Only getting static in goggles

Jazza577

New member
Hey everyone brand new to the forums here. I just finished assembling my first 5" fpv drone, and while all the motors and reciever all work fine, I cant get any signal from the camera to my goggles. Regardless of what channel or settings I use all I get is static! Is there any settings I could be missing in betaflight that needs to be done to setup a VTX/camera? Is there an easy way I can identify what part is causing the issue? My parts are below:
  • Matek F405 CTR Flight controller
  • Matek 5.8GHz VTX
  • Foxeer Arrow Mini Camera
  • Eachine EV100 Goggles
Everything lights us as expected, and I have even tried a different antenna on the VTX and nothing seems to work. Any help greatly appreciated!
 

"Corpse"

Legendary member
Hi! Welcome to the forums! I had the same problem with my micro quad just yesterday.
I would double check that the video wire is soldered on correctly and is not broken. That is what happened to mine.
If this were the case your vtx would light up, but not transmit anything.

Good luck! ;)
 

Jazza577

New member
Hi! Welcome to the forums! I had the same problem with my micro quad just yesterday.
I would double check that the video wire is soldered on correctly and is not broken. That is what happened to mine.
If this were the case your vtx would light up, but not transmit anything.

Good luck! ;)
So Just tried re-soldering the video wires, but whilst doing so I noticed that one of the components has a little burnt spot on top. I've included a picture of the burnt component which hopefully helps. Could this have something to do with my issues?
 

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FDS

Elite member
You could have mis wired your VTX. It may well now be popped. You should check that you got the voltage and polarity right on the VTX wiring, some want 5v some can take battery voltage. When you try a new one or make any changes to your quad I would recommend using a smoke stopper to protect components.
 

FDS

Elite member
I just use any VTX that’s under $20. I broke so many I gave up buying decent ones. The Rush Tank and Mini are supposed to be very good but are expensive.
Have you checked the input voltage and polarity is correct on that VTX first? It may not be destroyed.
 

Jazza577

New member
Everything looks good, I connected it exactly as in the flight controller instructions. Is there a way to tell if the vtx isn't working? Im thinking that because all the lights are coming on as expected, that it may be the camera? Would the goggles still connect even if there was no video?
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
If you have static, you are either not tuned to the same frequency on the TX and RX, or your transmitter is not broadcasting. If it was a camera signal issue, you would have a black screen.

What band, channel, and power output do you have selected on the transmitter? What band and channel are selected on your goggles?

Maybe take a picture of the vtx lights so we can look at what it thinks it's settings are.

LB
 

Bricks

Master member
Did you at any time put power to the camera board with out the antenna connected if so then more then likely you smoked the transmitter. I have done this ahem a couple of times.
 

Jazza577

New member
Attached a picture of the VTX LED here, so it's on Band F channel 1, which when I set on my goggles I still get nothing. And the VTX had the antenna attached when I received it as well
 

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FDS

Elite member
Have you tried setting the channel output and power via Betaflight? If the lights change you will know the FC is communicating with the VTX.
You use the CLI window to do it. Can’t remember the commands off the top of my head.
 

Jazza577

New member
I'll give that a go, im assuming that if the channel doesnt change then there must be something wrong with how it's connected?
 

LitterBug

Techno Nut
Moderator
Do you know anyone else with fpv gear that you could test your goggles with, or that could see if they get a signal from your vtx?
 

Jazza577

New member
Unfortunately not, no one I know has even heard of fpv, I do know that the goggles worked at some point, as I have a tiny whoop that they work with
 

evranch

Well-known member
Do your goggles support scanning? I had a VTX once that came with a bad crystal or something, it was way off the stated frequency. See if you can pick it up on a scan. The VTX "bands" are very different from other sorts of radio bands, they are all in the same 5.8GHz band but interleaved with each other. So if your frequency is off, it could be on any band, not just band F.

If you get nothing but static, you have no carrier. VTX blown. If you get a blank screen of some sort, bad video signal input.

Fire up your tiny whoop and make sure your goggles are working and you didn't lose an antenna connection or something.
 

Jazza577

New member
Definitely! I really appreciate all the help, at this point im thinking that the VTX might be toast. Going to try a few things when I get the chance otherwise will be ordering a new one!
 

Jazza577

New member
So I have tried a few things now, I noticed that the power input on the vtx mentions 7-27V, so I rewired that and there was no change. I then tried changing the channel and band settings from the CLI tab. The settings will save but then the VTX LED's will not match the channel I set. What could be the issue here?
 

FDS

Elite member
Did you type “save” after you completed the CLI?
It sounds like the VTX is designed to work off battery voltage, you should use a VBAT filtered pad on the flight controller for the + wire, then put the ground to a ground port. Some of those do not work at all off 5v. They also have a 5V out to go to the camera, providing a very clean power feed for the video.
Did you have Smart Audio set up?
I would still buy another VTX to check the system, just get a cheap one.