Connecting fpv goggles or monitor to a ground station

If you want to effectively receive your ground station video on your fpv goggles and your monitor, you would want to read this short article ...

A ground station communicates with your drone. Receiving telemetry data and fpv feed are what it does.

Telemetry data like amperes drawn, battery voltage, GPS data and more from your quadcopter can be overlaid onto the FPV feed - OSD. You would want to check if your receiver and flight control board has this capability.

To connect a pair or fpv goggles and / or a fpv monitor to a ground station, you will need to split the video-out wire. You will connect one to the goggles and another into the fpv monitor.

If you are going to be having spectators, having a fpv monitor connected to the ground station is a good idea. And if something were to go wrong with your goggles mid-flight, the monitor would be your backup device. The video-in cable needs to be connected to the goggles.

If your goggles have a inbuilt 5.8 GHz receiver, you could connect the video-out cable from the receiver to a 25 milli W, 5.8 GHz transmitter. But this is not ideal as signals from the ground station and your quadcopter might interfere.

Here's a little-known fact about fpv googles. Even when your goggles are turned off, the module does "bleed" over the video. To address this, here are a few steps ...

* If you can, remove the module entirely and connect your ground station directly to your goggles.

* Alternatively, push the 'channel up' button so that you hear the short beeps. The receiver module is now powered on. Once you are hearing the short beeps, then push the 'channel down' button until you hear the long beep. That's channel zero. Next, power the module off with the A/V switch. Plug the A/V jack into the A/V port - and now your ground station and goggles are connected.

Choosing fpv goggles and monitor

You would not want to buy very low-cost goggles that have a resolution of 320 x 240. Better SVGA models that offer a resolution of at least 640 x 480 provide a vastly better experience.

And your fpv camera should be mounted on a camera gimbal.

You would also want to be aware of all of the local laws and regulations. What makes things harder is that these laws are still evolving.

No matter how careful you are with your equipment, signal losses are always a possibility. Which is why you would not want to rely on your goggles or monitor alone and would want to have another person acting as spotter.

There are laws pertaining to the frequencies you can use - and you would want to be aware of those as well. 5.8 GHz is what is generally used for fpv. And you would want to stay away from controlled airspace. You would want to consult your local authorities about these laws and regulations.