FPV and glasses - recommendations?

[Philomorph]

I'm finally ready to get into FPV with my drones, but I have a few questions hopefully those with more experience can answer...

I wear glasses and am very nearsighted, so I'm guessing that the fatshark inserts are likely to be a real gamble. Contacts aren't an easy option, though not impossible.

I'd rather get something that will fit over my glasses, like the Quanum or Eachine. But I'd also really love to have diversity and dvr, if possible.

I was first worried about not having venting fans like on the fatsharks, but I suspect my flying sessions will be in 8 minute bursts anyway, so I'm not as worried about comfort... but is wearing glasses inside a foam box going to result in them constantly fogging up?

I was looking at the Eachine VR D2 but Amazon has a lot of reviews complaining of complete video dropout at random, which worries me.

I will be flying primarily with LOS and relatively open space though, at least at first, so maybe diversity isn't as important for my first rig?

Unfortunately I'm not in a position to spend a lot at first... I'm hoping to get by under $400 for display, receiver, and a camera+transmitter which will go on my custom body 200QX.

Thoughts or suggestions?

[PA Flyer]

I'm also very near sighted and bought the Eachine VR D2s. I had to add a pair of ski goggles and fabricate a 3/4" spacer between them and the actual goggle to completely eliminate eye strain. Having done that I'm very happy with them. If you're near sighted you're better off not using your glasses as your eyes will focus better up close without them. The picture is fantastic: much better than my monitor or HK Quanums and they are nice and light.

As far as the problems that you mentioned: I think that it was only the first batch released to the public. I have noticed that sometimes I have to unplug the power cord and replug it to get the dvr to power up, but my HM DVR from BG does the same thing. That's no big deal as far as I'm concerned. For the $69.99 introductory price that I got them at, they were a steal.

[Philomorph]

Thanks for the feedback PA! Where did you buy your Eachine from?

I don't suppose you have any photos of the ski-mask conglomeration you could share? I'm curious how it went together. How far are the Fresnel and the screen from your eyes?

What kind of transmitter did you end up getting? With diversity you still only need one Tx antenna, right?

[PA Flyer]

Originally Posted by Philomorph

Thanks for the feedback PA! Where did you buy your Eachine from?

I don't suppose you have any photos of the ski-mask conglomeration you could share? I'm curious how it went together. How far are the Fresnel and the screen from your eyes?

What kind of transmitter did you end up getting? With diversity you still only need one Tx antenna, right?

I got my goggles from Banggood, however the price, I believe is now $99.00: still a good deal. But if you wait long enough they usually have sales and the price might come down.

I would post a picture if I could but I'm a computer illiterate dinosaur (68 yrs old) and don't know to do it. Sorry. What I did was use a high density foam and carved four pieces (top, bottom and sides) to fit the contour of the goggles. I then hot glued them to the Eachines and used two sided foam tape to attach the ski goggles to the foam pieces.

It's possible that just the additional distance afforded by ski goggles would give you a clear picture without eyestrain. The ski goggles are a much more comfortable fit also.

As best as I can tell, the fresnel is about 4 inches from my eyes and the screen 6 1/2 inches.

I don't quite understand your question about the transmitter. Are you referring to the vtx on my aircraft?

You could use just one antenna with diversity but that would defeat it's whole purpose. Diversity automatically shifts back and forth to the antenna/receiver that has the best reception at any instant in time.

I can tell you that the diversity on the Eachines works very well.

There is a thread on the Eachines over at RC Groups. A lot of good info on mods there.







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[Philomorph]

Thanks for the additional info!

I was referring to the transmitted on the drone. I can't tell from the literature if the "diversity" is only on the receiver, which uses two antennae to get the same signal from the one transmitter on the drone, or if the drone also needs two transmitting antennae.

As for the eyesight issue - I called my Dr and found out that my diopter is -3.5 for one eye but only -2 for the other (but add in some astigmatism).
So it sounds like the adjustment lenses for a fatshark might actually work fine for me. I just hope our local RC store has some in stock that I can try out.

What I don't get is how you can see without glasses in your rig. Doesn't the fresnel lens give the screen the appearance of being a good distance away? I can barely read this text on my 24" monitor from 18" away.

[PA Flyer]

Yes, diversity is only on the vrx. The vtx only uses one antenna.

When looking through the goggles although the scene that you're viewing appears to be further out your eyes aren't focusing "out there" but on the lens thats inches from your eyes. I'm also very, very near sighted and have to be about 6" away from a written page to see clearly. As I stated in my previous post my eyes are closer to the fresnel lens than that. I don't know how or why it works like that but it does. I've never tried goggles with my glasses because I wear bi-focals and there is no way that I could look at the screen through only the bottom of the glasses lens.

Depending on what and how you intend to fly you might want to try Fatsharks and also box style goggles like the Eachines to compare them. I've never looked through Fatsharks but from what I understand from reading about them is that their field of view is very narrow.

[Philomorph]

Thanks again for all the info, it's really helpful!

I found out that a hobby shop not too far from my work carries fatshark gear, so I went in and was able to try out a pair of Attitude v2 goggles. It was very blurry! And they didn't have an open set of diopter lenses I could try.

However they also had a box-type rig from Spektrum (I can't find it online for some reason) that had a non-adjustable Fresnel lens in front of a small monitor, and without my glasses it looked great!

Well, "great" as in "not blurry" as the guy flew a micro-drone around the store for me. So it seems like a rig similar to yours would probably work for me after all.

The Attitude v3 costs 3 times as much as an Eachine, and that's without a diversity upgrade. It does have the advantage of supporting head tracking and 3D cameras. but I guess if I get into the hobby enough to want that stuff, I'll be spending more money anyway!

Speaking of which - what kind of camera do you have on your flyer?

[PA Flyer]

I use an 1177 camera from Surveilzone. They (both the camera and Surveilzone) are highly regarded. Whatever camera you decide on make sure that it's not CMOS as they are highly sensitive to vibration and you wind up with "jello effect" in your video.

[Philomorph]

One more question: It looks like the Eachine monitor is 15:9 ratio (800x480) - so I assume for best performance I need a 16:9 camera?

[PA Flyer]

The aspect ratio is set in the monitor, not the camera so you can use any camera, but like I stated earlier you're better off with a ccd rather than a cmos camera if you want to avoid jello effect.

I'm sort of surprised that no one else has answered your questions in this thread: it seems dead. If you ask the same thing over in the FPV equipment thread at RCGroups you should get quite a few more responses.

[Philomorph]

I've never been on RCGroups, but I went and joined this morning and posted my questions. 8 hours later it's still waiting moderation I guess. Seems like a pretty busy place though, so it should prove helpful once I'm in Thanks for the heads up.

[PA Flyer]

You're welcome and I'll see you there.