Originally Posted by
gigaplex
For track racing, birds eye view is significantly easier and faster every time I've seen anyone try it. Visibility is too low to see the corners coming up at the speed and scale we race at, and there's too much camera shake. And you can't see the cars behind you to defend. A spotter won't be fast enough to give you info about defensive lines.
Prove this to me. Is there a video showing birds eye vs FPV? And right now, today when it comes to surface maybe your right, but people will figure out FPV and some will get really good at it. Micro Camera tech is pretty advanced and all the deficiencies you mentioned are not an issue with gopros and cell phone cameras. Corner visibility shouldn't be a problem as long as the camera is mounted in a good spot. Someone will figure out if they haven't already how to use a cell phone camera with all the bells and whistles on an RC very soon. A spotter will without a doubt be able to let a driver know what's around them. You talk like RC moves at a lighting pace, it's fast, but not that fast
Drones are a lot faster than any surface RC that is raced on a track and they don't seem to have any problems with visibility, camera shake, frame rate, spotting corners/obstacles, etc...
Originally Posted by
gigaplex
How does FPV affect spectators in any way? It only affects the driver's perspective. If you just want the spectators to have an in car camera view, you don't need FPV for that.
Is this a serious question? Do you not watch 1:1 racing? They show in car camera all the time and it doesn't just help the driver, it puts the spectator in the race.
When I was at the flying field last I was watching a drone pilot zip around the course. As I was standing there someone was pulling a monitor out of the storage container to set up so people could see what the pilot was seeing. He told me it's usually set up, because people WANT to see what the person piloting the drone is seeing, it will be no different with surface RC once people get with the program.
Originally Posted by
gigaplex
And if a kid tried FPV on an RC car the experience is so much worse that it'll put them off even more.
This is how YOU feel and what YOU assume.
Originally Posted by
gigaplex
Modifying ESC firmware like that is explicitly illegal. There's nothing fundamental about this radio that changes the legality or capability of that kind of ESC feature. Open source on the radio doesn't help you modify a black box ESC firmware.
You wouldn't be modifying ESC firmware, you would write a code and the transmitter would do the work or you would program the transmitter to manipulate the ESC. Some people like to overclock their computer, I assume with some know how that something similar can be done to an ESC. I promise you someone will figure something out. It's yet to be seen what this radio is and isn't capable of in the surface world.
Here's how to get push to pass when using an ESC without push to pass. Figure out a way to program a button on the transmitter to send more voltage to the ESC when pressed. Easy peasy. Those with experience with open source radios, can this be done?