Flite Test | DIY Micro 5.8Ghz FPV 

it is amazing how far the technology has come since this video was made. Now you can get something similar (fully assembled) for around $20

You guys should open up a store where we can buy everything in a bundle. Keep up the good work.

Inspiring video! The one thing I didn't see, was removal of the rosin flux after soldering. Rosin has some impedance when it solidifies and can change circuit characteristics and possibly add extra load to the transmitter. So right after the solder solidifies, wipe the joint off with a q-tip dipped in alcohol. 70% or 90% isopropyl alcohol from the drug store is fine. That removes the rosin the easiest since the solder joint is still warm. I would recommend using 63/37 solder over 60/40 for the fine soldering done in the rc world. Rosin core is more for large wires. Water soluble fluxes available in the 63/37 solders make cleanup so much easier and greatly reduce the risk of loading the circuit.

Hey amazing people! This needs a refresh. I was all set to throw down the clams for this but parts have been discontinued and now there is even a smaller camera!!! Can you refresh this project?

Peter is great on the show, I love the stuff he's bringing to Flite Test recently with more electronics and rockets! I think Peter needs to put aside a few nights practicing presentation though. He's often quite nervous on camera and his presentation of steps for complex things doesn't seem as polished and practiced as it could be. With a bit of practice though, I can see him bringing back what I was missing since David has left! Thanks for bringing him on the show more, I've been enjoying all the DIY electronics stuff!

Hi I'm so glade you guys did this video! That was my intro to FPV Flying! First I had this set up in a Hubsan X4, not so happy with the Hubsan. But now I've got it strapped to my trusty old Hobbyking Mini Swift, and it's a BLAST! Damn thats fun, and I got about 500-600 meter out of it, with the Wire Antenna AND just a cheap as chips RX with the standart Antenna on it... Damn good fun! I just the 5v Version as well, due to the specs it's quite well suited for a 1S set up. As a Cam I used a cheap Hobbyking Cam. I've you guys are back in Germany again, I would love to meet and fly with you!!

Looks like fun...and here are a couple of hints from an old guy on soldering detailed work: Find and use small gauge 63/37 (not 60/40) rosin core solder, and clamp the workpiece lightly in a Panavise or similar with rubber pads on the jaws. Add a worklight and maybe a magnifier and you're good to go...

We need more videos like this.

Great video! Are there any videos going over the receiver setup? Looks pretty nifty. I definitely would use that setup for a rover project I am working on ...

It's amazing to see how far this technology has advanced in such a short time.

Still a great video to learn from. The basics remain viable. Thanks.

You can fix the camera lens adjustment with liquid electric tape. Great stuff! Not to mention sealing every connection and securing connectors to each other and or to the board or airframe.

We miss David but Peter does a wonderful job filling his shoes

RIP RadioShack.

@ 9:25 Josh justifiably corrects Peter to NOT USE CA in this application. There is a VERY good chance of fogging the sensor, the inside of the lens or the outside of the lens. And if you ever want to change lenses you're going to be pretty much out of luck.

Great video. What do you use for the receiver? Can you show your receiver setup? Did you build that as well?

Seriously guys way too cool thanks for posting all the links on how to do it, i had a terrible time sourcing 3 V components, gave up had to work, thanks and great videos of FPV

please continue explaining the electronics in the RC world, how to solder circuit boards, properly wiring power systems. all this good stuff.

FPV is impressive. I have an idea for you that would make it even cooler. Can you make a night vision FPV setup? That would be so cool!

Nice job Peter and explained very simply, your a great addition to Flite Test.

"you dont want to file the solder tip..." Puts down sandpaper and solder tip....... well shoot.

Great video!!! I want to see you guys land a quadcopter on a quadcopter on a quadcopter, reverse of what you did for the Amazon drone delivery video.

Making a micro quad for in the house with a Hubsan X4 board, cheap frame, and some brushed motors. Can't wait to add FPV to it! Thanks FliteTest.

Great video as usual guys. I have a motor question, I want to build a large quad and am very confused about motor choice what is a good motor to list a quad with about a 20 inch motor to motor?

Wow, this is awesome! Do you have a video on building the FPV "Black Box" that you're testing with? I'm interested. Thanks!~J~

Very cool and unintimidating project Peter. Thanks for putting it together.

Great video, I made mine about 3 years ago and it still sends signal fine with about 15mins run time.

Great job guys! By the way, this DOES work with BOSCAM receivers (ie. Skyzone goggles) as well.... I was watching a few of Josh's flights while at Horizon Indoor. ;-) I think the base Fatshark cameras start on band 4 channel 1 (or maybe it's D-1). Just hunt, and you'll find it. Cheers, J

If you run the 3.3v vtx with a 1s, use a 1n4001 diode in series to drop the voltage by 1/3 of a volt to help it from burning out.

Why do you have one Cloverleaf Omni Antenna and one "normal" antenna on there? Thought the Omni outperforms the "normal" one? Why not go for two Omni in a 90° to each other so the two "donuts" get you an nearly all around and up and down reception? :)

Great Video. Looks good. I just started flying FPV with the Nano QX and have traveled around the house and outside in the yard. I believe the QX FPV only has a 25mW transmitter so 200 Mw would be a significant improvement on range I would think. I wonder how this would work on a Hubsan X4. I havent seen any info on others modding that quad, but I am sure they are out there and that it has been done. The X4 seems like a great platform as it can lift quite a bit and I love the 10 minute flight times with the 500 mAh packs. Any thoughts on this?

Awesome ... making one asap.. this is perfect for smaller projects where rabge issnt much of an issue.. I'll still stick to a small clover.. but its great Pieter!!!

There's a bit of incorrect info in this video - you MUST use the '5V' Tx module when powered from a 1S lipo - they have an additional LDO linear voltage regulator installed inside which drops the 5V down to 3.3V which is what the Tx requires. If you power the '3V' tx from a 1S lipo IT WILL BURN (ask me how i know....)

you can learn almost anything on the internet, I don't know why anyone pays a mortgage for college unless it's to be a doctor or engineer

Nice vid. I would really like to get into this. So how much should I pay for a receiver for this setup?

Thanks for the help for Geting into the fpv part of the hobby

Great episode guys. Did you guys say you were going to sell these? all ready built? my soldering skills aren't that good to do that small

Great job Peter & Josh.

I think Peter's remorse over getting the 5v module (instead of the 3.3v) was unfounded - he was actually right the first time! I was just re-reading the specs, and the 5v module IS the 3.3v module with an LDO regulator onboard. Thus It will happily work from 5v down to 3.4-ish volts. HOWEVER if you order the 3.3v module and you don't have an external regulator then a regular LiPo (at 4.2v fully charged) will probably BLOW THE MODULE. (I suspect. It exceeds spec. anyway) So the 5v module should be read "AT LEAST 3.5v" and the 3.3v module should be labelled "NEVER MORE than 3.3v". Anyone want to double-check that?

Shout out to peter. I met ya down in panama city beach . I was doing fire inspections at a hotel and walk into a room filled with rc lol. I was like I need to have out with these guys . Nice build man I'm gona try this

Thanks for posting this up guys, it gives me confidence to try putting one together myself

Have you ever tried to put two cams on a plane with the right (or decreased for more immersion) eye distance for a 3D view? Are there even goggles that allow to easily show different video for each eye?

That's complicated,but thanks for talking about the different 5.8 ,had no idea that they are different .

That looks great!!! So tiny. You can put that on ANYTHING!!!

Another great video! I'd love to see you guys review the Blade 200qx. I've had mine for a few months now and I love it! It's pretty fast, very agile and It's perfect with a Mobius mounted on it, but I would really like to try out some FPV with it. I would really like to see what you guys think.

loved the video especially the fact you used the quad (nine eagles galaxy visitor 3 ) that my grandson has, so you can guess what I will be ordering, one other question will this work with the epson mover BT 200 glasses ?

I like this tiny FPV camera, I'll probably build one once I get a copter capable of carrying it. How about a DIY micro gimbal to mount this to? Would be awesome to have a tiny, mechanically stabilized FPV camera which I built myself.

That was great guys. Much more fun sourcing and making something yourself, rather than buying it from a shop. Can it be used without goggles on a small 7" screen? Kia ora Jon

PLEASE get the mini Ft Cruiser out in time for christmas!!! FPV (possibly long range) with that would be awesome!

Btw thanks for the video. If your plane can carry a little more weight and uses at least 2S, then I recommend using a Fatshark 600tvl CMOS camera in combination with a aomway mini 200mw transmitter. The Fatshark CMOS camera is the best CMOS camera I've used. The rest produce awful images (poor contrast and muddy colours). The aomway mini transmitter is almost as small as the diy module and comes with a SMA connector where you can attach a cloverleaf antenna. There are 2 sizes of the 200mw 5.8Ghz aomway VTX: the mini one is the one without the big black molex connectors. Banggood sells them. Search for "AOMWAY FPV 5.8Ghz 200mW 32CH Wireless AV Transmitter Module"

I would use a smaller dip switch to lower the weight maximum :) The ones simular to the ones that are mounted to the fatshark vtx's works great.

Bit charger plane vtx, LOL! Awesome to see, there are pcb vtx boards on ebay around $24. Heat sink on the case helps they do get hot. Digikey is great for parts like dip switches and led switches. Unplug power to ccd when taking lens off to avoid sensor burn too.

That 1 gram camera actually weights closer to 2 grams and if you are planning to use this on a micro quad every little bit adds up.

Awesome! Can I use a PAL camera instead of a NTSC camera? The PAL is the only one in stock. Thanks guys!

Very good tutorial! Man those transmitters got small!

If you use a GoPro by water i recommend putting the clear case on it...

Awesome Peter. Definitely would like to make one of these. 2 thumbs way way way up

Great video. Is there a way to set this up to record on a micro card? Thanks

You mention make sure to get a compatible frequency often in the video. By buying a 32 channel 5.8 reciever all your bases are covered correct?

That is totally bad ass. I might have to incorporate some of those mini cameras in my helicarrier using a 3 channel camera switch

I like the idea of that case as well as this little transmitter. Thanks for the video!

Perfect for the upcoming revolution in FPV Control Line Flying.

Super Great DIY - Kudos to Peter! Can I just purchase one from you instead?

your teaching videos are the best, more, please!

Hi guys....awesome video.....how far can you get the signal from???

ha you guys saved me a lot of freakin money I was just about to go trade in my Ares q 130 for a Ares FPV that would have cost me another $200 thanks again guys

Nice video, good work peter

Definitely going on my project list after my 100w led torch :)

Nice video ill try this for my racing boat, i have a question tho, i putchased a quad recently ( cheerson cx 23 ) and its great with one exception - the camera suck, i want to be able to take a little better videos and pictures so my question is - can i swap it out with something of better quality ? Ty :)

May I use this system replacing the camera for an RCA plug and so transmit video signal from a DVD?

I love the ground station box, I did notice the ezUHF transmitter in there though, is that just for storage or does it not jam up the rx antenna right next to it?

Very nice tutorial clip!!! What is the cheapest receiver unit with a monitor I can find online? Thinking about building a quadcopter with this camera attached.

hi there, nice build... something to consider in the future. I noticed the black plastic case that holds your fpv reception gear. Here can I find one of those??? thkx

Very nice job :) It's a pretty cool way for saving a lot of money! Very easy, just some soldering skills are required but nothing impossible. 5 stars video guys, Peter is definitely the man of the week ;) Thanks for sharing

Fantastic work guys.

I found the easiest way to solder this Boscam vtx, is to strip the wires long enough, then go ahead and twist wires , lay them down into the pre-soldered pads, streched , then solder with good tin , dont pre-solder the wires as it wont do any good ;-) hf flying ;-) , greetings !

nice video thanks for the sharing,what can i use as receiver to view the video ?

Josh, keep your head up! Looks like you're pointing your Fatshark's cloverleaf dead spot *right* at you model ;)

Would you recommend putting something like this on the HobbyZone Champ?

incredible ! do you have millimeters dimensions ? it should fit in an n-scale train too !

Amazing video I managed to me one for under $20 with parts from Banggood the $11 micro camera is amazing way better than my $60 fpv hobby camera with wide angled lens plus the banggood camera already comes focused and with a 170 degree camera which it isn't it's about 130 degrees in actual fact, amazing little thing which has a range of 800m plus

Hi flite test. great video. I am looking forward to building one for a syma x8c. will this work with eachine ev800 fpv googles

I had a question about the quality of this DIY version over the Spektrum UM package camera set up they have now. Is this DIY version turn out to be better quality "video/antenna/range wise" vs the ready to go spektrum unit? I dont mind building something like this,,Its fun even! But going over your list you have to order from a few different sites and with shipping it comes out to be More expensive vs just buying the spektrum one from one site and being done. Just wondering what benefits I would have going with the DIY version,Thanks!

The pre-built camera+ transmitter from horizon costs the same as the camera you have linked on Flitetest.com

Hi guys I'm going to be buying a plane soon and don't know what to get. I'm going to spending $250 max for now and going to upgrade to fpv later. I'm thinking about getting the Ft Racer but my brother says I should get the tbs wing that starts c (don't know how to spell it). I really don't know if a wing without fpv will be fun. If you have any suggestions on what plane I should bet please tell me

CTS makes good dip switches try the CTS-206-3 model! digikey is probably the best place to get stuff like that (think of it as an online super radio shack)

It's interesting that you young guys would even _consider_ "Radio Shack" for parts of any kind! Back in the "day," us old f*****s could walk into a RS store and buy a respectable amount of component level items. We might have even been able to luck upon a salesperson who actually knew what an audio impedence matching transformer was. Sadly, last I checked, all that place was selling was cheap-ass RC toy trucks, cell phones and clock radios. If you _dared_ to tell them you were looking for a pack of 10k ohm resistors, you were treated like a one-eyed purple bug after being asked, "What do you need _those_ for?" As IF they were going to then show me how stupid I was for needing such an item and then convince me to buy a cell phone instead. Hahahaaha! Oh well, days gone by... :)

Could you guys do a review on the Zeta fx-61 phantom wing? It is very similar to the fx-79 buffalo and I think you would enjoy it, and others would too. Thanks!

Dam skippy im gonna make one this week! Now how is the transmitter sending its signal to and what's the options on monitors for a poor boy like myself?

Nice job - clearly explained.

The more I watch the more I want my kids to do this.

is it also possible to attach a better camera? keep up the good work guys! :)

Hi can you also post video for building Receiver same or similar one which you used to test FPV camera or provide and reference video links

Hey, You mentioned loosing signal when you bank. I was wondering if it would help to add another antenna perpendicular to the other or can you even add another antenna?

omfg no way i have been waiting on this, or a similar review for ages :D I have just bought the Spektrum Ultra Micro FPV Camera and vTX kit for 99 bucks! Can't wait for it to arrive and put on my T-28 UM

as this part for camera and transmitter build, is there any video for receiver build?

grate job guys i never use to miss any of ur videos !!

you could also use the 32 channel stuff then it is compatible with all of the 5.8 systems

Peter, can you use a different antenna, one that is not as directionally orientated? I have seen antenna that has four arms that kind of twist around, would one of these work with the system? Andre

Just bought a micro plane the second I saw it! MIGHTY MINIS!!!