Adding Better FPV To Your Tank

[Eend]

An Aside: from your initial comment in your first post above, Jib, I gather that you care about your writing. So just FYI, I copied your discourse on FPV above and popped it into WordPerfect. (Yes, I am one of those who sticks with this venerable program, finding it better for "scholarly" writing and editing than MicroSnot Void. ) It came up perfectly formatted. Of course, I also added in the URL and your "Jib" handle.

I thought no one uses WP anymore

I'm guessing it's not version 5.1? That's the version we had back in de DOS-age

[Ecam]

An Aside: from your initial comment in your first post above, Jib, I gather that you care about your writing. So just FYI, I copied your discourse on FPV above and popped it into WordPerfect. (Yes, I am one of those who sticks with this venerable program, finding it better for "scholarly" writing and editing than MicroSnot Void. ) It came up perfectly formatted. Of course, I also added in the URL and your "Jib" handle.

I thought no one uses WP anymore

I'm guessing it's not version 5.1? That's the version we had back in de DOS-age

I think you'll find some of us come from the pre-DOS era. Herr Doc is our spokesperson...

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Word Perfect is still alive and well, bought out by Corel some years ago, still a favorite of lawyers (I don't know why, but I'd bet it has something to do with formatting). Anyhoo, back to tanks.

[Eend]

Ah yes, let's not get sidetracked here

I was just wondering what Jib uses to switch between the 7(!) cameras on his Abrams. I know there is a switching module for FPV cameras, but as far as i know that only works for two cams, not seven. All i could find was a 3-way switch from Aliexpress and a 2-way one from ViFly, and they are a well known company in the FPV hobby, they make a lot of useful little modules for FPV drones.

Not that i'm planning to add more then 1 maybe 2.. But those TBS Ultra Micro Cameras are fairly cheap and tiny. (https://www.team-blacksheep.com/product ... iny_camera)

[Jib]

Just saw this when I was search for the guy who put a motorized CROWS on his Abrams.

Yeah, so, I use three 3 way switches to do this.

In the chassis there are three cameras in the periscope that go to a three way switch in the chassis. The servo cable and the video out for that 3 way switch go up through a slip joint into the turret.

In the turret there is the gunners 3 way switch that has the two gunners main sight cameras and the auxiliary gunner sight camera. The output of this (gunners) 3 way switch and the output of the chassis (drivers) 3 way switch themselves go to ANOTHER 3 way switch (commanders) in the turret that also has the CITV camera on it.

So on the commanders 3 way switch it looks like CITV camera -> S1, Gunners 3 way switch output -> S2, Drivers 3 way switch output -> S3, Output -> Rush Max Solo VTX. In the turret there is a second 8 channel receiver that all of the 3 way switches are connected to, along with the motor for the CITV and the Gun Stabilization board servo controls. On the remote I have a 3 way toggle that controls whether you are in the CITV, the gunners cameras, or the drivers cameras. I have another 3 way toggle devoted to switching between the gunner’s cameras and another 3 way toggle devote to switching between the driver’s cameras.

I just recently added some cameras to my Taigen Late Tiger I, only 4 though.

[Eend]

Interesting, i'm currently printing a VK1602, a small, light tank so probably not a lot of space to put cameras in, but i can install a driver cam, and maybe a gunner and commander cam too. But how do you handle cooling of the VTX? Those tend to get rather toasty quickly, even in my FPV drones where the VTX sits pretty much in the open air, cooled by the two motors in the back.

[Jib]

Yep I don’t know why I said that about analog having higher latency. Brain fart.

Yeah if you’re going to have a VTX on a ground vehicle, you really need to get a 25mm fan for it. I’ve burned up a couple of them not having a fan on them. Some of them have protections to keep that from happening, but not all.

[Jib]

Interesting, i'm currently printing a VK1602, a small, light tank so probably not a lot of space to put cameras in, but i can install a driver cam, and maybe a gunner and commander cam too. But how do you handle cooling of the VTX? Those tend to get rather toasty quickly, even in my FPV drones where the VTX sits pretty much in the open air, cooled by the two motors in the back.

An FPV system shouldn’t take up a ton of room, but if you want to try to maintain the aesthetics of the tank, TBS’s Ultra Tiny cameras are great for fitting in where periscopes are on the tank, or small vision ports. If you don’t care about that you can just slap a micro camera on top and call it a day. That’s what I used to do.

So what I said in the other post, I have found that a 25mm x 25mm fan does the trick for keeping the VTX cool. Amazon sells these little aluminum ones, Rocket something or other, that work great. I like using the Rush Tank Solo VTX because, among other things, it has a heat sink with M2 screw holes in it to mount a fan directly onto it.

[Eend]

An FPV system shouldn’t take up a ton of room, but if you want to try to maintain the aesthetics of the tank, TBS’s Ultra Tiny cameras are great for fitting in where periscopes are on the tank, or small vision ports. If you don’t care about that you can just slap a micro camera on top and call it a day. That’s what I used to do.

So what I said in the other post, I have found that a 25mm x 25mm fan does the trick for keeping the VTX cool. Amazon sells these little aluminum ones, Rocket something or other, that work great. I like using the Rush Tank Solo VTX because, among other things, it has a heat sink with M2 screw holes in it to mount a fan directly onto it.

Do you mean this fan? : https://www.amazon.com/Surpass-Alumimiu ... 0B8HT27S4/ from the description they seem to be ESC fans, so my local RC store might have some too. Anyway, i now know what to look for. I'll have to see what the end product looks like before i decide how to mount the FPV cams. For now i'm going for the simplest setup: one in the driver viewport, as it is pretty big, and see from there.

[Jib]

Yeah that’s the one. You can probably find one for prime shipping if you look around, if that applies to you.

So cameras are generally of the following dimensions of height and width, depth varies from camera to camera.

Micro: 19mmx19mm
Nano: 14mmx14mm
TBS Ultra Tiny Camera: 5mmx5mm (roughly)

The camera with the smallest foot print (w x h x d) I have seen that isn’t the TBS UTC is the Caddx Ant, a nano camera. That’s what I have in my CITV tower in my Abrams.

The TBS UTC gives a decent picture for analog (only works with analog, not digital, everything I use is meant for analog) unless it starts to get dark out, it doesn’t really have any low light capabilities. Other nano and micro cameras have better low light abilities.