Google Cardboard HooToo VR 2D FPV viewer modification

[JonEQuest]

I had this info in someone else thread but decided to put my own post.
Here is a cheap VR viewer modification. This is NOT 3D but 2D. You are looking at one whole screen, just greatly magnified. It is just a basic Google Cardboard style VR viewer "HooToo" brand name. I did a lot of playing around with lenses, etc. and seeing how close the phone could be without double vision, etc. I basically took this VR viewer and added a 2" spacer to move the focal distance further out. Then I removed the Google CardBoard VR style lenses and replaced them with 6+ aspherical lenses from a pair of cheap reading glasses. The end result is a headset that is somewhat comfortable and makes my 5.7" Samsung Note 5 look like a big screen TV. I am not sure how to measure FOV but it is really wide. Because I am NOT using the HDMI output I have all the same telemetry of the phone/tablet but in a FPV headset. Yes it looks dorky, but I have about $45.00 invested in this and it works really well and does NOT have those horrible Fresnel lenses that distort everything and add lines, etc. I need reading glasses already and my last mock up used 4+ readers and still looked good. You basically need whatever glasses that will let you see your phone clearly at only ~5" away from your face. Some friends say they still see double but some people can see it just fine. I think if I moved the phone ~6" away that would make it clear for anyone. I was shooting for the smallest size possible. My wife and daughter both watched YouTube videos on it for 10 minutes each the other day. This may also be great for movies etc. I am not sure since I have only worn it for 20 minutes or less at a time. I now fly only by FPV. I can also MiraCast the image to another Android device for friends to view if I am near my Wifi. I am sure there is a way to do it over Bluetooth or WiFi hotspot as well when I am away from home.
P.S. I didn't upload in order but you can see I made a ring of thin plastic as the spacer, then hot glued it in. Just take a piece of thin plastic and used a heat gun to soften it so you can bend it. You could use Styrofoam, cardboard, etc. too. There are man y improvements that could be made. Weight is one issue. This is what I fly with 99% of the time now.

 

[JonEQuest]

Here is another set of optics in it. I decided to make a mount for the lenses that come with the jeweler magnifiers you see on Amazon and eBay. You need the magnifiers with the big round lenses. The magnifiers with the short square lenses won't offer the same FOV. I used a dremel tool to take out some more plastic and then drilled two holes in the top to allow 2 tie straps to hold the bar that the jeweler lenses snap onto. It works great and now different users with different eyesight can now swap between lenses by just snapping a new one in. The sizes are 3.5x 2.5x 2.0x and 1.7x magnification. There is just a little bit of blurring at the far edges of the image but not enough to be a deal killer. This is because the plastic jeweler lenses are not as high quality as true aspheric reading glass lenses. My FOV is very wide (I estimate at least 85-95 degrees) and the image feels very close. It may be wider but I could not calculate since I am using magnification so I cannot truly measure the width of the subject (my phone) as viewed vs. distance, etc. For reference the sides of my screen are mostly peripherally viewed so I find myself looking left and right to check things. It is that wide. I am only 4" from the lens to the phone so that is probably pushing the short distance a bit too. I have used both my Note 5 with 5.7" screen and my Galaxy S4 with 5" screen. The 5" screen was plenty wide and not wide enough to see any blurring at the far edges. I almost like it better since I don't have to look left and right as much. Like I said the blurring was very minimal and you can still see everything just fine. For FPV seekers on a budget this is the way to go IMO. I am past the point of something that works great for me. I am trying to design a low cost homemade solution for anyone that rivals something like Headplay viewers. We Phantom pilots have the advantage/disadvantage of being tied to a phone/tablet device for our video stream. I just think it is waste for us to reinvent the wheel by forgoing what we already have. A self powered, hi resolution, high brightness HD phone with GPS and gyros that easily connects to our remote and shows all the telemetry we need. Most FPV solutions involve buying an expensive lower resolution viewer meant for 5.8ghz pinhole cam drones, then add external batteries, HDMI ports, HDMI cables etc. in addition to the phone tablet we already have just to try and get a good FPV experience. The Litchi app for Cardboard VR is a cool option but honestly after about 5 minutes I realized it is gimmick and not good enough to fly by FPV in my opinion.

As far as the original lenses, I was able to just barely see the edges of the lens cups that extend into the VR box. I was going to pull them and just cut them down a bit since all I really need is the rings that hold the lenses. The deep cups are just light blinders for VR separation which I don't need. I decided to just switch lens style so I could swap lenses in and out easily. Both work just fine but the first style needs reader that fit your vision.

P.S. The last photo showing screen looks distorted. This is the camera view through one lens. The image viewed by your eyes is perfectly square and clear.



UPDATE: THE QUANUM 2 PRO VIEWER FROM HOBBY KING MAY BE BTTER THAN BOTH MY QUANUM MODIFIED ONE, AND THIS. THEY FINALLY DROPPED FRESNEL LENSES AND ADDED THE ABILITY TO INSERT YOUR PHONE. BASICALLY WHAT I DID BUT PROBABLY MUCH MORE REFINED AND LIGHTER.

 

[alokbhargava]

Very good job

 

[LuvMyTJ]

I have the HK BOBOVR Z3 version. I have not tried what you have done but I see several apps that split the image into two so it works as intended. I have not tried it yet but plan to. Just got these things and they are fun to mess around with.

 

[JonEQuest]

I have the HK BOBOVR Z3 version. I have not tried what you have done but I see several apps that split the image into two so it works as intended. I have not tried it yet but plan to. Just got these things and they are fun to mess around with.

The apps that split in two are great and I paid for Litchi just for that reason. The thing I have noticed is that you cannot split and sync a 2D image, then put it distorted on two areas of the screen then have the "cardboard" lenses re-bend the image so you can see it without a lot of loss of clarity and at least image size. The best image we will ever get is the regular 2D image from the phone/tablet screen or HDMI output. I just take that image from my phone, make it huge and immersive with no glare and it feels like I am a pilot. In other words, I prefer the whole 720p image vs. the 2 duplicate reduced resolution images. But the VR option is easy with no mods to a viewer. I would love to get hands on with the new Quanum 2 Pro and see how that looks.

 

[LuvMyTJ]

My quest is to have a good working solution for my P3S which needs no cords to the TX so it is ideal.

 

[alokbhargava]

.... I prefer the whole 720p image vs. the 2 duplicate reduced resolution images. .

Thats the right way..

 

[Trackman1]

I have thought about cutting the center piece out of my hootoo's. Thinking I could view the whole screen as one and use go app. But I see from your post there is a lot more to it.

Excellent job.
You could market this.

 

[JonEQuest]

There are two main reasons why removing the divider alone is not enough. First your eyes have to be a certain distance from the screen to be able to view it without seeing double. Second is the lenses in cardboard viewers have very high magnification and they are meant to unbend a pin cushion image. For a good example of what my modification does, taking powerful pair of reading glasses 4,5 or 6 X and hold your phone sideways close to your face with them on. There's something called minimum distance of distinct vision. No matter how good the magnification the object will have to be about 5.5 to 6 inches away minimum for it to not look double. Of course this will vary slightly between different people depending on your vision.

 

[Trackman1]

I see what you are saying. With 2x readers on I put on a 2x headset I have for electronics. At the point of focus the headset was 6 inches from my 5.5 inch
screen phone. I was just able to see both ends of the phone at the same time.
Changing the headset to 4x mode brought the point of focus closer. But I had to look around to see both ends of the phone.

Thanks for posting.

 

[JonEQuest]

I see what you are saying. With 2x readers on I put on a 2x headset I have for electronics. At the point of focus the headset was 6 inches from my 5.5 inch
screen phone. I was just able to see both ends of the phone at the same time.
Changing the headset to 4x mode brought the point of focus closer. But I had to look around to see both ends of the phone.

Thanks for posting.

That is pretty much it but you get a better image from glasses since the electronics/jewelers headset lens has both eyes very close together. I found it hard to not have blurred sides. The separate lenses from reading glasses (or if you cut the jewelers lens in half maybe), allows you to see slightly wider. I also noticed that reading glasses just have better lens quality then anything else made for magnification. I feel it is due to them selling 100,000 pair of those a month allowing them to be made cheaply. I hot glued the lenses I popped out of glasses then just filed off the excess lens that was hitting my nose.

 

[JonEQuest]

Depending on your vision you may go with less like 3x. Those you can find at the dollar store. I have used 4x in my Quanum and 6x in my HooToo. The image is crystal clear and huge when you get the distance right.

 

[Phattaildeuce]

Has anyone tried or researched the Avegant Glyph goggles? They look incredible but are fairly expensive ($700). They would require an MiniHDMI adapter to be installed in the controller. Any input on these or other options like the Samsung Gear VR or Oculus Rift would be appreciated. I'm tired of not being able to see my iPhone 6 Plus screen in broad daylight. I thought about an iPad mini but don't think that would be much better. And the cardboard screen for the controller is not an option.

Avegant Glyph | Home


Sent from my iPad using PhantomPilots mobile app

 

[JonEQuest]

The lens part looks a lot like a FatShark but I am sure it is better. It would not be very immersive in IMO because they say you can look down at other things. That means light will get in everywhere. I find I don't need to touch my phone much while flying. I did buy a Bluetooth remote that lets you work on your screen like a mouse pointer.... kind of. It didn't seem to work while the DJI-Go was running if I remember though. I kind of gave up on messing with the phone. I can adjust EV level, snap photos and start stop video from the controller. That is enough for me. If I need to do anything, I let it hover and slide my phone out to answer a call or whatever, then slide it back in and resume flying. So far even the most expensive tech seems like it won't work for us or if it does, It is a real expensive way to replicate my phone as an immersive 100" screen which I already have. My only issue at the moment is the weight is a little heavy on my face. I cut out the part that sat on my nose for better comfort. I really have not had any time to fly much in weeks. Refinement on comfort and weight reduction are my next goals for the viewer. I may have to admit that the Quanum 2 Pro may be better since they have one huge acrylic lens or lenses in a lightweight foam headset that has ergonomic straps and is very adjustable. I want one but already have something like it, plus I just spent about $100 on a ITELITE-DBS antenna.

 

[BDOG]

I watched the Youtube video here

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Which goes into the build of the Quantum V 2 Pro goggles. It also shows some basic differences between the version 1 and the Version 2 Pro. The new Acrylic lenses that are adjustable on an internal slide for focus seem like a huge improvement. Additionally what I found was really great was that they provide 3 acrylic lenses with the kit. a 1 power , 1.25 power, and 1.5 power magnification lens.
Plus these lenses can be STACKED! One can stack for instance a 1.25 power with a 1.5 power lens to get lots of magnification.

The only bummer is that the kit comes with a 5 inch monitor which would be un-needed since our setups will be using our smartphones. If they offered a kit that was less cost and did not include the 5 inch monitor that would be perfect. Oh and the basic black/red combo of the outer glove covering would be nice to have other options that were not at an additional cost.

They do offer other colored gloves as an upgrade - digital camo and pink (yuk). Whatever happened to basic black? LOL

The adjustable head strap is also a big improvement from what I have read.

I am seriously considering the purchase as a great lowbuck FPV setup.

Wish they had a peek hole to allow one to switch to camera view on the smartphone and get a real time LOS. that way it would be easier to see the quad when it was withing line of sight and not have to pull the headset off.

 

[dmark1867]

I have this and it works well:
http://www.amazon.com/Tepoinn®-Glas...ue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=A30BFCNF6ZKT6M

But you need to use it with software that splits the screen (which I use as well with other flying apps).

I like JonEQuest's idea for a 2d viewing; it intrigues me for a few reasons:
It will work with more programs such as DJI's go app.
The 3d is cool, but at times I just need something to deal with the sun
My phone is smaller and older (iPhone 5s) so splitting the screen with it, the image looks even worse

The Quanum DIY FPV Goggle V2 Pro seen here:
Quanum DIY FPV Goggle V2 Pro
Looks nice, but it is more than I am wanting to spend and as BDOG pointed out, it is a shame we have to purchase the monitor with it, which is probably why it costs close to $60.
It would be nice if they offered just the headset and glove for $20

I purchased this:
http://www.amazon.com/Favolcano-Por...ue&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=A1TPNU47USXLQ4

My reasoning was you can see that it is easy to remove the plastic separator piece. I was thinking I could just leave that piece out and it would work but the picture does not look right.

I wish the made a low cost headset made for 2D viewing, such as what JonEQuest has created.

 

[Trackman1]

Not that expensive.
If you look at the pictures they show switching a phone for the monitor.
Quanum DIY FPV Goggle V2 Pro

 

[dmark1867]

Not that expensive.
If you look at the pictures they show switching a phone for the monitor.
Quanum DIY FPV Goggle V2 Pro

true, but it still includes the monitor, which is bundled in for the price
I am not having any luck finding a inexpensive 2d viewer

 

[JonEQuest]

I think that it is a steal for $60. Here is why. I paid $34 for my VR viewer shipped. I also bought lenses and other stuff to experiment with. I am well over the $60 already AND I only have something that is probably the same view as this. BUT this is made of foam so I am sure it is much lighter and more comfortable. If the Quanum 2 Pro existed before I would not have built my own. I actually started with adding a phone door and reading glass lenses to an old Quanum 1. They (hobby King), basically sell my Q1 modified prototype as an OEM build but more refined. I say hats off to SOMEONE selling something that works with our Phantoms. I cannot figure out why no one has jumped onto selling a DJI Phantom phone viewer headset. There are only about 1 million people with thses things and we ALL have the exact same specs and needs. That is why iPhone accessories are everywhere. They only have to design around one phone with maybe 1 or 2 variations in 6 or 6+, etc. Android (my choice) has hundreds of different phone sizes and shapes, etc. We have the "iPhone of drones". Make ONE product and it will sell like hot cakes.

 

[dmark1867]

I think that it is a steal for $60. Here is why. I paid $34 for my VR viewer shipped. I also bought lenses and other stuff to experiment with. I am well over the $60 already AND I only have something that is probably the same view as this. BUT this is made of foam so I am sure it is much lighter and more comfortable. If the Quanum 2 Pro existed before I would not have built my own. I actually started with adding a phone door and reading glass lenses to an old Quanum 1. They (hobby King), basically sell my Q1 modified prototype as an OEM build but more refined. I say hats off to SOMEONE selling something that works with our Phantoms. I cannot figure out why no one has jumped onto selling a DJI Phantom phone viewer headset. There are only about 1 million people with thses things and we ALL have the exact same specs and needs. That is why iPhone accessories are everywhere. They only have to design around one phone with maybe 1 or 2 variations in 6 or 6+, etc. Android (my choice) has hundreds of different phone sizes and shapes, etc. We have the "iPhone of drones". Make ONE product and it will sell like hot cakes.

I emailed hobby king to see if there was anyway to get it for less without the electronics.
I won't use it that often and I am cheap

This would almost work, but jeez I would feel so ridiculous, lol
TVHAT TV HAT PRIVACY VIEWER FOR SMARTPHONES IPHONE IPOD ZUNE AS SEEN ON TV