Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Driving in crowded areas comes with some responsibility. IDK if I'll ever do that but something like a mostly dead parking lot seems ok. One example is how the kid I came across wanted to follow the car. If it's real busy and the parents aren't careful a kid can try to follow the car out into the street. It was pretty slow out there at that time so it wasn't a big deal. If I didn't live in the United States I might even rig up a candy dispenser like some other guys but I'm not too big on going to prison. I've had to sort of build confidence in the rig by testing it various places, going further and further, until finally I feel pretty confident in its ability to roam without issues. How the DJI handles reception in various places isn't really consistent so 'scoping out' an area first to see how it goes is always recommended. So far the only prevailing problem is getting pine straw jammed into the cooling fan but that should be a simple fix. I'm going to put a diversity receiver on this truck to add an extra channel for the horn and then it should be complete and solid. Winter exploring is probably where this thing will shine.
I'm still using the "FlyFishRC Dual-Band 5.8Ghz/2.4Ghz UFL Antenna For DJI O3" and it works great. I haven't found a substitute I'd want to try yet. At one point I was about 350 meters out and around the corner of the Dillards, and I was expecting the signal to plummet but it was still holding decent at around 20Mbps. Truly testing the limits there is not something I'm trying to do unless it's a completely dead wide open area where I don't have to worry when driving some 400+ meters out to find the car after I lost video.
TrueRC X2 patches also working great along side the stubbies.
Audio Player Module (amazon.com/dp/B0883F8YYS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)
Still using 1.3G for live audio (RMRC tx/rx) and the audio in the video is recorded on a runcam thumb. This works the best for me to where the runcam turns on and starts recording as soon as the DJI switch is turned on. Then I just have to pull the audio file and line it up with the DJI video. The easier more expensive solution is to just add some additional runcam/gopro for having the AV all in one, but I like the O3 quality and am fine with the stabilization it provides. The live audio receiver is just sitting in a battery box on my dash using a TrueRC singularity antenna and it's fairly noise-free roaming the distance I did. The lil Jon "Yeah" on my other car comes through pretty clear through the live audio and I can listen in on television or conversations if I'm not too far. 5.8G audio has not worked as well for me.
Some 5VDC fans are suitable enough for the O3 but I recommend a 12v fan like this one (amazon.com/dp/B01N9ZQRI7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) which actually only pulls about 150mA or something and has good CFM. That fan along with the heatsinks keeps the O3 from getting hot even on hot days.
I'm also still using code written by Richard Amiss (github.com/ramiss/arduino_DJI_03_RC_ARM) so thanks to that awesome person for making it possible for me to use the O3 at full power without a flight controller. The actual code I'm using is the first revision and it uses Arduino boards. The current revision is using a Seeeduino and I have not tried it, but it also gets rid of the need of an aux channel by auto-arming at power up. I kind of prefer still being able to switch high power on and off. If anyone wants to try the old version I still have the code, diagram, and necessary libraries etc.
Driving in crowded areas comes with some responsibility. IDK if I'll ever do that but something like a mostly dead parking lot seems ok. One example is how the kid I came across wanted to follow the car. If it's real busy and the parents aren't careful a kid can try to follow the car out into the street. It was pretty slow out there at that time so it wasn't a big deal. If I didn't live in the United States I might even rig up a candy dispenser like some other guys but I'm not too big on going to prison. I've had to sort of build confidence in the rig by testing it various places, going further and further, until finally I feel pretty confident in its ability to roam without issues. How the DJI handles reception in various places isn't really consistent so 'scoping out' an area first to see how it goes is always recommended. So far the only prevailing problem is getting pine straw jammed into the cooling fan but that should be a simple fix. I'm going to put a diversity receiver on this truck to add an extra channel for the horn and then it should be complete and solid. Winter exploring is probably where this thing will shine.
I'm still using the "FlyFishRC Dual-Band 5.8Ghz/2.4Ghz UFL Antenna For DJI O3" and it works great. I haven't found a substitute I'd want to try yet. At one point I was about 350 meters out and around the corner of the Dillards, and I was expecting the signal to plummet but it was still holding decent at around 20Mbps. Truly testing the limits there is not something I'm trying to do unless it's a completely dead wide open area where I don't have to worry when driving some 400+ meters out to find the car after I lost video.
TrueRC X2 patches also working great along side the stubbies.
Audio Player Module (amazon.com/dp/B0883F8YYS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)
Still using 1.3G for live audio (RMRC tx/rx) and the audio in the video is recorded on a runcam thumb. This works the best for me to where the runcam turns on and starts recording as soon as the DJI switch is turned on. Then I just have to pull the audio file and line it up with the DJI video. The easier more expensive solution is to just add some additional runcam/gopro for having the AV all in one, but I like the O3 quality and am fine with the stabilization it provides. The live audio receiver is just sitting in a battery box on my dash using a TrueRC singularity antenna and it's fairly noise-free roaming the distance I did. The lil Jon "Yeah" on my other car comes through pretty clear through the live audio and I can listen in on television or conversations if I'm not too far. 5.8G audio has not worked as well for me.
Some 5VDC fans are suitable enough for the O3 but I recommend a 12v fan like this one (amazon.com/dp/B01N9ZQRI7?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) which actually only pulls about 150mA or something and has good CFM. That fan along with the heatsinks keeps the O3 from getting hot even on hot days.
I'm also still using code written by Richard Amiss (github.com/ramiss/arduino_DJI_03_RC_ARM) so thanks to that awesome person for making it possible for me to use the O3 at full power without a flight controller. The actual code I'm using is the first revision and it uses Arduino boards. The current revision is using a Seeeduino and I have not tried it, but it also gets rid of the need of an aux channel by auto-arming at power up. I kind of prefer still being able to switch high power on and off. If anyone wants to try the old version I still have the code, diagram, and necessary libraries etc.
