Phew.
Eventually bought a set of DJI Goggles, you know the white ones as large as a family sized Tupperware sandwich box attached to a toilet seat.
It wasn’t plain sailing, or driving by any means. I’d agreed a price with a chap near Stockport, to collect next day and text when I set off, all good.
I’d travelled the 1hr and 50 minutes over the peak district to get there, and only 5 miles away got a message to call him - he wanted another £55 above the agreed price.
I turned round at the next layby and went the 2 hours home, It wasn’t a bad price, but in my book a Gentlemans word is his bond.
Anyway I won an auction of Ebay last night, paid by Paypal and travelled the 2 hours down the A1 to St Neots this morning. Met a lovely chap who lived in a beautiful location and he showed me them working on his Mavic Air.
SO, they are now charged up ready for the rain to stop and my mate to pop round to be my spotter. The display looks fantastic, but i’m not so sure about the daft toilet seat idea - might screw a set of braces to the back to attach to mt trousers or just use a bungee cable.
Anyone else use them and have any hints and tips for me?
Cheers
Hi.
Quick first impressions Of the DJI goggles based on about two hours useage.
Sunny days. They are miles better than a tablet, phone etc.
Quality of image.
I’ve only used them so far in 1080p and image quality brilliant.
If you need reading specs or getting on a bit find a pair you can read small print around 9 inches from your eyes with.
Battery life.
Excellent. Quoted six hours and I would say that would be about right.
Ease of use.
Simple to use once you master the touch pad on the right hand side. All required flight data is overlaid on screen. You can go full screen without this if you wish.
Intelligent flight modes etc all there on the screen.
They can also be used with anything that has an hdmi out.
I use them with the Xbox and PlayStation.
Comfort.
Not bad at all really. Finding the sweet spot at the back of your head is odd at first but once you find the right position they sit well. Mine do slide loose when I try to flip the screen part up when landing though.
The experience.
It’s not for everyone. When used to flying VLOS popping the goggles on is odd. Yes you are in effect sat on the drone. You see all the camera sees. Brilliant for framing shots or flying around obstacles.
Downside is you lose the all round vision VLOS gives you and in my experience so far this is a little unnerving at first. I’m getting used to it now though and I trust the spotter that’s with me.
You can share you flight with a friend. Pop a phone or tablet on the controller and let a friend etc wear the goggles. You fly the drone and let them enjoy and see why we love this hobby so much.
Extra caution with this though. If you have a warning appear, high winds etc. It will appear on the screen in the goggles but not on the tablet screen. There maybe a setting for this but I haven’t investigated fully yet.
I may have a missed a question you was looking to answer if so do ask if I know the answer I will give it. Cheers.
That’s brilliant, thank you.
Took them out tonight into the park with 2 spotters, well 2 mates that are interested to see how they perform. One mate is already looking for a pair.
They are great, however a little fuzzy for my eyes and forgot to take my reading glasses I’ve had a year and pretty much refuse to wear - so will wear them from now on with the goggles, they do help.
I had a cheapo phone FPV with my Anafi a good while back and it was OK, but no controls on the screen and used Litchi on the P3 standard years ago with a home made set as well, but this is something else.
I flew tonight with the tablet on the controller as well, and after the firmware update this morning it reset the battery warning level to 25% ( i use 30% ) and RTH was reset to 30m - the trees round me are easily that high - good job I noticed that.
One thing to note, it’s very easy to fly far away - because in essence you are always ‘with’ the drone - so what difference does it make when you hit 2 miles I guess… not that I would of course.
Weather permitting off out again with them tomorrow.
Thanks Again.
Yes I was quite shocked first flight with them. You do cover some ground quickly and as you say your on the drone and without glancing at distance on screen I was shocked how far I had gone first flight.
Only when spotter said I’m losing sight did I glance at distance and realise.
The Google’s are brilliant it’s a bit strange though when you are returning home and you see yourself with the controller stood next to your car and it’s not you cause your up here right:thinking:you can get a little disoriented and it can make you feel a bit sick at first especially in sport mode at 40mph. The distance is not a problem as the RTH will still work to your settings i. e. Low battery or the distance you have set as your max all the information is on the screen same as you would have on your tablet or phone. Get a long lead so your spotter can have phone or tablet with a hood if sunny and they can also see and tell you anything you need. It’s the best way to fly and my neck muscles are getting stronger lol
Happy flying
this might be a daft question but would it be essentially illegal to operate a drone with DJI goggles WITHOUT a spotter? I’m referencing the requirement to stay within VLOS here… obviously its impossible to maintain VLOS with goggles on…
94 (3) The remote pilot of a small unmanned aircraft must maintain direct, unaided visual contact with the aircraft sufficient to monitor its flight path in relation to other aircraft, persons, vehicles, vessels and structures for the purpose of avoiding collisions.
Yes, with FPV you ‘should’ have a spotter - a competent observer.
Unmanned aircraft that are fitted with video cameras often provide an opportunity to downlink ‘live’ video to the remote pilot either via a mobile phone, tablet computer or other screen, or even through video goggles - this capability provides the pilot with a pseudo ‘pilots eye view’ from the UAS itself and is generally given the term ‘First Person view’ (FPV).
However, the law [at ANO article 94(3)] requires that the remote pilot must maintain direct unaided visual contact with the aircraft which is sufficient to monitor its flight path so that collisions may be avoided. This is obviously not possible if that person is wearing video goggles or otherwise constantly monitoring a display. Therefore, FPV flight is only permitted if the activity has been approved by the CAA. A General Exemption has been issued which allows an element of ‘First Person View’ (FPV) flight to be conducted. If you wish to conduct an FPV flight which cannot be accommodated within the terms of this General Exemption, then you will need to apply to the CAA for an Exemption to do so.
Note: Images captured by a camera and displayed on a flat screen afford the pilot little by way of depth perception and no peripheral vision. This can make it difficult for the pilot to accurately judge speed and distance and to maintain sufficient awareness of the area surrounding the aircraft to effectively ‘see and avoid’ obstacles and other aircraft - as a result, the use of FPV equipment is not an acceptable mitigation for Beyond Visual Line of Sight flight unless the relevant operator has received a specific approval to do so from the CAA.
