Best VR Drones in 2023 (how to pick a VR headset for a drone)

FPV Goggles​

Even though pretty much all these goggles are theoretically FPV (First Person View), the typical understanding of this term is used alongside racing drones.

Check my article about the best FPV Drone goggles for every budget.

These are used with racing quadcopters and don’t work with anything else, as they are specially made to work with an analog signal at 5.8 GHz.

There are exceptions to this, like the new DJI FPV drone that has a Digital signal and very low image lag.

It’s way harder to fly FPV drones, but super fun, so if you’re looking for this kind of experience, make sure to invest the time to learn things properly.

Specialized VR Headsets​

By specialized VR headsets I mean something like DJI released for the Mavic and Phantom 4 Series a while ago. These DJI goggles are more expensive since they actually have high-quality 1080p screens inside of them and antennas that connect directly to the drone itself. There are also controls you can have directly from the goggles, and come with Head Tracking.

Cheap Phone VR headsets​

Theoretically, you could use a phone VR headset (that’s just a case for your phone pretty much) to have VR for Any Drone that has a live feed directly to the phone itself.

And that works for sure…

However, there are a few issues with that method:

1. It doesn’t include head-tracking (so it’s less immersive)
2. It doesn’t separate the view into 2 distinct areas for each eye.
3. The screen info isn’t optimized for FPV flight, and there are a lot of things in the way of making it immersive.

However, there’s a great fix to all of these problems (however, it works only with DJI drones)

ALSO READ:    

• Best Indoor Drones
• Best Beginner Drones (and starters guide)
• My top Micro Drones

How to Make Any Dji Drone a VR Drone (Cheap)​

The solution implies solving the problems mentioned above by using the following:

• Another app (paid one)
• A pair of phone FPV goggles
• Some slight tweaking

There are huge benefits to making your standard DJI drones like a Phantom 4 or a DJI Mini 2, or Mavic Air 2, even into a VR drone:

1. Sun is no longer an issue on sunny days
2. Nobody will bother you
3. It’s way more fun and closer to real-life FPV flight
4. You’re going to get better shots as the screen appears bigger to you
5. Since it’s DJI, their light bridge or Ocusync technology has very low latency compared to others out there and therefore, the responses are pretty instantaneous.
6. Tons of automatic features like return to home and obstacle avoidance, so you don’t really need a spotter for this.

P.S. Legislation mentions the need for using a spotter when flying any drone FPV so be careful for that.

Here Is What You Do to Make Dji Drones VR:​

1.Buy yourself a pair of comfortable VR goggles for your phone. These ones that I recommend are what I got, they are cheap, have plenty of settings for adjustments, and are quite comfortable.

2. Start up your drone and connect it to the phone through the cable.

3.Buy the app called Litchy (which is a popular app alternative to DJIs own application with more features than just this)

4. Connect to the app with the drone and hit the VR button.

Now the screen will split into 2 sections with a slight Fisheye effect to perfectly cover your field of view.

You can even tweak some settings, including head tracking and turning the on-screen display on or off.

The ability to track your head movement up and down adds a welcome layer of immersion. 

The app has been updated for both ios and android to work with the DJI Mini 2 in VR.

If you happen to have the DJI Inspire, you’re in luck, as this will mean the head tracking will be available 360 degrees around you as you turn too, as if you have a 360 camera for your drone.