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hello there and welcome back to the
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channel today we're taking a look at
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smart link from sky drones now smart
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link is a h-d wireless video
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transmission and telemetry system it's
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designed to be used with various auto
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pilots and it allows you to transmit HD
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video up to 1080p back to a ground
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station up to 20 kilometers in range not
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only does it support video but it also
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has a mavlink telemetry connection as
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well UART and it also has a built in
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companion computer so it allows you to
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run onboard software on the aircraft as
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well connect it up to USB and actually
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have control over that via the ground
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station too now this system is
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compatible with mavlink which means
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it will work with autopilot as well as
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px4 but it also works with sky drones
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own flight controller as well you can
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use it with the sky drones ground
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station software but you can also use it
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with mission planner as well if you are
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using that on this system now what we're
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going to do in this video is give you
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guys an overview of what it does take
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you through a closer look at the ear
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unit as well as the ground station as
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well and then at the end of the video
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I'm going to give you guys a quick demo
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of just the video transmitting on both
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their ground station as well as mission
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planner of two now in another video I'm
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going to actually give you guys a demo
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of this out in action and try and show
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you what it's actually like and test
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some of that 20 kilometer range method
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as well and see how it actually holds up
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now just before I jump into the specs
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detailed on this one thing I will
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mention with this system is that it
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doesn't have a built in RC control link
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it handles video and telemetry but it
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doesn't have RC so if you're going to
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use a system like this you're still
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going to need to use your traditional RC
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for doing your main aircraft control and
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whilst if you are using audre pilot you
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can actually control it fully over
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mavlink you're always going to want
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your RC control backup as well and it is
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worth checking that out so the next
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thing we're going to do is take a closer
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look over the unit itself and then give
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you guys an overview of some of the
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specs and the features that the
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SmartLink includes
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[Music]
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SmartLink is a telemetry and HD video
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transmission system that is designed to
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be used with their own smart AP flight
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controllers but it also supports
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mavlink which means it will also work
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with pixhawk and other controllers that
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support both Autopilot and px4 it has
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a range of up to 20 kilometers and is
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AES encrypted and it supports video
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telemetry over the wireless link taking
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a closer look at the ae unit itself not
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only does it handle the video input and
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transmission but it has an onboard
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companion computer as well now this
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companion is an arm cortex a53 quad-core
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up to 1.2 gigahertz it has 1 gig of ram
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and 4 gig of on-board storage and this
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allows you to run custom applications
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directly on the AE unit so you don't
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actually have to have a separate
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companion computer on your unit now the
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radio system on this uses a dual antenna
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input and it supports the 2.4 gigahertz
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frequency band it has a boundaries of
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either 4 or 8 megahertz and as I
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mentioned earlier it supports AES
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encryption now video latency on this
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system is said to be below 100
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milliseconds on either HDMI inputs and
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it has a maximum range of up to 20
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kilometers moving around to the sides
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you will find a microSD card input for
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the companion computer as well as the
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two HDMI video inputs now these support
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up to a maximum of 1080p 60 frames a
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second and could be selected via the
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software on the other side you will find
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the reset as well as the microUSB port
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to SPI ports and i2c port on the uart
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port above this you will also have the
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five volt DC input
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now these SPI and uart ports are
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designed to allow you to connect it to
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your autopilot for getting additional
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data such as your telemetry but it also
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allows you to connect additional sensors
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directly to the ae unit as well rather
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than routing them directly through your
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flight controller moving around to the
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back you will find two USB a ports and
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these are for connecting external
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devices directly to the on-board
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companion on each side of the ae unit
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you have the SMA antenna connectors and
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then on the one side at the back you
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have a fan which keeps
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onboard electronics cool underneath
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there's no connections and you simply
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have a little bit of a conformity
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labeling and this is where you would be
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mounting it directly to your frame
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moving over to the ground station this
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is what receives the signal from the ae
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unit and then you connect this to either
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your computer or your tablet depending
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on what setup you're going to use now
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this unit is housed in an aluminium case
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with a fan located just behind the sky
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drones logo at the front it has two SMA
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antenna inputs at the top and has a 7 to
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35 volt DC input on the bottom alongside
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the micro USB connector that you will
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connect to either your computer or
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tablet moving around to the other side
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you will find the status LEDs which
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gives you information for the tx/rx
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and link condition onboard CPU as well
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as signal RSSI which is split across
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three LEDs finally on the back you
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simply have the conformity labeling just
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like on the ae unit now looking closer
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at the specification the system supports
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HD video to 1080p 60 frames a second
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down to 720p 30 frames a second as I
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mentioned earlier the telemetry inputs
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support TX and rx via uart and it
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supports mavlink so it means it will
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work with pixhawk and other flight
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controllers it also allows obviously
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control over the telemetry link as well
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now the weight of the unit is 75 grams
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for the air module and 70 grams for the
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ground station and whilst the air unit
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only supports 5 volt DC the ground unit
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will support 7 240 included with the
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smart leg is the antennas and these
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consist of two omnidirectional
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self-adhesive panel mount antennas for
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the air end which simply connect via
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wires onto the SMA connectors and on the
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ground end they supply to two point four
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gigs high gain omnidirectional stick
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antennas made by tp-link now as I
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mentioned you can use smart link with
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px4 or autopilot and any pixhawk or cube
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flight controller now here I've got it
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connected up to a cube orange via the
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UART one port now the standard cable
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supplied with it doesn't actually
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directly fit and you will need to make
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one up yourself to make sure that you do
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get the connection
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correct not to be able to receive the
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video and telemetry data you can hook
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smart link directly to mission planner
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however they do also make their own
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ground station software called Smart AP
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GCS and this does have support for auto
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pilot and px for over mavlink and
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whilst it is designed to be used with
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their own flight controllers you do have
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some functionality in this as well and
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it does allow you to actually receive
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that data directly on their ground
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station as well as control the smart
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link video as well taking a closer look
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over their own ground station here you
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will see you have all of the basic
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functionality that you get from most
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ground stations in the top right hand
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corner you have the connection box for
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connecting to the smart link unit itself
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then along the top you have all of the
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basic telemetry data as well as the
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smart link air unit data - by
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double-clicking on the little antenna
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you have all of the basic signal
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information as well as the settings
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appear for the smart link here you can
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change things such as the main frequency
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you can change the bandwidth for the
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channels air end power as well as ground
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station power and also the ability to
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set a maximum distance as well under the
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security tab you have the ability to
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change this user and password ID
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settings for the AES encryption coming
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out of here in the bottom corner you
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will see the video box now currently
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this is showing blank because I haven't
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actually selected the video input if you
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click the little cog in the bottom
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corner and select smart link HDMI after
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a second or two the main video input
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will appear now I've currently got this
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connected to my gh 5 looking at the air
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unit on the bench now you can select the
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HDMI inputs by the options in the
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right-hand side and once it is connected
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you have the ability to move the video
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screen about floating depending on where
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you want to put it you can also swap it
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between fullscreen and normal size and
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you can also adjust the size of the
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screen as well depending on how large
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you want it now to do the adjustment you
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simply go down to the bottom right hand
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corner and drag it smaller and larger or
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you simply double tap on the screen to
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swap it between fullscreen and then it
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makes the map screen smaller rather than
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the camera itself now
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looking around the rest of the ground
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station you have all of the usual
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functionality such as the mode buttons
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down the right hand side you have a
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recording option and I also have the
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ability to select either the HDMI one or
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HDMI to input depending on which one
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you're using then along the top you have
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all of the usual telemetry data you'd
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expect to find from an auto pilot or
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px4 based flight controller you have the
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arm switch and then you have the main
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settings and frame options over under
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the little cog on the right-hand side
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that allows you just to change the
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settings on the flight controller as
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well as the other options too now it
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should be said that this ground station
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is designed to be used with their own
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flight controller and you may find not
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all of this functions when using a auto
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pilot or px4 based one however it does
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give you some of the options and as i've
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said earlier you can continue to use
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mission planner if you wanted to as well
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if you prefer to use it that way just to
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demo this in mission planner as well you
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would simply set up the streaming
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options as found on the sky drones
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website put that in and once you've got
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it all connected it will then
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synchronize and then the video will
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appear over the back end of the HUD now
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just like whenever you use a streaming
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device in mission planner you have all
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the same options available to you you
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have the live video over the heads-up
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display and then you can pop it out to
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full screen if you want to you can
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adjust the size of it and you still have
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all of the usual telemetry options as
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well just as you would do using a normal
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telemetry link now because this system
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doesn't have an RC you would still need
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a separate RC control link as there is
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no SBUs but it does give you all of the
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functionality from Mission planner to be
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able to control your autopilot your
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plane drone or ground unit depending on
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what you want to do and you can simply
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go in change all the prams as you
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normally would and then go back to the
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main screen and you have your video in
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place ready to go and that is pretty
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much it for this video now in my next
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one I'm gonna take it out and about and
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try and demonstrate some of the range
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capabilities of it and actually show you
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it in use as well now on the bench I'll
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have to say the latency is actually
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showing up very good certainly no issues
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at all I haven't done any time
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measurements on it but I get a feeling
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for
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and see when you've been testing digital
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systems for a lot of time like I have
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and it's certainly nothing I'm concerned
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with at all again you're not going to be
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mounting this on a racing drone so I'm
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not looking at the same kind of latency
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levels that DJI are getting down at sub
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30 milliseconds they say a hundred
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milliseconds from my personal bench test
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and I can well believe that I need to
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test what it is like out and about at
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range as well and I'll be doing that in
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the next video now it is an interesting
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system that does have the onboard
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companion in the year unit as well as
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does another of other systems the nice
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thing with this one is that it does
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allow you to build it into a ground
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station with the separate base unit
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rather than have say an all-in-one RC
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unit but it all depends what you're
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going to want to do with your system and
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depends if you're going to connect it up
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to their own flight controller from sky
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drones or you're going to be using it
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with something like px4 or autopilot
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because it is fully compatible with both
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so what we're doing the next one is
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we'll get it out and about and demo it
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in action d2 if you've liked what you've
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seen in this video please do subscribe
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to the channel there's a button in the
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bottom right hand corner and if you
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press that you'll get updates on any
11:59
videos that we release in the future
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please do like and share if you've got
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any comments on this please toss them in
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the video as well put them in the
12:06
comment section and I will try to answer
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any questions I have as well that's it
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thank you for watching and I will do
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another one again soon

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