[Shu Kobayashi's DRONE MANIA] Vol.20 FPV Wall-Can We Overcome? | DRONE

DJI FPV

On March 2, 2021, DJI announced a new product called DJI FPV. And I saw the video and the article in the futon early in the morning and placed the order as it was. The drone area is also controversial with this product. So what is such a groundbreaking product?

To put it simply, conventional drones basically look directly at the aircraft and fly it visually. You can skip it from the FPV (First Person View), that is, the first person view. Instead of looking at the aircraft from the outside, you can fly from the perspective of being on the aircraft. With the launch of this DJI FPV, some walls have been easily breached and some are still towering.

Equipment wall

With the advent of DJI FPV, the walls of the equipment have collapsed. Until now, it's not that there was no drone that could be flown with FPV. Tiny Whoop and Parrot Manbo introduced in Vol.5 can be skipped by FPV. It's a little bigger, and you can fly race drones with FPV.

However, most of them require assembly, are based on toy drones, and are difficult to maneuver. Especially for racing drones, even if you have all the parts, the flight ability will change depending on the compatibility and assembly accuracy. It is difficult to choose goggles for FPV, such as screen type, compound eye type, and different video receiver. You may have to consider the capacity and output of batteries, chargers, etc.

The ease with which you can buy it, open the box, and just activate it without thinking about it is attractive.

Radio Law Wall

The radio wave for video transmission used for conventional FPV was in the 5 GHz band. Although it can be used in Japan, there are restrictions such as restrictions on outdoor use and the inability to use it in the air if you do not need a license. A worker's license and a radio station license are required for the video transmitter. It takes money, time and effort to apply for opening a station. Previously, DJI had released a unit that could be used for FPV, but this was also in the 5GHz band.

This DJI FPV was released in the 2.4GHz band, which does not require a wireless license. Even conventional products such as Phantom and Mavic were in the 2.4GHz band, so what's different is the video delay. With conventional products, the delay is 0.2 seconds at best and 0.5 seconds at worst. If the speed is 12m / s, the image will be off by 6m.

In the manual mode of DJI FPV, the maximum speed is 39m per second, so there will be a deviation from the actual speed even near 20m, but the catalog spec says 28ms, so it is 0.028 seconds. It's invisible to the human eye. Even the maximum speed is 1m off. There are some parts that overlap with the equipment, but you can get this much equipment without considering the Radio Law.

Maneuverability wall

So far, we have explained the walls that have been overcome, but from now on, we will introduce the walls that cannot be easily overcome by some people.

First is the ability to recognize space. In FPV, you basically only see the front image and steer. You can point the camera up and down a little, but you can't see the left and right unless you rotate or turn the aircraft. You can't see the back at all.

You can see around the aircraft when maneuvering visually, but FPV does not. Also, the scenery you see on the ground looks quite different when you look up in the sky. The image you are looking at is also flat, so there is no stereoscopic effect.

The ability to organize the information seen from the video, such as obstacles that have passed by, things that can be glimpsed in front of or above, and the ability to three-dimensionally imagine where and what is placed, and the ability to recognize space. You will need. I play games a lot, and I have a history of making CG, so I think that I have a relatively good spatial cognitive ability. People who often rub cars may need to be careful.

The other is motion sickness. The drone is operated on the ground. Standing or sitting. It doesn't work. But drones can fly around freely. The footage can move gringling, so it's easy to get sick. I felt a little uncomfortable in about 30 minutes at first, and I didn't get sick, but I got a little sick. This is completely different for each person, so if you are prone to motion sickness, take a break and do it little by little.

Law wall

The last thing that cannot be overcome is the legal barrier. Due to drone restrictions in the Aviation Law, permission is required depending on the place to fly, such as around the airport and artificial concentration areas, but approval is required depending on the dedication of the flight.

FPV is included in the out-of-sight flight in it. So, no matter how unoccupied the countryside is, even if it's privately owned, it's illegal if it's outdoors without approval. Of course, there are conditions such as having to have an assistant, but if you get approval, you can skip it.

from now on

Perhaps DJI has opened Pandora's box. There is a possibility that you will buy it without checking it properly and skip it. Depending on the location, the Mavic etc. can be flown without applying for permission approval, but DJI FPV is illegal as soon as it is flown outdoors without approval by FPV. Also, the way of flying is different from the conventional drones. I think that the number of crashes will increase no matter how many buttons can be stopped in an emergency.

Also, you may not be familiar with the operation and give up. So I'm aiming to buy the junk items that appear in Mercari and Yahoo Auction as the second spare machine.