30 Minutes of Walksnail
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- My first "real" flight with Walksnail, this time a bit longer than the last attempt that lasted 30 seconds before burning out an ESC... lol So far I'm completely impressed! I should point out that there are times where the video seems to stutter a bit... The PC that was recording the ground feed decided, in all it's wisdom, that it was a good idea to do some Windows updates in the background, so it started dropping frames... The feed on the little monitor I was looking at was totally smooth like in the last video. Next time that should be sorted!
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I did 5 miles with my aeroscout and walksnail system today with the beta firmware on 1200mw , lollipop 4 antennas on air unit , xair 2 on goggles
How did it go?
@@sarahdaviscc it went really good , could of went farther but my OSD was not working because I crossed my Rx and tx , I'll be posting some more videos soon
Nice, looking forward to seeing it! I was impressed that the stock antennas with just TFPs on top of the VRX got me 2 miles at 50ft and still didn't want to break up... lol
@@bonafidepirate how do I get that OSD font
@@jimmytheriot8978 sites.google.com/view/sneaky-fpv/home This is "Conthrax", there's a couple others too
Looks fantastic. How lucky you are to fly in your location with all that flyable area. Amazing set up you have there. And the weather looks pretty spot on also.
Yep, I love flying out here, though it can get boring after you've explored everywhere out there... lol The weather was perfect, sunny with clear skies and very little wind. The wind is back today, and more rain coming in a couple more days. I'm already checking the forecasts trying to plan my next flight... lol
@@bonafidepirate I know what you mean about it getting boring, i have miles of flyable farmland where i fly from and it was great for a while but you find yourself flying the same track again and again and want change after a while!
I dont have the amazing flying shack like you do, i would kill for that lol but i do have permission for a gated sports field 1 mile from my house where its just me and can fly from my car if i want and the only time the field is used by anyone else is once a week by a football club.
That place is a funny one, its a great because its a grass field but i cant fly out as far from there as i could when i launched from a farm track 50m away because there is a main power line running right across the field and it affects my reception and really hurts my flying distance grrr
long time analog guy who also just got walksnail VRX I am pleased so far. want to get a plane with inav setup. in the past I used vector, currently just flying drones.
Can we get a link to the walksnail discord?
Let me know if this link works: discord.gg/walksnail-1015026251481755648
Oh man, I was on the fence about Walksnail, but you’ve sold me on it, Keith! I fly 1.3 analog from indoors on a big screen and plan on doing the same with HD. Impressive, and less than 300 bucks to step into HD (on a ground station).
That's pretty much where I was at too... lol I like the features this system offers, the VRX module opened the door for me, and it's all priced rather fairly. I was somewhat of a skeptic as to how it would "really" perform for me, what the experience would be, but so far I'm totally impressed with it. I'd say it's surely worth a try at this price point, just be prepared to want more air units in the future... ;) Worst case if you hate it, it shouldn't be hard to re-sell later.
@@bonafidepirate exactly! I think the stand alone receiver will really pull a lot of ground station/fixed wing guys like me into HD due to that irresistibly low price of entry. I was on a sort break from FPV but this is getting me stoked about it again.
Really great video. I have just bought this system for my quad. Subscribed
Cool
What gimbal did you use for the FPV cam and how do you control it? mavlink/RC?
You lost the wheels before auto takeoff and landing with gear.
Great maiden of the HD system m8. The low level reception two miles out was remarkable for 5.8g...I have some flickering of OSD overlay on my quad, although it didn't seem as severe as yours for some reason. This OSD data is transmitted by the VTX isn't it?...Great flight, enjoyed it. Can't wait to see some more with overhead sunlight!!!!...In SUMMER!!
lol...🤔😳😀🇬🇧
Yeah OSD info is sent down with the video data, and the VRX renders the OSD on the ground. It could just be a matter of signal dropping off a bit. If so, they've doing an amazing job of keeping a good image through it all... lol I'll play around with some things and see if I can get that more stable, the flickering OSD is distracting. I too was impressed with the performance at low altitude that far out.
@@bonafidepirate Yes, it's encoded video, so it chucks bad frames away...Even down to 1mbps will show a clean image provided the signal isn't blocked,..🤔😏
Looking good Keith! ;)
Lovely flight videos. I wonder could you publish a key or map for your osd values. Most I've sorted but not all.
Looking forward to the next one.😊
Great! No ESC problem this time, Keith! The winter landscape there is awesome. Two patch antennas in the VRX are a good setup.
Yep, the antennas seem to work well. I expected problems or at least poor performance with the stock antennas in the transmitter side, but they seem to work at least OK so far. Maybe if I find the limits with them I'll replace them and see how much better some "good" antennas are. I like having the smaller TFPs on the VRX, they're not as directional as the larger arrays would be, so as long as I don't run out of range I'll keep them. I like being able to fly off to the sides a bit and not worry about getting out of the antenna's "beam".
@@bonafidepirate yesterday I flew 4km with the vtx stock antennas. No problem noticed
Great video! Super excited to see more of the bayou.
For sure! I'm curious to see where I can fly with this system now, having seen it work where analog was a bit sketchy before.
Amazing Amazing Amazing !!! Great job !!!
Thanks!
Wow cool 👏
Nice! I want to get a walksnail VRX and setup but I want to use it on a wing that has no fc, can this setup work without a fc like my Caddx Air unit and Dji Goggles?
It should be find with a FC. The only thing it needs the FC for is the OSD, but you don't have to have an OSD... lol It also uses the arm signal to know when to auto start recording and switch out of/into standby mode, but you can do both manually in the menu as well.
Is this with Ardu? Is this with the full size or micro cam? Not having the OSD flickering with INAV @700mw and 720p settings. Think this is the first footage I've seen where 1080p looks considerably better than 720p.
It's Arduplane, and the smaller camera with full size transmitter. So what they call the "Nano" kit. I haven't seen the OSD flicker like this before either, not sure why it's doing that yet but I'll try to get it fixed up. I haven't flown it with 720p yet, but I probably will soon just to compare. From what I've seen in other video both resolutions looks great and not much difference between them.
Do you have a long HDMI cable connected to the walksnail vrx?? Or wireless?
Yeah, it's a 25ft HDMI cable (with a mini HDMI adapter at the VRX) ran to a splitter in the shop. It seems happy running with that long cable, no issues yet.
got em 1st?
Indeed!
Have you had any GPS lock issues?. What module did you use and any install tips?
I haven't had any issues with GPS yet, but things are spread out more in the plane than they can be on a quad. I have a BN-880 gps/compass about halfway down the tail boom, and the transmitter is on the canopy up front.
you can change power/resolution in the air, you screen will go black for a moment if you change resolution.
Yeah, but having the receiver outside and the monitor inside makes it hard to change any settings, unless I bring the receiver tripod in where I can see the monitor... lol It's about the only real drawback of having it setup the way I do right now.
Keith did you run the HDMI from the VRX to the screen?
😊
I was wondering that too. How did you get the image from the VRX to where you were sitting?
There's a 25ft HDMI cable from the VRX to a splitter in the shop on the desk, that goes to the PC for recording and to the monitor.
Thx Keith.
Did you use any special mount for the tripod?
I printed a small block that holds a 1/4-20 nut inside and sticks to the back of the VRX with double sided mounting tape. There's no build in mount or anything for the tripod, only one to fit some goggles and I've seen that goggle mount breaking more often than not. Pretty much everyone mounting it to goggles is using printed mounts.
@@bonafidepirate could you share the file?
I was wondering are you using walksnail vrx module or the goggles
VRX
Great video, love to hear how you manage airflow over the VTX? I'm building a wing with walksnail and thinking some kind of duct. Have you had any issues with over heating?
Watch the video previous to this one, or check the community tab. There's an image of how it's mounted in the canopy. The VTX is sitting just behind the camera and gets direct airflow, so heat isn't an issue. It does heat up pretty quick on the ground though, even in standby mode, so I imagine it needs good airflow to stay cool in the air.
@@bonafidepirate When summer comes, a tiny 12v fan mounted on the stack, separated by a silicone gummy is light weight, low current, and effective cooling that might save a VTX.
Have been thinking about getting Walksnail. Would love to see a range and penetration video. Love that you can see birds and noticed a jet up in the sky at one point as well which you won't see with analog. Would be nice to see if it would hit say 5-10 miles out. Flying 1.3 you get spoiled with range but would be willing to give up some for a much better view.
Wezley Varty is the man for the range test video 😊, very impressive 👍
Yep, Wezley's tests are impressive! I doubt I can replicate his results, seeing what he was able to do with Crossfire and analog video, I know I can't do the same here in my environment... lol It's still a good representation of what it can do in ideal conditions though. I was honestly just hoping this would perform at least as good as 5.8GHz analog for me here, but it's already proven to blow that out of the water... lol I'm looking forward to pushing it more.
@@stevietee10 Yup I have watched them. Just wonder how it would do with some good antenna's and not dinner plates
@@bonafidepirate Around here I have mountains which is my main concern. 1.3 allows me to keep the altitude down some. I doubt you would be able to go out to 2 miles at 50 feet on 5.8. Would be an interesting comparison. Meant to add to my first post that I believe the flashing OSD is either that resolution or power. Josh Bardwell did a test with all the HD systems and I seem to remember he got that with one of those settings.
Great video! Love my Walksnail VRX. If only the wind or rain would stop for even one morning I'd get a chance to fly. Been almost three weeks :(
Yep, I know the feeling! lol I haven't been able to fly nearly as much as I'd like lately. I was hoping to get another flight in Thursday but they keep raising the wind in the forecast and now I've got other stuff I can't get out of anyway. Friday is still not out of the question, but I'm not counting on it yet.
just flew in a light rain, go for it!
Really great video! I really like your Arduplane setup and would like to make something just like it. Do you have a part list or anything to share?
Don't take it the wrong way, but with your credentials you could probably teach me a thing or two about UAS... lol This is pretty basic, just Arduplane on a Matek F765-WSE. Here's a quick "walk around" I did after rebuilding the plane recently th-cam.com/video/Y3d6U2LI0OE/w-d-xo.html Since then I've added an airspeed sensor, removed the landing gear, and switched the analog FPV system out for Walksnail.
@@bonafidepirate Thanks for responding!!! I don't have much build experience, my expertise is on the operations side (I can break 'em with the best of them), but am not good at building, tuning, or repairing. I appreciate your walk around video! Your setup (shop and flying area) are totally awesome! Thanks, Joe
Success!! Looking awesome.
Regarding efficiency, I when back to cross check a previous flight to see how today performance data compared. One surprise was your comments at ~3 min mark on "Eagle FPV, More efficient cruise config" video regarding the motor power surging on that and previous flights. Motor current was surging ~5-8 amp. Wondering if this was an indication the ESC was sick and in the process of dying? 🤔 You had tweeted some ardupilot params trying to dampen. You may want to revisit, to see if undoing changes has any effect.
On this flight, I see motor was averaging ~3.8-4.2 amps at similar airspeed and throttle settings (~30-35 mph, 33-36%). On thet previous flight it was 5+ amps (with spikes of 8+), I'd say the Eagle could have a 15-20% efficiency improvement. Checking across wider speed range may show variations in the amount of improvement.(?) An even earlier flight, that didn't have surging of the motor would probably make for a better reference. (to rule out any ESC influence)
Comparing OSD view on that video to OSD view here is much more different than expected, or recalled noticing. It's like OSD at same scale, but on a 480x320 resolution display vs 1080 here. Net result is more more parametric view of the surroundings in center of the screen, with OSD elements being less intrusive. 🤯
It might be fun exercise in the future to fly similar route as a previous flight (having fullscreen OSD view) so can do side-by-side comparison of to Walksnail OSD. (just 1-3 minutes of flight time).
Regarding the OSD flicker. The flicker seems to be related to OSD element redrawing (it's happening on different elements on the screen at different times). This might be related to how Walksnail video settings and the update rate that Walksnail is using for OSD. Changing video resolution, or framerate should cause flicker to go away (or at least a change in flicker pattern)
It could even be possible it's related to how ardupilot updates OSD data. Should it be clearing OSD elements, then then repopulating, this could also cause flicker. (just speculating on possible causes, as might give you things to check).
FYI: not seeing ESC/motor surging on "Lets fly the Esky Eagle!" flight.
I'm pretty sure that surging was the control loop running faster than it needed to, so it was controlling throttle up and down "chasing" airspeed and altitude. Slowing that down a bit calmed everything down. I don't think the ESC was dying before, until it gave up on that last flight... lol It never surged or anything like that in manually controlled throttle modes.
@@bonafidepirate Thanks. Good to know.
Hi, this I much appreciated Thank you . As a veteran Fpv flier (scratch built planes and wings) I prefer not to use flight control ; so two questions : can Walksnail be used without flight control? and ,is there any warning (fuzziness or sparkles as with HDzero) that one is going out of video range?
Thanks.
Yes it can work fine without a flight controller. The only features you'll miss are the options to auto start recordings when armed, and automatically switching out of standy mode (low power) when armed. You can do that manually with the menus though. Obviously you won't have any OSD info from the FC, but the built in portions of the oSD, the smaller text along the bottom showing latency, bitrate, etc. will still be there along with the recording icons in the top right. (you can turn the built in osd off too if you don't want any of that) As for warning that you're about to lose video, you can keep an eye on the bitrate, it will get pretty low before the signal starts to degrade. There's also a warning feature, look at 28:15 in this video, and note the flashing red border around the outside edge. That's the warning that your signal is getting low. Without a FC I'd turn back if I saw that... lol The video did hold up a bit longer before it finally started to drop off here and never really went away to the point I couldn't fly through it, so I'd say it will give you enough warning to turn around, climb, etc. if flying manually.
@@bonafidepirate Generous reply -many thanks! I am struggling with HDzero -a few flights and then "no video detected", despite hours of reloading firmware etc etc
.The red border warning is very useful.I presume the picture becomes pixelly?
What camera are you using -it is giving a good picture.? I will appreciate any video on pushing the range. Peter.
It's the nano size Walksnail camera. As far as I know, only their own included cameras work with the system for now. I have another ait unit with the slightly larger mini size camera that I'll use in the next build, whatever that ends up being.
Nice one, I'm waiting for the weather to calm down here in the UK before I start making videos on this unit as well.
This was what I wanted FPV.Blue to be back in the day.
lol Same here! Good stable HD image with great OSD support. The image quality is better than what I remember with fpv.blue. I was somewhat hesitant with 5.8GHz frequency, but so far it seems to work far better than 5.8 analog does here. Whatever they're doing works.
@@bonafidepirate yeah I was cautious about these systems because I never enjoyed flying with 5.8ghz analog video. I would always get poor grainy video when trying to fly far out, or on humid days and I would always have to fly high up too.
Hence why I mainly sticked with 1.3ghz video on my planes. Constistant long range signal and great penetration allowing me to fly low too. I said I would only switch to HD when they would make something similar to FPV.Blue which would have all the benefits of 1.3ghz but in full HD.
I didn't go for DJI cause I don't like the company and they had that hard limit of 14km which just isn't enough for me. For HD I would like to go about 25km respectively to be satisfied and the HDzero just doesnt look nice IMO.
So When I saw the video for the walksnail unit going 30km with a decent video, I saw potential. I feel like in this day and age there is no real point in using 5.8 analog (unless you're racing or a beginner). For me it's either 1.3 analog and/or 5.8 digital.
All I need now is for Walksnail to fix the SneakyOSD font for INav and implement a Smart audio like features like vtx power control and channel selection from the FC & radio and I will be good
Yes! Great to see it back in the air and performing fantastic.
Yep! It's flying as good as ever! lol
Honestly i think the video link looks really good but the camera seems oversharpened and/or contrasty to be honest.
Maybe you can turn that down in camera settings.
There's some camera settings, but I don't remember what all you can change. It's on defaults for now.
Yeah I think sharpness down a couple notches will work better with these fields, the aliasing is a bit much with the rows.... But it still looks pretty damn amazing, cool to hear peoples reaction to first digital flights.... Walksnail/DJI has amazing penetration
Agreed, I played around with the camera settings a bit, there's a range of 1-10 for shapness. Default is 5. 10 is WAAAY oversharp, and 1 kinda looks OK to be honest... lol 5 looks like the video here, slightly too sharp. I'll probably fly with it around 2 or 3 next time to see how it is in the air.
Just Saw horizon is selling the opterra again. I am going to put my VRX micro combo in it. Going to do the patch antenna mod on the VRX and change the two top antennas to long range ones. Going to see how far I can push my Frsky x20s on 900. This walksnail system has re sparked my interest in long rang FPV again.
lol I was thinking the same thing too, it has me excited about FPV again!
@AtomicFrawg what receiver will u use on the Frsky x20s ? using flex software on the x20s ?
@@dynashot1 I fly with a TX16S, with either Crossfire for my smaller planes, or Dragonlink for really long range and when I need a good mavlink connection while in the air. I'm not too familiar with the current FrSky offerings.
@@bonafidepirate sorry - i ment @AtomicFrawg
@@dynashot1 Right, I didn't realize you were replying to his comment. Sorry! :)
Fantastic flying, Keith! Really amazing image from this system! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Thanks!