ladykate said:
....what's a radio actuated switch? What are you controlling from the radio.....LED lights? Sorry for my stupidity. :lol:
550 Pilot's lounge
- Thread starter OI Photography
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....what's a radio actuated switch? What are you controlling from the radio.....LED lights? Sorry for my stupidity. :lol:
The guy who started this thread on RCgroups and a few others on there have upgraded. Be prepared to sift through over 1k pages, though. :shock: The first page has his video of him doing the upgrade to a 450. Overall I think most are glad they did it.FangsCPO said:
I think your mistaken. I've been following this thread and have not read of anyone doing that upgrade. If someone had, I'm sure there would be photos also. So not in this thread but if I am wrong, please show me.
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I didn't mean this thread we are on now. If you check my earlier post, the "this thread" is a clickable link that takes you to a thread on RCgroups. Maybe I should edit my post.FangsCPO said:
labmansid said:
Got it!!! Thanks for clarifying. Wow!! That is awesome info!!!
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FangsCPO said:
I want to click a switch on my 8FGHS and have video out from the video transmitter on the airplane change from one camera to another (this mainly for FPV using a cheaper camera but one that gives better perspective). The switch to do this is cheap(er) and can do many jobs - including flip LEDs on and off. Ol Photography gave us the link a while back. http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index. ... ts_id=1283 Unfortunately, I'm going to have to reprogram the 8FGHS a little - the profile I have in it right now uses channel 8 for something else.
@ Ladykate
Regarding your RC switch. I am using several of the ones I got from Robot Market Place to turn on LEDs on my F550. They actuate by pulling an open lead (LED ground) to ground. Good for switching up to 2.5 amps per switch. I found out the hard way that if you try to turn a camera on and off by switching the ground lead (from the power side), the video ground might be part of the camera ground circuit, and if you have the video going directly to your transmitter (or OSD), then the camera will not shut off as it pulls the ground from the video connection. If you can find an RC switch that allows you to switch off the camera's power via the positive lead, you might avoid some headache. I know that Sean at EZ Drone carries some of the switches.
Anyway, hope that all is going good for you.
Regarding your RC switch. I am using several of the ones I got from Robot Market Place to turn on LEDs on my F550. They actuate by pulling an open lead (LED ground) to ground. Good for switching up to 2.5 amps per switch. I found out the hard way that if you try to turn a camera on and off by switching the ground lead (from the power side), the video ground might be part of the camera ground circuit, and if you have the video going directly to your transmitter (or OSD), then the camera will not shut off as it pulls the ground from the video connection. If you can find an RC switch that allows you to switch off the camera's power via the positive lead, you might avoid some headache. I know that Sean at EZ Drone carries some of the switches.
Anyway, hope that all is going good for you.
Sarguy said:
Well... right now I'm just getting my radio rearranged so I can use one of the channels so I can't offer an experienced comment but the RCCC control switches the video but doesn't shut the camera off (you can do that with another feature but I probably won't). The reason for this is to switch between cameras to get video feed on one monitor. The demo they do on YouTube seems to work that way and that is what I'm shooting for. Again, I'm not sure but I think that is what the OSD Mark II does. The switching current for the LED piece is about 2 amps according to the specs (about 20 watts). I'll be running both features (LED switch and video switch) off of one three-way switch on the radio... at least that is the plan.
Worse case is I could put two transmitters on different freqs on the 550 and run two monitors on the ground (maybe goggles and Black Pearl). Don't know if that will work either. ;-}
Sarguy said:
Like this? http://www.ebay.com/itm/351015503873
I purchased that one and tried to test it, but I think I wired the connections to the positive lead backwards (reverse flow) and may have fried it. But it appears like the switch should be one that works like you described. I have a new one on the way.
Your last thought is what I am going to attempt to do. I am wanting to run one camera for the pilot and one for an observer. The pilot camera will look mostly straight ahead and probably be a 5.8 GHz system and will be for flying the beast. The observer's camera will be the gimbal mounted one and will be on my existing 1.2 GHz system. The reason is that I'm planning on using my 550 for search and rescue so that observer will be doing the "searching" and the pilot will be trying not to crash. :shock:
OI Photography said:
Your RCCC link was the one that got me thinking. It costs more but handles more current and has several features. I can only use one channel right now - would have to upgrade to use all the features. Maybe I could use the IOC channel (RTH). I don't use that one anyway. ;-}
BTW: Does that controller you linked above have a connector included?
Sarguy said:
I'm not sure what a mess I would make if I put two tx in the same band so close together. Your solution has a much better spread. Big problem is that it won't have OSD if I do it that way. I would like to see the data on either view. That gets us back to doing it with either an OSD MK II or a switch of some sort.
ladykate said:
There's a connector for the Rx channel, but the leads that go in series with the power supply are bare:
(If you want to read the instruction sheet click on that image for the full-sized version)
Here it is as you would connect it:
Here's the other Turnigy switch I've been trying to test (on the right):
Here's both of them laid out showing where they would each go in the circuit:
I may have burned out the first one that goes in series with the power lead, and the one with the JST connectors works, but only once. It'll turn the the lights off, but then won't turn them on or off again until I disconnect the switch from power then reconnect it again. No idea why.
I jumped to your link and magnified the images - couldn't understand two red leads for a second!
BTW: A really long shot - put a 10K resistor across the input leads to the second one that won't cycle. You can do it temporarily and 10K won't be a problem for the circuitry. I'm imagining some sort of residual voltage isn't being depleted... or not...
BTW: A really long shot - put a 10K resistor across the input leads to the second one that won't cycle. You can do it temporarily and 10K won't be a problem for the circuitry. I'm imagining some sort of residual voltage isn't being depleted... or not...
Ol Photography - you have a WKM, right? When they talk about a downlink, what do they mean? Does that substitute for a video transmitter? I've tried to figure it out from the literature and just when I think I understand it, I see where it could be a video transmission to an iPad or something... or not. Does it overlay on a Google map or something?
ladykate said:
The "downlink" they refer to is what you now know as the iPad Groundstation. Originally it was sold as an accessory to the WKM, before the functionality was added to the NAZA later (w/firmware 4.02). Lately it looks like they've changed most of their references to it so it's now a standalone product, but you'll still see it mentioned in WKM documentation here and there.
OI Photography said:
Is it operational on yours? Have you used it? BVR with waypoints and such with a 550 is a little harder (not improbable but doing work would be interesting).
ladykate said:
I do have the 2.4 Data Link connected to mine, and I've confirmed it links up with the PC software via the ground unit, but haven't flown an actual mission. The software has a sandbox environment you can use to plan and execute fake missions for practice, but that's as far as I've gone with it. I'll dig in to it more once I get some of the more critical things crossed off my list, and have the time to study the unfriendly software some more (...or get an ipad).
Anyone ever put two 3s batteries on the Phantom? I just mounted two but now I'm a little worried about the vertical CG. Don't want it to flip over.
ladykate said:
Yep, when I used that config for a while I just strapped them to those common under-arm trays you see everywhere. Made it a bit less stable on L or R roll, but I never got the sense it was anywhere near the danger zone. The NAZA is supposed to keep you under a certain amount of pitch in any direction, dual batts on the side should be well within what it can manage for that.
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