Broadcasting Raspberry Pi Video Output to Remote Screen

Slap me if I’m reaching here, but does anyone know of an inexpensive way (if even possible) to broadcast a Raspberry PI’s Raspbian video output to a remote monitor within ~1/4 mile?

I can think of lots of ways (more or less difficult/expensive depending on the details of what you’re looking for), but I’m guessing it would be solving the wrong problem. What are you actually trying to do?

I’d like to monitor the video output of a digital dash of race car from the pit/stand area. MPH, boost, etc…

Ok, so sending those numbers to be rendered at the viewer will be far less bandwidth intensive than trying to move video. Probably by at least a factor of 10000. A telemetry radio like this will emulate a serial port connection and should reach 1/4 mile in open space. Something like LoRA would also be an option for longer range.

If you are unable to hack the software to transmit only the numbers you need, the easiest/cheapest option would be an analog video TX/RX set like these. You can plug the TX directly to the analog video output of a raspberry pi, for receiving you will either need a TV or a USB analog video capture adapter for a PC. You should be able to get the range you want, but the quality will be pretty low.

For digital video transmission over those distances your only cheap option would be wifi with directional antennas, but with a moving target it would be pretty tough. An LTE modem could also work, but it won’t be that cheap and you’ll need a data plan.

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If you want easy, this is about as inexpensive as it gets:
Amimon CONNEX Wireless HD Video Link for UAVs – $1599

  • 1080p60 Video Monitoring from the Air
  • HDMI Input and Output
  • Up to 3300’ Line-of-Sight Range
  • Less Than 1 ms Latency
  • 5.8G Operation To Avoid Interference
  • Relays S.BUS-Based Gimbal Controls
  • Supports OSD for MAVLINK Telemetry
  • AES128/RSA1024 Video Encryption
  • Includes Mounting Hardware and Cables
  • Supports Up to Four Receivers
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We looked at doing this exact thing for the lemons race. After many hours of testing with a pi 3, the best I could get was ffmpeg streaming to the internet. The pi just isn’t designed for the rough environment of a race car. You also have to power it and provide wifi, both of which can break.

I solved the problem with a phone that gets 4G LTE service, and live streaming software. The phone can be mounted on the roll cage, or plenty of off the shelf mounts. Just make sure you isolate the phone from the car with surgical tubing or rubber mounts, most streaming services can handle the jitter of the camera. Nice, simple, easy to power, and bonus of providing in car wifi if you have telemetry that you want to access.

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