Ok, now we will cover transmitter choice. When you look at the amount of equipment you can fit you would think you need an all the bells and whistles transmitter. True ?
Not true, but which one do you need, which suits your needs ?
This section will hopefully shed some light on the subject and help you decide which is for you
Do i need 9 channels or more ?
No its really not needed for basic to intermediate platforms. 9 Channels is a for an action packed and very complicated system. For a beginner the more components you have the more connection. The more connections the more chances of a loose connection or conflicts. At the start you don’t really want be be over complicating yourself. You want to keep the switches as few as possible. Don’t forget with a set of goggles on your not going to be able to see the transmitter so the fewer switch locations and positions to think about the better.
What options do i have then ?
For a starter setup you can get away with a bog standard 4 channel transmitter.
Lets say you decide to go with the all popular Easystar or similar.
It comes with Rudder and Elevator control. Motor speed is also controlled of the transmitter. So that’s 3 channels.
With a basic FPV setup consisting of Camera and Transmitter you need no Rc channels at all.
So a 4 channel Rc Transmitter will do just fine. If you want at a later date to add ailerons, which is a popular choice too, then you can simple plug into aileron channel on the same transmitter.
If you want the pan function but not ailerons on the plane you can control the pan action of the camera on the aileron channel too. Still only requiring a 4 channel transmitter.
Next up the range is the 6 channel. This now gives you more flexibility and possible options.
With 6 channels you can have all your control surfaces covered, ie Ailerons Elevator, Motor, Rudder and have 2 channel spare.
You can now add pan and tilt to your camera. One channel for each.
Depending on the controller chosen you can have a 3 position switch on pan, so it looks far left, centered, far right and the tilt on a potentiometer. You can then tilt the camera as you turn the potentiometer on the transmitter for very fine control.
If you want you could use it the other way round ie switch to the tilt, potentiometer to the pan.
This is still fairly crude control though. What we then do is add a head tracker to the setup ( See head tracker section. )
With a head tracker you can then have absolute control of camera movement by sensing what position your own heads at and positioning the camera to match it.
This feature can be added to your two camera control channels through the trainer port, so you can switch between the switch control or head tracker control.
A 7 channel transmitter is only really needed with FPV platforms with plenty of features.
With a 7 channel transmitter you have another spare channel. Your choice for this extra channel is not limited.
You can use it for all sorts of functions. You can have independent aileron channels, ie channel 1 and 5 then use your pan and tilt on channel 6 and 7 for example. The great thing about for example the Futaba 7 to the right is you can assign the switches for which ever function you want.
You can use it to switch your OSD screens, or Return To Home etc, the list goes on.
Again only needed for the high end systems, when you have a lot of equipment and features that you want airborne control over. For a beginner totally unnecessary.
The options for this many channels are vast. OSD control, Pan / Tilt, RTH, Night lights, Airbrakes, Flaps, landing gear etc etc etc
So there you go, with a 4 channel transmitter you can have perfect control of a very good FPV platform and fly successfully.
If you want more, you don’t really need to go any higher than a 7 channel.