There seems to have been quite a number of issues reported on social media with regards to problems with the screens (dead pixels, different brightness/contrast between the two screens, and some other problems), and there also seems to be some kind of problem with the goggles overheating and shutting off mid-flight. That last issue is probably only affecting people who are currently in hot climates, but it might start to affect more people as we move into summer. Caddx have been asking people not to post/publicise these issues, probably because they don't want any negative backlash or for the bad things to get publicised by some of the influencers such as the rant by JB (which is referred to in another thread HERE), so there may be more goggles with these issues out in the wild than have actually been reported.

It would be interesting to hear if anyone on the forum who has a pair of the Walksnail Avatar HD Goggles X has experienced and of the above problems, or a different problem so we can get some transparency.

Thankfully I do not have any issues with the screens. I live in colder climate, no issues with overheating. Although the air from the internal fan is warm but not hot enough to be concerning. Also interested in hearing from owners of the goggles and their experiences so far.

Hello

I have an issue with the right screen, it seems fine outside, when its cool or windy, or even really hot, but I have a slight green tint when I use it inside. The weird thing is that I have used it outside in hot weather for a full session without issue, so I thing the issue is the fact that heat builds up. I just turn them off for a bit and it gets solved. I will be contacting the seller I bought them from, however, to see if I can get some kind of help. The issue might be the fact that the heat vents out of the bottom, instead of the top, seems like kind of a design flaw but, you know, whatever. I have never had issues outside, but inside, yes.

Sincerely,
Blake

EDIT:
Less than 5 minutes since I unplugged them to let them cool down, the issue fixed itself. Still annoying though. . .

A major flaw has been highlighted which makes the Caddx Walksnail Avatar Goggles X almost unusable for flying analog quads with...

I’ll be keeping my original Avatar non-X goggles, and VRX+CobraX combo, thank you very much.

VRX+CobraX also does analog correctly and can record to DVR - LOL, someone pinch me !

“Good enough - Just ship it ….”

There are a lot of interesting offers for old Avatar glasses on local marketplaces. In general, I am satisfied with the combination of VRX + Skyzone 4. So for now I’ll see how it all ends.

(30-Dec-2023, 12:29 PM)lyoha Wrote: There are a lot of interesting offers for old Avatar glasses on local marketplaces. In general, I am satisfied with the combination of VRX + Skyzone 4. So for now I’ll see how it all ends.

Just snap a cheap used Walksnail goggle. Its so much better. I ran a VRX with a HDZ goggle but the OG WS goggle is just lighter and no cables and stuff hanging around.

At this point I think it is safe to say that the new Goggles X seem to be a beta product. There are too many design flaws and issues with them to be considered a final release product IMO. The analog functionality having been proven to be useless with no DVR recording and the premature fake snow display issue, the only real benefit the Goggles X provide over the V1's is HDMI input for using with simulators. I also think they look "cheap" when compared to the FatShark Dominator HD / Avatar HD V1 googles. We all laugh at FatShark, but one thing that has to be said is that they do know how to design and manufacture goggle casings well (putting aside that stupid location of the SD card between the optics). If I was looking to buy Walksnail Avatar goggles right now I think I would just get the V1 goggles for less money. The Goggles X seem to be a bit of a car crash and yet another rushed out product by Caddx.

If anyone watched Ian's live stream last week, he went over the reason why he believes the goggles have an overheating issue and why only one of the screens seems to have a problem where it dims due to getting too hot which is the same side screen on all the goggles with the reported issue. The goggles only have a single fan and it's installed on one end of the goggles. When air flow is drawn into the goggles past the back of the first screen to cool it, most of the air then just gets pushed out of the vents in the top and centre of the goggles before it even gets to the second screen, so that second screen is always going to run hotter than the first screen and probably overheats and goes into low power protection mode as a result. Caddx should have put a second fan in the other side of the goggles but there is no space to do that as an aftermarket mod. It would require butchering the goggles with a fan on the outside, Not something you should have to be doing to a brand new pair of $460 goggles.

The removable VRX board on the Goggles X is also marketing BS. Ian proved on his live steam that it is just as quick and easy, if not quicker to remove the VRX board on the V1 goggles. So there would be nothing stopping Caddx from manufacturing a new upgrade board to fit into the V1 goggles, but they won't do that because they want to cut FatShark out of any further development and not have to pay them royalties for continuing to sell the Walksnail Goggles V1 which FatShark designed the casing for. With the flaws in the Goggles X I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a revised Goggles X V2 appear before a new VRX module does, which would make buying the current Goggles X pointless IMO.

You can see Ian's discussion on both of the points mentioned above at the two links below:

• Overheating issue on Walksnail Avatar Goggles X (time position 35:10 - 49:05) -> https://youtu.be/0o9hT-Z2fZQ?t=2110
  
• Removing the VRX board from the V1 goggles in 1 minute 30 seconds (time position 54:43 - 1:09:43) -> https://youtu.be/0o9hT-Z2fZQ?t=3293
  

I just received my Goggles X yesterday and being new to HD it is hard for me to be too disappointed, they are working and the video quality is good. It is definitely a Beta product in many respects and I am bummed that they cannot replace my old Fatshark (non OLED) analog goggles. I was definitely planning on using them for analog when I pre ordered them. FWIW mine came loaded with 36.42.4 which is considered by them to be a Beta release.

I am having a heck of a time figuring out how to use them. CaddX provide a quick start manual but it is marginal at best. I've been going back and forth all day between playing with settings, flying, you tube and internet searches trying to learn how to use them. I am finding out that they aren't much different than the older Fatshark Avatar goggles. First impressions are not great. They get hot, the fan is noisy when it switches to high, I don't find them to be very comfortable, and the higher latency modes bother me after all these years of analog. There are some serious design flaws, not having an on/off switch is dumb and the cooling system is sub par. But, after a dozen flights (Flywoo Nano 1s) in and around my yard I am getting used to them really quickly and I'm starting to feel a lot better about my purchase. I have not experienced any problems with them not operating correctly. I have saved money over an HD Zero set up. Goggles and a Walksnail Moblite7 for $520 was a good deal. They are definitely doing their primary function well. I think a lot of people will be like me and just get used to them and enjoy flying with them rather quickly.

One thing I lost and cannot recover is the full 8 channels. I knew from Oscar Liang that selecting High Bitrate would limit me to 3 channels plus the common one. But I have not been able to get all 7 channels back since changing back to standard Bitrate. I searched the internet for someone to explain why but so far in vain. I'm still assuming I made a selection somewhere that is causing this.

Should we ask user questions on this thread and keep it all together or would it be better to start another thread now that we "average Joe's" are using the goggles?

Edit: I had to use the FCC unlock codes downloaded from CaddX website to recover all 8 channels. Apparently there is a way to lock the goggles frequency range back up after unlocking it. But I do not know what I did that caused that to happen.

(31-Dec-2023, 02:11 AM)husafreak Wrote: Should we ask user questions on this thread and keep it all together or would it be better to start another thread now that we "average Joe's" are using the goggles?

I would start a new thread for any specific issues/questions, otherwise they will just end up getting lost in this "general discussion" thread for the goggles.

There is a lot of discussion about the Proximity Sensor in the goggles. I found it to work perfectly well but turned it off just to be safe. But when I am running through a lot of packs the boot time can be annoying. So, when using the proximity sensor is it OK to to just leave the goggles plugged in (on) between flights? Is the Avatar proximity sensor intended to be used as a sort of "quick start" OFF mode? Then I might want to use it. But if the goggles should be turned off between flights anyway then I would not use the sensor. It would be good to know if there's a battery drain, heating up issue. or transmitting when the OLED screens are turned off by the sensor.

On another note, I found the CaddX company to be very responsive to my emails recently. This is nice. They are easy to get ahold of and answer quickly.

(31-Dec-2023, 07:07 PM)husafreak Wrote: There is a lot of discussion about the Proximity Sensor in the goggles. I found it to work perfectly well but turned it off just to be safe. But when I am running through a lot of packs the boot time can be annoying. So, when using the proximity sensor is it OK to to just leave the goggles plugged in (on) between flights? Is the Avatar proximity sensor intended to be used as a sort of "quick start" OFF mode? Then I might want to use it. But if the goggles should be turned off between flights anyway then I would not use the sensor. It would be good to know if there's a battery drain, heating up issue. or transmitting when the OLED screens are turned off by the sensor.

The only reason for the proximity sensor switching the screens on and off is because DJI implemented one in their latest goggles, so Caddx decided to copy them to add it as another selling feature. But it seems to have caused problems for quite a few people with the goggle screens switching off mid-flight. The only purpose it really serves is to try and preserve the OLED screens and also save a bit of power, but we've had OLED screen FPV goggles since 2018 and I'm not aware of any reports where the screens have suffered any OLED burn-in, so having the screens turn off when you remove then from your head isn't a necessity. When I go out to fly I leave my goggles powered up on my forehead during battery changes. I only power them off if I'm taking a bit of a break. I don't have any proximity sensors on my goggles so the screens remain on all the time.

There's a way to calibrate the proximity sensor on the Caddx Walksnail Avatar Goggles X to make it more or less sensitive to the distance the goggles are from your face. To find out how to do that, watch Ian's live stream from a couple of weeks ago at time position 21:15 using the following link -> https://youtu.be/kybidYwngRI?t=1275

(30-Dec-2023, 09:55 PM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: If anyone watched Ian's live stream last week, he went over the reason why he believes the goggles have an overheating issue and why only one of the screens seems to have a problem where it dims due to getting too hot which is the same side screen on all the goggles with the reported issue. The goggles only have a single fan and it's installed on one end of the goggles. When air flow is drawn into the goggles past the back of the first screen to cool it, most of the air then just gets pushed out of the vents in the top and centre of the goggles before it even gets to the second screen, so that second screen is always going to run hotter than the first screen and probably overheats and goes into low power protection mode as a result. Caddx should have put a second fan in the other side of the goggles but there is no space to do that as an aftermarket mod. It would require butchering the goggles with a fan on the outside, Not something you should have to be doing to a brand new pair of $460 goggles.

The removable VRX board on the Goggles X is also marketing BS. Ian proved on his live steam that it is just as quick and easy, if not quicker to remove the VRX board on the V1 goggles. So there would be nothing stopping Caddx from manufacturing a new upgrade board to fit into the V1 goggles, but they won't do that because they want to cut FatShark out of any further development and not have to pay them royalties for continuing to sell the Walksnail Goggles V1 which FatShark designed the casing for. With the flaws in the Goggles X I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a revised Goggles X V2 appear before a new VRX module does, which would make buying the current Goggles X pointless IMO.

You can see Ian's discussion on both of the points mentioned above at the two links below:

• Overheating issue on Walksnail Avatar Goggles X (time position 35:10 - 49:05) -> https://youtu.be/0o9hT-Z2fZQ?t=2110
  
• Removing the VRX board from the V1 goggles in 1 minute 30 seconds (time position 54:43 - 1:09:43) -> https://youtu.be/0o9hT-Z2fZQ?t=3293
  

Ian has now published an excellent deep dive video linked to below showing some extensive analysis of the overheating and screen shutdown issue on the Walksnail Avatar Goggles X. He was actually able to replicate the issue by raising the ambient temperature to 32°C (~90°F) after which the right-hand screen on his goggles switched itself off after about 40 minutes, and on rebooting the goggles the right-hand display then had a green tint to the image until the temperature came back down again. This is really the sort of testing that Caddx should have done during development of the goggles. It shouldn't have been left for an end-user to do.