Caddx Protos Ascent: The Gist

Right, let's talk about the new Caddx Protos Ascent. For $359, you get a drone, goggles, and a controller. Everything you need to dip your toes into digital FPV without needing to sell a kidney. It's a starter kit aimed squarely at newcomers, so manage your expectations. You won't be shooting the next Hollywood blockbuster on it.

So, what's the catch? There's always a catch. For a start, you're locked into their proprietary batteries. It also skips onboard cinematic recording, so your dreams of becoming the next FPV wunderkind will have to wait. And no, it won't play nice with your existing Avatar HD goggles. Caddx said so. You get what you pay for, and in this case, you're not paying for backward compatibility.

Under the hood, things get a bit interesting. Instead of one chip doing all the work, they've split the radio (an Artisan AR803) and video processing into a two-chip system. More curiously, its low-signal behaviour is... unique. Rather than just turning into a pixelated mess, the feed gracefully degrades from full colour to black-and-white, then to a 'focus' crop in the centre. A bit dramatic, but we'll allow it.

The bottom line is that a $359 all-in-one digital kit is bound to shake things up. It makes the hobby more accessible and puts a bit of pressure on the established players, which is never a bad thing. If you're the type who enjoys exhaustive teardowns and technical jargon, we've got all that and more in our full deep-dive. You know, for science.