Powering FPV directly from

[Colombus]

I have an immersion 600 MW vTX on my Phantom, currently I am using the immersion filter connected to the balance output of the battery. The filter is normally hanging on the battery compartment and some times it could be a very tight fit.

I am considering to use the extra power output that the phantom to power the vTX. I am wondering if I really need the filter to avoid interference coming from the engines

Has anybody tried connecting the extra power output of the Phantom directly to the vTX?

Would this work without any interference ?

 

[rilot]

I power my vtx straight from the aux power lead on the Phantom.

 

[Colombus]

Hi Rilot.

Thank you for your answer.

I assume then that you are happy with the results, so you are not having interference from engine.

Am I right?

 

[martcerv]

I have the DJI AVL58 and at first powered off the balance plug on the main battery but that became quite a drag after a while. I ended up cutting the plug and soldering it direct to the AUX points and have had no issues, this TX can directly be powered by 2s-6s batteries and doesn't need any extra filters.

 

[miskatonic]

Hi Rilot.

Thank you for your answer.

I assume then that you are happy with the results, so you are not having interference from engine.

Am I right?

Mine is powered the same way that Riot's is. No issues from the engine or anything else.

 

[The Editor]

I power my vtx straight from the aux power lead on the Phantom.

+1 - I have the ImmersionRC 600mW TX as well and I have no issues.

I have put some heat shrink on the cables and fed them through a spare landing gear leg hole - looks like a single cable so quite neet.

Absolutely no issues.

 

[weezilnut]

I also power the vTx from the aux power and do not use the power filter supplied with the Tx. Haven't had any problems so far, but I'm fairly new and haven't logged many flights. Not too happy with FPV flying...yet. It's not what I thought it would be.

 

[The Don]

I use the filter. I have it velcroed to the side of the Phantom. I power my FPV from the auxiliary wires. I used to run a balance cable from the battery compartment, for about a week. That got old quick. Take advantage of the aux wires. Some guys get fancy and mount a switch on the side so they can turn the Tx on and off.

 

[Kregh]

This sounds great -so clue me in - what Aux power wires are you guys talking about? TIA. Is there a picture available?

 

[The Don]

If you look at your landing gear, each strut has a hole in the middle between the screws. One strut is where the antenna comes out. Another is used for the compass wires. On one of them you can just barely see that there are two wires in there just waiting to power your FPV.

 

[jumanoc]

Here is the additional 12v wire.

 

[Lukevia]

I power my vtx straight from the aux power lead on the Phantom.

I have the same setup for my Phantom. Do you power your gimbal and vtx from the auxiliary lead or do you have a power supply for your gimbal as well?

I'm flying great until I run both the gimbal and vtx off the auxiliary lead then my phantom sinks and I'm fairly certain if thats just too much of a power draw off of the Phantom's battery. This is the case with one or two batteries running in parallel.

I'm trying to figure out the best (cleanest and least amount of weight) to power the gimbal and vtx and Phantom.

Thanks for your help!

 

[martcerv]

I have flown my gimbal both off a 450mah 3s extra battery or from the aux power, the battery weighs about 45g and flight time either way I get pretty much the same time which was a bit of a surprise. I just dont think the 45g makes that much difference as the battery can power the gimbal for over an hour so power draw would be pretty minimal off the main supply. If anything I get maybe a few seconds more when also having the extra battery installed I expected more of a difference between the 2. Though I think the phantom fly's a little better without the extra bit of weight as Im getting close to pushing max weight. At around 1360g without the extra battery using 2700mah main batt I get close to 8 min fly time to 11v on the OSD.