

I too am switching over to a DX7-based system for everything. The glitch counter function on the AP-2000i has told me just how many "hits" I've been taking with my existing PCM setups. The DX7 is MUCH easier than my #@$&-ing 14MZ to program, pretty much like a 9C, but more intuitive. Yes, the 7-channels is a limitation, but I intend on figuring out a way. I'm probably going to take the guts out of a DX6 transmitter and put it in a small box with a couple of switches/pots, and then figure out a way to attach this box to my DX7 so that I can get access to the switches.

In my case, I'm using the PanCam mounts on both my Logo 10 and on my Raptor. All I really need is a three-position switch, or a slide pot, for the tilt angle, and then one switch to turn on the panning and a trigger button. On both of these setups I'm not bothering with the video downlink. I'm getting pretty proficient with the stitching software so it is pretty easy justto take severl overlapping shots, from a couple of tilt angles, and stitch it all together. You end up with a gazillions pixels to work with so cropping down to the area of interest still allows for hires finished shots.

Anyway, the DX7 is great. :)

-- Gary

[Cryofix]

Have you guys considered the the XPS wireless modules? I plan on moving over to them as soon as they are out, I have a 9303 and dont want to get rid of it.

TX module and 10 chan RX will be $199 with an 8 chan rx $179, they also have a 256 addon telemtry system with LCD that drops into your old antenna hole.

http://www.xtremepowersystems.net/index.php

[dreslism]

Wow, I'm thinking the XPS may be the way to go. It has two way data transfer and looked like altitude was one of the standard items.

It will plug right into my 9C!

Thanks for the info Cryofix.

[GGoodrum]

Well, this is VERY cool. :) I like the idea about possibly doing a video downlink later on. That will be perfect for many users. It won't help my situation, however, as I need two receivers, due to the fact that everything on the rotating mount has to be self-contained, with no connection to the heli portion. You can only bind one transmitter to one receiver, so any way you cut it, I still need two transmitters.

[Cryofix]

Np Scott

Gary my intentions are to use my primary on wireless and the mount on 72, I dont mind a few glitches in the tilt and spin.

[GGoodrum]

You will still have the issue with the 2.4 GHz downlink, though. It wipes out the Spektrum.

-- Gary

[Cryofix]

should allow you to run several wireless devices with no problems as it will auto pick a channel. This way I will have 2.4 on downlink, 2.4 on radio, and 72 on mount.

[GGoodrum]

No, you don't understand. The high-powered 2.4 GHz downlink transmitter swamps the Spektrum 2.4 GHz receiver on the helicopter. It can't lock on to the Tx. They all frequency hop so it's not about channels. I've tried all eight downlink transmitter channels and all do exactly the same thing.