06-14-2010, 11:37 PM
Well here is my review on the FY 21AP OSD so far.
A little background on me, I am a part time aerial photographer, on the cusp of going full time. I have used with varying degrees of success the following autopilots:
Adrupilot
Attopilot
Mikrokopter (two)
I have installed the following OSD's
IFOSD
Rembizi OSD
and a few home builds
I have also helped others install a few more like Eagle tree etc.
So I have some experiance... I would say I have substantial experiance putting these products to real world tests in a business application. So they are flown hard, and must perform.
All that being said, lets begin.
I received the following as you see it in the pictures. There was a newer box since I got mine but no real hardware difference.
As you can see, there is not much to it. First impressions were that the OSD was a little large but upon installling it I was pleased that it fit nicely. My opinions on the wiring harnass is top notch. I love the clicking connectors (RC cables end up getting either hot glued on or I just solder wires to the pins both for fear of loose connections)
The supplied manual was... well... you know... so I won't bother.... there is a new one out. Use that one.
Now for thie install... well I have installed a lot of junk in planes and I will tell you this is by far the easiest install yet. Having the osd as part of the IMU system is the only way to go from now on! They are two separte units but one just plugs straight into the other. It's super easy. Dead easy infact. No IR sensors also means less wiring, also the gps exention cable was a nice touch. Good thinking... I did not use mine but I may in the future.
Here are shots of my install
oh by the way this is what is known as a "KloppenStryker" I have never posted this build becuase it one the gems of my business...
something to remember, do not let anything touch that central unit (with the arrow) no vibration, no pulling of servo wires etc. It must kind hand loose and free....
Here is the plane all buttoned up....
oooh but does it fly? well good question... I was finally able to test it today. I have had it installed the day I received it but unfortunately the only version shipping right now is PAL and I needed NTSC.. so I had to order a PAL camera and of course I don't have a PAL compliant camcorder... so no inflight video but here are my impressions.
First few flights I would go into stabilization mode and belive it or not the thing would flip itself upside down and fly!!! I was impressed... but not that impressed hahah... I had the throw going the wrong direction... oops...
After reversing the aileron throws (just the turn of a screwdriver) I launched again.... this time no flipping... actually... it's steady as a ROCK.... I then banked... it leveled out.. perfectly... actually it leveled as fast as my stick went back to centre.... then just stayed there.. no rocking.... nothing.. so I pull up... it goes straight back to level when I let go....
ok sounds good now how about elevation hold.... I switch to stabilition with elevation hold... perfect....
on to autopilot... switch to RTL and she comes right back home. It holds a nice tight circle of 120m around me... I send it back out... hit position hold... it circles around the point where I hit it... I am impressed....
Watching the video while in Autopilot the plane does rock back and forth a bit.... I have no rudder so it does have to bank for it's turns. I did not have a chance to dial the gain down much. I did one flight with slightly reduced gains and it did reduce the rocking in autopilot mode. No it does not rock in stabilzation mode. It's not as smooth as my atto but I have not spent any time dialing it in yet.
If I cant reduce or remove the rocking... do I care? no. will it come home? yes and that's all I need for this one.
ok so I did this a few times and then started to watch the video... here is where things fell apart a bit..... with throttle on the screen goes very fuzzy, more so than usual when powering off one battery. I would say this osd is very susseptable to noise.. more than any other I have owned. I throttle up and the video goes bad and the osd text slides down so you can't read the bottom lines....
Ok fine so I have some video issues. powering off a separate battery may fix this or I can put an anyvolt micro in (that usually solves some lines but this may be too much)
It could be a pal issue but I am not sure.. my screen that i fly by can read pal and ntsc so I am sure it's a power thing. This osd needs clean power.
So all in all I give this osd (SO FAR) a 8 out of 10... if it came in NTSC I would give it a 9 and if the video was not so prone to noise I would give it a 10...
Any questions feel free to ask. Oh and BTW so far I would say the stabilzation alone kicks FMA's butt.... I have installed FMA's into many airplanes.... and ripped them all out... they are paper weights.
Steve
ps I will answer most questions on RCG, I am only copying this post becuase of a request.
Thanks
A little background on me, I am a part time aerial photographer, on the cusp of going full time. I have used with varying degrees of success the following autopilots:
Adrupilot
Attopilot
Mikrokopter (two)
I have installed the following OSD's
IFOSD
Rembizi OSD
and a few home builds
I have also helped others install a few more like Eagle tree etc.
So I have some experiance... I would say I have substantial experiance putting these products to real world tests in a business application. So they are flown hard, and must perform.
All that being said, lets begin.
I received the following as you see it in the pictures. There was a newer box since I got mine but no real hardware difference.
As you can see, there is not much to it. First impressions were that the OSD was a little large but upon installling it I was pleased that it fit nicely. My opinions on the wiring harnass is top notch. I love the clicking connectors (RC cables end up getting either hot glued on or I just solder wires to the pins both for fear of loose connections)
The supplied manual was... well... you know... so I won't bother.... there is a new one out. Use that one.
Now for thie install... well I have installed a lot of junk in planes and I will tell you this is by far the easiest install yet. Having the osd as part of the IMU system is the only way to go from now on! They are two separte units but one just plugs straight into the other. It's super easy. Dead easy infact. No IR sensors also means less wiring, also the gps exention cable was a nice touch. Good thinking... I did not use mine but I may in the future.
Here are shots of my install
oh by the way this is what is known as a "KloppenStryker" I have never posted this build becuase it one the gems of my business...
something to remember, do not let anything touch that central unit (with the arrow) no vibration, no pulling of servo wires etc. It must kind hand loose and free....
Here is the plane all buttoned up....
oooh but does it fly? well good question... I was finally able to test it today. I have had it installed the day I received it but unfortunately the only version shipping right now is PAL and I needed NTSC.. so I had to order a PAL camera and of course I don't have a PAL compliant camcorder... so no inflight video but here are my impressions.
First few flights I would go into stabilization mode and belive it or not the thing would flip itself upside down and fly!!! I was impressed... but not that impressed hahah... I had the throw going the wrong direction... oops...
After reversing the aileron throws (just the turn of a screwdriver) I launched again.... this time no flipping... actually... it's steady as a ROCK.... I then banked... it leveled out.. perfectly... actually it leveled as fast as my stick went back to centre.... then just stayed there.. no rocking.... nothing.. so I pull up... it goes straight back to level when I let go....
ok sounds good now how about elevation hold.... I switch to stabilition with elevation hold... perfect....
on to autopilot... switch to RTL and she comes right back home. It holds a nice tight circle of 120m around me... I send it back out... hit position hold... it circles around the point where I hit it... I am impressed....
Watching the video while in Autopilot the plane does rock back and forth a bit.... I have no rudder so it does have to bank for it's turns. I did not have a chance to dial the gain down much. I did one flight with slightly reduced gains and it did reduce the rocking in autopilot mode. No it does not rock in stabilzation mode. It's not as smooth as my atto but I have not spent any time dialing it in yet.
If I cant reduce or remove the rocking... do I care? no. will it come home? yes and that's all I need for this one.
ok so I did this a few times and then started to watch the video... here is where things fell apart a bit..... with throttle on the screen goes very fuzzy, more so than usual when powering off one battery. I would say this osd is very susseptable to noise.. more than any other I have owned. I throttle up and the video goes bad and the osd text slides down so you can't read the bottom lines....
Ok fine so I have some video issues. powering off a separate battery may fix this or I can put an anyvolt micro in (that usually solves some lines but this may be too much)
It could be a pal issue but I am not sure.. my screen that i fly by can read pal and ntsc so I am sure it's a power thing. This osd needs clean power.
So all in all I give this osd (SO FAR) a 8 out of 10... if it came in NTSC I would give it a 9 and if the video was not so prone to noise I would give it a 10...
Any questions feel free to ask. Oh and BTW so far I would say the stabilzation alone kicks FMA's butt.... I have installed FMA's into many airplanes.... and ripped them all out... they are paper weights.
Steve
ps I will answer most questions on RCG, I am only copying this post becuase of a request.
Thanks
