Does the HDZero VRX really need all 4 antennas? How about none! // BaconNinjaFPV

[@apachesmokemachining6487]

it was a fun test to see. didn't expect those results.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Me either. I really went into the whole thing expecting just one antenna being gone to throw the whole thing off in a significant way. Always good to prove myself wrong! lol

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic testing, Curtis! Thanks!!! 😃 I got more and more impressed by this system every day! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Thank you! What is the availability like where you are at for HDZero supplies?

[@h2o40fpv]

Very interesting test i think u are the first of the fpv reviewers that done that kind of test well just for the one i have seen. I also think that if im short on antenas well now i know that two antenas will be enough to have fun and maybe one oh well if i don't have any antenas what the heck ill fly too lol great video thank u.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Thank you for checking it out!! I decided to go this way with it because I hadn't seen anyone actually try it, other than just hearing everyone say "make sure all of the SMA ports are populated"...so I figured why not actually test out that advice, lol.

[@nolan_8024]

Very interesting, hopefully my Pre-Order of my VRX will be arriving soon. I am looking forward to diving into this system.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Hopefully it shows up soon for you! Mine took a while to get here, but shipped early last week so hopefully yours does soon too.

[@nolan_8024]

@@BaconNinjaFPV where did you order from?

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

@@nolan_8024 Mine came from Pyrodrone. Five33 was shipping them before Pyro I believe, but Pyro wasn't far behind.

[@nolan_8024]

@@BaconNinjaFPV ah, cool.

[@testpilotian3188]

I wonder how the 200mw whoop vtx would fair? I’m a DJI user but must admit the more I’m seeing of HDZ the more it’s tempting me….

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I am thinking of trying some of this out with my Mob7 HDZero since it has the whoop VTX in it. Maybe there will be more dramatic results!

[@manski209]

Very interesting without antennas, i kept looking at the upper right corner at the link bars and i was shocked, for a while all links started out green. Great cideo.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I was pretty surprised myself! Being a digital system I assumed it would need a bit more signal integrity, but I guess it goes to show just how similar the HDZero carrier is to good ol' analog.

[@RebelGoatFPV]

Very interesting 🤔 After hearing Carl's description of how it works, I have the Scout HD goggles and I'm thinking of trying 2 patch antennas with them facing almost to the side? Thanks for risking frying up your VRX in the name of science, haha.

[@eatyourvegfpv]

You cannot damage the VRX by not using antennas as it is a receiver only, not a transceiver.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I had thought about doing some angle work with patches to see how it impacts the reception, but then I realized that it wouldn't be very universal since all patches are slightly, if not completely, different in their coverage patterns. Give it a shot and let me know!

[@StephaneClement-e7r]

This was exactly the question I had, you answered it and I thank you sir!

[@philipeville9506]

Great Video, thanks for making it!

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Thank you for watching it!

[@mikko001]

Thanks for sharing, really interested to buy Hdzero to upgrade my old setup, your dvr looked amazing in this video. I have flown my analog setup without vrx antenna few times since haven't noticed missing on takeup 😁

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

It is no DJI, but I personally think it looks terrific for a fixed latency digital link. I am reallllly looking forward to the 1080p modes we will get when the goggles come out in a couple of months though. I think that we underestimate the output power of most of our VTX's, and with as much juice as they are pumping out we don't really need much gain on the receiving end...as long as we aren't going crazy distances, lol. Thank you for stopping by to check it out!

[@mikko001]

@@BaconNinjaFPV yeah, I have Headplay SE setup that have hdmi-input, really liking the 7" screen and wide fov, and it looks excellent with real HD signal.. not sure what to think when someone thinks that Hdzero looks like good analog since haven't seen those tiny-ass-goggle-setups ever 😁

[@RyanQuellet]

Great tests

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Thank you sir!

[@ShermanKenB]

Interesting! Still flying analog and trying to figure out which hd system will work for me. I have found in general for where I fly two directional patch antenna work best for me. Could also be that I'm running what I consider good quality patch antenna and my omnis not so much. Thx!

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

It is a really unprecedented time for digital FPV currently, so taking plenty of time for consideration is a great call right now! On analog I usually run a TrueRC Sniper V2 and a long AXII 2 micro omni, but I do fly around and behind myself quite a bit outside of the direct path of my patch. I think a good quality omni to pair with a patch might just give you some good results, but then again if what you are doing is working for you then send it and have fun!

[@jbengineering2681]

i have dji and hdzero go dji its better unless you fly in a lot of trees the freeze frame sucks on dji but you are way better still with dji

[@Vousie]

I often fly my analog TinyWhoop with no antennas or just the one omni. In races I actually get better signal quite often with no antennas, because it reduces the multipathing/interference that it picks up. So I'm rather familiar with how surprisingly good reception one gets with no antennas at all.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

That is one of those super secret tiny whoop race tricks that works pretty darn well! I wasn't expecting it to work as well here just because being a digital system I assumed it would need a little more help with the gain, but it seems to do just fine as its transmission is so similar to analog on HDZero.

[@Vousie]

@@BaconNinjaFPV Yup - and tinywhoop racing is really fun too - something about not having to worry about crashing & breaking something - you just turtle mode & keep going. I think digital would actually handle it even better than analog does - similar to how it handles having linear antennas instead of circularly polarised antennas better. It did really well in this test, for example. But probably even DJI & Walksnail would be reasonable without antennas if you didn't have the problem with some of the antennas being used for transmitting & thus would burn out the transmitter... Would still be interesting to see a test with either of those systems and only having antennas on the antennas used for transmitting - although they also receive so it's not a "no antennas" test but it should be kinda equivalent HDZero on two antennas.

[@FATSNAIL-FPV]

So, does the HD0 VRX take analog or digital (lhcp) antenna's? Kind of confused now. I'm tempted to buy it to put on my Eachine ev300o goggles for the racetrack I occasionally go to (almost all fly DJI there). Does the HD0 get interference from DJI pilots? At the moment just waiting to see how all the new digital goggles/vrx's turn out te be and if they play nice with flying amongst current DJI pilots. I mainly freestyle and race seriously for about 11 months now, so still lots to learn and currently pretty happy with my Eachine ev300o v1 goggles. No haste, more stick time is my main 'concern" besides having a new job in a completely different field and kids lol. Subbed btw, great content!

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

For the polarization, you can use whichever you prefer really as long as what is on the VRX matches what is on your quad. As for the interference thing, that is just a natural part of flying anything near DJI (and Walksnail now) digital pilots who are using super wide chunks of the spectrum for their high bit rate transmission. It is great for racing because everyone is either running analog or HDZ which use only a single channel width and you can space out a channel between them just fine, but when you start flying around DJI which is using 2 channels at a time...it gets messy, lol. Honestly at the moment, I would hold off and keep flying analog. I think in the end, you might find that something like HDZ/Analog works best for you when you are racing and you might like something completely different for freestyle. My particular brand of freestyle is kind of fast, so HDZ works out well there and I almost never fly around other pilots, and for sure never with anyone running DJI. Stick time is king!!! Just hang in there and it will all level out...unless your kids are like mine and are always breaking your gear, lol.

[@GTARC_au]

Great video mate. Can't wait for mine to arrive. Q. Could you damage the vrx if you run it without an antenna or 2 . ? Cheers 🍷 👍

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Thank you! Since the VRX doesn't do any transmitting, it is perfectly safe hardware wise to run any number of missing antennas. Not to say that you "should" for link quality reasons, but you can for sure.

[@imothy]

I'm curious to how linear antennas perform.

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I could do some testing with my Mob7 HDZero and see how it works out. That one comes with a linear sleeved dipole and I have plenty of linear gear for the VRX side.

[@miquelmarti6537]

I wonder how it would do with 4 cheap pagoda antennas, as they always gave me the best reception on analog. Cheers

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Pagoda's are a pretty great design! I don't have any, but maybe at some point I will and I can give it a shot.

[@miquelmarti6537]

@@BaconNinjaFPV yeah, and also the cheapest design ever being 5usd each. I'm eagerly waiting for my googles and I'd like to have the propper antenna when they arrive, since it seems reception is the weakest point of the system. Last week I tried a bunch of antennas on my analog sky02 and I was shocked that the cheapest ones in the bad were actually the best by a long margin.

[@modquad18]

You just saved me a lot of bacon 👍🏽

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

and with the cost of bacon these days, that is some serious savings!

[@elxero2189]

I think the pairing are left side and right side so two Omni would be great perhaps if you had them both on the same side

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Good thought on a different configuration for testing! I may have to throw this one into my next round!

[@elxero2189]

@@BaconNinjaFPV yes try it out because that's how the pairs are divided. Think of it like a fusion or rapid fire on each side of the goggle what you did was put only one antenna on one or each Rx however if you added them to the same side then that side would be complete I think you'd get better results that way

[@an_R_key]

thanks this was very interesting

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Thank you for checking it out!

[@creationlabsinc.189]

I still haven’t found a home for my hdzero setup. I don’t race and my flying style that emulates Ledrib isn’t concerned about the latency issue. Unfortunately it’s still no match for Dji… ugh

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I could for sure see going DJI for that flight style. Smooth and windy lines are perfect for not having to worry about latency. I am sure you will find a reason to run the HDZero somewhere!

[@jeremyhubaker1299]

Will that fit on the cobra x v2?

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

it sure will! The Cobra X V2 is probably the best box goggle you could pair with an HDZ VRX.

[@andrebullitt7212]

Thanks 😊

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

You are very welcome!

[@madladdan]

Imo, you should have two omnis on the left pair - perpendicular to eachother - and two patches on the right pair - facing opposite to eachother.

[@ironlionfpv]

Pretty impressive how far you got without antennas 😅

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I was very surprised by the results of that one! lol

[@jbengineering2681]

i run all patches it works the best

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

That can absolutely be a great setup! I wind up flying behind myself during freestyle too much to go all patches, but if I always flew in front I would probably be doing the same and go full patch.

[@dcliffe8539]

there is a black dot on the screen?

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

yeah, unfortunately RunCam isn't great at getting all of the dirt and dust out of their cameras before they cap them with a lens and there seems to be a bit in mine.

[@dcliffe8539]

@@BaconNinjaFPV ah yes I had a falkor cam like that

[@goodwinduncan1505]

are HDZ antenna LHCP?

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

With HDZ you can actually run whatever you prefer as long as the polarization matches between what you have on the goggles and what you have on the drone. I run RHCP on everything since I also still have quite a few analog quads.

[@goodwinduncan1505]

@@BaconNinjaFPV one less thing to worry about then. Thanks for the feedback!

[@Maxhotgo]

what about no antenna on drone? :0

[@steve_beatty]

generally considered to be a bad idea..usually ends up cooking your vtx..👍🏼

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

Yeah, I already killed an HDZero Freestyle VTX during this session from a crash and wasn't about to fry one up in the name of science, lol.

[@ironlionfpv]

Subbed 👍🏻

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I appreciate it very much!

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

i will wait for the goggles instead, this is too expensive to be a drawer item

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

I can totally see how that could be the case. Whatever works for you is completely valid! Thanks for checking it out.

[@MichaelRogersJesusrules]

Seems your videos just pop up into my life when im in great need of answers.love it ,thanx for sharing ! i will hit you up on discord brother.peace.chat soon

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

lol, i do what I can buddy! :p I read your discord message and shot you a reply back, but in case you see this first the VRX does come with the 90 degree HDMI cable in the box.

[@Maorifpv]

hello i just ordered hdzero goggles and i was thinking about buy 2 VAS Ethix MadMushroom V2 5.8GHz Antenna do u think they will work good?

[@BaconNinjaFPV]

The VAS Mad Mushrooms are great omni antennas for sure! I would also recommend taking a look at the TrueRC Singularity antennas and their Matchstick line as well sine the coax on them is very durable and may hold up better in the long run that what the VAS ones use. As for reception though, both options are terrific.