AKK K31P 600mw 40 Channel Video Transmitter Review
Thursday, June 8, 2017 4:30:58 AM America/Los_Angeles
- Published: June 8, 2017. Original article click here
And once again, we have another product from AKK, and once again you may be asking yourself, whats different and special about this one. Compared to the other AKK VTX’s we have reviewed, this one has a number of features that we really like, and differentiate it from its siblings, the X1 and X1P.
First Impressions
The first impressions of this product were even better than the X1 series. The box is much more colourful, but once again has the glossy finish on the front that makes you want to open it up. When you open a box, the VTX is snuggly fit into a piece of foam to protect it during shipping, and the cables, silicone once again were just above. One thing you notice immediately are the 2 seven segment displays, and the thick coax with the right angled SMA connector are always a good sight. The video transmitter does not come with an antenna, but most FPV pilots have dipole ‘rubber ducky’ antennas coming out of their ears, so not receiving one is a breath of fresh air. The 2 buttons on the VTX were on the side as well, which would make VTX channel switching much more easy. One slightly disappointing feature is that it only transmits on 600mw, and we would maybe like to see AKK do a VTX like this with a BEC with all the seven segment displays that can switch transmitting powers.
Installation
The installation of this video transmitter was very similar to the X1P. It could take V-Bat from 7-24 volts, and once again, all of the features with the pigtail are exactly the same as X1P, so to see the review on the pigtail, look back at the X1P video transmitter review. The VTX is slightly larger, but this is excusable as it has an onboard BEC, which is very useful, and makes installing a camera that little bit easier. When it comes to selecting your channel, it has never been easier, and we wish that more video transmitters were like this. There is one button to change the channel and one button to change the band, which makes changing to a different frequency on your video transmitter faster than using smart audio if the buttons are easily accessible. This is the best feature, and the 2 seven segment displays make it easy to see what channel and band you are on, as one displays the channel, and one displays the band. The usability of this video transmitter is just incredible. The cable it comes with is perfect for attaching it to the AKK CA20 (see our review here) camera, and it created a quick plug an play system for the install.
Performance
Once again, the performance was very good. It performed very similar to the 600mw settings on the switchable video transmitters, and the BEC was perfect for powering the camera. One thing we did notice is the video transmitter got extremely hot as it’s a 600mw video transmitter, and so it needs lots of air cooling to keep it at a stable temperature. We would not advise leaving this module powered on for too long without flying as it may overheat.
Conclusion
This video transmitter is for a very niche market. It is quite large because of the 5v regulator onboard, and often the 5v onboard regulator is not needed, especially as lots of PDB’s and flight controllers come with 5v regulators to power cameras. We absolutely love the usability and the price of this product, but for for quad pilots, we would have to recommend the X1 or the X1P, just due to their smaller form factor and the switchable power output. 600mw is too much when flying with friends and is way too powerful to race against other people with. We would still recommend this product to someone who does not regularly race, and needs the onboard 5v regulator, but we would point you towards other AKK video transmitters for installing on miniquads.
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