Adding a Dashboard for FPV Piloting

Adding a Dashboard for FPV Piloting

Dashboards are a cheaper way of gaining basic on-board information like battery voltage, altitude, air speed, heading, etc... viewable through the FPV pilots camera rather then using a more expensive OSD. Dashboards can be anything you want it to be and are usually some type of monitoring/metering of the aircraft/vehicle viewed through the pilot cam. They are mainly mounted in front of the camera where a pilot can see the info at a glance or mounted a little below the cameras view where a pilot can tilt the camera down to see the information.

Most often FPV pilots use a common LED bar type display to monitor the voltage of a battery which is very useful on long flights. There are all kinds of different monitoring an FPV pilot can do with a dashboard in view. I've seen things like a small bubble compass mounted on the aircrafts nose that worked for heading and as a bank indicator. A piece of thin plastic strip with a red tip taped on the nose as a speed indicator and the list goes on...and what attracts me to a dashboard is the simple and cost affective way to gain the aircrafts basic info without having a OSD or using much battery power or if any at all.

When looking at adding a Dashboard keep in mind that you must be able to see it in bright sunlight and some displays may not be readable with the suns glare. Some pilots have mounted visors to their dashboards protecting from the sun glare. Others have found ways to sink the dashboard into the fuselage or nose adding even more protection. Also the dashboard or monitoring/metering devices don't have to be mounted on the nose, as you could place it anywhere that you can pan/tilt your pilot camera for observing the info when needed. Other things to consider is the focus of close by objects and most FPV pilots have their focus set at a further distance rather then up-close or macro so keep your dashboard mounted far enough from the camera to be viewable. This is another reason I go with large basic displays.