changing out grey flex cable

Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
111
Reaction score
1
Location
Upstate NY
I am anxiously awaiting a new cable kit ordered after my treetop incident. the 4pin connector
into the gimbal had wires pulled out and i have lost visual indicators on my screen showing battery level and
satellite strength. (camera and gimbal seem to still work fine)

i have been trying to find some help online so i am prepared for the fix once the cable gets here,
and from what i can see, this cable has 3 connectors going into the gimbal from the phantom, and
once up into the phantom it becomes 1 cable. then from looking at pictures of opened up phantoms
i believe that cable splits to go the the appropriate connections inside the phantom.

my question/concern is what tools may i need for this, anything special? also, it looks like
i may need some plastic cable ties. while i have it open i will look at my gps cable connection
and see if i feel like it should have something added to increase it's strength.

if this cable repair is successful, i hope to get my battery and satellite levels back on my
screen, but, if it doesn't cure my satellite and battery levels (possible other issue?) would
it still be safe to fly seeing the phantom as it does have green blinking lights and powers up
normally? (have tried without props)
 
dutch said:
I am anxiously awaiting a new cable kit ordered after my treetop incident. the 4pin connector
into the gimbal had wires pulled out and i have lost visual indicators on my screen showing battery level and
satellite strength. (camera and gimbal seem to still work fine)

i have been trying to find some help online so i am prepared for the fix once the cable gets here,
and from what i can see, this cable has 3 connectors going into the gimbal from the phantom, and
once up into the phantom it becomes 1 cable. then from looking at pictures of opened up phantoms
i believe that cable splits to go the the appropriate connections inside the phantom.

my question/concern is what tools may i need for this, anything special? also, it looks like
i may need some plastic cable ties. while i have it open i will look at my gps cable connection
and see if i feel like it should have something added to increase it's strength.

if this cable repair is successful, i hope to get my battery and satellite levels back on my
screen, but, if it doesn't cure my satellite and battery levels (possible other issue?) would
it still be safe to fly seeing the phantom as it does have green blinking lights and powers up
normally? (have tried without props)

It would be safe to fly from the perspective of the aircraft will not suffer any ill effects of that telemetry not getting to you. But unsafe WRT you not having that data on your phone while flying.
 
IF i was to fly, it would be close, i have the lights on the phantom to indicate satellite guidance,
and it would flash blinking red for low battery, so i may attempt a short flight.
my son is coming home for christmas and is dieing to see/try it out and i'm
bummed i clipped that tree the other day.
 
If you are impatient and desperately need telemetry to fly and have some basic soldering skills...
Go down to your hobby store where they sell and modify phantom 2's (non-vision)
Ask for the guy that fixes/builds them.
Ask him if he has done any FPV phantom 2 + GoPro kits + transmitter and Receiver + FPV hub (very common build).
When he does these kits, he normally throws away the 4 pin camera/power cable that comes with the phantom. The cable is red/brown/black/red I think. This cable fits. Take note which cables go where and solder.
Just ask him nicely and he'll give it to you.

Removal of the cables is easy if the whole main board comes out. You can do it with out removing the main board but it becomes tricky. The trickiest part is where the cables come down into the phantom. The USB front port has a slit under it. The cables are held by doublesided tape so don't pull it through. The other tricky cable is the wide one that clips into the wifi module. The clip is hard to get to and you just need to be patient and careful with the capacitor that sits near the wifi module..
 
i've found a picture on another bb showing this cable and where it
connects in the phantom. can you tell me where the capacitor
you are concerned with is? (total newb here in RC stuff)
appreciate the help!
hopefully the new cables will be here tomorrow............... none too soon,
need to fly this weekend!!!
 

Attachments

  • FullSizeRender.jpg
    FullSizeRender.jpg
    430.6 KB · Views: 1,512
in the same thread, there is more information on the wires and their function,
which concerns me as i have lost flight telemetry, battery indicator, and satellite
strength in my app. i only see issues with the 4pin connector, which according to this picture
and diagram would leave me to believe i may have more issues than just this cable,
any thoughts on that?
 

Attachments

  • gimbal wire.jpg
    gimbal wire.jpg
    721.8 KB · Views: 3,052
Watch out for the capacitor below
Phantom%20Wiring%20diagram.jpg


And the 4 pin cable is your culprit. Trust me. I've saved someone $200 (and maybe many others) on this forum. Everyone thinks its the wifi module (can be the case sometimes). But if you have crashed and all of a sudden lost telemetry, the 4 pin clip cable is the offender.
gimbal%20wiring.jpg


The other 2 sets of cables does nothing but "bridge" a connection to power on the gimbal/camera. I know this because I have successfully flown a GOpro with the DJI app :) Works beautifully. If I ever crash my camera, I'll be heading down this path.
Phantom%202%20Vision%20Plus%20with%20GO%20Pro%20Screen%20capture%201.png
 
Thank you Mako,
hopefully saturday i can get her back up and flying again.

and i'll watch for that capacitor...
 
I had the left most pin pull out on my 4 pin plug. I believe the one marked "camera pitch". Sure enough I couldn't move the camera up or down. Weirdly enough I wasn't seeing any satellite data either. Everything else was working fine. I could start recording, etc.

I pushed that pin in nice and deep and all was good. Next flight it was out again. I pushed it back in nice and deep then added a droplet of hot glue to the top of the pin to hold it in place. Been good ever since. I suppose I should order another set of wires... *sigh*
 
this seems to be a fairly common issue, it is a very poor connector to start with,
it sounds like it doesn't take much to dislodge the wires. i wonder if there is a more
robust connector that can be used there?
Mako, in the post where you talked about the go/pro mod you mention they
have a cable to tie into that same port, any idea if it is a different quality connector
they are using? that might be a smart thing for somebody to sell!
 
I don't think this is a connector issue. Rather, I think it's related to the gimbal mounting, with it having enough play that it can pull on the connector.
I think this problem might be avoidable if you put cable ties through the rubber bushings (but not closed up tight). This may help prevent the bushings from stretching so much that the gimbal pulls on the cables.
 
I had the 2 cable ties, and had no separation at the rubber bushings,, mine was a condition of
falling down thru tree branches..........................
it still hurts to think about it.............
 
dutch said:
this seems to be a fairly common issue, it is a very poor connector to start with,
it sounds like it doesn't take much to dislodge the wires. i wonder if there is a more
robust connector that can be used there?
Mako, in the post where you talked about the go/pro mod you mention they
have a cable to tie into that same port, any idea if it is a different quality connector
they are using? that might be a smart thing for somebody to sell!

The zenmuse/gopro conversion doesn't use that cable at all.
I'm thinking of using JST connectors instead or a 4 pin slip off and on molex. So in an event of a crash, the pins just slip out.
I don't know why they made 1 of 3 cables different. They should have used non-clip in cables on all.
 
If you want the 4-pin cable to pull out easily, all you need to do is break off the clip from the plug.
It will still stay in without it. Just not as securely, which seems to be what you're after.
 
CityZen said:
If you want the 4-pin cable to pull out easily, all you need to do is break off the clip from the plug.
It will still stay in without it. Just not as securely, which seems to be what you're after.

Its too loose without the clip. The clip keeps the pressure on it. I looked at this morning as i was thinking the same thing
 
made the repair today, found out that that white connector had in fact
broken, like split, so there was no putting the wires back into it.

the flex wiere in the phantom (V3) had many round magnet type rollers around them,
and the new wire kit did not come with them.
we were able to just replace that set of 4 wires and left the other wires in place., well
we put them back after we realized we could re-use those other wires.
 
but, as i started another thread,
the phantom does back flips now............
still not flying, but the gps and battery
indicators are all now working normal...
 
fixed the backflip issue, we had the M1-M4 connector wrong (had removed it
for easier access to the cables down by the usb port)

the hardest part of this job was re-securing the cables going from the phantom to
the gimbal in the little holder that is part of the usb port. it's not an easy place
to work, and after quite a bit of finaggeling we finally got the wires where we felt
comfortable they were good to go.
here' s a picture of that are thru the battery opening,
notice a thumb holding the part with the wires:
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20141220_124744_064.jpg
    IMG_20141220_124744_064.jpg
    2.7 MB · Views: 581

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
143,066
Messages
1,467,358
Members
104,936
Latest member
hirehackers