Joshua: A quick correction and info for those reading: The Vista has onboard storage, when you connect it to your computer, it will show up as a USB Mass Storage Device. Put the FCC mode "hack" file on this storage drive using your computer, the same exact way that you would normally put it on the Air Units MicroSD Card, and it will unlock FCC mode, same as before. This is as per Caddx and DJI fwiw and other users have tried it and confirmed it works. The VPN "trick" is less reliable and often results in issues updating the air unit or getting firmware to download. Also - the MAJORITY of the heat generated by both the Air Unit and the Vista, is from it's CPU that's used to encode and compress the HD Video stream. Therefore even at 25mW it still gets very hot, which is also why it gets so hot during updates. Dropping the VTX power doesn't actually reduce much of the heat or the power consumption for this reason.
7:32 those are not 16x16 mm mounting holes, that's 20x20 mm on the inside and the outer ones are 1"x1" (whoop mounting pattern - that's what we use for most Toothpicks so your conclusion is still true).
Hey Joshua, Just wanted to say thank you. Im about a year into FPV and when I started I nearly gave up and wrote off flying fpv quads all together. Fortunately I stumbled across a video of yours on setting up betaflight and FINALLY started learning. You have the BEST explanations and guidance in your videos down to the little details. I think experienced flyers overlook important details that us newbs are clueless about. I dang near tossed my first 5" into the Pacific ocean after a week of trying to connect to beta flight. Luckily I came across your video and learned that my USB connection did not connect data..... A no brainer now, but had you not mentioned it I'd be out a few hundred bucks and never knew how much I would love this hobby. Thank you for taking the time to make such a great channel. You are my go to now.
Next time you are in LA, we would love for you to come race in our warehouse! We would make a huge course for you and advertise it for all pilots to come join in the race for a youtube video!
"Low Power Mode" has always prevented one from starting recording (even in the goggles). The regular air unit will start at 25mW while disarmed but drop to Low Power Mode when it gets hot. The Vista appears to just immediately drop down to Low Power Mode when it's powered on, and disarmed. I tested this from a cold boot. Updating a regular air unit with latest firmware to make sure they didn't break that as well.
Thankfully they did not break the regular air units. It's a Vista specific "feature". The problem is, it won't start recording until you arm, and it takes almost a second after it arms to start recording, and then the image freezes solid for what feels like almost another second as it starts recording. So if you're flying your little 85-95 class quad around indoors and crash it in a corner. You disarm, orient, and then re-arm and try to re-launch it quick so it doesn't thrash around too much in auto-level mode.. the image will lock up right about the time you try to lift off. Been there, done that.. crashed again and again. Basically you gotta arm in acro, wait for it to start recording, then go to auto-level and throttle up at the same time.
Was that a mis-speak where you mentioned "spoke to DJI engineers"?, as the dialogue that followed sounded more like the answer was from Caddex engineers.
Another factor: DJI support. I've already sent my goggles and one air unit in for repair. They handled the process like Fatshark, fairly gracefully and painless. When you are spending more than $50 on a single piece of hardware, it starts to get a lot less throwaway. I haven't heard any reviewers address this yet. Great review Joshua!
Yes the googles refuse to record in low power mode, we have this problem in the CE regions because the Air Units overheat really quickly in 25mw mode, in the "I never do it scenario" of being able to crank the power up to 700mw, you can do this after it goes into lower power mode and it'll exit low power mode and recording can be started immediately, it's almost as if the units were designed to only work at 700mw and 25mw was an after thought to comply with our insane power regulations in the EU and the additional power is expelled as heat. So it's not just you Joshua, I've taken to leaving my units on 700mw with thermal management off and they rarely go into low power mode now (also for the same reason you do, I don't want it switching to 25mw if I disarm a long walk away) but if I switched the unit to 25mw output or turn on thermal management, the Air Unit system will go into low power mode in under 2 minutes.
Jibba Jabba the fact that it’s also overheating in 25mW mode suggests that it’s not the RF part causing (most of) the heat but rather something else for example the video processing.
Don't need a VPN for the FCC hack. If you power the Vista unit and then plug in the USB (sometimes I have to do it twice), it'll pop up a new 4GB drive on your computer. Drop the file into that drive, and then reboot the Vista unit and it'll work same as having that file on the SD card of your Airunit.
Thanks for the review! The comparison seems a little bit off. The same quad should be used for both modules. The Beta95 has much less interferrence than a 5" quad.
In between flights you can spray the Caddx unit with an upside down can of compressed air. That has always worked for me when I need to cool down some computer chips.
I picked up a beta95 from getfpv for 99 bucks a couple months ago, the one setup for a naked GoPro and it's just been sitting on my shelf waiting for a new project. I figured at that cheap it was worth it just for 4s whoop, or a parts quad. Last week I traded a xmaxx for dji v2 goggles and remote and ordered the vista polar. Still waiting for the vista to show up but figured I'd search for a setup video so I could be prepared and to my surprise you have a video with the exact same equipment! I'm swapping to a sector25 frame assuming it all fits as I'm still waiting on that too, but man this video is a life saver. I've been flying with a literadio v2 because I like the simplicity but not the form factor. My friend has a opentx radio and I can't stand how complex it is I really don't want all of that. I've yet to fly a dji system but I've been playing with the goggles and I can't wait to get it in the air. Great videos 👍
twinturbostang agreed, but they definitely did some range improvements. 0300 and 0400 seem like I can get around a bend or a tree I wasn’t able to on the original firmware.
As you said. It's build by Caddx designed by DJI. Doesn't mean it's a bad product. Cant wait to try it out! Micros are my jam and this will take it to a whole new level :D
The DJI system is amazing in high multipath environments. It blows Rapidfire away inside a metal building. I would say you dont even need both antenna. But having two antenna helps with multipathing more then it helps with range. That is why one antenna on the Vista is good enough.
I'm so happy to see you do a review on the Transtec Beetle, I have this quadcopter as well, but it's my first quadcopter and I was really looking forward to hear your take on it. Thanks!
BTW, just a note for reference, to double the range of a transmitter 4x the power output is required, all other things equal (like obstacles and humidity). So,, going from 700 to 1200mw will give only about 35% more range - best case. That could explain why you didn’t see a large difference when you increased the power output. It could make the difference between flyable and not flyable video in some cases though. Especially if the humidity is high. 5.8ghz is greatly attenuated by humidity compared to lower frequencies. Lastly, I would guess that the reason, the goggles stopped recording when the air unit was in temperature protection mode is that it’s turning off the power amp in the transmitter (that’s what makes much of the heat) and the goggles are setup to not record when no useful signal is present.
also considering he already said the caddx vista gets a little hotter than the dji air unit, it probably jist wasnt outputting the full 1200mW for more than a few seconds
Really enjoyed the video Josh and I have to say all of the DJI Products that I have owned have always performed well with excellent video quality and range and since they are overseeing the production of this vista I’m hoping it will have the same quality. we will see as always awesome work thank you for the video.
Great overview JB. On FCC in CE there is some small onboard storage on the Vista that acts as a external drive that you access via the USB C. To perform FCC you simply connect the Vista to pc and a drive will appear like a usb thumb drive and you simply place the naco.txt on that drive and boom. Edit just seen someone has posted it.
Awesome as usual J.B. My wife would like you to know that she loves to watch your videos with me as she loves your style or way of explaining things. any other videos and shes out. Well besides the Late but never forgotten and beloved Blue falcon. His videos are where I learned about you.
If Caddx is known for quality budget products, I would have thought that they broke that ceiling with the Caddx Ratel Starlight. That camera is amazing. Blows away any Runcam camera, I've ever had. But this looks to be a great micro quad solution for the dji set up. I'm just not ready to give up my fatshark HD3's and TBS Unify yet. It's a comfort thing for me more than a price point. I just know what to expect and can rely on TBS and true D.
I have no DJI HD system yet. But I am planning to get one at some point. The only thing that makes me nervous is, that I have never had a single decently working Caddx product. I hope that DJI does the QC on those products - time will tell...
@@FilipRadelic Regarding the camera I thought so, yes. Still leaves the after sale support to Caddx - I've been told three times by their support to basically go away. I will simply wait a bit to see how peoples experiences are. Thanks for your input.
Damn! That's sweet! Nice to see alternatives. It really stands with DJI air unit performance. I am surprised. Thanks for sharing Joshua! Keep rocking! Cheers mate!
I'm glad I hung in there to the end. You finally answered a question I couldn't get an answer to and that was if this was a colab. Mystery solved. Thx.
Joshua, please get yourself some small .6mm solder tips. It makes it so much easier working with these tiny boards. Love the videos, but watching you with a soldering iron gives me some mild anxiety at times.
I would be interested in seeing what exactly would happen if you turned overheating protection off and then just let it sit for a while (with power) and see if anything gets damaged.
Hey Joshua thanks for your video!! During attempting to activate my Caddx Vista I accept twice then I get a Activation failed please re-try. I retry and it just fails again I’ve tried it several times after I plug in the lights red for about 15 seconds and then it connects and the light on the Vista goes green then I try to activate again it fails again. NEVER MIND I GOT IT 👍👍👍👍👌👌👌
Can't find the KababFPV video or live-stream from the E3, where he was talking to DJI. If I remember correctly, DJI will be selling those units, and they do work with multiple HD FPV cameras. And they will start selling them this year (I believe April). CADDX is just buying these from DJI and selling to the market. And sadly they are not planing new Goggles.
this is a really exciting product! i don't think i'll be buying one as i already bought another air unit for my 3" build a while back, but it's great to see new dji fpv products coming out that address the issues we're facing. i do hope one day they make a goggle module as well so that we're not stuck into the cumbersome dji goggles. maybe that's just wishful thinking
I seriously wish there was a Standardized form factor. Meaning you can take any esc and flight controller and just plug them together. Soldering is a bit of a pain for some of us. Also i sometimes feel like i need to take a college course to understand what all those pin outs even are.
thanks JB. not going in any of my 7" ers but prob good for my cinewhoops that need to carry a gopro and need all the weight reduction they can get. happy flying bro!
So, DJI will release in the near future, a "lite" version of the AU. I bet they are beta testing the design with this cadex unit. And once all the kinks are gone, temperature control, is one. They will release their perfected "lite" version of the AU.
Just started quadcopters January 2020. Started with Akaso a300, capable learning platform with decent camera's to touch base. By the end of January I had # 2, a Lbla Aurora, better performance and learning curve however the camera options went backwards in terms of quality and ability compared to the a300 even. (a300 much more worth while all around if you can only afford one) Come February already I'd decided to get more serious with a Bugs3. transmitter and receiver antennas with circular polarized, mod complete 2nd week into the month . A few days ago, the c5830(fpv kit) fpv cam arrived took the place of the headlight including the d43 goggles and view screen w accessories. I currently only mounted the screen to the controller. Immediately upon arrival, began modding the internal antenna to the external position. I got everything, D43/C5830 Cam etc. used on eBay for like $60 to my door so I did ok. All in I'm only out about $150.00 including (starting from) the Bugs3 , all mods and parts mentioned. I'm movin fast in the hobbie and I haven't even tried the goggles yet, and won't until after some computer training, as well advised by you. Much appreciated advice as I am poor but learn pretty fast where the bang for the buck is at in the quadcopter world, as well as how to make it last and function well. Thanks for the great advice as my head is definitely beginning to swell and pound from the immense pleasure and possibilities this offers to anyone, let alone those with physical disability or limitations. Simply a Godsend in terms of freedom to feel alive again! Keep up the great work, much appreciated!
People,,,,stop complaining about His soldering tip.stay on topic. Send Him some money and thank you's. Thanks Joshua for sharing Your knowledge in this great hobby and sport. The Ole fella in NB Canada.
Hey Josch, I know you are a busy man. I just don't know who I can ask now. - I set up the caddex vista. Even same quad as yours, I think. In betaflight I set up all the AUX switches and they react with my DJI Controler in betaflight. In conf. I have Sbus & serial-based receiver. BUT once I want to try out the quad nothing happens. Can't arm, props wont spin. Weird is that evrything else seems to be connected and in BEtaflight it all reacts. Just not in "real life" Same for props. In betaflight they spin but since I can't arm in real life with my DJI Controler it they dont. Thank you so much for answering and if you cant make it dont worry. I know a lot of people ask you things all the time :))
Since you have both the Caddx and DJI, could you test their power consumption? Get bangood to sponsor you a cheap DC power meter, it would add some substance to your product "reviews" (you say its your job, but its more like casual observation.) I'd suggest leaving the transmitter test rig stationary and walk the same path twice with the goggles in dvr mode to test with varying signal strength. That way a weak battery won't throw off the test.
Hi Josh Great video and review of the Caddx Vista. I have been looking at the DJI video system but I always said that the reason I would not get it is because I can't afford to spend $180 dollars for a camera and VTX and only would fit in a 5in or bigger. With the Caddx Vista I can make a couple quads with the Vista. Thanks again for the information.
On top of multipath interference, the lack of antenna diversity is also going to hurt performance when maneuvering. In a diversity setup, you have 2 planes of polarization (assuming the antennas aren't in the exact same position/arrangement). So one antenna might be better positioned while the airframe is vertical/in a loop, and another might be better positioned for level flight. You'll probably see some flakiness when you're at the outer limits of range and you start doing any sort of maneuvering that moves the antenna off the ideal axis for your reciever. All that said, if you're using DJI goggles you have mutliple planes of diversity on the receive side, it will mitigate it somewhat, but still not be as good as full bidirectional diversity. Nice review!
The camera on Vista and the full sized Air Unit is identical as far as I know. The rumor has it that both of them are manufactured by DJI but Vista is distributed under the Caddx brand for some reason.
Joshua Bardwell You are probably correct. Vista spec says Dji camera with rolling shutter and dji spec says cmos global shutter. It seems that dji is selling hardware to Caddx but not the image reconstruction algorithm software. Few days ago I tested the dji air unit on my fixed wing...image was out of this world.
Joshua Bardwell I have send email to Dji and Caddx for clarification, but after sending the email, I realized that I was looking Dji OcuSync camera, not Airunit.
I've come across different sources about the antenna, saying it's purpose built for the Vista unit. I thought it was just a normal LHCP antenna....unless there's something more inside for the radio link signal. The build I am going to be putting this in would do much better with one of those SMA to ufl connectors. But if i'm stuck with that particular antenna, I'm gonna have to redesign my 3d prints to accommodate it
Maybe the temperature sensor it RIGHT next to the parts in the transmitting power stage that produce heat. So temps will rise quickly and high right there.
In such distances and environment I would worry more about remaining battery charge than possibility to lose FPV picture. Because there seems possible to fall from sky because you simply have no battery juice left. :) A lot of uncovered things though. What this thing actually is? Seems it is not a flight controller and still require Betaflight compatible FC and receiver for use with my Taranis. UPDATE: Answer to myself - learned that AU and Vista contain both DJI radio receiver and VTX. Still require a FC to fly a quad :) And separate receiver if you use another radio than DJI remote. Also after 3 months in DJI HD FPV realm learned that small stock Caddx Vista VTX antenna is already good, but CaddxFPV Camera Antenna for Vista is slightly better.
I have (and I'm not alone), but that's the frustrating nature of QA - even if it's mediocre, most customers are going to be very happy for very good reason. Love my stuff that works, which is why having DOA stuff is that much of a bummer
Vista takes 6s and AU takes 4s, but most FC’s today come with 5v and 12v outputs no matter the input voltage so my AU takes 12v from a 6s battery to FC
I think the NewBeeDrone infinity 30 stack has an inbuilt power regulator so you can run 6S on the AU. Well I hope so as I just bought one online yesterday to go with my DJI setup. :)
Just a hint for radio transmission, 1,200 mW vs 7-800 mW is not much different. Distance is based on the inverse square law en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law (1/r^2, 1 over the radius squared) So the drop off at 1,200 mW was exactly as expected. Minus/plus the obstructions.
I'm very familiar with the inverse square law. 700 mW to 1200 mW is almost 3 more dB. You won't find any RF professional who'll tell you that 3 dB is negligible.
They should have put bigger heat sinks on the vista, this can't have a long life if it gets this warm! I think I would almost ad a super tiny fan on top of the vista just to cool the vista while idling.
Transmit distance goes with square root of power so 1200mw is just 30% better in open air. Penetration is due to wavelength. Also It should have an onboard 4gb memory just for uploading the file for EU 700mw mod.
Heat issues? Stick a PC fan on your desk, full blast, when working on it. Get power from your 12 volt bench psu for your chargers😅 On a plus side, you'll stay nice and cool also😎👍
Yes it is. The DJI camera cable is 2cm longer than the Vista (it's 10cm vs 8cm) and has a silicone insulation over the cable. As such it also weighs more (not much).
Joshua, I saw the recent DJI updates specifically the 50Mbits. Have you tried going to the same area where it was breaking up a lot? I'm excited to know the resutls. Oh, I pulled the trigger last night. I bought Caddx Vista. I don't have the goggles yet but that will be next! 😊
Enjoyed the review. Looking forward to your thoughts on the next update supporting HDMI out to the DJI Smart Controller and whether that gives any hope for future options!
Stephen Rossi they didn’t “announce” it, but in update 0400 it says at the bottom, next update to include support for connecting to their smart controller.
![☀ Вечерняя камера для DJI FPV | Замена DJI Airunit - подключение, настройка, тесты [Caddx Polar]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YjcK4eDreYs/mqdefault.jpg)
Joshua: A quick correction and info for those reading: The Vista has onboard storage, when you connect it to your computer, it will show up as a USB Mass Storage Device. Put the FCC mode "hack" file on this storage drive using your computer, the same exact way that you would normally put it on the Air Units MicroSD Card, and it will unlock FCC mode, same as before. This is as per Caddx and DJI fwiw and other users have tried it and confirmed it works. The VPN "trick" is less reliable and often results in issues updating the air unit or getting firmware to download. Also - the MAJORITY of the heat generated by both the Air Unit and the Vista, is from it's CPU that's used to encode and compress the HD Video stream. Therefore even at 25mW it still gets very hot, which is also why it gets so hot during updates. Dropping the VTX power doesn't actually reduce much of the heat or the power consumption for this reason.
Protonus so is there a way to lower the heat? It seems like a crazy thing to buy. It overheated when he turned it on...
@@labpartners3490 it didn't overheat. It was just in low power mode because it wasn't yet armed.
Protonus Thanks for that!
where i find a file?
@@luka051471936 you create it...
I've now realized that your home is a map on lift off!!!!!!.Awesome....Beautiful spot to fly!!!! Also very interesting test! 👋
7:32 those are not 16x16 mm mounting holes, that's 20x20 mm on the inside and the outer ones are 1"x1" (whoop mounting pattern - that's what we use for most Toothpicks so your conclusion is still true).
It's so funny to watch these old videos! Look how Bardwell talks about the Vista... "Don't disassemble it." 😂😂😂
Hey Joshua,
Just wanted to say thank you. Im about a year into FPV and when I started I nearly gave up and wrote off flying fpv quads all together. Fortunately I stumbled across a video of yours on setting up betaflight and FINALLY started learning.
You have the BEST explanations and guidance in your videos down to the little details. I think experienced flyers overlook important details that us newbs are clueless about. I dang near tossed my first 5" into the Pacific ocean after a week of trying to connect to beta flight. Luckily I came across your video and learned that my USB connection did not connect data..... A no brainer now, but had you not mentioned it I'd be out a few hundred bucks and never knew how much I would love this hobby.
Thank you for taking the time to make such a great channel. You are my go to now.
Next time you are in LA, we would love for you to come race in our warehouse! We would make a huge course for you and advertise it for all pilots to come join in the race for a youtube video!
Would love to know where good fly spots are around LA, it’s a challenge!
"Low Power Mode" has always prevented one from starting recording (even in the goggles). The regular air unit will start at 25mW while disarmed but drop to Low Power Mode when it gets hot. The Vista appears to just immediately drop down to Low Power Mode when it's powered on, and disarmed. I tested this from a cold boot.
Updating a regular air unit with latest firmware to make sure they didn't break that as well.
Thankfully they did not break the regular air units. It's a Vista specific "feature". The problem is, it won't start recording until you arm, and it takes almost a second after it arms to start recording, and then the image freezes solid for what feels like almost another second as it starts recording.
So if you're flying your little 85-95 class quad around indoors and crash it in a corner. You disarm, orient, and then re-arm and try to re-launch it quick so it doesn't thrash around too much in auto-level mode.. the image will lock up right about the time you try to lift off. Been there, done that.. crashed again and again. Basically you gotta arm in acro, wait for it to start recording, then go to auto-level and throttle up at the same time.
Was that a mis-speak where you mentioned "spoke to DJI engineers"?, as the dialogue that followed sounded more like the answer was from Caddex engineers.
Another factor: DJI support. I've already sent my goggles and one air unit in for repair. They handled the process like Fatshark, fairly gracefully and painless. When you are spending more than $50 on a single piece of hardware, it starts to get a lot less throwaway. I haven't heard any reviewers address this yet. Great review Joshua!
Don't forget, your air is much drier this time of year and there are no leaves on the trees.
Yeah. With analogue fpv my experience has been around double the range in winter without leaves flying behind trees.
Lmao I love your name. "Flaparound FPV"
@@sleepingbearffg5008 moist air would make more sense since moist air is less dense than dry air?
@@ttonAb2 has more to do with moisture in foliage, grass, trees leaves etc that effect range.
nice thing is that these will hopefully fit in my old analogue builds so i can convert my dust gatherers
Perfect ..
Yes
Sleeping Bear yes
Yes the googles refuse to record in low power mode, we have this problem in the CE regions because the Air Units overheat really quickly in 25mw mode, in the "I never do it scenario" of being able to crank the power up to 700mw, you can do this after it goes into lower power mode and it'll exit low power mode and recording can be started immediately, it's almost as if the units were designed to only work at 700mw and 25mw was an after thought to comply with our insane power regulations in the EU and the additional power is expelled as heat.
So it's not just you Joshua, I've taken to leaving my units on 700mw with thermal management off and they rarely go into low power mode now (also for the same reason you do, I don't want it switching to 25mw if I disarm a long walk away) but if I switched the unit to 25mw output or turn on thermal management, the Air Unit system will go into low power mode in under 2 minutes.
Jibba Jabba the fact that it’s also overheating in 25mW mode suggests that it’s not the RF part causing (most of) the heat but rather something else for example the video processing.
Pretty sure the custom ASIC's are provided by DJI to Caddx. I wonder if there will be a Caddx digital cam in the future?
Been trying to gather my knowledge before buying my fist fpv set up,you sir are a life saver.
Don't need a VPN for the FCC hack. If you power the Vista unit and then plug in the USB (sometimes I have to do it twice), it'll pop up a new 4GB drive on your computer. Drop the file into that drive, and then reboot the Vista unit and it'll work same as having that file on the SD card of your Airunit.
I wondered what that drive was for, since it's definitely NOT for storing DVR footage.
Yep, saw that on Albert's video
If you do the hack 1200mw to your goggles is the fcc hack necessary?
@@bluejfpv7876 If you originally registered your devices inside FCC region, then no. If not, then yes.
Great test...Now, Focus Mode off, get some height, a 5 incher and out to 4kms..?
Thanks for the review!
The comparison seems a little bit off. The same quad should be used for both modules. The Beta95 has much less interferrence than a 5" quad.
I really like your verbal references and links to other videos.
In between flights you can spray the Caddx unit with an upside down can of compressed air. That has always worked for me when I need to cool down some computer chips.
I love how you used the drone as a selfie cam :)
I picked up a beta95 from getfpv for 99 bucks a couple months ago, the one setup for a naked GoPro and it's just been sitting on my shelf waiting for a new project. I figured at that cheap it was worth it just for 4s whoop, or a parts quad. Last week I traded a xmaxx for dji v2 goggles and remote and ordered the vista polar. Still waiting for the vista to show up but figured I'd search for a setup video so I could be prepared and to my surprise you have a video with the exact same equipment! I'm swapping to a sector25 frame assuming it all fits as I'm still waiting on that too, but man this video is a life saver. I've been flying with a literadio v2 because I like the simplicity but not the form factor. My friend has a opentx radio and I can't stand how complex it is I really don't want all of that. I've yet to fly a dji system but I've been playing with the goggles and I can't wait to get it in the air. Great videos 👍
Don't forget your range test with the DJI air unit was before fall, and so all the leaves were still on the trees. Definitely a harder test.
twinturbostang agreed, but they definitely did some range improvements. 0300 and 0400 seem like I can get around a bend or a tree I wasn’t able to on the original firmware.
So no 4 kilometres range indoors...ok I’ll just have to limit myself to stadiums.
No luck to explore LHC or secret military tunnels then.
Been waiting for this review. Nice! Joshua, one humble suggestion, life will be much easier with a smaller soldering tip. 😊👍
As you said. It's build by Caddx designed by DJI. Doesn't mean it's a bad product. Cant wait to try it out! Micros are my jam and this will take it to a whole new level :D
The DJI system is amazing in high multipath environments. It blows Rapidfire away inside a metal building. I would say you dont even need both antenna. But having two antenna helps with multipathing more then it helps with range. That is why one antenna on the Vista is good enough.
I'm so happy to see you do a review on the Transtec Beetle, I have this quadcopter as well, but it's my first quadcopter and I was really looking forward to hear your take on it. Thanks!
BTW, just a note for reference, to double the range of a transmitter 4x the power output is required, all other things equal (like obstacles and humidity). So,, going from 700 to 1200mw will give only about 35% more range - best case. That could explain why you didn’t see a large difference when you increased the power output. It could make the difference between flyable and not flyable video in some cases though. Especially if the humidity is high. 5.8ghz is greatly attenuated by humidity compared to lower frequencies.
Lastly, I would guess that the reason, the goggles stopped recording when the air unit was in temperature protection mode is that it’s turning off the power amp in the transmitter (that’s what makes much of the heat) and the goggles are setup to not record when no useful signal is present.
also considering he already said the caddx vista gets a little hotter than the dji air unit, it probably jist wasnt outputting the full 1200mW for more than a few seconds
5:07 Classic Bardwell
I'm sure there's no evidence of JB shorting to VBAT trying to do just that.
3:55 Classical Bardwell
Everything I needed to know to convert my slammed shendrone squirt to digital in an hour ready for a shoot! Legend 🤛🏽Thank you 🙌🏾
Really enjoyed the video Josh and I have to say all of the DJI Products that I have owned have always performed well with excellent video quality and range and since they are overseeing the production of this vista I’m hoping it will have the same quality. we will see as always awesome work thank you for the video.
Great overview JB.
On FCC in CE there is some small onboard storage on the Vista that acts as a external drive that you access via the USB C. To perform FCC you simply connect the Vista to pc and a drive will appear like a usb thumb drive and you simply place the naco.txt on that drive and boom.
Edit just seen someone has posted it.
Awesome as usual J.B. My wife would like you to know that she loves to watch your videos with me as she loves your style or way of explaining things. any other videos and shes out. Well besides the Late but never forgotten and beloved Blue falcon. His videos are where I learned about you.
If Caddx is known for quality budget products, I would have thought that they broke that ceiling with the Caddx Ratel Starlight. That camera is amazing. Blows away any Runcam camera, I've ever had. But this looks to be a great micro quad solution for the dji set up. I'm just not ready to give up my fatshark HD3's and TBS Unify yet. It's a comfort thing for me more than a price point. I just know what to expect and can rely on TBS and true D.
I have no DJI HD system yet. But I am planning to get one at some point. The only thing that makes me nervous is, that I have never had a single decently working Caddx product. I hope that DJI does the QC on those products - time will tell...
It's officially certified by DJI and the camera itself is even the same DJI camera that you get with Air Unit.
@@FilipRadelic Regarding the camera I thought so, yes. Still leaves the after sale support to Caddx - I've been told three times by their support to basically go away. I will simply wait a bit to see how peoples experiences are. Thanks for your input.
@@stylesuxx I see. I have no experience with their support directly, but if you get it via a trusted reseller they should have your back 👍
Damn! That's sweet! Nice to see alternatives. It really stands with DJI air unit performance. I am surprised. Thanks for sharing Joshua! Keep rocking! Cheers mate!
5:00 JB discouraging illegal upgrades while conflicting with inner self acknowledging the worth of overboard power output
I'm glad I hung in there to the end. You finally answered a question I couldn't get an answer to and that was if this was a colab. Mystery solved. Thx.
Joshua, please get yourself some small .6mm solder tips. It makes it so much easier working with these tiny boards.
Love the videos, but watching you with a soldering iron gives me some mild anxiety at times.
Urrrrrrrgh but I hate changing my tip soooo much.
I would be interested in seeing what exactly would happen if you turned overheating protection off and then just let it sit for a while (with power) and see if anything gets damaged.
Hey Joshua thanks for your video!!
During attempting to activate my Caddx Vista I accept twice then I get a Activation failed please re-try. I retry and it just fails again I’ve tried it several times after I plug in the lights red for about 15 seconds and then it connects and the light on the Vista goes green then I try to activate again it fails again.
NEVER MIND I GOT IT 👍👍👍👍👌👌👌
hahahah i loved that zoom in buddy " u would never advise me " thats funny thanks for the video just bought the dc5
Can't find the KababFPV video or live-stream from the E3, where he was talking to DJI. If I remember correctly, DJI will be selling those units, and they do work with multiple HD FPV cameras. And they will start selling them this year (I believe April). CADDX is just buying these from DJI and selling to the market. And sadly they are not planing new Goggles.
I wonder if the lack of tree foliage had an affect on the improved range from your air unit test, or if they improved the firmware?
And humidity level is probably much lower also. But the range is still outstanding for such small hd device
I just want to say... Thank you! I'm a complete noob on dones and you bring my knowledge on that to a higher level. Again Thanks...and keep going 👌
this is a really exciting product! i don't think i'll be buying one as i already bought another air unit for my 3" build a while back, but it's great to see new dji fpv products coming out that address the issues we're facing. i do hope one day they make a goggle module as well so that we're not stuck into the cumbersome dji goggles. maybe that's just wishful thinking
Amazing, the range and latency you get with this smaller air unit.
I seriously wish there was a Standardized form factor. Meaning you can take any esc and flight controller and just plug them together. Soldering is a bit of a pain for some of us. Also i sometimes feel like i need to take a college course to understand what all those pin outs even are.
thanks JB. not going in any of my 7" ers but prob good for my cinewhoops that need to carry a gopro and need all the weight reduction they can get. happy flying bro!
I was hoping to see what the finished build looked like, did I miss it?
BigD-FPV he posted another video about it.
@@gtadude24245 Oh thanks, i'll look for it.
I'm highly skeptical of Caddx quality so I will be waiting for a couple months to see how things shake out.
yeh i watch kabbab also lol
20:29 ... Also the camera is just the DJI camera, can't get dust on the sensor from Caddx's camera assembly line.
So, DJI will release in the near future, a "lite" version of the AU. I bet they are beta testing the design with this cadex unit. And once all the kinks are gone, temperature control, is one. They will release their perfected "lite" version of the AU.
Hey Joshua! Do you think that there will be coming out a fatshark - compatible DJI-receiver-module, so that people can keep their Hdo's?
who would buy them though,
@@mercior They don't fit my face and i don't like the look of them :(
Just started quadcopters January 2020. Started with Akaso a300, capable learning platform with decent camera's to touch base. By the end of January I had # 2,
a Lbla Aurora, better performance and learning curve however the camera options went backwards in terms of quality and ability compared to the a300 even. (a300 much more worth while all around if you can only afford one)
Come February already I'd decided to get more serious with a Bugs3. transmitter and receiver antennas with circular polarized, mod complete 2nd week into the month . A few days ago, the c5830(fpv kit) fpv cam arrived took the place of the headlight including the d43 goggles and view screen w accessories.
I currently only mounted the screen to the controller. Immediately upon arrival, began modding the internal antenna to the external position. I got everything, D43/C5830 Cam etc. used on eBay for like $60 to my door so I did ok. All in I'm only out about $150.00 including (starting from) the Bugs3 , all mods and parts mentioned. I'm movin fast in the hobbie and I haven't even tried the goggles yet, and won't until after some computer training, as well advised by you. Much appreciated advice as I am poor but learn pretty fast where the bang for the buck is at in the quadcopter world, as well as how to make it last and function well.
Thanks for the great advice as my head is definitely beginning to swell and pound from the immense pleasure and possibilities this offers to anyone, let alone those with physical disability or limitations. Simply a Godsend in terms of freedom to feel alive again! Keep up the great work, much appreciated!
People,,,,stop complaining about His soldering tip.stay on topic. Send Him some money and thank you's. Thanks Joshua for sharing Your knowledge in this great hobby and sport. The Ole fella in NB Canada.
Very nice review. great alternativ for micro quad. Also I heard from a dealer that DJI will come soon with there own mini air unit...wait and see...
Hey Josch, I know you are a busy man. I just don't know who I can ask now.
- I set up the caddex vista. Even same quad as yours, I think.
In betaflight I set up all the AUX switches and they react with my DJI Controler in betaflight. In conf. I have Sbus & serial-based receiver.
BUT once I want to try out the quad nothing happens. Can't arm, props wont spin.
Weird is that evrything else seems to be connected and in BEtaflight it all reacts. Just not in "real life"
Same for props. In betaflight they spin but since I can't arm in real life with my DJI Controler it they dont.
Thank you so much for answering and if you cant make it dont worry. I know a lot of people ask you things all the time :))
ruclips.net/video/N8oMMG2kmns/видео.html
Since you have both the Caddx and DJI, could you test their power consumption? Get bangood to sponsor you a cheap DC power meter, it would add some substance to your product "reviews" (you say its your job, but its more like casual observation.) I'd suggest leaving the transmitter test rig stationary and walk the same path twice with the goggles in dvr mode to test with varying signal strength. That way a weak battery won't throw off the test.
Joshua how far did it go down the lane approximately? Cheers
Hi Josh Great video and review of the Caddx Vista. I have been looking at the DJI video system but I always said that the reason I would not get it is because I can't afford to spend $180 dollars for a camera and VTX and only would fit in a 5in or bigger. With the Caddx Vista I can make a couple quads with the Vista. Thanks again for the information.
Joshua, Get you some different size solder tips. You were making me nervous soldering with that big tip for the job.
On top of multipath interference, the lack of antenna diversity is also going to hurt performance when maneuvering. In a diversity setup, you have 2 planes of polarization (assuming the antennas aren't in the exact same position/arrangement). So one antenna might be better positioned while the airframe is vertical/in a loop, and another might be better positioned for level flight. You'll probably see some flakiness when you're at the outer limits of range and you start doing any sort of maneuvering that moves the antenna off the ideal axis for your reciever.
All that said, if you're using DJI goggles you have mutliple planes of diversity on the receive side, it will mitigate it somewhat, but still not be as good as full bidirectional diversity.
Nice review!
DJI goggles are MIMO not diversity.
Josh, Caddex uses rolling shutter technique and DJI uses Global shutter. You may not notice this but to a trained eye makes a difference ;)
The camera on Vista and the full sized Air Unit is identical as far as I know. The rumor has it that both of them are manufactured by DJI but Vista is distributed under the Caddx brand for some reason.
Joshua Bardwell
You are probably correct. Vista spec says Dji camera with rolling shutter and dji spec says cmos global shutter. It seems that dji is selling hardware to Caddx but not the image reconstruction algorithm software.
Few days ago I tested the dji air unit on my fixed wing...image was out of this world.
Couldn't it just be a mistake in the spec?
Global vs rolling shutter is easy to see.
Joshua Bardwell
I have send email to Dji and Caddx for clarification, but after sending the email, I realized that I was looking Dji OcuSync camera, not Airunit.
i think last time you flew there was a lots of leaves on the vegetation that blocks the signal
Hi Joshua... A small S.I. tip could give better footage of the assembly part. AWESOME review though, as always!
Could you have it hard up against carbon to disapate the heat???
you asked every question i had apon reading the title in the opening of this video dude your epic !
Auto temp control really matters in terms of performance!!! Thanks for the idea!
I've come across different sources about the antenna, saying it's purpose built for the Vista unit. I thought it was just a normal LHCP antenna....unless there's something more inside for the radio link signal. The build I am going to be putting this in would do much better with one of those SMA to ufl connectors. But if i'm stuck with that particular antenna, I'm gonna have to redesign my 3d prints to accommodate it
Maybe the temperature sensor it RIGHT next to the parts in the transmitting power stage that produce heat. So temps will rise quickly and high right there.
thanks that helped me out so now i will go see if my fly woo with vista needs the same sort of soldering hopefully i can see what i am doing …...
The Vista is interesting, but I want more info on the 95x setup. I was really hoping you'd at least do a brief overview and thoughts.
In such distances and environment I would worry more about remaining battery charge than possibility to lose FPV picture. Because there seems possible to fall from sky because you simply have no battery juice left. :) A lot of uncovered things though. What this thing actually is? Seems it is not a flight controller and still require Betaflight compatible FC and receiver for use with my Taranis.
UPDATE: Answer to myself - learned that AU and Vista contain both DJI radio receiver and VTX. Still require a FC to fly a quad :) And separate receiver if you use another radio than DJI remote. Also after 3 months in DJI HD FPV realm learned that small stock Caddx Vista VTX antenna is already good, but CaddxFPV Camera Antenna for Vista is slightly better.
Can you add a heat sink? Might make size bigger, but wouldn’t really impact weight
Fantastic flying, Joshua! Great review! 😃
Anyway, about Caddx supposed bad QC... Well... I never had problems with their products. Go figure.
I have (and I'm not alone), but that's the frustrating nature of QA - even if it's mediocre, most customers are going to be very happy for very good reason. Love my stuff that works, which is why having DOA stuff is that much of a bummer
@@tehllama42 Yeah, I can imagine, dude. 😕
But those things happens to every brand. It's not Caddx only.
You are a lucky guy. I have never had a decently working Caddx product :-(
Awesome vid. Do you cut all the grass
Vista takes 6s and AU takes 4s, but most FC’s today come with 5v and 12v outputs no matter the input voltage so my AU takes 12v from a 6s battery to FC
Great, so how do you know the voltage status of your flight lipo...?...(kinda important)
Maybe you can solve this riddle: is there a way to get two of these (without a drone body case) to stream video to the moverio fpv glasses?
"I heard from a friend ..." Love it 😅
OK.. Long range high flight time toothpicks with dji set up would be cool.. I'll say that
thats not Vista...is it? I dont think so...ive not tested myself...
I think the NewBeeDrone infinity 30 stack has an inbuilt power regulator so you can run 6S on the AU. Well I hope so as I just bought one online yesterday to go with my DJI setup. :)
Just a hint for radio transmission, 1,200 mW vs 7-800 mW is not much different.
Distance is based on the inverse square law
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law (1/r^2, 1 over the radius squared)
So the drop off at 1,200 mW was exactly as expected. Minus/plus the obstructions.
I'm very familiar with the inverse square law. 700 mW to 1200 mW is almost 3 more dB. You won't find any RF professional who'll tell you that 3 dB is negligible.
When I started the video for some reason it said 1080p but it was really pixilated... I thought you were making a point about the DJI at first..
GREAT REVIEW! I am looking at a 3" to put my new Vista on.
I've watched loads of your videos but this was the 1 that sealed my sub 👍 and like 👍 the little FCC winks for us UK folks did it 😂👍👍👍🔥
So have you made the switch to DJI goggles permanently? Is that the GOC amongst pro pilots now?
Thanks for the great review. Is there a reason you weren't using a stock antenna?
They should have put bigger heat sinks on the vista, this can't have a long life if it gets this warm! I think I would almost ad a super tiny fan on top of the vista just to cool the vista while idling.
Man, I love your videos
Transmit distance goes with square root of power so 1200mw is just 30% better in open air. Penetration is due to wavelength.
Also It should have an onboard 4gb memory just for uploading the file for EU 700mw mod.
About that arm 1200 and disarm 25 mw... it will be great if the put that option on a switch, right? or a potentiometer, even better...
Heat issues? Stick a PC fan on your desk, full blast, when working on it. Get power from your 12 volt bench psu for your chargers😅 On a plus side, you'll stay nice and cool also😎👍
Is it possible to use the longer cable of the air unit with vista?
Yes it is. The DJI camera cable is 2cm longer than the Vista (it's 10cm vs 8cm) and has a silicone insulation over the cable. As such it also weighs more (not much).
Joshua, I saw the recent DJI updates specifically the 50Mbits. Have you tried going to the same area where it was breaking up a lot? I'm excited to know the resutls. Oh, I pulled the trigger last night. I bought Caddx Vista. I don't have the goggles yet but that will be next! 😊
ruclips.net/video/kF2QENzox9s/видео.html
Enjoyed the review. Looking forward to your thoughts on the next update supporting HDMI out to the DJI Smart Controller and whether that gives any hope for future options!
IMO it isn't much of a consolation since the smart controller is ridiculously expensive, and it still doesn't solve the problem of getting HDMI out.
did they announce that?!
Stephen Rossi they didn’t “announce” it, but in update 0400 it says at the bottom, next update to include support for connecting to their smart controller.
Also in the Next Update section of 0400 update: home position direction, speed, altitude. Hope 0500 is early February!
Is the Caddx compatable with the new DJI FPV controller? I hope so!
There's not a lot of foliage on the limbs this time of year. Do leaves absorb our vtx frequencies?
That was my thought too. Green leaves with lots of water is probably the difference in the Caddx favour.
Yeah, green leaves are a nightmare for 5,8ghz signal as they absorb it almost entirely
Can we see how you put everything into the betafpv?
Can we use it for an airplane models as well ?
Hey nice Video, Food Job :)
Why you dont use mushroom antennas?