News: Walksnail Avatar Digital FPV System (Fatshark Dominator HD)

Fat Shark announced a new goggles – the Dominator HD last week that will be using Walksnail’s Avatar digital FPV system. From the sample footage we have seen so far, it seems comparable to the popular DJI FPV system in terms of image quality, it even has the potential to outcompete in the future with 1080p resolution.

Where to Buy?

GetFPV:

• Dominator HD  FPV System Buddle: https://oscarliang.com/product-k1pf
• FPV Goggles:
  • NBD: https://oscarliang.com/product-094m
  • GetFPV: https://oscarliang.com/product-sdpz
• VTX/Camera Kit: https://oscarliang.com/product-supk

Banggood:

• Dominator HD Goggles: https://oscarliang.com/product-ccsj

Currently (May 2022) Walksnail is still working on the firmware for the Avatar FPV system, but they have already started manufacturing the products as we speak. They are aiming to get the firmware ready by the time they start shipping them out to customers in about two months. It’s still too early to judge how good this system is compared to DJI FPV system or HDZero, but I will keep an close eye and update this post with further review and testing.

Avatar FPV System Hardware

When it comes to hardware, so far we know there are the Fatshark Dominator HD Goggles and a VTX that has a black heatsink on it.

The Dominator HD Goggles have similar weight and dimensions to the Fatshark HDO2 goggles. However they don’t support analogue FPV system – no receiver module bay nor AV input. They are purely for the Dominator digital FPV system.

Fatshark Dominator HD FPV Goggles Specs:

• Screen Resolution: 1080p 90FPS (the system can transmit up to 120FPS)
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• FOV: 46°
• Adjustable IPD: 56-70mm
• Adjustable Focus Range: +2 to -6 diopter
• Has a power button
• Built-in anti fog fan
• USB-C port for firmware update and HDMI video output
• 4 RP-SMA antenna connectors
• Removable faceplate
• Velcro faceplate foam padding
• Input Voltage: 7-21V (2S-5S)

The Avatar VTX has a single board design, appears to be easy to install just like an ordinary analogue VTX. It weights only 16g, uses H.265 encoding and can provide up to 1080p HD FPV image resolution with 22ms ultra-low latency. It also supports canvas mode and distance detection and with dual-antenna.

Detailed VTX specs is currently unknow.

Here’s the VTX and Camera combo. Camera specs currently unknown, but it appears to be a micro camera.

Video Quality

The first video that showcases the video quality of the new Walksnail Avatar digital FPV system is from Joshua Bardwell. Some images in this post are taken from JB’s video, so make sure to check out his video if you want to learn more.

What Is the Fatshark Dominator Digital FPV System Really?

In Greg French’s interview, he insists that this is “Fat Shark’s new digital FPV system”, and it has nothing to do with DJI.

However, Carl Zhou, the owner of HDZero speculated that the Fat Shark Dominator HD digital FPV system could be DJI rebranded, a workaround for DJI to sell to the US since they are prohibited to do so [source].

Note: Teal is also owned by Redcat, same as Fatshark and Rotor Riot.

If you look at the setting menu of the Fat Shark Dominator HD goggles, the options are almost identical to the ones in the DJI FPV Goggles. They have the same “low power mode” prompt, the latency and bitrate displayed at the bottom of the screen. The exact same power levels, low latency and high quality modes.

Image quality looks similar to the DJI system. The OSD also looks familiar. Latency is not fixed like HDZero, it has the same variable latency as DJI, if you fly too far away or the signal is weak. Also, just like DJI, maximum frame rate is 120fps.

So many similarities to DJI, what Carl said kind of makes sense…

Anyway, it’s good there’s a new option on the market. I will keep this post updated as I learn more.

Walksnail / Avatar FPV System?

A member on our forum found this website [source] called Avatar HD Digital FPV system by Walksnail. It shows identical FPV goggles and VTX as the Fatshark Dominator system. They could be the same system, and might support 1080p in the future according to the specs.

Note: if you google the phone number on Walksnail’s website, it belongs to someone who works at Caddx…

Is this the same system as the Fatshark Dominator HD? (Edit: Yes)

Update (17 May 2022): Fatshark announced today that the digital FPV system used in their Dominator HD FPV Goggles is in fact called Avatar, which is developed by a company called Walksnail. I have changed the name of the system in the subject and content of this post.