My thoughts on the Walksnail HD system after flying it for 5 months..

hello and welcome to the video this is an update on these things here now this is the fat chart version of the walkstail system now I've had this for quite a while I got it about five months ago and I did an update talking about what it was like after flying with it for two months and now I've been flying with over winter as well so there's five months under my belt and it's been an awful lot of firmware updates and changes and as we're coming into spring I know for many analog Pilots out of there and 60 of my audience last time I did a poll are actually analog only Pilots lots of you out there are looking for what do I invest in what do I buy and It's Tricky right because we have lots of different Choice you've got the DJI older system the version one you've got the new version 203 based systems you've got things like walk snail you've got things like HD zero which one do you spend your money on now I've been flying HD for a long time I started flying HD back in 2017 I think it was I started playing with the conics pro site system so I've been flying HD for a long time well before DJI came out with their goggles and despite what people will tell you there is no perfect HD system there are lots of camps and the members of those camps will vigorously defend their decision to invest in one of the HD systems and why that one's better or best but as I've talked about in other videos better and best is an exceedingly subjective term what's best for me Isn't probably going to be best for you and vice versa so this review is gonna try and put as much context around what I found with this the way I fly the kind of pilot that I am so that you can make your mind up with a little bit more than just oh that's rubbish this is better because actually the majority of people who are going to be buying this stuff aren't the guys and gals who've already bought the DJI system or invested in HD zero or something else it's going to be analog pilots who are looking to move up into the world of HD and want something that's gonna work now I have the three main systems I have the DJI system I have the walk signal system obviously and I have the HD zero system here as well however while I'm going to the field I have two cases behind me one of which has my DJI stuff in which also has the fbv controller in there because that's how I use it the other bag now has my walk snail goggles and my radio I finally changed all of the remaining models that I fly that aren't DJI into walks now so things like the dolphin has been migrated but the last thing was actually the zero HD Dart and that's now walk snails well and why is that why am I flying the DJI and the walk snail stuff more than the HD zero stuff well it just suits the way that I fly and the models that I have here so let me remind you very quickly of what I fly here because I'm not just quad pilot I fly whoops quads Wings planes I also have a couple of boats as you can see behind me and the art radio control car as well so it's a pretty broad church here and I'd like to put systems in there that will kind of suit the model rather than trying to shoehorn something that wasn't designed for that into that space however I have been using a lot of the one less water snail boards in places they probably weren't designed to go in because they're so small they're lightweight I'm not a racer although I like speed I'm not doing the freestyle flippy floppy and flying through Gates so I'm not interested in super low latency which is one of the big benefits of the HD zero system I'm also a massive fan of fpv I've been flying fpv for longer than I care to admit and I really like fixed Wing fpv as well so I particularly like those systems that fit easily and nicely into something like a plane or a wing so this is why my videos have been less about oh let's do a comparison between the DJI image and the walk snail image and the HD series and all that kind of stuff because actually the differences between them are getting smaller and smaller and there may be key differences like that latency thing with HD zero where if you're a racer that might be the most important thing to you but in terms of the image it is significantly better than the best analog image and I know I spent a lot of money on high-end analog stuff which is all now kind of gathering dust behind me and that is because a HD image is just so much clearer and you don't necessarily always notice it trying with analog and going to HD you definitely notice it come the other way around where you've been flying with your HD goggles and you try a bit of analog and you're like oh blimey this is horrible even with really high-end cameras vtxs and goggles so why do I like walks now why is it the one at the moment that I put in my planes one of the big reasons is the much higher levels of community engagement and a lot of these points I'm about to make you could actually make for the ht0 system as well I'm not a fan of the way that DJI is relatively closed off I love the fact that walks now have worked with the community and are listening taking feedback and working to address suggestions feedback book reports and those things and I've seen that consistently over the last five months and that gives me a lot of comfort it means that they've not just dropped this into the market drop the mic and walk off stage and it's up to the community to figure out how everything's going to work wtfos been a great example they are actually working to give us the functionality that we want Straight Out of the Box I like the fact that this is also a much more open system so this for example will let you put your own custom fonts on here so I think it's the sneaky fpv fonts I've got on it at the moment which are beautiful and amazing job I'll put a link down below to those if you want to get them but things like the OSD tool that I looked at recently where I you know you can add your OSD back in all that stuff is being enabled and supported by that open approach to the market from the walk snail and fat shark teams I'm also happy that there's lots of different versions of the Avatar unit available not just the light and the full fat version but that you know I've got this one this is still in the cellophane this is for the next bill that I want to do but there's also the smaller versions as well the 1s versions both the mini the super small lightweight one and kind of the regular one S1 as well I've used all of them and they've all performed really well this one's a little bit nicer with the two antennas but you pay the price with that little bit of extra size and a little bit of extra weight and I also like the fact that there are lots of different options to get into walks now you don't have to buy the goggles these are about 550 pounds you can also get the Recon HD goggles that not a lot of people seem to talk about which are about 280 Pounds or you can get the vrx unit and put it on your own goggles for about 200. the issue of course with using your own goggles if you have nice analog goggles is that the performance of the system is kind of limited by the displays that are in the existing analog goggles that you have and you also get a little bit of extra delay thanks to the HDMI output from the module and input into the goggles for me if I was starting out now I would probably think about the Recon HD goggles very seriously uh the Recon HD goggles I think were fantastic anyway um the Outlook versions were spectacular one of my friends has them because he tried about 10 different fpv goggles I kind of took a whole bootload of goggles around so he could try them out and those are the ones that he loved over every other single version they are underestimated how good they are and now does that walks now version which works straight out the box so let's talk about why it is that I like walks now because all that stuff we've talked about is not about the technology it's more about the community based stuff I like watch demo because I can decide between 720p and 1080p that's all there in the Box I like the fact that it uses variable latency so as you get further away the latency increases slightly to preserve the image and also importantly for me preserve the on-screen display there's also the facts that with the HD zero and the walksdale system both have been tested by other Pilots than me and they've both got over 30 kilometers so although I'm never going to fly that far because quite frankly it's not legal to in the UK If you really want to then you can get a very very long way away with this system I like the way that it just works it's not difficult there's a bind button on these there's a bind button on the Avatar units and the setup is really easy you don't have to plug it into a PC and activate it and report back to the Mothership in order for everything to work and as a pilot coming from the analog side that makes the setup and doing everything an awful lot easier and I've heard recently of pilots who have had issues with the technology getting support from walks now with them sending out replacement vrx units when things happen and that is a great sign as well I've always been a fan of the fat chart warranty which has been fantastic so when you're very expensive technology breaks they'll help you out but it also appears that that methodology is also in the walk snails Camp as well so if you buy this and it goes wrong you're not going to be on your own and have a really expensive doorstop now as I said in the beginning no system is perfect the DJI system isn't perfect for hd0 system isn't perfect and these aren't either and that's because I have a set of requirements that I would like as a user and as pilots and they don't take all the boxes there's only a handful of things at the moment that I'm still waiting for so there are a couple of things I'd like to see from the system over the next five months first and foremost is more options for the Avatar units again there's several available right now I would like to see a smaller more compact version of this so that there is more options ideally with the options for a longer cable between the Avatar unit and the camera that would make it far more versatile I'd also like to see cheaper Avatar units coming out as well because one of the things that's not really talks about is that although getting into the walk snail system is about the same price at the moment as high-end analog and to be honest most the HD systems are in the kind of same price bracket the way it scales is a lot different so you might spend 60 70 pounds per model to put the analog system in it so a nice camera a really nice VTX nice antenna that's gonna you know if you have 10 models that you're gonna fpv if you say that was 60 pound a model for simple math that's going to be 600 pounds however for a walk cell Avatar unit you know these things are anywhere between 110 and 150 so if you're buying them for 150 10 of those is one half thousand so it's a lot more expensive so I would love to see some cheaper options for those Pilots coming in from analog land to help them convert their fleets over to walks now and also really like a spectator mode something that is coming I have had it confirmed that they are working on it this is something that's been in some of the other systems where if your friend has another set of goggles that you can just have two sets of goggles looking at the same air unit that would be very handy and apparently it's on its way but it can't come soon enough because more of my friends are starting to get the system I would like more uniform support in the on-screen display from the flight controller firmware this is less about walks now because the on-screen display support in here is very very good but I'd like to have the same kind of features and functionality irrespective of whether it's a beast flight I nav or Rd pilot quad and I would like a little bit more customization in the goggles of how things like the subtitles work the bits along the bottom but you know these are kind of relatively small gripes really the system itself is pretty solid it would be nice to have an analog input in goggles in the future but you know what once you've made the change going and flying analog just feels like you're trying to watch a movie on a 10 inch black and white TV in the kitchen when you're a kid so in summary five months on having put this thing through its Paces would I recommend it absolutely a very big yes if I were more bothered about the super low latency of hd0 and was doing more of that very high speed flying very close to objects hd0 might have got my vote instead for the way that I fly as someone who doesn't like to be restricted by the technology I found the work cell system is very good and very versatile I've been able to put it in all the models that I want to with a little bit of thought it's always gone in I also like the fact that the hardware keeps coming out this doesn't feel like a flash in the panel and this was one of the big concerns back in the early days you know is this going to be something that comes out that then you know in six months time you can't buy it anymore and some of us who took the plunge early on you know that was a risk however five months on the fact that they're bringing out new technology makes me feel very comfortable about recommending it and that this is going to be around for quite a long time and I think it's important to remember that all of the stuff that's happened with walks now with the promotion the firmware updates the support the community all that stuff that's been going on has been happening without a key part of the three businesses involved in this system actually working on it very much at all the three people are going to be calyx walk snail and fat shark fat shark have been in limbo for quite a while there's currently a sale of fat shark going through and in fact speaking to some of the people at fat shark they're incredibly excited about moving away from Redcat because under Redcat they weren't really allowed to do what they wanted to do fat shark Engineers actually did design these goggles these are fat shark goggles and I talked about that originally but in terms of all the other bits and pieces that they would normally do to help promote and invest in this technology they've not really been able to because they've been in that limbo state so all this has happened in the last five months with fat shark basically sat on the bench looking at their feet chewing gum and it's going to be exciting when they get to come back on the field and join the play stay tuned I will be getting a vrx unit in as one of the only piece of the technology of this I haven't tried they're making VR RX units that's another batch and I've got one on order and I'm going to do something a little bit unusual I'm going to use it with a friend of mine who's an analog pilot and will have an unbiased unvarnished view of what it's like flying nice analog versus what it's flying for like flying with walks now and that video is absolutely aimed at all of you unload Pilots out there who are looking at the technology with this with HD zero with DJI and trying to make up their mind hopefully that will give an unbiased honest view of what it's like moving from analog to something like walks now so stay tuned for that and hopefully that's been interesting for those of you that have been watching the videos over the past four or five months and are looking to maybe spend some pennies on the system if you have any questions then do pop them down below and I do my best to provide answers thank you for spending your time today watching that video you can find me in all the usual places on social media and if you're trying to learn about the subject then check out the playlist all my videos are organized into easy to follow playlists that if you're trying to learn a topic will take you from the basics right the way through to some pretty advanced stuff [Music]

Channel: Painless360

Views: 13,748

Keywords: Radio control, remote control, setup, easy, need, help, simple, tricks, tips, model, flying, drone, electronics, pilot, builder, maker, print, fpv, first person view, plane, wing, air, hover, fly, camera, transmitter, frequency, problem, need help, how to, gadget, technology, computer, app

Id: cKiusnRQlvU

Length: 16min 53sec (1013 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 26 2023