Avatar Goggles X: Latency Test, Flight Footage and Review

I for one welcome our new robot overlords and find this new boggled existence most enjoyable to learn more why not watch this informational video hi there everyone no prizes for guessing what we're going to be talking about in this video it's the new Avatar HD goggles X from walks now in this video I'm going to be going through all of the specs and features of these goggles on the bench we're going to be looking at how these goggles compare to DJI hd0 and the original Avatar HD goggles I'm going to be talking about the ergonomics of these and how they compare and we're going to be looking at latency testing not just of the Avatar system but also the HDMI input as well but more importantly than all of that we're going to be asking a critical question which is where is Elon and how is he involved it's a lot to cover in one video so let's not waste any more time let's dive right into it I want to kick things off by showing you what I think is the flagship feature of these new goggles from walks now which is a new video mode for the avatar system 1080p 100 frames per second and this mode is available on all of the Avatar vtx's as far as I can tell and it works with the new goggles but as far as I'm aware not with the original Avatar goggles I've got beta firmware on my system right now so we know that the image quality will improve as walks now keep developing the system but I want to show you some DVR footage from the goggles in 720p 100 frames per second mode and 1080p 100 frames per second mode so that you can see what Improvement in detail and resolution um this new video mode can [Music] bring [Music] I'm not sure how well this is going to come across YouTube is obviously going to recompress the flight footage and it's going to depend on what quality level you're watching this at but to my mind the 1080p 100 mode definitely has a small but significant advantage in terms of image quality and detail over the 720p 100 mode and I think it's definitely worth having that said I'm not sure I understand why this is a goggles X EX exclusive feature right now the original Avatar goggles have 1080p 100 HZ screens and I think the chipset is similar between both so it would be good to get some clarification from walks now as to why it's not possible to backport the feature to the old goggles regardless of whether this 1080p 100 mode ends up being a goles x exclusive feature the goggles X has loads of other really nice upgrades over the original goggles so let's head on over to the bench and let me talk you through all of these new features before we dive into the testing I want to take a moment to give a big thank you to all of my patrons over on patreon without their support I wouldn't be able to make testing videos like this and I wouldn't be able to get hold of test equipment like this that's right I am setting up for 5 in battery testing that's coming very very soon if you'd like to join us and support this test work going forward then please check out the links in the video description to my patreon you can join from just a few dollars a month and you'll get access to the entire back catalog of all of the test data I've collected over the the last couple of years as well as access to special AA of my Discord server and sneak peeks of things I'm working on I'd really appreciate any support you can give all right so let me take you through all of the features of these goggles on the bench and I'll try not to miss any because there are a lot of them on the top side of the goggles we have two air vents which is to allow air circulation to cool the electronics we've got two antenna connectors and these antenna connectors are standard rpsma antennas so if you want to use aftermarket Omni antennas or patches you can unscrew these and screw on an aftermarket antenna it's just an RP SMA connection we've got on the right hand side the controls for the goggles a four position joystick with a click a back button record button and the bind button for connecting to the transmitter here so these are all easy to access on the top of the goggles if we turn the goggles over onto their side on the right hand side you can see that we have the power connector and walks now provide this standard power connector for the their goggles so it's a barrel Jack to an xt60 and the voltage range for these goggles is 7 to 26 volts so that's from 2 to 6s LiPo battery voltage and this is a wider voltage range than on the previous Avatar goggles which only went up to 5S so these goggles are rated up to 6s voltage there's no power button on the goggles so if you want to power the goggles on and off you're going to be connecting and disconnecting the power cable or the battery looking at the bottom of the goggles we have the focus and ipd adjustment like we had on the previous Avatar goggles but there are some pretty big changes to the Optics modules in these goggles the ipd adjustment range is extended so with the old goggles you got 57 to 70 mm with these new goggles you get 54 to 74 mm so it's got more adjustment range both on the narrow end and the wide end to be able to get those lenses in exactly the right position for your eyes we've got two more antenna connections again rpsma and then over here we've got all of the the connections for the goggles so we've got an HDMI input for an external module we've got an AV input for something like a ground station we've got an HDMI output so you can uh broadcast what you're seeing on the screens over HDMI to an external device we have an SD card slot so uh that's for obviously doing your DVR recording and firmware updates that sort of thing if we look on the left hand side of the goggles we've just got another air vent here but inside the goggles again we've got this new optic system that walks now so first off there's a proximity sensor in the uh the bridge of the the nose there to detect when the goggles are on or off your face so you can turn the screens off automatically when you take off the goggles which is a nice feature we have as I said the new Optics modules in here so the field of view is increased from 46° in the previous goggles to 50° in these goggles so we have a slightly wider field of view we have replaceable lenses for uh a stigmatism or people with with very strong prescriptions or people who want blue light blocking lenses so these lenses are replaceable in here and the screens in the goggles are also 1080p 100 FPS screens and walks now go out of their way in the documentation to say that these goggles support 1080p 100 FPS whereas the previous goggles don't the final thing to talk about is the front panel on these goggles and as you saw in the intro these panels have LEDs behind them so they glow different colors depending on what you're doing which is a feature but these panels are also removable and replaceable and there are a few different options that wsna talk about like replacing these with patch antennas so you can get more range and penetration in a particular direction or having a DIY sort of mounting for an external module that you might be able to fit instead of these panels so it looks like walks kind of opening up what you can do with these front panels to more kind of DIY stuff and that's nice to see the goggles also have a gyro in them for head tracking so that functionality is going to be available and they also have a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth module for additional coms wsna say they're developing an app that's going to use this wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity for things like sharing DVR footage and also for finding your drone on a map when you crash so I don't think this app is quite ready yet but this is something that's they're working on and they say is coming in the future it's going to use the functionality of this wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity looking at these new Avatar goggles I think they have all the features that you'd expect from a new top-of-the line goggle and some of the stuff that wsna planning to do with the app that's coming is quite exciting but the real comparison is against the best from DJI hd0 and the old Avatar goggles so let's take a look at all of these side by side and draw some comparisons all right so I've got all of these four goggles on the bench we've got the DJI goggles 2 the hd0 goggles the walks now Avatar goggles X and the original Avatar goggles and before we start let's just take some weights and compare the weights of these goggles so the original Avatar goggles come in at 340 G the Avatar goggles X at 316 G so they've shaved about 25 G on these new set the hd0 goggles 2 at 383 so a little bit heavy here and the DJI goggles at 298 so the DJI goggles come out as the lightest in terms of weight the next area of comparison is ergonomics so how do the Avatar goles X stack up to the DGI goggles 2 and the hd0 goggles in terms of ergonomics well we'll start with the Avatar goggles X and I'm going to put them on here I'm just going to give you my thoughts on them so first things first this molded rubber face pad that they have is really well suited to my face wsna going to ship this with two pads a narrow and a wide face pad I've got the narrow one here and I get absolutely no light leakage around the side at all it's completely dark in here and I don't have any uncomfortable pressure anywhere on my face it's comfortable on my forehead it's comfortable on my nose it's comfortable on my cheekbones it's really a fantastic fit it's slightly better I think than any other Goggle that I've ever worn the headband that goes around the back of the goggles is just a little bit narrow for my taste I would like it to be a little bit wider and softer and it's also a little bit stiff now that might loosen up as the elastic kind of Ages a bit but it's a little bit sort of stiff at the moment to get the right fit in terms of the controls the controls are really easy to find on the top of the goggles because they're very um proud of the rest of the housing and using the joystick is very easy and I know what direction I'm pushing the joystick in and the other buttons are really easy to find and you know back and record it's it's super simple let's compare that now to the DJI goggles 2 so with the DJI goggles 2 first thing I notice is that no matter how I wear them whether I sort of try and put them on the middle of my face or however I try and adjust it I'm always getting some light leak from somewhere so I can get light leak from down here or if I move it a little bit then I get light leak over here so it's it's not a problem it doesn't really affect my use of the goggles but it's not quite as good as the goggles X also the fit is not quite as comfortable there's a little bit more pressure for me on my forehead I think the that's partly due to this light leak thing there's a bit of pressure on the top here in terms of the head strap um that's really nice that's suitably flexible it's quite comfy so no problems there and the controls I know some people don't really like the little touchpad swipey thing that is on the goggles 2 I really do like that little touchpad I find it quite intuitive and easy to use and actually a little bit easier perhaps than a multi-position joystick but I know that on the goggles Integra they they got rid of that touchpad as well so it's not for everyone but I find it pretty easy to use and overall I would say that the goggles 2 are not quite as good in terms of ergonomics as the the goggles X just because that sort of feel on the face is not quite as good it's not quite as comfortable if we compare it to the hd0 goggles we kind of covered this in the weights but the HD zero goggles are quite a bit heavier than either the goggles X or the goggles 2 they do have a wonderful headband this headband is by far the best it's super wide super soft very flexible and it's really comfy the goggles do sort of press you have to kind of get them in the right place on your face the there's a little bit more pressure just here on the top of the cheekbones and if you just move them a little bit and get it wrong you get some pressure on I get some pressure on the bridge of my nose as well it's not quite as comfortable as that kind of injection molded face pad in terms of the controls um the little wheel with the click um I mean the hd0 controls are for me the most intuitive and the easiest to use in the field because you've just got that wheel with the click button you can find any menu item really quickly and select it and you don't have that issue of like which way you're swiping or which way you're moving the joystick so the controls I think are best on the hd0 goggles but in terms of fit and comfort I think overall for me personally and my face shape which I know is like a more European face shape definitely the Avatar goggles X are doing a fantastic job in terms of ergonomics and even perhaps just you know a little bit of a step forward compared to the DJI goggles 2 which is saying a lot because the DJI goggles 2 are the goggles that I've found most comfortable up until now and they're the ones that I use most the final test I want to talk about is a latency test we know from hd0 that the goggles can make a big difference to the total amount of latency on a system so I wanted to test all the different modes of the new Avatar goggles X and see how the latency compares to the previous version of the Avatar goggles to do this I used my two LED test one LED in front of the fpv camera One LED in the goggles then both LEDs turn on together and a high-speed camera films the goggles to see how long it takes the light from the fpv camera to propagate through to the screen of the goggles I've tiled up all the high-speed footage and synchronized it so that you can see how many frames it takes for the light to propagate through and how all the different modes compare to each other I've counted the frames in the individual Clips to create this chart and this shows you the latency of the goggles X in all the different modes mod I can tell you that the new goggles X has exactly the same latency as the old Avatar goggles in all of the modes that they share so 720p 100 1080 60 and 720p60 in both 25 and 50 megabit mode are exactly the same in terms of latency between both sets of goggles the new 1080p 100 mode on the goggles X is slightly slower than 720p 100 by about 3 milliseconds or so so you get about 27 Mill of latency in 1080P 100 mode at 50 megabits and about 29 milliseconds of latency at 25 megabits compare this to DGI 03 which is about 30 milliseconds it is a small Improvement particularly if you're running in that 50 megabit mode you get about 3 milliseconds uh Improvement in latency compared to 03 overall I'd say that the Improvement in detail that you get with the new 1080p 100 mode if you're running at the 50 megab bit setting is definitely worth the small penalty in latency I didn't really feel the difference in latency but I did feel like I could see a lot more with the Improvement in detail so having looked at the test data it's time for me to give you my conclusions on the walks now Avatar goggles X overall I think they are a big upgrade on the original Avatar goggles the ergonomics is much better with the molded face pad the position of the buttons and the fact that goggles are slightly lighter all really contribute to making these I think the most comfortable goggles that I've ever worn in terms of feature set HDMI in HDMI out Bluetooth and Wi-Fi module head tracker a promised companion app and the ability to swap out the face plates on the front of the goggles to put in patch antennas and stuff the feature set is really unrivaled it's it's it's really impressive if we're going to look for negatives I can find two no power button and the headband is a little bit thin I mean you can replace the headband and I've never used the power button on any of the goggles that I've owned so they're just non-issues for me overall I think that these are a really nice set of goggles and it's going to come down to whether you want to use the Avatar system compared to hd0 or DG if you're going to want to use the Avatar system then these are going to be the goggles that are going to be the right ones for you and overall I've always been really pleased with the Avatar system because it offers the most flexibility you can use use avatar on micros you can use it on fullsize quads you can record on board so you can get DVR footage from even microzed quads at that looks really really good it's got a race mode now so it's not going to be as good for racing as hd0 but it's got kind of this do all ability that really DJI and hd0 kind of don't have at the moment DJI is just for larger quads that fly you know freestyle and a little bit of of sort of cinematic stuff it's not suitable for racing it's not suitable for micros hd0 is obviously great for racing but the DVR footage isn't so good on micros Avatar does everything reasonably well and so if you want just one set one system let's say you could only have one fpv system if I could only have one fpv system I would pick Avatar every day of the week hands down because I know I could do everything that I wanted to do in fpv with the Avatar system and it would be Absolut fine so if you're looking for kind of one video system to rule them all Avatar is it and if Avatar is the one for you then the goggles X are going to be the goggles that you're going to want to get so I think that's the conclusion really it all comes down to you know your personal preferences so let me know down in the comments what you think um whether you're excited about these new goggles whether you're going to pick them up I think they're $459 so the pricing is actually pretty good if you compare them to how much the hd0 and DJI goggles cost um the pricing is pretty good let me know what you think down in the comments I hope you enjoyed this video hope you enjoyed the review and uh that's all I have for you for today so until next time I wish you all very very happy flying

Channel: Chris Rosser

Views: 16,350

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Id: giQUHcDA1cY

Length: 19min 25sec (1165 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 27 2023