Blackout! Walkera furious 215

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 11:56:55 AM

I'm guessing it might be the camera on the drone which is a 600tvl Sony I believe. Flying around last night at sunset ish with the sun hidden behind cloud I had a bad blackout and lost vision in my goggles for what seemed about 20 seconds. Scary as I was over a corn field and would've lost it. Done it a few times now. Is this normal?
Just bought a pair of RHCP tbs Triumph antennas to try as I'm not sure wether the one on the Quad is LHCP and my Attitude v4's are RHCP. Might account for lots of fuzz.
Is there a way of changing camera settings?
Noob to this. Sorry. ;D

FPVSteve · August 01, 2018, 02:39:51 PM

What do you mean "blackout" ... as in the sunlight causing you to not be able to see the ground, bad interference, or just no picture at all?

If you have opposite polarity antennas you'll get a crap picture and bad range.

If your voltage is dropping too low, maybe the camera is turning off until you ease up on the throttle [and thus reduce the amp draw and therefore the voltage can recover]

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 02:47:56 PM

Yeah. Happens more when I'm low on voltage. I'll stick an SD card in my goggles next time I'm out.
So I'm looking round flying about then turn and look at the ground and it's all gone black. Really dark like silhouette trees and buildings. I'm guessing it's the camera trying to adjust to light and like you say does happen more near the end of battery. I'm currently getting about 100m away and the interference is quite bad. Really need those new antennas.
Just wondered if this was a common thing with the light. . .

FPVSteve · August 01, 2018, 03:40:56 PM

Yea it is but you might be in luck.

Does your camera have one of those little adjustment dongle things that you can attach to it? If so you might be able to turn on Wide Dynamic Range (or WDR) on the camera so that the camera compensates for the bright light.

If not, you can pick up a WDR camera fairly cheaply, around £25 for a Sony HAD II WDR camera if I remember correctly - they're pretty nice. Then you've got the Runcam Eagle / Owl / Night Eagle etc which are a little bit more expensive but really nice.

Get yourself a 2.8mm (or 2.5mm for a quadcopter) lens as well, it'll make a huge difference if you're on a basic 3.6mm lens - you'll get a much increased field of view which will help with flying.

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 03:55:48 PM

Hmm. Interesting. I'll look into that. Post mans just been and delivered the new antennas.
Thanks for your help :)

ched · August 01, 2018, 04:12:14 PM

A very basic rule of thumb is: If you get static noise then its VTX issue if you get black picture then it's camera issue.
Sometimes if the camera points directly at the sun it sort of overpowers the camera. Like wise if you suddenly go from bright to dark then the camera may take a second or so to change exposure.

The RunCam or Foxeer cameras are generally very good. They each have different standard sizes like standard (not usually given a name), mini or micro. It's easiest to get one same size as you currently have. Oscar Laing has a good guide to choosing a camera and the different types CMOS/CCD and lenses etc. https://oscarliang.com/best-fpv-camera-quadcopter/

Personally I fly a 220 Martian3 and use a 2.3mm lens, the smaller the lens size the wider view you get. Wide views are good if you are flying freestyle or racing as you will be able to see the most in front of you. I think technically humans have a field of view of about 180 degrees but you would need a camera lens about 1.6mm but everything would be too small to see. So it's always a compromise!!!!

One thing to watch is the plug that is currently connecting your camera to the power and video out might not be the same as a new camera. DONT just assume they are the same as you could blow up the new camera if connected wrongly! Check the connections and the suitability of the voltage for any new camera.

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 04:37:06 PM

Apparently it's 130 degrees FOV.
How would I know if WDR is on? Sorry guys.

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 04:46:10 PM

I'm definitely going to build my next quad. So much to learn.

CurryKitten · August 01, 2018, 04:49:07 PM

It states it does, it's the Sony Super HA II sensor which many of the decent CCD cameras use, and it states WDR in the camera specs. Normally with these sorts of cameras, aside from the little 3 pin port where you plug the camera in, there will be another 2 pin port to allow you to attach a little joystick style thing which will let you go into the options and change the camera setup. Often WDR is left off and so you get the blackout on the ground when you point it into the light... which enabling WDR solves.

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 05:27:25 PM

This is the back of it. Just looked and can't see any other ports to plug in. Where would I get a dongle thingy from?
Cheers folks.

ched · August 01, 2018, 05:58:37 PM

Quote from: Austin7 on August 01, 2018, 05:27:25 PM
This is the back of it. Just looked and can't see any other ports to plug in. Where would I get a dongle thingy from?
Cheers folks.

The pin marked OSD is the one that is used to adjust things. The connector is a single 4 pin one so have a look at the plug that currently goes to the camera. There might be a very small 2 pin connector hiding that enables you to plug in the dongle. It normally works off 0V and the OSD pin.
I think older Foxeer cameras have a single plug for power, video and adjustment where as Runcam sometimes have 2 cables.

This may be a bit techy but RunCam now make a camera control board for about £4 that connects to the OSD pin and a spart UART on the Flight Controller that allows camera adjustments via your tx sticks same way as Betaflight allows adjustments via tx sticks. I am not sure it will work with your camera but it might be worth investigating.

I recently added one to my RunCam Swift Micro 2 and it's great to just be able to adjust camera settings via goggles and tx.

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 06:04:22 PM

Thanks Ched. And everyone else on here. Fountains of knowledge.
I'll see what I can do. Thank you

FPVSteve · August 01, 2018, 06:08:49 PM

Have a look in the box, it might be hiding underneath a cardboard insert in the camera box

Austin7 · August 01, 2018, 07:35:02 PM

Been through the box Steve. There's a spare wire for a different Rx but no remote click thing.
Any ideas where I'd get one. Just been looking and it seems you can do it through beta flight and your Tx but not sure I want to tamper with settings just yet.

Loopdreams · August 01, 2018, 09:40:44 PM

Something that's often overlooked, the brightness and contrast settings on your goggles might not be set right. Before you do anything else check that. If the brightness is way low then it'll look like that.

Cameras have improved a fair bit lately but the one you have shouldn't be as bad as you describe.

But if you do want a cheap replacement Caddx are really decent and will almost certainly be an improvement.