Hi All, 

My v2 goggles are currently setup on 700mw and I'm contemplating changing over to 1200mw.  I was hoping to get some feedback from anyone who is currently running 1200mw and if you've had any long term issues going to 1200?  I know there is a risk of over heating the vista unit, but it has thermal protection so how worried should we really be?  

Other then not leaving the battery plugged in for long periods of time, is there anything else I need to know before I make the switch?  I'll pickup a little desktop fan if I need to plug the quad in and work on it for any length of time.  

We fly around a lot of tree's in an urban area and I've noticed on a few occasions loosing video signal strength and we weren't what I would consider that far out.  100 yards or less and under 50ft in height. The screen gets fairly pixilated, especially on the outsides of the screen due to the auto focus. Is it possible I'm just expecting too much from this system?

-Ryan

For me I've not found a need to go above 700mw for how I fly freestyle. Much like flying over water when I'm WAY out there in distance I tend to limit the chances I take as it doesn't feel as comfortable. Same as if I was flying over a fence that I'd have to break into to retrieve the quad. Though I wouldn't consider 100 yards to be long distance and would say more like 200-300 yards would be my range. If I'm pushing past that it is only out in front of the goggles with the axii patches.

As for overheating it's about 100 degrees and full humid around here this week and the only time I've ever seen the air unit complain of overheating was this time last year when the quad sat still too long while powered. I've had countless crashes that took significantly longer to go retrieve with nary a mention of overheating. Even yesterday when flying the vista felt way hotter than my motors but they are 25mm and run cooler than smaller motors at 6s.

(16-Jun-2022, 08:44 PM)sevro Wrote: For me I've not found a need to go above 700mw for how I fly freestyle. Much like flying over water when I'm WAY out there in distance I tend to limit the chances I take as it doesn't feel as comfortable. Same as if I was flying over a fence that I'd have to break into to retrieve the quad. Though I wouldn't consider 100 yards to be long distance and would say more like 200-300 yards would be my range. If I'm pushing past that it is only out in front of the goggles with the axii patches.  

As for overheating it's about 100 degrees and full humid around here this week and the only time I've ever seen the air unit complain of overheating was this time last year when the quad sat still too long while powered. I've had countless crashes that took significantly longer to go retrieve with nary a mention of overheating. Even yesterday when flying the vista felt way hotter than my motors but they are 25mm and run cooler than smaller motors at 6s.

I wonder if upgrading the antenna's would be a better option right now over trying to push the VTX power, we are still on stock DJI antenna's. Is there much difference in link/picture quality over stocks?

(16-Jun-2022, 09:21 PM)Janz99 Wrote: I wonder if upgrading the antenna's would be a better option right now over trying to push the VTX power, we are still on stock DJI antenna's.  Is there much difference in link/picture quality over stocks?

The goggle antennas were worth the upgrade and did see an improvement in a particular field we fly when it came to going behind multiple trees vs the stock antennas.

Due the to way the DJI FPV System works by taking advantage of multi-pathing reflections, it's actually better around solid objects than vegetation. I'm not sure that 1200mW will help much with your scenario, but try experimenting with the different power levels to see what difference (if any) it makes. Also be aware that the goggles themselves will also be blasting out 1200mW right next to your brain which some people are uncomfortable with. Some people say the non-ionising radiation produced is no issue, but others argue that there are still long term effects from that type and power level of radiation. Only you can really make that decision for yourself. There's another thread discussing that HERE.

I have V1 goggles and was originally running 700mW on mine "just because" but I recently switched to using 500mW. I reckon I might be able to get away with using 200mW which I might try next time I'm out. I fly out to around 600 metres in a fairly open area and behind vegetation at that distance without any pixelation. There are two spots where the image stutters / freezes for a second every time I fly past those particular spots. I have no idea why but it's always the same two places so I know and am prepared for it to happen as soon as I'm getting close to those areas. I have a pair of TrueRC Singularity stubby antennas on mine along with an iFlight CRYSTAL patch faceplate antenna. I only really fitted those to reduce the overall footprint of the goggles so they would fit in my bag easier without having to keep taking the stock antennas off.

The stock antennas on the V1 goggles are omnidirectional antennas and testing has proved them to be just as good as some of the aftermarket omni antennas. However, the stock antennas on the V2 goggles are linear dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.8GHz) antennas so they are never going to be as good as single 5.8GHz band omni-directional antennas when used with the standalone DJI FPV System. So if you're not flying the DJI FPV Drone (flying potato) then you would probably benefit from getting some single band 5.8GHz antennas, even if they are the stock antennas from a pair of V1 goggles.

(16-Jun-2022, 10:26 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Due the to way the DJI FPV System works by taking advantage of multi-pathing reflections, it's actually better around solid objects than vegetation. I'm not sure that 1200mW will help much with your scenario, but try experimenting with the different power levels to see what difference (if any) it makes. Also be aware that the goggles themselves will also be blasting out 1200mW right next to your brain which some people are uncomfortable with. Some people say the non-ionising radiation produced is no issue, but others argue that there are still long term effects from that type and power level of radiation. Only you can really make that decision for yourself. There's another thread discussing that HERE.

I have V1 goggles and was originally running 700mW on mine "just because" but I recently switched to using 500mW. I reckon I might be able to get away with using 200mW which I might try next time I'm out. I fly out to around 600 metres in a fairly open area and behind vegetation at that distance without any pixelation. There are two spots where the image stutters / freezes for a second every time I fly past those particular spots. I have no idea why but it's always the same two places so I know and am prepared for it to happen as soon as I'm getting close to those areas. I have a pair of TrueRC Singularity stubby antennas on mine along with an iFlight CRYSTAL patch faceplate antenna. I only really fitted those to reduce the overall footprint of the goggles so they would fit in my bag easier without having to keep taking the stock antennas off.

The stock antennas on the V1 goggles are omnidirectional antennas and testing has proved them to be just as good as some of the aftermarket omni antennas. However, the stock antennas on the V2 goggles are linear dual-band (2.4GHz and 5.8GHz) antennas so they are never going to be as good as single 5.8GHz band omni-directional antennas when used with the standalone DJI FPV System. So if you're not flying the DJI FPV Drone (flying potato) then you would probably benefit from getting some single band 5.8GHz antennas, even if they are the stock antennas from a pair of V1 goggles.

We were out flying in a large kids soccer field tonight, I would say no longer than 150 yards and no vegetation.  We were sitting out of the back of our suv (maybe this is also an issue?) but we had direct line of sight at all times.  

I was trying to pay close attention to the video quality on these particular flights.  Even being this close and direct line of sight I still noticed the auto focus on the DJI goggles kicking in and out fairly often.  The center section of the screen was pretty clear the whole flight but it was quite noticeable how much the auto focus kicked in and out as we flew.

In this scenario I'm not sure that adding more power to the video transmission would really help, would it?  At these distances I would assume we should have good video quality at lower than 500mW?

-Ryan

150 yards is nothing for DJI even at 25mW.

It is probably an issue with antennas or the connectors or something with the AirUnit/Goggle hardware.

(17-Jun-2022, 03:32 AM)kafie1980 Wrote: 150 yards is nothing for DJI even at 25mW.

It is probably an issue with antennas or the connectors or something with the AirUnit/Goggle hardware.

I did a few more quick test flights this evening.  A couple of things I noticed:

1. The goggles don't always default to CH1/CH2 when I first arm the quad. I didn't notice this up until my test flights, I'm assuming some of the picture quality issues we had earlier today were due to this.  If its on the public channel it defaults to 25mW correct?  

2. Most of the severe signal loss I find is behind trees and not buildings.  I naturally thought buildings would be worse for penetration than trees/vegetation. If this isn't the case then most likely what we are seeing is normal.  

I'll play around a bit more on different power levels and see if there is any improvement.  I think like Snow, I may upgrade to an Omni/Patch antenna, even if its just so I can fit them in the DJI pouch without having to constantly remove the antenna's.

I used the stock DJI antennas with V1 goggles and I did switch to iflight patch/stubby combo and seen a very noticeable difference.

DJI has built in protection against overheating and maybe someone can chime in but I think it has an OSD warning for overheating.It does before arming but when flying I’m not sure.

Interesting topic for HDZero freestyle vtx now has an in color temperature gauge or thermometer that goes from blue,green,yellow,orange and red in OSD with latest firmware.

I haven’t heard of anyone burning up DJI Vtx using max power and many professional pilots use DJI .
There is overheating protection setting but everyone turns it off and many use naked Caddx vista vtx.
I think it’s unwise to remove heat sinks on anything but yet many still do it.

(16-Jun-2022, 10:26 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: So if you're not flying the DJI FPV Drone (flying potato) then you would probably benefit from getting some single band 5.8GHz antennas, even if they are the stock antennas from a pair of V1 goggles.

Might as well ask since it's mentioned. I have V2 goggles, a Vista and two Air Units, all stock antennas. What antennas do you recommend? I can get these locally: https://nordfpv.com/collections/antennas...al-antenna
Would I see a notable improvement with them for the goggles and stock on the Vista and Air Units? Or should I also update antennas on the Vista and Air Units too? If so, what antennas do you recommend for them?

I've also seen these but can't find many reviews about them: https://nordfpv.com/products/x-air-5-8-m...i-fpv-pair
From what I can see they are slightly better but I don't know if it's worth the increased price.

I can add that I fly around and behind me out of line of sight quite often, also behind buildings and over cliff edges. I'm struggling to find out which combination of antennas would suite me best.

I have an X2-Air antenna (for my analog goggles) and I can tell you that apart from being directional the beam width is fairly narrow. It was actually designed for long range. They will work in short range but you will need to move you head around a bit to point them in the right direction.

Thanks. For the flying I have described, would I be better off with stubbies all around?

Edit: Instead o hijacking someone's thread I created my own.

Holy Mosses. Here I am typically using 100mw on analog, feeling bad when buddies get some of my noise. But I only fly 400m sometimes up to 700m max.

1200mw. Holy molly. At that level, you could literally stick a fork in and still get decent range. And you are having issue at 100 yards = 90m!?

I strongly advise double-checking EVERY antenna and connection. Very likely one or more antenna or wires are damaged. You might also accidentally have mixed RHCP and LHCP.

I have excellent results with VAS Skyhammer. Axii and Axii 2 are also very good. I have TrueRC X2Air, but its very finiky... unless you rotate it 90°.