DJI O3 Air Unit assessment: a significant improve for FPV fans

Whereas I’ve a few years of expertise flying drones, I’ve barely dabbled my toes within the waters of extra superior and technical first-person view (FPV) automobiles. That is the angle with which I reviewed the DJI O3 Air Unit, which is a digicam and picture transmission system designed for hobbyists who don’t thoughts getting their arms soiled with screwdrivers and soldering instruments.

Testing the O3 Air Unit was fairly an eye-opening expertise into the difficult, but extremely rewarding world of constructing and working FPV drones and different RC gadgets. It required numerous trial, error, and basic troubleshooting — all seeking the reply as as to whether or not the O3 Air unit is one thing reserved for the devoted hobbyist, or if extra informal drone and RC fans would possibly do effectively to contemplate making the most of the thrilling potentialities it represents.

DJI O3 Air Unit design

The O3 Air unit is a quite simple, bare-bones system. It encompasses a digicam, an antennae, and a transmission unit — and these three parts are related through cables. The core unit of the machine encompasses a connector designed to be plugged right into a appropriate flight controller, in addition to USB-C and microSD card ports, plus a pairing button.

The development of the DJI O3 Air Unit is extraordinarily strong and high-quality, although it isn’t waterproof. The compact, high-performance nature of the machine is such that it wants each little bit of airflow it will probably get for cooling.

DJI O3 Air Unit setup course of

Getting the O3 Air Unit up and working was a journey, although none of my difficulties had been the fault of the machine itself. Reasonably, my trials and tribulations had been the results of early firmware and my very own inexperience with wiring and with hobbyist remote-controlled (RC) drones.

First off, I wanted to energy the machine. This might be most simply performed by merely plugging the O3 Air Unit right into a appropriate flight controller. Nevertheless, I lack such a flight controller, and my main curiosity within the O3 Air Unit is as a tool with which to expertise ground-based RC automobiles. With this in thoughts, and after numerous analysis, I finally ordered a 500mAh LiPo battery, a charger, and an adapter to go between the battery and the charger. I additionally bought a pigtail connector to attach the battery on to the O3 Air Unit.

Hooking up the battery connectors was the one difficult and technical side of this challenge, because it concerned snipping the ability and floor wires on the O3 Air Unit and soldering them to the pigtail connectors.

With this whole, I used to be capable of efficiently energy on the O3 Air unit for the primary time. I wish to give an enormous shout-out right here to GetFPV.com for his or her wonderful customer support, which helped me work out what components I wanted to order.

Should you plan to comply with an analogous route as I did with the O3 air unit, I like to recommend shopping for a high-quality battery charger because you don’t wish to fiddle with LiPo batteries. Additionally, for those who’re constructing a low-speed car or for those who plan to mount it in a location the place the air unit received’t be uncovered to a big quantity of air circulation, you must also plan to incorporate some type of cooling fan.

After I used to be capable of energy the O3 Air Unit, I nonetheless needed to get it paired to my DJI Goggles 2 and controller. I actually struggled with this, however after a short back-and-forth with DJI, we narrowed the issue all the way down to prelaunch firmware, and after a fast replace for the controller, headset, and air unit, I had all the things up and working. I shortly strapped the O3 Air Unit to an RC race automotive with packaging tape and took it for a spin across the storage.

With this profitable check run, I upgraded my setup to an RC monster truck, utilizing double-sided mounting tape and electrical tape to safe the cab of the truck. The O3 Air Unit labored nice on this setup, although sadly, the monster truck was not as off-road succesful as marketed.

Subsequent, I put the O3 Air Unit to its extra conventional use as a drone digicam, taped to the highest of my DJI FPV drone. I fearful that the tape may not be sturdy sufficient, however luckily, it turned out to be rock strong. Each the drone and air unit carried out admirably, although sooner or later, I plan to mount the Air Unit at a greater angle on the DJI FPV drone in order that the propellers are excluded from the view.

DJI O3 Air Unit picture high quality

With the potential of recording 4K video at 60 frames per second (fps) and a pair of.7K video at 120 fps, the O3 air unit is sort of highly effective as a videography software. With RockSteady picture stabilization much like what you’d discover within the DJI Motion 3, the O3 Air Unit might function an enough substitute for the motion cameras sometimes utilized by FPV drone pilots. That is doubtlessly enormous, because it means critical weight financial savings and, thus, a efficiency increase in conditions the place each gram issues.

It’s a significant enchancment over the unique DJI Air Unit by way of picture high quality and an enormous enchancment over the digicam built-in into the DJI FPV drone. It’s roughly on par with the DJI Avata digicam, although in my subsequent setup utilizing this digicam, I intend so as to add a bit of froth or rubber between the O3 Air Unit digicam module and the RC car to assist dampen the vibrations and obtain smoother footage.

DJI O3 Air Unit efficiency

I by no means had any trigger to complain concerning the transmission high quality or power of the O3 Air Unit. Utilizing the DJI Goggles 2 with it, I by no means skilled any noticeable lag or lack of sign, although it must be famous that I by no means actually pushed the bounds of its vary. I used it as I’d FPV drones in the actual world, the place I’m all the time cautious to remain inside visible line of sight. I did, nonetheless, drive it with RC automobiles with a strong wall between myself and the automotive and didn’t expertise any loss or degradation within the sign.

The one important downside I bumped into was overheating, as I’ve already alluded to. To be clear, this can be a system designed for use with drones touring at a excessive price of velocity via the air. Nevertheless, the speed at which it overheats is considerably alarming when it’s not actively being cooled. It made the O3 Air Unit relatively tough to replace, and I ended up working my NiteCore BlowerBaby air-cleaning machine over the O3 Air Unit through the troubleshooting and setup course of. When flying it on a drone, this isn’t a difficulty, and there’s an computerized shutoff that happens if the machine will get too sizzling.

A very spectacular side of the O3 Air Unit is its 20GB of onboard storage. This can be essentially the most onboard storage I’ve personally encountered on a digicam of any description, and it may be an actual lifesaver to have this feature as a backup to a microSD card.

DJI O3 Air Unit worth and availability

The DJI O3 Air Unit is obtainable now and retails for $230, which incorporates the digicam module, transmission module, antennae, and 3-in-1 cable. That is really fairly a sexy worth level, contemplating its capabilities, although it’s essential to notice that additionally, you will want a headset such because the DJI Goggles 2, which retail for $650.

Should you’re ranging from scratch, you additionally want to contemplate the price of no matter you’re going to connect the O3 Air Unit to. The battery, adapters, and charger I bought value me $102 complete, and that represents the naked minimal to get the O3 Air Unit up and working. I spent a further $30 on an inexpensive RC monster truck, however after being disenchanted by the lackluster efficiency of this cut price bin truck, I’d advocate spending at the least twice that to get one thing with good energy and shock absorbers.

Should you go for a drone as an alternative, as is extra the intent of the DJI O3 Air Unit, anticipate to spend a number of hundred {dollars} at the least on the drone itself. All informed, an entire FPV setup constructed across the O3 Air Unit will run round $1,000 at a minimal. That places you within the ballpark of the DJI Avata, which I’d advocate to inexperienced persons simply seeking to get into FPV drone flight.

A flexible system for FPV hobbyists

The DJI O3 Air Unit is a transparent winner in terms of picture transmission for FPV management of drones, automobiles, and RC automobiles of assorted descriptions. Whereas it’s actually geared toward these of a hobbyist mindset with a sure diploma of technical data, the educational curve isn’t so nice as to severely restrict its accessibility.

It’s virtually a foregone conclusion that the O3 Air Unit will change into the de facto digicam of selection for hardcore FPV drone pilots. It’s a digicam that tickles the creativeness and lends itself to artistic tasks. It’s dependable, highly effective, and delivers wonderful picture high quality that’s ok to switch a standalone motion digicam.

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