eachine-ev800d-review

Eachine EV800D Review Ground Station Goggles

Eachine is a popular brand in the drone industry for making quality and affordable goods under a budget, hence appealing to the masses. With FPV in mind Eachine have a created EV800D – cheap goggles for under $100. Another neat feature about this goggle is that it can switch between being a goggle and a portable ground station aka moggle. Without further ado let’s get started.

The Eachine EV800D is the second iteration of the much popular EV800 only much better. The “D” in the EV800D stands for diversity receiver, which means that there are 2 virtual receivers inside the goggles that switch between automatically whichever receiver is having the better strength signal wise.

Imagine you have 2 different brands of sim cards, when moving around one sim may have better strength than the other and we switch accordingly. The same logic applies here.

UNBOXING

ev800d-review-goggles

The box contains EV800D (A 5.8Ghz 40CH integrated diversity receiver with DVR) and accompaning 

  • Clover leaf antenna
  • Panel antenna
  • Battery charger
  • User manual
  • Carrying bag for the goggle
  • 3S to DC power cable
  • Wall adapter
  • DC video input cable

Eachine really hit the home run with this goggle. The goggles have pretty cool features that are usually found in high end models; like a diversity receiver and a DVR. The specs are as follows:

  • 5 inch 800X480 crisp LCD panel

  • Screen brightness of 600cd/m2
  • Display ratio of 16:9 and 4:3
  • 3x magnifying Fresnel lens
  • Built in 1200mah 7.4V battery
  • 5.8Ghz 40CH diversity receiver with race band
  • HD DVR recording with up to 720×576 pixel resolution with a class C10 micro SD card
  • Relatively light weight at 362g without antenna
  • 3 way adjustable head strap for a really comfortable fit

CLOSER LOOK – FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Overall for this price point, we are satisfied with what we got. I’d say it is well worth the $100. The charger looks like some cheap Chinese knock off but you can’t expect much for this price point.

Fit around the face

Although the goggle seems comfortable wearing on the face light was leaking from the nose and around the sides of goggles. A little foam to block out the leakage from the nose would have been nice.

ev800d-foam-quality

Another neat thing is the removable face foam. Over time after continuous usage the foam tend to get smelly with sweating and it’s nice to find some replacement foam.

Build quality & Design and comfort

The material with which the goggles are made feels nice in the hands but smells like cheap plastic. The head straps are flexible and seem to do pretty good job of holding the goggles in place but they are not enough.

After a few minutes they seem to sag with the weight of the goggles. If you wear spectacles then you will feel some discomfort after some time. This is where the EV800D, with a fixed focal length of the Fresnel lens has a minor disadvantage.

Though not everyone is gifted with perfect vision, people wearing spectacles might find the video not that pleasing. 

ev800d-moggles-buttons

The buttons for the OSD and the menu screen is placed at the front of the goggles. You can reach out for the buttons with the goggles on your face.

Also the buttons need some practice of getting used to operate while trying to use with the goggles on. But it will come by practice and continuous usage.
The other thing to notice is the cheapo battery charger that comes with the goggles.

If you’re planning to use your laptop charger you will be disappointed to know that the goggles use 2.5mm connectors instead of the 3.5mm connectors. This is kind of a let down from the part of Eachine and kind of weird not to incorporate the standard connectors.

OPERATING FREQUENCIES

ev800diversity-operating-frequencies

DIVERSITY RECEIVER

Diversity basically means that there are 2 virtual receivers working together. The video switching that is displayed on the screen is automatically done by the receiver, based on the signal strength of the receivers.

The receiver with the higher signal strength gets displayed. The quality of the receiver found on this goggle is not top quality but it gets the job done.

In comparison to my Quantum diversity the video quality difference was very much noticeable.

Also the stock antennas included are pretty good. Though you can’t complain at this price point, it is still a downside for this goggle.

Eachine also included Auto scan feature to make the life of the FPV pilots easier.  It automatically scans all the 40 channels and locks onto the signal with the strongest strength. This eliminates the need to manually scroll through every channel.

Convertible Ground Station Goggles

As mentioned earlier the goggle detaches, serving 2 purposes- one as a goggle and the other as a ground station.  The cool thing about the ground station is that you can mount it on a tripod stand with a 6mm hole on the bottom of the goggle and let others give some action of FPV.

You can also start off into FPV by mounting on a tripod stand. You can get a feel of the orientation of the drone and start with the real FPV afterwards. The display is bright enough to be visible outdoors. So it should do ok when mounted on a tripod.

eachine-moggles

DVR- RECORDING MADE EASY

This is where the EV800D really stands out from the rest of the crowd. DVR stands for digital video recording. This neat feature allows you to record everything the goggles displays on the screen. 

Though external DVR recorders are available, they add a few miliseconds of latency, 

The DVR feature eliminates the need for a HD recording device on the drone itself thereby reducing the weight of the drone. It also helps to recover a drone in case one is lost by looking at the DVR footage.

Although it records video getting displayed on the screen, it also records the loss of footage (known as static). The recorded video is also of lower quality when compared to a standalone HD recorder present on the quad.

LCD DISPLAY  –  IMAGE QUALITY

The 5 inch display is crisp and bright. The OSD screen helps to adjust the brightness and other parameters. Long pressing the SRC menu button on the goggles opens up the menu screen where you can adjust brightness, contrast, sharpness and the aspect ratio.

The Fresnel lens which has 3X magnification factor gives the image a more immersive feel. I remember my first time wearing a FPV goggle, I was disoriented and lost my balance waving my hand trying to reach the object LOL.

The battery doesn’t last long, as claimed by Eachine. The company claims to get a 2 hour battery life. In reality it is more like an hour and a fifteen minutes.

Battery is 1.2Ah, down from the 2Ah from the previous generation, maybe it was in attempt to reduce the weigt of the goggle as much as possible. 

So I’d recommend charging the battery more often, depending on how much you fly.

The goggle also has a video input port on the side. If you are not satisfied with the video quality from receiver, you can always use an external receiver. Many external diversity receivers are available that offer fantastic vide quality.

PROS AND CONS

  • + Very affordable at $100
  • + Built in DVR
  • + High quality 5 inch display
  • + Ground station modularity
  • + Auto Scan
  • + External video receiver option
  • – Battery duration
  • – Weighty at facefront
  • – Face foam pad cannot be removed, only replaced

CONCLUSION

When compared to the older versions the EV800D has some useful features added to an already good beginner’s goggles. The diversity receiver and the DVR feature are a neat addition.

If you are a beginner looking to get into FPV and don’t want to spend a good chunk of cash in the process, this goggles is the way your best choice. The EV800D is affordable and has fair quality. Even though this goggle has some cons, they are outweighed by the pros and I would def. recommend it for a beginner.

Hope you enjoyed reading and helped you in some way in getting some understanding of a good beginner’s goggles. Thank you for reading all the way to the end.

Contributor: Mr. Naidu

DN

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