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Today, we're going to continue on our little series on Micro FPV Drone Parts and we're
going ot be going over a video transmitter specifically, the TBS Unify Pro 5G8 HV Race
2 MMCX Version.
In previous videos of our Micro FPV Drone Parts Series we've covered things such as
Flight Controllers & ESCs, microphones for FPV Audio on your quadcopter and side-by-side
comparisons of various video transmitter antennae.
If you haven't seen these, no worries.
A link's going to pop up in the upper right-hand corner of this video for you to click on and
go check those out as well.
In today's video, we start a mini-series comparing a few possible great options for your Micro
FPV Quadcopter video transmitter.
Let's see what we got.
We got stickers.
Wires.
Settings Quick Start, nice.
Pad to stick it on.
Here's what it looks like.
Its coming in at 26.9 mm in length, 20mm wide, 4mm thick.
And its weighing in at 3 grams.
+/- 1 g.
Documentation shows it weighs 4.2 grams.
This thing can take 2-6S input power, has Pit Mode, 25 mW, 100 mW and 400 mW output
power.
And the reason they went with 25, 100, and 400 mW output power levels instead of the
normal 200 mW above the 25 is that those output power levels mean that the range doubles for
each one of the settings.
So for 25 to 100 mW the range doubles, and the range doubles also from 100 to 400 mW.
It also has Smart Audio--At this point I have to take a moment of your time to explain a
situation I came across.
Both this video transmitter the TBS Unify Pro HV Race 2 and the Unify Pro32 Nano come
with Version 2.1 Smart Audio.
In my case, and in my configuration, using an external microphone and the Flight Controller
which I was using for this HV Race 2 VTX, I was not able to get the Smart Audio to work
properly.
Currently, I'm running BetaFlight 3.5.4, however, other people have experienced this with the
current version of BetaFlight as well which is 3.5.5.
My understanding is that there are potential work-arounds for this problem until Smart
Audio 2.1 is fully implemented in BetaFlight.
I've listed three potential work-arounds here.
The first one is to use the AKK Fix firmware which is known as the AKK & RDQ VTX Patch.
By going into the BetaFlight Configurator and showing "Unstable Releases" and then selecting
it from the Release Menu.
We did try this option to fix the Smart Audio and in our case it did not work.
Another option exists to connect a 10K-ohm resistor from the Smart Audio pad to the Ground
pad and if you need more information on that and along with it the various diagrams based
on your configuration and what you're trying to do with your Flight Controller and audio,
you can go to this link here.
A third option which may , in fact, be the same as the first option, have the same effect,
is to use ButterFlight instead of BetaFlight and in the Configurator Tab of ButterFlight
enable "Legacy_SA_Support" option which has a slider button next to it.
To enable that you just move the slider button to "On."
As I mentioned, this may have the same effect as Option "A" above which was implemented
in BetaFlight, however, we have not tested this option.
So, in our case, for this particular video transmitter, our Smart Audio was not working
and we changed the frequencies and the powers of our VTX by using the onboard push-button
and the LEDs.
Now, let's continue with the rest of the review.
And, as always, for me the MMCX connector.
One of the reasons we have this is it also has in addition to Smart Audio, it also has
an audio input pad which means you can connect an external microphone to it-to get audio
while we're flying and also in our DVR videos.
Now's a good time for us to actually go over the features we're looking for in a video
transmitter for our Micro FPV Quadcopter Builds.
Obviously, for our Micro builds we want to have the VTX to be small in size and weight,
with an output power of greater than or equal to 200 mW max output power.
We want a microphone on the VTX or an audio input pad to attach an exterrnal microphone,
preferably and audio input pad because the external microphone as mentioned in our earlier
video on microphones for FPV audio are actually better at capturing good quality sound than
the microphones that are either on a FPV camera or on the VTX.
We do want an MMCX connector if at all possible -that's my preference.
They are more sturdy and more durable and reliable than the UFL connectors, in my opinion.
We would also like Smart Audio or Tramp protocol to be able to adjust our VTX powers and frequencies
with our Taranis and through our OSD.
Today is the first VTX that we'll be going over.
As you can see, we've got five other columns that we could put video transmitters in and
fill out the same sort of information.
We'll be going over some of these perhaps all of these and fill out this entire chart
but today we'll be going over the TBS Unify Pro HVRace 2.
It does have Smart Audio as we mentioned.
These are the dimensions.
My scale came in at 3 grams but my scale's accuracy is to within 1 gram and the documentation
as I mentioned earlier shows that the weight of this particular VTX comes in at 4.2.
We did say that the power input is 2-6S.
And these are the power output levels.
It does have the audio input pad which we've demonstrated and the MMCX.
It also has Pit Mode.
The cost currently is $29.95.
Of note, if you go to this website "MaxMyRange.com" an individual there has created this site
which allows you to do the calculations for maximum range based on various power levels.
So, I've gone ahead and captured those maximum ranges based on various power levels down
here below and you can, in this site, determine what type of antenna you're using.
For these calculations, what I chose to do by going into this calculator was to use an
omnidirectional transmitter and receiver antennae.
Those both being the Lumenier AXII with a gain of 1.6 dB.
So, for 25 mW the maximum range using a Lumenier AXII transmitter and receiver antenna is approximately
0.53 km which equates to 0.33 miles.
For 100 mW, the maximum range is approximately 1.06 km or 0.66 miles which is exactly double
what it is for 25 mW as you can see.
And that's the rationale TBS used to come up with these output power levels.
And for 400, you get 2.11 km approximately max range with 1.31 miles which is basically
double the 100 mW.
These are for reference purposes only and based on the antennae you use and the environment
in which you fly you may, or may not, get these types of ranges.
Let's continue with our testing.
So, we're going to check the power output levels of this VTX with our ImmersionRC RF
Power Meter.
And then, once we do that, we'll take it out for a test flight and check out the range
on its minimum power level of 25 mW and also its maximum power level of 400 mW so that
you can get a good idea of the quality of the video this VTX puts out.
Alright, let's get to it!
Okay we're going to be testing out the 3 power levels of the TBS Unify Pro HV Race 2 and
we're going to be doing so across the entire Raceband channels 1-8.
We're also going to be doing it on Channel F4, which is at 5800 MHz.
The reason we're doing that is because this ImmersionRC Power Meter is calibrated and
steps at 50 Mhz increments.
So, for example, when we check the power levels of Raceband 1 which is at 5658 MHz, the meter
will be set at 5650 MHz.
And the next step up from 5650 is going to eb 5700 MHz.
So, we will not be able to set the meter at the specific exact frequency of each one of
the Raceband channels.
However, for F4 at 5800, we will be able to set the ImmersionRC RF Power Meter at exactly
5800 MHz.
So, that's the reason we're doing F4 in addition to the entire Raceband.
Now, just to save time, we're not going ot show the power level readings for all of the
channels in Raceband.
We're going to go through and show Channel 1 and we're going to show channel F4.
However, I'll include the results for the remaining channels that we do the testing
on.
Okay, right now we're on Raceband 1, 5658 MHz and our meter is set at 5650 and we've
got a 25 mW output setting on the VTX and we're measuring 27.
Bump this up to the next power setting, 100.
Okay, and at the 100 mW power level setting we are at about 135.
At 400 we're coming in at about 421.
Now we're going to do the same thing with Racebands 2-8.
I'm going to do that off-line just to save some time but Iwill go ahead and do the same
thing for band F channel 4 at 5800.
Okay, we're on channel F4, 5800, 400 mW and we're getting 425.
And at 100 mW, we're getting about 108.
And at 25 mW, we are getting 27.
These are the overall results for all 8 of the Raceband channels along with channel F4.
As you can see, there aren't any real outlying data points across the spectrum.
For all power levels the VTX seems to be fairly consistent.
Okay, now its time for us to take our Quad and our VTX out to the field and do a couple
test flights with it to check out the quality of the video reception that we're getting
from the VTX itself.
the field that we're going to be flying on is about 860 meters in length and about 150
meters wide.
These measurements were obtained through a laser range-finder so they're fairly accurate.
There are poles, power poles actually, along the field which will provide us with good
markers of distances.
I've got them outlined here.
Our starting point is just going to be right behind, distance-wise, from the first pole
and we're going to be flying in this direction towards the end of the field.
Out here at this end of the field is a line of trees which we're not going to go over
or beyond.
Our overall flight distance, if we went from pole A (our starting point) to the end of
the field is just over 800, actually 808 meters which is about 1/2 a mile.
But based on the video you'll be able to keep these poles in the line-of-sight on the video
so you can actually count A, B, C, D, E, F and determine from those the distances that
we've actually flown.
After the flights, if you found this video useful, give it a "Thumbs Up," Remember to
Subscribe to the TMac FPV Channel and until next time . . .Thanks for Watching and Happy
Flying!
It's Fly Time!