SkyRF vs. Nextwave?

Over the last weeks we talked and read much about how the new Foxtech Receivers seem to be much worse than the old ones (for example my 3 years old RC305 vs. the new RC305 Receivers).

Maybe its the manufacturing tolerance that has changed, because of the big success of those modules and the higher sales volumes.
All we know is, that out of 8 new Foxtech Receivers, there is only one that performs as good as our old ones and the other 7 new Receivers perform noticeable worse.

They still outperform the airwave based systems out there (ImmersionRC/Iftrontech/Fatshark etc.), but ImmersionRC has released a new receiver series a few month ago that are based on new “Nextwave” modules.

As far as i understand the guys from FPV Lab, the Nextwave modules are also based on the SkyRF receiver chip, but with a totally different impulse generator, so that the airwave frequencies can be used.

A flying buddy has flown 7km with 600mW and a 4turn Helical on a ImmersionRC DUO5800 v3 (Nextwave Modules), so it seems, those receivers are at least as good, as the ones from Foxtech (maybe even better, or with better quality assurance).

If we got some money to spare, we want to buy a Nextwave Receiver (maybe the UNO5800) + Transmitter and do a side by side test against our foxtech receivers.

Are you interested in such a comparison? Let us know in the comments or facebook.

Nextwave receivers and ImmersionRC transmitters are sold out almost everywhere, so even if we got some spare money, it can take a while to get that hardware.

GoPro LiveOut vs. CCTV Cam

GoPro_vs_CCTV

We noticed, that there are still many pilots out there, that use the GoPro with Live Out as an FPV cam as well.

We definitely do not reccomend it and here’s the list or arguments against using the GoPro Live Out:

  • GoPro can hang up / freeze (some times a GoPro error or a SD Card problem)
  • GoPro can shut down (Battery low)
  • GoPro Live Out gets black for a second, when it shoots a photo (not flyable when you want to use one picture / 2 seconds mode)
  • most Video Goggles got a 4:3 aspect ratio, but you might like to use the 1920×1280 or 1280×720 GoPro Mode, so you will get black borders in the Goggles
  • if you forgot to charge the GoPro you will not be able to fly
  • no configurable WDR or Backlight compensation, so in difficult light situations, the picture will be worse than the picture on a good CCTV Cam
  • bad low light performance (even the GoPro 2 or 3 black edition are not as strong in low light, as a cheap Sony Super HAD II CCTV Cam)