FPV, on a fishing bait boat?

[Baldy881]

Hi model peeps,

I have an r/c boat that takes my rig and baits out onto the water. It's relatively small, about 50cm long, and black, therefore I struggle to see exactly where it's at at ranges in excess of say 80 or 90 yards.

Quite often I need to fish tight to a line of reeds, or right up to some lily pads at ranges in excess of 100 yards (but never more than 120 yards). I'm sure on many occasions i'm dropping the rig well short because I just can't tell how far over I am and as it's not the straightest steering boat I can't hold binoculars and Tx at the same time easily.

So, is it possible to put a simple but effective FPV kit on the boat without it costing a small fortune? The boat is a sealed unit, so any gubbins would have to be made into a splash/waterproof box that could be velcro'd onto the boat somewhere and taken off when not required.

Here's a guy who's done similar, but way more advanced than what i'd need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xF0Ie1bJGg

I just need to know what the basic elements needed are and if it could be effective. Could it work in the dark, with flashlight on the boat as well?

Cheers,
Rob

[noell35]

I am absolutely no expert but keep noticing that you haven't had a reply. I think you'd need this:

http://www.banggood.com/Fat-Shark-Teleporter-V3-FP...

but you would probably have to do some waterproofing yourself.

[banx22]

You need to get a basic 5.8Ghz (assuming you are on 2.4Ghz for your boat control) transmitter and receiver; you just need to ensure that your video frequency isn't the same as your control one. Something like this TX/RX set is perfect

You'll also need to purchase a camera. You then have a couple of options; either connect the receiver to a laptop/portable DVD player or purchase a pair of goggles.

The camera plugs into the transmitter and then you need to sort out a waterproof box for the camera/tx to go in and attach it to you boat. The receiver stays with you on dry land and outputs the camera signal to your screen (laptop, goggles, etc.).

To power the stuff on board your boat you will need to either create a wiring harness so you can tap into your onboard battery or provide a dedicated battery for it (a small 3s lipo is best; 2s ok). The system works best from a 12v supply but will work with between 5v - 12v. The receiver will also need a power supply; again a small 3 cell lipo will be fine.

All in it will probably set you back around £60 - £70 to do.

I have this very setup on a 1.4m flying wing that I've taken out beyond 1km so you'll be fine with the distances involved on the water.

[Morf]

Might be a stupid suggestion, but what about a couple of mobile phones? Skype yourself from one to the other then put the sending one in the boat....

In fact, I wonder if you can use Bluetooth to stream video from one phone to another, or from a phone to a laptop/tablet?

[eta]

Apparently it's possible over bluetooth but quality may not be good enough:

http://www.instructables.com/answers/Can-I-transmi...

Edited by Morf on Monday 8th September 17:18

[otolith]

Bait boat - meh, I'm waiting for the bait quadrocopter

[Baldy881]

Chaps,

Never realised I'd got any replies to my question so thanks those who have

I seem to have cracked it and for just over £70 all in.

Kit ended up being:

Boscam 5.8ghz 200mw Tx & Rx - £30 off a mate at work
Sony 700vtl camera on mount - £12
Cloverleaf antenna set - £18
3S Lipo to power Tx - £8
Hobby box to build Tx/lipo/camera onto/into - £4

Already had a Maxim 7 inch LCD TV that has analogue tuner so hasn't been much use for anything for a few years, but is perfect for the screen! And already have a 12v car battery that I used on longer fishing trips to keep everything charged

Seems to work 'on the bench' really well, sent my little lad 150+ yards down the road with the camera/tx and image was great back to the Rx end.

I like that I can just velcro the box on and off the boat easily enough (as I won't always use FPV), and the extra bits to carry around are minimal. The camera is also ideal as it only needs to be pointed down a little to see the nose of the boat, a worry I had was that I'd need to camera pointing well down and not have much forward vision, but that is not the case at all with this camera

It originally looked like this



but I have mounted the camera on the project box so it's all in one place now and added the cloverleaf antenna.

Great shout about powering the boat gubbins from the boat battery, i'd never thought of that (the boat has a sealed 12v lead acid battery but has a charging point that can be used to power accessories). I may switch over to doing that at a later date

[Boatbuoy]

otolith said:

Bait boat - meh, I'm waiting for the bait quadrocopter

You mean like this:



I've already been asked by an angling chum if I will adapt one of my multicopters for this role. I declined!