Great test Giz,...might get one and stick it on my very similar size wise Ar Wing Mini. LOVE the fact that L.O.S is now possible with goggs down.I have some eyeball stickers on the front of my X,s to comply with current regs here in Brazil.🤗
Wow, those videos are amazing. I'm going to get one of these cameras myself. FWIW, I have a Bee25. I really like it. Thanks for the interesting and entertaining video.
40km is some serious long-range, and to have it night-capable is cool! Of note: CMOS sensors like those in the Infra cannot amplify light (that is very difficult and expensive). They can see normally invisible Near InfraRed (NIR) light though. Also the highlights blowing out is another limitation of the CMOS, its limited dynamic range. The lights out at sea are cool. Incandescent and gas-discharge lights, like those often used in industrial lighting, emit more NIR light than visible light, so the lights on shipping might be those instead LEDs. Old street lights and security/property lights are sometimes gas-discharge lights too.
That's some really interesting information. Could well explain all the mystery lights I saw out to sea. Strange though because during the day you rarely see boats out there either, certainly not that many
Very cool to see the difference between moon and no moon! More of a difference than i thought. I wonder if you could put a few high powered IR lights on the plane, aim them at the ground, and mimic moonlight over a small area to see better. Would love to see more companies providing plug and play thermal camera options for analog systems too! Thermal would be extremely cool!
Quite striking the difference between moon and no moon wasn't it! As for thermal, it looks like Caddx is developing a thermal cam as we speak. Definitely will try get my hands on one if they do :D
@@gizfpv Yes it sure was! I think I saw a couple no name thermal analog cameras on aliexpress? Hopefully the tech becomes available for plug and play to our existing setups. I cant wait!
I think adding that relay for LEDs is a good idea. I wonder if you flew into fog or clouds would those LEDs illuminate the fog in front of the plane so much that it would blind the camera? if so being able to turn them off is good.
Re servos freezing. For sure that's the case..it is cold...take wind chill and humidity in to account....brrr....giving me goose bumps....which brings me to my suggestion..goose bumps but allso shiverring..how animals...we shiver to stay a touch warmer...could there be a programmed setting where you have the servos 'twitch' rapidly back and forth...just in the tiniest amount not to cause any actual result the servo normally would cause..since most of the time they are responsible for moving control surfaces..important..but those movements call upon the servo to have moved a fair amount....have them just shimmy back and forth-more a shiver- a twitch say a millimeter back and fort (or less if possible) and in rapid succession. This should warm up the servos quickly...pro actively if the ability's are available, have it programmed to do so ever X amount of minutes of the flight. This would need to be tested on the bench first because I can see that rapid movement to possibly cause parts to malfunction. Just have the part supported onto of the work area and have it go for awhile to see if anything comes undone or any part fails due to possible vibrations/ just the rapid movements....
Your videos helped me go ahead and purchase one of these. I've been into the DIY Night Vision landscape for a while now and I'm working on a collection of different choices in cameras, optical eyepieces, and housings in different price ranges for people to choose from. This is definitely going to be an option that I will model up a tube to house. Thanks for the great footage and reviews.
If you were to take a couple of infrared LED lasers and tune them to a very wide divergence yo could use those as headlights that wouldn't be visible to the human eye. They would project for quite some distance and otherwise be invisible. Laser modules of that nature are very small and light weight.
hi: i'd be less concerned about the air plane freezing, much more that I'd be freezing. I am made of delicate flesh and bone, and the gears in the servo is made of hardened insanely powerful stainless steel.
Enjoying this series! It would be cool to see a side by side of the infra Vs the avatar HD pro in low light. I've got the avatar HD pro but I've not tried it at night.
Skip to the very end of this video! I showed a quick comparison of the Avatar HD Pro alongside the Infra there :) ua-cam.com/video/xYN9SPwYDZY/v-deo.html
There's a video out there where the 2 systems are compared and a portion of the flight is through a dark barn structure... almost no comparrison how far ahead of the game the Infras were in comparison to the other "leading brands"... from what I see, the Infras are on another level. Watching another review of the Infras, there is mention that there is another, "not advertised" version/ module or something of that nature that incorporates the low light capabillities of the Infra along with THERMAL...now we are talking.... Joshua B. mentioned that on rare occassions the product can be found on a certain eccommerce platform....
You might want to put something on both wings at the front to block the light from getting to the camera. The darker the better the video will be. You could block around the cam as well. I just think it would be easier to make 2 small fins to block the light right at the edge of the lights nearest to the camera.
If you watch part 1 of this video series you'll see there's a nice big 3d printed bumper around the camera lens. It's primarily there to protect the lens from damage, but it also helps keep light from the LEDs out 😊
that looks awesome. I bought this camera too but haven't flown it because I live in the city so sadly I have nowhere to fly. I love this hobby but can't practice it. all my equipment is useless when I don't have a chance to use it.
Cool build. Back in the day when I was flying a TBS discovery I did a similar set up but removed the IR filter from my camera and put IR LEDs on it. Worked ok, not quite as good as this! Out of interest do you need an operator ID or any of that for this? Cheers
Thanks for sharing. A toggle switch between a focused infra red light and your visual light would be cool, because then you can see more, maybe even avoid the light saturation effect and stay under the visual radar of people and animals. Be careful with icing, would be painful to lose control while over the water being unable to recover the plane/components.
this is really cool thanks!! Very impressive. When you fly with gps, does it do GPS lock or it literally just tells you where to go? What I mean is can you geofence a GPS radius and say for example "don't go outside this radius" on the controller. I think it would be a little different to the commercial drones that literally GPS lock to stop drifting.
So at the moment the GPS is simply there to bring the aircraft back 'home' in a emergency, however on the next upcoming version of INAV (the flight controller firmware on the aircraft) there is reportedly going to be geofencing capabilities 😊
Very inspiring results! I have only used a Cat 2 and waypoint autonomy under such conditions, but this was a lot cooler. However, right bias because of stiff servo oil seems unlikely to me, take it from an old Scandinavian frozen lake flyer. That shouldn't make it pull to one side. My prime suspect would be temperature induced gyro drift - I guess that's why professional FCs have IMU heating?
That's also a very viable option! Funny enough one of the first things I did when I got home after the flight was to review the DVR recording and see if the artificial horizon was showing any weird behaviour. It wasn't, but doesn't mean that a gyro/IMU issue wasn't the cause of the weird flight behaviour
Interested to know why you fly in horizon mode instead of angle? Is that just so you can do the occasional rolls/loops without switching to manual mode?
@@pangit9999 To be honest, it's down to laziness 😂 I like horizon mode because it allows me to do sharp turns or rolls etc if I want too, but at same time gives me stabilization for easy flying. I often fly one handed, and horizon mode if the perfect mode for that
It does have a LED controller yes! However the Betfpv Pavo LED strips aren't addressable (programmable) which means the LED controller on the FC isn't any use 🤷
Yep. This camera will fit on a drone no problem but you would never get the flight time. Even long range drones typically do 20-30 mins and that's without the LEDs.
As TeslaNick said, you'd get exactly the same results with the camera on a quadcopter, but flight time would be significantly different . Quads just can't fly as long as fixed wings
"Pitch black..." yet you have those incredibly bright LEDs..wish you turned em off for some tests... to show us what a true pitch black flight would loo like... just as you mention when landing how the LEDs lit up the landing...
I thought the VLOS rules say you're not allowed to rely on lights because they're an "aid"? I still think you can get around it with glow in the dark paint or tape or something, but I'd read the rules again, the fines are pretty steep! Not trying to be a Karen or anything, just would hate to see you getting in trouble and you make it easy for the haters if you post your flights 🤷🏻♂️ "(3) The person in charge 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."
No, that refers to the operator wearing night vision goggles, or binoculars to physically see the plane. In this case, you can see the plane with the naked eye because there are lights on it.
As far as I know, there's no rules here that prohibit the use of LED's to aid with maintaining LOS. Full sized manned aircraft have lights on, specifically so the aircraft can easily be seen at a distance, so why shouldn't drones?
@@gizfpv I'm not the CAA, ask them. I asked them by email and they told me what I just told you. Lights that have been added to a drone are an "aid" according to what they told me. I mean planes are also able to fly in different airspace, carry humans, etc. just because they fly doesn't make them the same as a drone, does it? Anyway, please yourself. You can only lead a horse to water. All the best.
gen 1 nightvision for me, is ass. zero interest in self illuminating the horizon with a IR sensor and zero interest in flying around in low light to compensate for gen 1 now im not suggesting that you strap on a PVS-14 onto your wing.. but that would really be the video that tickles the algorithms
tbh, UKR squads are running 640×512/12μm VOx Uncooled Thermal Modules on their drones, it would probably be extremely fitting for a nvg wing too. £££ tho
Great test Giz,...might get one and stick it on my very similar size wise Ar Wing Mini.
LOVE the fact that L.O.S is now possible with goggs down.I have some eyeball stickers on the front of my X,s to comply with current regs here in Brazil.🤗
Awesome flying, dude! Pretty impressive system indeed! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
that's an impressive flight distance and image quality for such a tiny plane 👍
Awesome camera, I just bought one recently and will be fitting it into a night vision binocular system I am currently building
Wow, those videos are amazing. I'm going to get one of these cameras myself.
FWIW, I have a Bee25. I really like it.
Thanks for the interesting and entertaining video.
This is pretty awesome. Thanks for sharing this with us!
Change the servo grease to low temperature grease. If they can be easily opened.
40km is some serious long-range, and to have it night-capable is cool!
Of note: CMOS sensors like those in the Infra cannot amplify light (that is very difficult and expensive). They can see normally invisible Near InfraRed (NIR) light though. Also the highlights blowing out is another limitation of the CMOS, its limited dynamic range.
The lights out at sea are cool. Incandescent and gas-discharge lights, like those often used in industrial lighting, emit more NIR light than visible light, so the lights on shipping might be those instead LEDs. Old street lights and security/property lights are sometimes gas-discharge lights too.
That's some really interesting information. Could well explain all the mystery lights I saw out to sea. Strange though because during the day you rarely see boats out there either, certainly not that many
I heard about SPAD camera sensors, I think they amplify light (like analog NVGs) but they are very expensive and only Canon has it now.
Your videos featuring this camera's amazing performance has made me all the more confident my investment in one was a good decision 😅
Very cool to see the difference between moon and no moon! More of a difference than i thought. I wonder if you could put a few high powered IR lights on the plane, aim them at the ground, and mimic moonlight over a small area to see better. Would love to see more companies providing plug and play thermal camera options for analog systems too! Thermal would be extremely cool!
Quite striking the difference between moon and no moon wasn't it!
As for thermal, it looks like Caddx is developing a thermal cam as we speak. Definitely will try get my hands on one if they do :D
@@gizfpv Yes it sure was! I think I saw a couple no name thermal analog cameras on aliexpress? Hopefully the tech becomes available for plug and play to our existing setups. I cant wait!
I think adding that relay for LEDs is a good idea. I wonder if you flew into fog or clouds would those LEDs illuminate the fog in front of the plane so much that it would blind the camera? if so being able to turn them off is good.
Gracias por compartir tú proyecto, excelente trabajó 01,26,25 atte javier
Re servos freezing. For sure that's the case..it is cold...take wind chill and humidity in to account....brrr....giving me goose bumps....which brings me to my suggestion..goose bumps but allso shiverring..how animals...we shiver to stay a touch warmer...could there be a programmed setting where you have the servos 'twitch' rapidly back and forth...just in the tiniest amount not to cause any actual result the servo normally would cause..since most of the time they are responsible for moving control surfaces..important..but those movements call upon the servo to have moved a fair amount....have them just shimmy back and forth-more a shiver- a twitch say a millimeter back and fort (or less if possible) and in rapid succession. This should warm up the servos quickly...pro actively if the ability's are available, have it programmed to do so ever X amount of minutes of the flight. This would need to be tested on the bench first because I can see that rapid movement to possibly cause parts to malfunction. Just have the part supported onto of the work area and have it go for awhile to see if anything comes undone or any part fails due to possible vibrations/ just the rapid movements....
Your videos helped me go ahead and purchase one of these.
I've been into the DIY Night Vision landscape for a while now and I'm working on a collection of different choices in cameras, optical eyepieces, and housings in different price ranges for people to choose from. This is definitely going to be an option that I will model up a tube to house.
Thanks for the great footage and reviews.
If you were to take a couple of infrared LED lasers and tune them to a very wide divergence yo could use those as headlights that wouldn't be visible to the human eye. They would project for quite some distance and otherwise be invisible. Laser modules of that nature are very small and light weight.
hi: i'd be less concerned about the air plane freezing, much more that I'd be freezing. I am made of delicate flesh and bone, and the gears in the servo is made of hardened insanely powerful stainless steel.
Haha, yeah it definitely takes some determination and commitment to want to go fly at this time of year in the dark 🥶
@@gizfpv : ) stay warm out there, my person! night time is an otherwise wonderful time of one's life. nights are good.
Enjoying this series! It would be cool to see a side by side of the infra Vs the avatar HD pro in low light. I've got the avatar HD pro but I've not tried it at night.
Skip to the very end of this video! I showed a quick comparison of the Avatar HD Pro alongside the Infra there :)
ua-cam.com/video/xYN9SPwYDZY/v-deo.html
@@gizfpv Woah quite a difference, guess I'll have to wait for a HD infra!
There's a video out there where the 2 systems are compared and a portion of the flight is through a dark barn structure... almost no comparrison how far ahead of the game the Infras were in comparison to the other "leading brands"... from what I see, the Infras are on another level. Watching another review of the Infras, there is mention that there is another, "not advertised" version/ module or something of that nature that incorporates the low light capabillities of the Infra along with THERMAL...now we are talking.... Joshua B. mentioned that on rare occassions the product can be found on a certain eccommerce platform....
Yo estoy aprendiendo,a construir mi FPV drone y en un futuro una ala 🪽 01,26,25
uhhhhhh alien and drone phenomenon about to happen in the uk too 😂
You might want to put something on both wings at the front to block the light from getting to the camera. The darker the better the video will be. You could block around the cam as well. I just think it would be easier to make 2 small fins to block the light right at the edge of the lights nearest to the camera.
If you watch part 1 of this video series you'll see there's a nice big 3d printed bumper around the camera lens. It's primarily there to protect the lens from damage, but it also helps keep light from the LEDs out 😊
Very cool!
that looks awesome. I bought this camera too but haven't flown it because I live in the city so sadly I have nowhere to fly. I love this hobby but can't practice it. all my equipment is useless when I don't have a chance to use it.
i'll put it to use for you ;)
@@paranoidzkitszo okay maybe if you give me land without having to pay rent AKA property taxes
Cool build. Back in the day when I was flying a TBS discovery I did a similar set up but removed the IR filter from my camera and put IR LEDs on it. Worked ok, not quite as good as this! Out of interest do you need an operator ID or any of that for this? Cheers
Thanks for sharing. A toggle switch between a focused infra red light and your visual light would be cool, because then you can see more, maybe even avoid the light saturation effect and stay under the visual radar of people and animals. Be careful with icing, would be painful to lose control while over the water being unable to recover the plane/components.
this is really cool thanks!! Very impressive. When you fly with gps, does it do GPS lock or it literally just tells you where to go? What I mean is can you geofence a GPS radius and say for example "don't go outside this radius" on the controller. I think it would be a little different to the commercial drones that literally GPS lock to stop drifting.
So at the moment the GPS is simply there to bring the aircraft back 'home' in a emergency, however on the next upcoming version of INAV (the flight controller firmware on the aircraft) there is reportedly going to be geofencing capabilities 😊
Awesome giz where did you get the leds from ?
@@chippy310 Unmanned tech 😊
That LED strip along the leading edge must spoil the wing section somewhat?
Nope, doesn't seem to have any noticeable effect at all. Still fly's great :)
Very inspiring results! I have only used a Cat 2 and waypoint autonomy under such conditions, but this was a lot cooler. However, right bias because of stiff servo oil seems unlikely to me, take it from an old Scandinavian frozen lake flyer. That shouldn't make it pull to one side. My prime suspect would be temperature induced gyro drift - I guess that's why professional FCs have IMU heating?
good point
That's also a very viable option! Funny enough one of the first things I did when I got home after the flight was to review the DVR recording and see if the artificial horizon was showing any weird behaviour. It wasn't, but doesn't mean that a gyro/IMU issue wasn't the cause of the weird flight behaviour
why would you use a torch instead of a flashlight to see in the dark?
I want this.
Interested to know why you fly in horizon mode instead of angle? Is that just so you can do the occasional rolls/loops without switching to manual mode?
@@pangit9999 To be honest, it's down to laziness 😂 I like horizon mode because it allows me to do sharp turns or rolls etc if I want too, but at same time gives me stabilization for easy flying. I often fly one handed, and horizon mode if the perfect mode for that
Use a GPS Mate to make sync faster. Boots the GPS while everything else is off.
Something like that would be ideal for this aircraft!
@ I’d recommend them for any model with GPS. Turn it on as soon as you start unpacking. By the time everything is ready it’s locked.
BTW a youtube video or a camera which is an inanimate object is not a witness, you don't have to blur your altitude.
SUPERB. MINT"
Doesn’t that speedy bee fc have an led controller? You shouldn’t need another switch.
It does have a LED controller yes! However the Betfpv Pavo LED strips aren't addressable (programmable) which means the LED controller on the FC isn't any use 🤷
@ dang, that’s a bummer. Well that’s a super cool build!
maybe add heading to OSD?
Keep up the good work, love the videos .Karen's 😂😂😂
These things ahould be tethered with fiber optics to peoples houses and aold as consumer devices that just orbit your home
Would you get the same results if you used a quadcopter, apart from the range then?
Yep. This camera will fit on a drone no problem but you would never get the flight time. Even long range drones typically do 20-30 mins and that's without the LEDs.
As TeslaNick said, you'd get exactly the same results with the camera on a quadcopter, but flight time would be significantly different . Quads just can't fly as long as fixed wings
Can you cut those led's to length ?
Yup, that's exactly what I did. Brought 1 strip (750mm I think) and cut off multiple strips from it
@gizfpv Awesome 👌
And thanks for the reply 👍
That looks fantastic! I just got mine yesterday and mounted it last night!
now all you need is tiny missiles and flares.
I don’t like the cold. It makes me cold.
Yeah, as a general rule of thumb, the cold tends to make me cold too 😂
"Pitch black..." yet you have those incredibly bright LEDs..wish you turned em off for some tests... to show us what a true pitch black flight would loo like... just as you mention when landing how the LEDs lit up the landing...
Cool video! Do you have a link to the LEDs?
betafpv.com/products/pavo-series-cob-led-strip?variant=40238275035270
Thanks!
It is my dad
thanks for the video ,SO you didn’t crash with UFO 👍
Im bulding one now on openipc ;)
I thought the VLOS rules say you're not allowed to rely on lights because they're an "aid"?
I still think you can get around it with glow in the dark paint or tape or something, but I'd read the rules again, the fines are pretty steep!
Not trying to be a Karen or anything, just would hate to see you getting in trouble and you make it easy for the haters if you post your flights 🤷🏻♂️
"(3) The person in charge 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."
No, that refers to the operator wearing night vision goggles, or binoculars to physically see the plane. In this case, you can see the plane with the naked eye because there are lights on it.
As far as I know, there's no rules here that prohibit the use of LED's to aid with maintaining LOS. Full sized manned aircraft have lights on, specifically so the aircraft can easily be seen at a distance, so why shouldn't drones?
Banks are is actually correct,flying that distance a d having a video is proof for you know who to use as evidence...just be aware Giz.
@@gizfpv I'm not the CAA, ask them. I asked them by email and they told me what I just told you.
Lights that have been added to a drone are an "aid" according to what they told me.
I mean planes are also able to fly in different airspace, carry humans, etc. just because they fly doesn't make them the same as a drone, does it?
Anyway, please yourself. You can only lead a horse to water.
All the best.
@@design2survive that was my belief too until I asked the CAA, but apparently not.
dude you are such a bootlicker obeying all that legal [CENSORED BECAUSE UA-cam REMOVED MY COMMENT FOT THIS WORD], why let other men control your life.
gen 1 nightvision for me, is ass.
zero interest in self illuminating the horizon with a IR sensor
and zero interest in flying around in low light to compensate for gen 1
now im not suggesting that you strap on a PVS-14 onto your wing.. but that would really be the video that tickles the algorithms
tbh, UKR squads are running 640×512/12μm VOx Uncooled Thermal Modules on their drones, it would probably be extremely fitting for a nvg wing too.
£££ tho
Awesome updates. Looks great with the LEDs 🫡
Have a torchlight at hand as a makeshift Airway beacon might be a good idea. Manual “RTH”…..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airway_beacon