FPV on ITOHI — Open-Source Hardware, Embedded Systems & DIY Builds

FPV Tuning with Sintra AI — And Why I'm Not Building Another AI Platform

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This post grew out of the drone detector article, where I mentioned using Sintra for the FPV side of the work. That mention deserves its own treatment, because it raises a question I want to address directly: why am I using an external AI tool for this instead of building my own?

Why Sintra, Not My Own AI

There are projects in my history I don't talk about much. MentalMentor. BabyAI. Others at various levels of completion, none of which became products. The pattern is consistent across all of them: I build the technically interesting part — the architecture works, the core functionality is there — and then the work shifts to distribution, community building, marketing. Things that require either a budget I don't have or social capital I've never managed to accumulate. I have no network. I cannot self-promote. The projects expire quietly.

FPV: how it all began

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

For years my drones travelled with me. A DJI Air first, then a Mini 3 — camera platforms that rode along on every trip, packed next to the rest of the gear. They were good at exactly one thing: hovering somewhere legal and taking a clean photo.

That was the problem. Hovering at the permitted altitude, framing a mountain from a respectful distance, felt underwhelming every single time. The footage was fine. It was also lifeless — the drone observed from a polite distance and brought back postcards. Eventually I stopped packing one at all. On motorcycle trips especially, the Mini 3 stayed home; the weight and the faff weren't worth another set of hover shots.

Pavo20 Pro II GPS Fix Attempts: BEC Switching Noise at 1575 MHz and What Actually Helped

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Pavo20 Pro II is a capable 2.5" whoop — compact, powerful, with a good camera and a surprisingly solid video link even on linear whip antennas. I wanted it as a mountain trip quad: something that fits in a jacket pocket, dives canyons, and has GPS Rescue as a genuine safety net. GPS is not included; I added a module myself, soldered and configured it. That's when the problems started.