Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wallet

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I recently bought a Phantom 2 with Zenm. H3-3D gimbal. It worked well right out of the box and I odered, FPV equipment, iOSD mini, and a Data link for GPS guided flight. The FPV package was a complete settup, PNP Black Pearl monitor with transmitter all in one box by Flysight. It went in without a hitch and flew with FPV for a few great days. As a matter of practice, the antenna for the transmitter was attached and never once removed after that. There were no crashes and not trauma to the Phantom at all during this time.

On my 20th discharge of the battery, I discharged the battery to the 8% level as advised in the assistant software. To do this I took the props. off and unpluged the gimbal ribbon cable from the anti-interference board (because I didn't want the gimbal motors to overheat), disconnected the FPV from it's power supply, I set the Phantom on the floor with my small office fan blowing on it and powered it up, initiated it and spun it at various RPM's for about 10 minutes until it stopped at the critically low voltage level. Then I recharged the battery.

After this, it would not initiate and the Assistant said it was because of a stick calibration problem. I recalibrated the sticks, cycled power and it fired up just fine. Later that morning the iOSD mini arrived and I used the plug and play cable and the "clean install" method of installation (detaching the can bus and rerouting some cables to the iOSD was inside the Phantom). I insullated the can bus with some tape to protect it from an accidental short and turned on the Phantom. Immediately the 32CH transmitter burst into flames at a small component located right near the power supply (looks like a thermal protection component). Of course it was dead at this point. I called the company I purchased the FPV package from and they accepted the return right away. I replaced it with the same exact package which arrived in two days (shout out to AlleRC.com who ships quickly). I put the whole thing together again after reviewing several forums and videos of the installation again to make doubly sure I hadn't done anything wrong (frankly though, with the directional connectors and plug-and-play wiring, there is only one way these things will go together). Satisfied it was correct, I powered up the Phantom. The transmitter bust into flames in my office again, burning me and a spot on my desk. The very same component that fried the first time was the one that fried this time too. Now I'm terrified to try anything new on the Phantom for safety sake and for the cost of these failures. (I don't know if I will be allowed to return this second FPV package, and haven't yet asked). I think it's clear that the Phantom is killing the transmitter. Voltage at the power supply to the transmitter is steady at 9.85v and the 1.30v at the video feed. These voltages do not spike at start up. I tried to measure amps and my multitester (which measures only to a maximum of 200 mA) indicated it was above that range.

I've had the Phantom for about a month. What should I do next? Try again and have the fire department standing by? Try to return the Phantom? Eat my losses and get another one?

Thanks for any help, John
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

yikes. exactly which transmitter is it? make/model?
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

Try getting a new PnP cable or do a pin to pin check that it is correct. There were some reports of mis-wired cables.
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

PhantomPhreak said:
Try getting a new PnP cable or do a pin to pin check that it is correct. There were some reports of mis-wired cables.

Maybe you can shed some light on exactly you mean by PnP cable. To me PnP means picture and picture.

But what I'm think you have something miss wired between the iOSD and the transmitter that is causing RX to over heat.
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

jason said:
PhantomPhreak said:
Try getting a new PnP cable or do a pin to pin check that it is correct. There were some reports of mis-wired cables.

Maybe you can shed some light on exactly you mean by PnP cable. To me PnP means picture and picture.

But what I'm think you have something miss wired between the iOSD and the transmitter that is causing RX to over heat.
Plug and play.
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

That's it, picture "in" picture is PiP on my remote.
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

dptcalvin said:
jason said:
PhantomPhreak said:
Try getting a new PnP cable or do a pin to pin check that it is correct. There were some reports of mis-wired cables.

Maybe you can shed some light on exactly you mean by PnP cable. To me PnP means picture and picture.

But what I'm think you have something miss wired between the iOSD and the transmitter that is causing RX to over heat.
Plug and play.

Thanks. I found what it meant in another thread. **** acronyms with double meanings. :x
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

To the OP, I really empathize with your loss. It was terrible reading through your post and imagining all that happening. I hope by now you have found a solution, but if not, this may help.

I can't remember which site I was on, but there were installation instructions for an FPV setup like yours and there was one large pic, very detailed, that showed the left two red and black wires reversed on the PnP cable. It was captioned with big red warning letters and said something to the effect, "Don't plug this in without reversing wires first". If I could remember the site, I'd post the link, but this old brain ain't much on memory.

So it's like Phreak said, there are some reversed PnP cables out there. I hope you didn't get one. Please let us know when and if you find the problem...
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

There are at least 2 different wiring conventions for the transmitters. If you use a cable for an Immersion transmitter, then this will not work for many Chinese copies and I think the Boscam range as well.

By using the Plug and Play cable for the iOSD, you may have ended up swapping around the supply lines. A $10 multi-meter is a wise investment, as you can check this before you plug in, and having a clear idea of which way around the power needs to be wired is also important.

This might be hard to accept, but there really is no such thing as Plug and Play where radio control is concerned.
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

noiseboy72 said:
There are at least 2 different wiring conventions for the transmitters. If you use a cable for an Immersion transmitter, then this will not work for many Chinese copies and I think the Boscam range as well.

By using the Plug and Play cable for the iOSD, you may have ended up swapping around the supply lines. A $10 multi-meter is a wise investment, as you can check this before you plug in.

This might be hard to accept, but there really is no such thing as Plug and Play where radio control is concerned.

there is, you just have to make sure you get the right version of the cable. links to the 2 different cables (Fatshark/ImmersionRC vs Boscam/Skyzone) are in the "lowest prices" stickythread

indeed, the power wires are reversed (in addition to some signal wires) in the 2 cables, so if you used the wrong cable... zap
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

Guys you really have to read mjolivas post carefully. Not once has he mentioned what TX, PnP cables he was using and he thinks the monitor is a transmitter. Now if he some how wired it wrong while installing the iOSD it wouldn't have any effect on the Black Pearl monitor.
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

Are you reading the same thread? He says he has a BP monitor and 32ch TX.

This sounds like a classic case of an incorrect wiring loom due to the m-fers not agreeing on a standard and all doing their own thing, making plug and play become plug and pray!!
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

noiseboy72 said:
Are you reading the same thread? He says he has a BP monitor and 32ch TX.

This sounds like a classic case of an incorrect wiring loom due to the m-fers not agreeing on a standard and all doing their own thing, making plug and play become plug and pray!!

Yes I read the sentence where he thinks it a 32ch TX.but there are no wires attached to BP monitor nor is it a TX. His problem started after he installed iOSD and if anything the TX on craft would have caught fire not the monitor
 
Re: Two sep FPV Xmtrs burst into flames, Burned fingers, wal

noiseboy72 said:
Are you reading the same thread? He says he has a BP monitor and 32ch TX.

This sounds like a classic case of an incorrect wiring loom due to the m-fers not agreeing on a standard and all doing their own thing, making plug and play become plug and pray!!

kinda sounds to me like someone using incompatible equipment, but we don't know for sure, dude hasn't even come back to the site since that original post, he's still got a 1 post count.
I'm ignoring this thread until at least the OP comes back :)
 

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