We copter hobbyists love RC FPV flying, and we have seen a lot of awesome FPV videos taken by professional and relatively large multi-copters. But It doesn’t have to be a big quadcopter or RC plane to do FPV. I recently looked into a cheap and light weight FPV solution, and I found a couple of options, which I will be making it happen in this post.
I know someone might have already done something similar before, but there might be something unique in my idea that could be useful to you.
The compact FPV system I have built is only about 20g, now even my mini quadcopter and micro hexacopter can carry this FPV camera and video transmitter. In this post I will share with you what are the parts you will need and how I made it.
At the transmitter side, I tried to use the parts the are the lightest I can find. The 5.8GHz transmitter I am using is the TX5823 which is only 10 gram, and the Camera is MC495A which is 5 gram. So in theory you should be able to build the whole thing under 20 gram!
Both components requires 3.3V – 5V (description on eBay), that’s perfect to power this system from a ESC BEC or a seperate 3.3V Lipo battery. But from the official datasheet for the TX5823, it says it needs 3.3V input, so I am a little concerned. I decided adding a diode to lower the voltage a little just in case. The TX5823 working current is about 150mA and the camera’s working current is about 70mA, so a 1S 360mah Lipo should be able to power this for just under an hour (Tested, around 50 mins).
The TX5823 has 8 channels available controlled by 3 pins. If nothing is connected to these 3 pins, it will be using channel 8 (5.945GHz) by default.
The receiver I am using is a cheap Chinese RC305 Receiver, it’s got 8 channels and it’s working fine. It’s working current is about 150mA. The monitor I am using is a 7inch LCD display from China. The working current is about 660mA (8W power under 12V). So for a 3S 2200mah Lipo should be able to power the ground station for around 2 and a half hours.
To summarize:
- TX: TX5823 (£10)
- Camera: MC495A (£21)
- Power for TX + Camera: 1S 360mah Lipo (£2)
- RX: RC305 (£25)
- Monitor: 7 inch LCD (£25)
- Power for RX + Monitor: 3S 2200mah Lipo(£5)
For more detail: Super Light Weight RC FPV Quadcopter DIY Solution
