Any input would be appreciated! Added a secondary fpv cam to my rig and...

[d8agod]

Hey guys / gals,

I added a secondary fpv camera to my S5000 quadcopter build. Post installation, I tested that the quad was functioning properly and did a short test flight with the camera unplugged for good measure. Landed the quad, plugged the camera in, tried to take off and the quad pulled left hard as soon as it took off, causing it to crash. The quad literally got six inches off of the ground before this behavior happened. I unplugged the camera, checked the quad out, flew it again to make sure it was ok. Tried plugging the camera in again and took off, same behavior.

At this point I am assuming there is a serious power draw causing this issue, but I am not sure at this point. I have a single battery powering everything on this rig (gopro setup with 3d gimbal, gps nuit). My second guess would be some interference with the camera signal and my remote? But I don't see that being an issue being they're on diff bandwidths. The second crashed landed me for a while, just ordered the parts . But I would love to hear any ideas or reasons why this would happen? Maybe it happened to you?

Quick note(s):

- For this test I did not have my 3d gimbal powered on, seems to be a non issue.
- The camera plugs directly into my lipo battery.

Frame = S5000
FPV camera = eachine's 700tvl with ET25 vtx
Batt = 3000mah 11.1v 30C


Any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks guys!

 

[makattack]

What kind of a flight controller do you have? I suspect if you're powering the camera and vtx straight from the battery, you can probably rule out voltage sag/current draw as a culprit, unless the camera or vtx has a serious short circuit issue (in which case, they probably wouldn't work / would generate a ton of heat resulting in smoke and fire). Assuming you're able to see a video feed from both, I would guess they're working well enough to not draw a huge amount of power.

I ask what kind of flight controller because FPV gear obviously emit RF video signals and noise. Well, cameras are known to be noisy. It also happens that camera noise tend to be on the GPS range of frequency, so generally speaking, FPV gear can adversely affect GPS enabled flight controllers. If you have one of those, and are flying in a GPS mode, that might be one explanation for it.

The other would be the FPV gear affecting the ESC's due to noise. Are all your wires twisted to provide a bit of shielding against the noise? I've had to use a ferrite ring on some ESC and Servo signal wires to deal with noise issues on some noisy electronics. Just three or four wraps around a small ring should be enough... or twisting the wires should be equivalent.

 

[d8agod]

Thank you for the input!

I am using a dji naza m lite on this quad and have a gps unit on it as well. For take off I was not in gps mode. My wires are not twisted as described, never would of thought that would bite me in the a$$, but maybe its the case here.

 

[PsyBorg]

You did not by chance use an esc's bec to power your video gear did you? Some of the video gear pulls more then a bec can feed and may have caused brown out situation on the esc trying to power the video.