Twinstar 2 Schlosswiese

Twinstar2 Schlosswiese (720p) from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.

This was my 2cond flight with Lumix and Blackstork OSD - and it was windy again. But I was so anxious to go out and fly... I had to use the Adobe Elements stabilizer again - looks weird but helps the vid-smoothness.

I'm really waiting for a nice calm day now - but we all are - I know.

This time there's some sightseeing included (Our local Castle, a Church and the Company I work at).
The drilling truck which you see on the landing approach is there to prepare the construction of an huge railway-tunnel.

Flight:
Furthest distance from "home": 370m
About 130m high

The start includes a short belly-landing-touch-and-go thing (which I did't plan that way :-)
On the landing I used full flaps again which really brings down the bird quick! This time the airspeed was too low and I could hardly balance the plane.

You can compare this flight with an earlier one at the same location (but back then we started from the lower field right next to the company): vimeo.com/2078231

Twinstar flight with Blackstork OSD and Lumix as FPV Cam

Twinstar 2, Lumix and Blackstork OSD (720p) from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.

(click the link above and download the original video from there to have the best quality - and a smooth video)

While this was a very shakey flight, I'm very pleased by the result!

a) It was my first Blackstork OSD experience in the air - GREAT!!!! I can't give this OSD enough credit. It's really cheap, simple to install and of great use in the air.
To see how high, fast and how far you are flying really adds a lot to FPV.

b) I cahnged from my small FPV cam to the Panasonic Lumix FX35 for live video (in my last flight a used it for additional recordingn).
It's really a great livecam also - and you see exactly what you're recording. You can check also IF you're recording - that can be helpful either :-)
So I was able to save some weight of the small cam and it's battery.

get the Blackstork here: www.Immersionsflug.de

Music: SPOON - The Underdog

Twinstar 2 - FPV Upgrade

She's not a beauty anymore :-) but using Lumix gives me the best possible recording quality. Saving the weight of the FPV cam and saveing the additional channel on my radio for the campan are the other "improvements". I now have control over rudder back. Total weight now: 1840g (with battery)



Using the Blacksrork OSD with GPS really adds great immersion to FPV. You sure saw OSD in many other FPV videos. Initially I thought this is to complicated and expensive. But the Blackstork is really quite easy to implement and not very expensive. I bought mine at www.immersionsflug.de
(good price and very good support here!)


(that's the main component - the small thing is the GPS device!)

Blackstork OSD Tests on eSavage

This was my first test of the new Blackstork OSD:

- GPS fix was aquired quite fast (under 1min)

- speedometer worked good for a small car, running down a longer straight would have been a better test tough

- home position indicator also worked good - even in this rather small testing area - when flying FPV GPS surely has an easier job because the distances are greater

- OSD gets a little hot - no problem
(I think this is because of voltage regulator from 12v to 5v for GPS)


I learned from two errors in this test:

1.) while setting up the OSD I wasted most of the videobattery - during the test the battery got empty - picture gone - blind - this shouldn't happen in the air!!!
One has to keep an eye on the videobattery voltage!

2.) a new pan-servo now moves 180deg. - this is great - but you have to secure the cable with some tape - after panning the cam the cable unplugged - again - this would't be nice in the air!!

FlyCamOne III

Hi, I just found this new version of the known FlyCamOne:
Website with infos

It seems like a professional, prebuilt and inexpensive FPV equipment. I did't find exact infos on the resolution and range yet.
But they even have headtracking and video-goggles! Optionally the headtracker can be used with their own transmitter (if you ran out of free channels on your main radio).

Twinstar2 - Lumix Cammount-Tests

Twinstar - Panasonic Lumix FX35 Tests from Mario Schimanko on Vimeo.

I found a way to savely transport my digital camera without producing enormerous air drag.

see this post for more details and pics

On this vid I did two flights. First was non FPV to test everything, second was fully FPV - unfortunately the angle of the cam was too much downwards pointing - you can see the result.

But it was a great "proof of concept" - the Panasonic Lumix FX35 can be a great FPV cam.
+ it's an 150g lightweigt!
+ you have 25mm wideangle (gives a great FOV)
+ you record in 1280x720@30fps
- but only about 8:27mins (that gives 2GB - this is the limit even when using 4GB SD Card or greater

Definitly the wideangle is the most important point here! The shakeyness of the flightvids is much lower if shot in wideangle compared to tele (35+mm).
See this vid for example - it's shot useing a standard mini SD camcorder with 35 or 40mm FOV
(OK the colors where great here - but this depends much on the sun!)

Also this was my first video where you can watch the landing from three different views - that's for Paul - to not get complaints about the missing landing :-)

Music: H-Bloxx - Countdown to insanity