FPV Mini Quadcopter Racing Videos | Hacker News Reader

FPV Mini Quadcopter Racing Videos

fpvracing.tv

91 pointsfpvracing32 comments

We were on the frontpage of HN a few months ago with a project called Oculus FPV[1]. Having stereoscopic vision helps immensely when judging the distance when flying fpv like this. And the immersion from a wide fov makes it very fun to fly. It was a cool prototype, and should be even more useful with the new generation of Rifts. Sadly, most stock fpv goggles only works as a screen taped in front of your nose.

Maybe Transporter3D will add support for DK2, then it will be as easy to set up as "normal" fpv gear. Edit: Seems like it has basic support at least.

[1]: https://github.com/Matsemann/oculus-fpv

Yeah, I posted it because I thought it was really cool. Unfortunately, everything I post on HN is like an autumn leaf in the wind... No simple way to build Karma on this here webternets :)

Any chance you have or can provide an English translation of the write-up? The github repo is inspiring, but there isn't a lot in the README about how to piece everything together.

Nice. Now just add laser tags...

http://abstrusegoose.com/570

You know what? Get more birds in the air, a tighter track, and this could actually be a popular spectator sport. Imagine watching the external views a la regular old racing, with commentators, then plugging in to watch the first person view at any time, and if you have an OVR, watching the OVR version as well.

This reminds me of pod racing in Star Wars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_krCKECpzrU

It's a less popular reference, but my first impression was wipeout: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWm49PABiUI

Particularly the garage video with the techno soundtrack.

Or a real life version of Descent, go go wingnut!

I wonder if the latency over the net is low enough to do pay for play on these kind of things. You could pay for a permanent raceway then.

We worked for a while on a car racetrack using tech like that in '99 (looking for alternative ways to use the webcam technology that would be monetizable). It's definitely an interesting idea and maybe flying is a big enough thrill to get people to actually do it, but you're going to have to deal with one major hassle: give assholes a continent away an opportunity to wreck your precious gear and you're going to have a very hard job keeping them out. The temptation to crash them on purpose would be very large if there are no real penalties attached to doing that. And a $5,000 security deposit is a bit of a limit on growth, and then of course there are non-intentional crashes.

Hmm, sounds like the problem then is making a track that won't wreck stuff and can return your race vehicle to somewhere automatically, then you only need the vehicles to be tough enough to handle crashing into each other.

Also, having the crash being the insert-coin point, rather than basing it on time might help.

For anyone interested in getting into FPV racing, we have a rapidly growing community at http://www.reddit.com/r/fpvracing

Just subscribed! Thanks.

I organize a drone enthusiasts group in Fort Collins, CO, and we have some members working on similar custom racing rigs. One member has his own CNC and is designing frames for around ~$200 cost of materials that can jet around at 60+mph. It's incredible to watch.

I've focused more on building a custom rig for getting great video of backcountry skiing, but there's a lot of overlap in the video/radio tech. If anyone has drone questions, feel free to send them my way.

That's great, got a video of the custom frame in the air perhaps?

Edit: what material by the way? And what do you think of 3d-printing for drone parts?

Unfortunately I don't have a video of his frame - My goal is to get one at our next meetup. It's hard to capture because the thing is zipping around so fast!

My videos (trying to iterate on getting better cinematic quality) are at www.vimeo.com/bnzelener

I believe his frame is CNC'd steel. It's really malleable, so when he crashes he'll just bend the bent arm back into place. He uses SunnySky 2300kv motors, KissESCs, a MultiWii flight controller, and a 1300mAh 3-cell battery.

Got a confirmed answer - he uses aluminum.

And on 3D-printing, YES - this guy is making awesome progress: www.hovership.com. I have one of his MHQ V1 frames.

That's great, thanks for confirming :)

Pretty amazing control, I got a pretty good case of motion sickness after watching for a few minutes. What is the range on these?

Depends on the power and frequency of the video transmitter and the type of antennas you're using, but typically somewhere between several hundred metres and a few kilometres.

From my experience, the problem is losing the image because of objects in the way, and not so much the distance. But at least my cheap setup can control the UAV ~1km away, and the video is okay to about 600m.

Can you document your setup somehow?

I'm really interested to see what you are using.

I have one setup here https://github.com/Matsemann/oculus-fpv but it may be a bit overkill for this unless you're very interested. I'd go for a cheaper and smaller quadcopter if you want to fly like this, and instead of the transmitter/receiver for the video just buy a transmitter and a matching Fatshark goggle. It's the quickest way to get something flying, and if you like it then buy some more advanced stuff.

So a full setup:

* Cheap drone, cheap CMOS camera on the drone, video transmitter. Possibly a battery mounted on the drone if you can't steal power directly from it to the transmitter.

* On the ground a pair of Fatsharks (they have built in receivers) and a battery to power them.

I don't have exact product recommendations, but for instance the support on HobbyKing can help put together a setup where everything matches/works together.

Thank you very much.

Here is a setup that is already complete with everything included except battery, charger and remote. Seems like a good deal!

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__55569__Quanum_Ven...

Think you need the goggles as well? But anyways, a nice beginner package.

Add some augmented reality to this and you could reenact the speeder bike scene from Return of the Jedi!

This looks so awesome, could easily be a spectator sport like the pod racers in Star Wars :D Would get even more intense if you add some motor disablers on each racer so if you "Shoot" another racer they crash lol

Is the first video (in the forrest) sped up? Seems they are plying a lot faster than in some of the other videos.

According to this video (in french) they're flying at about 50 Km/H http://youtu.be/ZwL0t5kPf6E

If these guys started couriering packages, they could kickstart a ridiculous subculture ;)

Endor!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com