OSD for FPV on a Mikrokopter?

R

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
My next build is a dedicated FPV quad and after having a taste of OSD with the Hoverfly I want to have a true full featured OSD on the new quad. The base of the build will be MK electronics so I'm looking for recommendations for the best system to use, preferably one that doesn't take up too much real estate on the frame and one that integrates well with the MK electronics stack. I'm planning on a full stack of boards, FC, Navi, Compass, and GPS so the more of those that can be leveraged in an OSD setup, the better.

Ken
 

Bartman

Bartman

Welcome to MultiRotorForums.com!!
i used the "Email this page" feature to send a thread link to Jeff from XaircraftUSA. He's doing some really (as in extremely) advanced FPV stuff so he's the guy to ask what state of the art is. i'm sure if he has some time he'll chime in.
bart
 


Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
Dis you guys get anywhere with this.. I am wanting to go FPV but defo want some sort of OSD. This looks good but expensive have you found out else?
 

C

Crash

Defies Psychics
Droider said:
Dis you guys get anywhere with this.. I am wanting to go FPV but defo want some sort of OSD. This looks good but expensive have you found out else?
Click to expand...

Wow, I just checked the price. The RV board looks like overkill to me. You would be paying for autopilot which likely will not work on a copter. I think a Remzibi would do the job at a fraction of the price.

Ken,
Look at the picture below. It takes up no real estate on the frame as long as you have an xbee serial link. I have it powered by the Xbee and it works fine on the bench with MKTool also running. If you're interested, let me know. You can test it for a week or two to see if it works for you in the air.

Kirk
 

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Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
I think a Remzibi would do the job at a fraction of the price.
Click to expand...

Its looking that way.. It would have been nice to use the MK one you talked about but it seems to be a load of mither getting it to work.
 

C

Crash

Defies Psychics
Droider said:
Its looking that way.. It would have been nice to use the MK one you talked about but it seems to be a load of mither getting it to work.
Click to expand...

That depends. It's running in the above picture with just 4 wires soldered to an Xbee board.

I just updated the firmware on it. That is perhaps going to be the hardest part for most people. You either need an Atmel programmer with a 10 pin cable or you need to make a 6 to 10 pin adapter. Then you need to download the free software to upload the new firmware to the board.
 

Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
What Picture?

Is there no where to buy a new one that is ready to rock and roll... Dont get me wrong.. I can soder as you guys call it we call it s o l d e r i n g :p But if I can buy it ready made to plug and play it gives me more fun time.. Thats not to say I dont appreciate the time and effort that goes in to finding out how to get it to work, coz by the post I read of yours and Buzzed it took some doing. I just aint got that amount of time. and as you well know there aint no dummies guide to this stuff.

Dave
 

C

Crash

Defies Psychics
Droider said:
What Picture?

Is there no where to buy a new one that is ready to rock and roll... Dont get me wrong.. I can soder as you guys call it we call it s o l d e r i n g :p But if I can buy it ready made to plug and play it gives me more fun time.. Thats not to say I dont appreciate the time and effort that goes in to finding out how to get it to work, coz by the post I read of yours and Buzzed it took some doing. I just aint got that amount of time. and as you well know there aint no dummies guide to this stuff.

Dave
Click to expand...

I don't know what exactly was wrong with Buzzed's board. I cleaned up a few joints on the connector and it worked for me. He could of had it cabled to the stack improperly or maybe the firmware on the board didn't match the Navi. I did change a crystal because it was slightly flaky but that wasn't the real problem.

Now that he's back, he's been working on a different OSD board. Maybe you should ask him how it's going and how he likes it.

The presoldered EPI boards are about $245 USD. You still have to run the wires for power and make a cable for data. Buzzed is selling his board for $175. It's been tested and updated to work with the latest MK firmware by your truly. Better than new because this one has actually been tested to work.
 

Droider

Droider

Drone Enthusiast
I may be interested in that then.. I can solder power wires and small components I used to make up plugs for my head cam rigs all the time so bits and bobs like that I am OK with.. Its just I aint ever soldered electronic components on to boards etc or got any idea about Atmel programmers. Ill go give him a shout..
Dave
 

R

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Crash said:
Wow, I just checked the price. The RV board looks like overkill to me. You would be paying for autopilot which likely will not work on a copter. I think a Remzibi would do the job at a fraction of the price.

Ken,
Look at the picture below. It takes up no real estate on the frame as long as you have an xbee serial link. I have it powered by the Xbee and it works fine on the bench with MKTool also running. If you're interested, let me know. You can test it for a week or two to see if it works for you in the air.

Kirk
Click to expand...

I'm just starting to catch up on posts so I just saw this, been busy sorting out two MK powered Hexas, the Hoverfly quad, and repairing the little 350mm KK quad. Thanks for the offer, I do have an XBee setup but plans have changed just a bit since my original post. I just completed building a stock Mk Hexa with full electronics stack and that gives me capabilities that the Hoverfly may never have, like GPS P/H, waypoint flight now with POI, and working A/H, so the newly built Hexa is going to be my backup for A/P and the Hoverfly has been demoted to FPV platform and all around basher.

The Hoverfly has OSD built into the board and while it's not got a lot of features at the moment they are improving on it and its free so I won't complain about what it does or doesn't do. Right now it gives me altitude, battery voltage, and in the latest release a rudimentary artificial horizon. If they eventually release the GPS module it will have more features like heading and direction to home, what more can you ask for when it's a no cost part of the package!

Ken
 

B

Buzzed

Member
Hi guys! I am currently testing the EagleTree system and so I am offering the EPI OSD as Crash said. I don't have enough experience with the new EagleTree yet to say yea or nay.

Hey this is a pretty neat forum. How is the censoring? Can I say RC Groups without having the carpet yanked from under me? ;)
 

R

RTRyder

Merlin of Multirotors
Buzzed said:
Hi guys! I am currently testing the EagleTree system and so I am offering the EPI OSD as Crash said. I don't have enough experience with the new EagleTree yet to say yea or nay.

Hey this is a pretty neat forum. How is the censoring? Can I say RC Groups without having the carpet yanked from under me? ;)
Click to expand...

You can say pretty much anything you want as long as it's not X rated, we don't know what censorship is here!

Droidworx, Droidworx, Droidworx, RC Groups...

See, it works...;)

Ken
 

B

Buzzed

Member
RTRyder said:
You can say pretty much anything you want as long as it's not X rated, we don't know what censorship is here!

Droidworx, Droidworx, Droidworx, RC Groups...

See, it works...;)

Ken
Click to expand...

Nice to finally be able to let your hair down, wait I'm bald. :eek:
 


M

Malcr001

Member
I was in the same dilema. I first got the simpleOSD after a bunch of people were giving it good reviews. I didnt like it and had a problem with the GPS many times, I then got the remzibi OSD. This is a great lightweight OSD that gives you plenty of features BUT it has a real heat issue and you have to solder on a thick copper wire to prevent it from over heating and shutting down. I bought these OSD's for my trex 250 and now I have a quad I can add a little extra weight now. As I got a little experiance with the OSD's I decided that I wanted something more advanced. The RVOSD looks awesome but as others have mentioned it really isnt targeted at multicopters. I ended up choosing the eagletreeOSD because it had plenty of features too. Its a great OSD but I really dont like the fact that its not a single unit like the RVOSD. This means the eagletreeOSD makes my FPV setup real messy with wires everywhere as you would of guessed takes up plenty of space too.
 

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