Third Person Video - 3PVv0

So, these days the FAA is all up in arms about FPV, First Person Video. Frankly, I think FPV is overdone anyway, especially with these buy 'em and fly 'em things you pick up at the store with lots of money and no skill. Most of the people here on Flite Test presumably enjoy building and tinkering as much as flying, and when you've put your money, sweat, and (sometimes literally) blood into a project, you want to show it off. You're proud of your work, and you should be.

So, if that sounds like you, consider 3PV. Three PV. ThreedPeeVee. I don't know what to call it yet. It's a work in progress.

Regardless, I had about 7 spare minutes tonight, so I decided to bulid a 3-PV rig for my Flite Test Bat Bone tricopter, fly it around, and see what happened.

 
Fracking Awesome happened.

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But, before we get to the flights, let's get to the build. I started with a few simple household items:

One Flite Test Bat Bone Tricopter:

One (approx) 20" long piece of 1/2" balsa, 1/4" thick.
One old GoPro® .
3 velcro strips, 8" in length.
 

I started by wrapping one of the velcro strips TIGHTLY around one end of the balsa and attaching it to itself:

 
From there I kept wrapping the remainder of the velcro around the balsa another time, offset slightly from the first, heading towards the far end:

 
Wrapping it back towards the long end, I just kept wrapping until I ran out of velcro.

The results of stage one:

 
For those of you using the Metric system:

 
From here, I took the second piece of velcro, and attached it around the outside of the first piece and then around the GoPro, thusly:

 
Then, and this is the tricky part, I took the third piece and wrapped it around the other two, holding the GoPro lengthwise!!!

Again, for the overseas crowd:

From there, and this is where the Flite Test Bat Bone REALLY shines in this application, I stuck the OTHER end of the balsa wood through the big slots in the frame:

(you can see my normal camera tray mounted with zip ties, silicone, and foam for vibration dampening here, as well)

This is where the awesome-sauce happened.

With the Bat Bone, you can orient the camera front to back, back to front, diagonally, etc., and get just about any view you might want:

From the rear, looking forward, beneath the frame.

Offset from one side looking over the frame.

From the front looking back, offset.

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Naturaly, I rushed right out and took it for a test flight, and the video came out like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEYLDXeqhiQ

YES.

So, first, some lessons learned.

1) If you don't offset the first piece of velcro, you lose a lot of footprint for your sticky bits to stick together. You also make a big lump of velcro that makes your camera wobble. Thankfully, I figured this out before my flight.

2) If your balsa wood is too short, you don't get a good view of your model. If it's too long, it bounces, and can even break eventually anytime you change direction, especially vertically. You need to be very smoooooooooth to avoid this. 

3) There are a lot of bugs in this park around dusk.

Some ideas to improve on the Mk1 Mod0 rig:

I'm thinking of using a popsicle stick as an alternate method of attachment to the balsa. This would allow more flexibility in the angle of the GoPro in relation to the balsa:

Regrettably I didn't think of this in time to try it out before it got dark, because I was too busy running around laughing like a looney at how excited I was for the 3-PV0 rig. 

My other primary thought was, after viewing the video, that perhaps I should paint the balsa some dark color to blend better and not be so obtrusive.

Also, I'm thinking maybe I could mount another GoPro to film my first GoPro filming my tricopter, but that gets into a series of maths I'm not entirely prepared to attempt to assimilate. However, on you, the reader's, behalf, I would be willing to make such an attempt. If you are interested in sending me a GoPro for T&E on this idea, get in touch. 

In the meantime, my challenge to you all is to show off your build! Don't just show me what you saw when you flew, show me how cool your craft looks flying! Be proud of your hard work. You've earned it.

 

-Grackle