RC Speed car

[ziggy12345]

Hi

I am looking for a suitable system to control a remote controlled car. I run RC cars for land speed records and the problem I have is the run up starts so far away I cant see the car anymore. I want a system that can be used up to 1/2 mile. I will be up in a tower some 5 meters from the ground. I have tested the control system and its fine with this range

The camera system need to be stabilized so I can make out where I am pointing the car.

Any suggestions?

[electrotor]

Hi

I am looking for a suitable system to control a remote controlled car. I run RC cars for land speed records and the problem I have is the run up starts so far away I cant see the car anymore. I want a system that can be used up to 1/2 mile. I will be up in a tower some 5 meters from the ground. I have tested the control system and its fine with this range

The camera system need to be stabilized so I can make out where I am pointing the car.

Any suggestions?

Puzzled.
You say you are looking for a system to control a remote controlled car but then go on to say that you have tested the control system and it is fine with the range of up to 1/2 mile.
So what is it you want to control? A camera?
What control system have you tested? Details would help because there are so many available and your post doesn't tell us what you have already tested.
Also, do you intend to do this in the UK?
More details please.

[ziggy12345]

yeah sorry..

I have the car control system but I need a camera system to see out of the front of the car while driving so I can control it.

Cheers

[electrotor]

As I said before, what control system have you tested? Details would help because there are so many available and your post doesn't tell us what you have already tested. Your car control system may conflict with any suggestions from people on this Forum. For example if you control the car with a 2.4GHz system, a video (camera) system operating within the same band could conflict.
Also, do you intend to do this in the UK?
You're really not giving us much to go on so far. People are really keen to help but need a minimum of basic information.

[Coyote]

Yeah as Electrotor said, a bit more info needed first

[ziggy12345]

Control gear for the car is 2.4ghz Futaba FASST system. I havent tested any camera gear yet, i just tested the control gear (throttle and steer the car). All I need is the camera, TX unit, RX unit and goggles for 1/2 mile range on land within line of sight

Cheers

[Coyote]

On land for that sort of range your looking at 1.2ghz, but 1.2 can clash with 2.4 unless you use channels which are out of the harmonics of the 2.4 ( the higher the better )

[electrotor]

To avoid clashes how about a 5.8GHz VTX/VRX?
Anyone have experience of the range at ground level?

As regards goggles, you can have them with VRX built in or not. It's a neat and convenient package built in, but may no suit if you want to experiment with different bands for the VTX/VRX.

For the camera, you may not want a particularly wide field of view, because it is easier to steer when looking into the distance at a fixed point.

What sort of budget do you have?
Can we assume this will be done in the UK? Answers to radio questions depend on location.

[Coyote]

So far when I have tried 5.8 at low level results were not great, anything under 4ft at 500m even with CP was not great.

Devonian has done a fair bit of testing with 5.8 though so might be able to shed more light on this

[ziggy12345]

Yes its in the UK. As for budget I dont know but anything that works will be considered.

Cheers

[LongRat]

Ziggy,
welcome to the forum.  I believe Rootz is attempting the same idea as you.  As you may remember I have been involved in the RC speed game on a small level in the past, have attended one of your events and seen what the challenges are.  I have also built my own car, back in 2001 for attempting the record.

My advice, based on watching FPV videos and doing a TON of research for cars, is that your car will be WAY WAY WAY too fast for the fpv to be of any use whatsoever.  Being so low to the ground I don't think it will be at all clear what direction you are going in and you will never be able to respond in time if you do start to lose yourself.  Camera stabilising has been demonstrated with gyros and it works really effectively, but that's for walking-pace crawlers.  The high frequency noise and bumps of a 200mph car would be impossibly fast for such a system to compensate for.  I would use a ground-mounted camera and a screen rather than goggles, put the camera out near the start of the run and monitor the car on the screen, then when it gets closer switch to the naked eye.  If you do that you don't need FPV, you don't even need a VTX/RX radio link if you don't want to.  This will be a big plus because if, I assume you are running a super high power electric drive system, the RF noise from that could potentially cause havoc to the camera and VTx if you ran FPV.  Planes running high power are usually bigger and able to separate the components suitably - not so with the car.

[electrotor]

Good reply LongRat, you've obviously done your homework.
Most of us use FPV in aircraft so would not be familiar with the issues you have pointed out.

[Liam B.]

There is a video of some HPI baja's FPVing. What radio system you using?
A Fpv summit has also been done before!
Liam

[tdmodels]

I may be missing something here, but if it is straight line speed that you are after, what about a heading hold gyro on your steering servo?

[LongRat]

If I remember correctly Ziggy is already running gyro-stabilised direction control - but it has been a while.
To give you an idea how impressive this stuff is, here's the video of Ziggy's rocket RC drag car went 163MPH through the speed trap.

Rocket dragster record at RC Speed Champs