Welcome! Join me as I build and fly FPV quadcopters. I also cover 3D printing and other interesting electronics projects. Subscribe for build videos, tutorials, and FPV product reviews. New videos out every Sunday and some Thursdays. Chat with me on Instagram @breaksteel #fpvsbadinfluencer
your cyclotron lights, I want to do something similar, the only exception is using chrome coated bowls and chrome reflector over the LED to hopefully make it brighter and distort the light so we dont see the LED
Yes this is something I eventually want to do too. A little body filler in the bowl and maybe some chrome paint, or rework the print to house an actual reflector like you mentioned. I don’t feel like the LED is seen per se, but something to defuse the light a bit more to make it look more incandescent rather than the bright LED.
I am having a strange issue, the build guide is awesome and a lot of fun to follow. I had the 3 boards made from the Github at JLCPCB, they look correct. I ordered all the components from the BOM and cross-referenced them with the guide. I assembled V2.0 of the PWR board per this excellent guide, all my components are installed same location orientation. I powered up with multiple 11.1V lipo's and no power to the ESC's. Plus seems to have continuity through maybe a ground issue. I got the boards from another source online and remade them and rebuilt the PWR board with new components, same issue. No power with the volt-meter off the board when powered.
Hello! great video series! Thanks for putting these together. I am stuck on one step. When powering on my unit, I hear the sounds but the screen does not turn on. I have rechecked my connections and it looks fine (to me) but not sure where to start on diagnosing the issue. Would appreciate the help but thanks again for the informative videos!
I recently bought one of these and I have a rolling band of static down in the video. I'm not sure what it is. I had high hopes for this VTX because it has a pile of power circuitry on it, so I thought it would get really nice clean power. I am running it of the FC's power, maybe it needs to be run off VBat. I don't know. . My experience has been that the IRC HV Tramp has always given me really clean video, but that is no longer available anymore - Orca/IRC support sayt people prefer the Ghost/Tramp combo board so there is no demand for stand alone tramps. Yeah right. Whatevs.
I've tried this guide a number of time, and cannot get it to function at all. No power to the MicroView... I think im about ready to bang my head against the wall.
Go here: github.com/projectfdl/FDL-3-Blaster/tree/master/PCB Then grab the board file for the one you want. Import that into a program like Eagle to create your own Gerber file.
@@breaksteel Thank you for your time, but I meant the gerber file itself. It's good that I made the ready-made gerber files's available on my own github for others who are not familiar with it. I think this will make the project more popular.
Outside of tightening the ring they may be worn out or the tolerances were off from factory. The ones I use are too tight but never have to worry about accidental uncoupling.
I do male with spark arrestor side on rig or ESC side. Then I always have a matched pair of batteries where I write 1A and 1B. The A battery is like yours with both female ends. But the B battery has one male (hollow non spark arrestor) and one female. This is on all my series rigs because extra connectors create resistance and problems. Yes you should always pay attention when plugging them in. 😂
Thank you so much, man! I dropped my FDL at a game and it wouldnt turn on. Sure enough, adjusting that pin and reconnecting it fixed the problem. I would have kept searching for a broken solder joint or anything visible if I hadn't found your video, so I give many thanks for your advice!
Stoked this worked for you! Nothing like that sinking feeling you may have to sit out the game you looked forward to. It’s also easy to think it’s something more complicated than it sometimes is. This pin issue is easily overlooked. Happy you found the vid and got back into it. Thanks for watching!
Ouch, tragedy for sure. Good news is out of everything that can go wrong with scuba, a lost GoPro is very low on the list. Don’t let it ruin your adventure.
I just smoked my fc when I plugged it into my computer trying to hook it up to beta flight. Now no noise or lights come on except for a red light on the esc
Sounds like it’s time for a new FC. This is why I’ve never been a fan of the all in one boards. One component goes and everything else becomes scrap. If it’s new I’d see if you can return it or exchange it. Could also look to repair it
I bought it on offer up for $40 but everything on it is super old. Im pretty sure each motor has its own ecs and a pdb instead of a fc ecs stack. But it's a 6 or 7 inch frame fully built. But now a project
Before discovering Kester (through a Bardwell tutorial), I would use any random solder I had. I can tell you that the quality of every joint I make is now stellar. I don't consider myself a master with the iron, but my joints are all perfect now. 63/37 Kester + Kester RF741 flux (syringe style) + TS100 soldering iron are my go-to for everything. My stack of stuff to fix is shrinking fast. I even removed SO-8 ICs and remounted them in an amplifier project and it worked the first time. Again, I'm a programmer with caffene shakes but this combo opened up a new world to me. It's around 120 bucks for everything mentioned. I have the 1lb roll which should last a good while. The cost already paid for itself in productivity and sanity. With the 1lb roll, you'll never run out if drones are all you do. Thank you for the video.
Using this vTX is one of the most frustrating things I've ever encountered in FPV. I'm following the directions, and cannot get it to unlock. Now it's giving me a repeating blinking red light.
2 years later, is it still kicking? I have a question of my own I have 2 mid speaker 6.5 45 watts RMS 90Peak 4ohm Rockford and 2 tweeter 24 max 120 rms 4 ohms DS18. I have the ninja tune which is about the same as a GBfan chip. Try all of em max volume and would get a bit of distortion on the tweeters. Every thing would work fine until the over heating part of the sound effect plays it'll shut of and I would have to power off the on to get it back up. Also tried with two mids and one tweeter. Everything would work fine still a lil distortion on the super bullet tweeter but no cutting off. Now if I play music especially my personal list parts of the track would get muted at its loudest point, now if I lower the volume I have no problems. Sorry for the long comment, but would this setup would fix my issue!? Plus, would it make it louder as is? And where would I find these add ons? Cause I've looked it up in Google and couldn't quite find it...... P.S. what did you use that you place your boards on. That texture sheet? Looks clean and professional
This setup is still running and still loud AF. Now your setup. This will make it louder but will make your issue worse at louder levels. You need a full range speaker or you need to add a crossover. Right now your sending treble mids and bass to all speakers. Your mids handle it cause they are closer in range to hit highs and lows. The tweeter is too far from the bass tones to play accurately giving you the crunchy distortion. With a crossover you can send bass tones to the mids and high tones to the tweeter. Barring a crossover you can just use full range speakers and be fine as is. There’s both active and passive crossovers. Passive may be better as you don’t need battery power at the slight compromise of sound. Active will sound better but now you may need a second battery in parallel or on its own for the amp and then everything else on the other one. Hope this helps.
uxcell 2pcs 180W High Low 2 Way Crossover Filter for Audio Frequency Divider a.co/d/7vrwTty Try that. I have no experience with that particular one but at $36 for 2 of them it’s worth a shot if your soldering skills are good. They have that proton pack feel to them. Self explanatory when hooking them up. Speaker wire goes to the IN and then bass to the W and highs to the T. If your no good soldering, learn the skill and or try this one: ACEIRMC 2pcs 400W Adjustable Multi Speaker Treble/Bass 2 Unit Audio Frequency Divider 2 Way Crossover Filters Updated Version a.co/d/f9GBOFn It’s way cheaper at $15 per pair and it’s got molex for the wiring. It’s 400w so way overkill but it should still work. Again it’s got that proton pack feel to it. Ether one of those boards should solve your treble issue.
I appreciate it might go for the none solder choice🤣 I know how to solder, but I'm still green on it. The none version I notice it's only trember and bass so being I got mids and high im assuming I'll attach my mids to trember but what about my tweeters?
Hey man, great video. One question, can you hardwire it? I mean direct solder from VTX to FC. Because mine, the socket is getting loose, sometimes I lost power to the VTX and I wiggle the socket, the picture came back. So, socket is the suspect. Thanks before.
It can be soldered direct if you remove the moles connector. Not sure it would be any more secure relying on those traces though. You may also need thermal paste for reassembly, they may be using the case as a heat sync. Best bet would be to lift the pins slightly to get a better connection and then use a dab of hot glue (or other removable glue) to hold the molex in place.
If anyone is interested, I've designed a way for the goggles to actually see ghosts, by adding atleast one camera if not one in each lense, connected to small screens inside. Essentially AR goggles that see ghosts. I just need someone to write code that will show various ghosts etc.
I'm glad you found the Kester 63/37 as your favorite. The 63/37 "44" flux is a industry standard. I work at Honeywell Space and Defense and we use that exact solder on the components going up into space. I have never used a better solder and I am more than willing to pay the price because you never want to A. Pay twice, and B. Do a job twice.
Do you know if flux has the same corrosion properties in space as it does here on land? I know Kester uses a lower acid flux but my guess is you the thoroughly wash soldered joints before sending them into orbit.
@@breaksteel I am not sure. But I can tell you the boards have to be absolutely spotless (the flux is removed with Axarel 2200 and vacuumed off), then washed in high purity IPA. No contamination is allowed or the boards are rejected.
Makes sense. Better to not have to answer that question by having components fail while in orbit by removing any chance of corrosion. Not even sure they could test it without having to then retrieve test object from orbit.
is there a reason why the foxeer pad won't control this camera? Its basically the exact same layout... for some reason the menu doesn't come up when using it even if I switch the pins
I’m not sure exactly how this works on a board level. If I had to guess I’d say it’s bridging the pads but only briefly similar to a PWM signal. Board sees the pulses and reacts accordingly. Two different brands use two different signals? My guess is as good as yours.
@@breaksteel I see what happened. I am used to foxeer and I bought this JB runcam that ships out of the box in "uart control" I didn't realize you had to start the camera with the pins shorted and then re start kinda like in your video to get the pad to work. I thought that was just for removing the OSD! The pad does work from foxeer
Ah I forgot you can control those remotely using a uart. Usually just set them after a build and then never adjust them after. That and uarts always being in short supply. Happy it’s working for you now. Enjoy it!
I think this trap cost between $500 and $700 to build. With all the real little parts, smoke, and electronics it adds up. I could imagine it costing much more now with some of the electronics being in short supply. All in all worth it cause there’s nothing close to its functions available otherwise.
Can totally see the pull for running them this way. Especially true if your using them for camera rigs or other heavily used professions. The speed of battery changes begins to outweigh the risks.
@@breaksteel I found a very good substitute for Kester, it's called Cynel 60/40 it's made in Poland and the wetting action of it is almost the same as Kester but with -50% the price! You should check it out and see what you think about it!
Este VTX é mais poderoso que o Pro 5G8 e o 5.8. Eu sugiro certificar-se de que sua antena e rabo de porco não são os culpados antes de colocar mais energia em sua configuração. Este VTX possui proteções para RF refratada, mas é melhor ter uma configuração sólida em primeiro lugar. This VTX is more powerful than the Pro 5G8 and the 5.8. I'd suggest making certain your antenna and pigtail is not to blame before throwing more power at your setup. This VTX has protections for refracted RF but its better to have a solid setup in the first place.
I'm 99% done with my own trap/pedal build. only thing left is to is wire in a switch for the Arduino kit. (The kit I got is wireless) How did you get it inside the bellows? what kind of switch did you use?
The switch is mounted to a 3D printed bracket that mounts to another doughnut shaped 3D printed part. The first bracket acts as a stopper to keep your foot from crushing the switch too much. The doughnut shaped base is just large enough to go inside the bellows and keep a tight friction mount. You can also use some super glue. There’s a top doughnut shaped piece that glues to the foot pedal for the top of the bellows. It’s pretty secure and the switch is protected but no easily replaced.
I was able to do this to disable the OSD overlay. Now i'm trying to put it back since I'm moving the camera to a setup that has no FC. However, I cannot access the OSD menu anymore. Holding the up button does not do anything.
Full auto tail allows for 13 rounds a second while holding the trigger. Semi auto is slightly less costly and requires a trigger pull for each shot. Full auto tail is way more fun. Semi auto is for those who have field restrictions.
Plz make more videos like this one, especially if you could post links of where you got everything , what kind of tools used, what kind of paint, and if you ever decide to make another pack, a step by step guide from start to finish would be great! I have most of my parts in and the project is a little intimidating lol
I would love to do a step by step but that would be an intensive set of videos. I have been meaning to record a “where I sourced parts” video. Only trouble is 6months later and those sources run dry. I suppose a few videos explaining some of the processes would be helpful. Some good ideas here for sure. In the mean time if you have any questions I’m always willing to lend some help. Yes this project is intimidating. Best to break it down into smaller parts or projects. Becomes more rewarding as you see many small projects completed and the pack starts to look as one. Most of all take your time. A rushed pack always looks like a rushed pack.
@@breaksteel I think it would be a lot of videos, but it would make for great content, increase subscribers and help many people! I'd be happy to help in any capacity. I'm not sure how to send messages on this platform but feel free to contact me if you need help, ideas or some camera gear suggestions. The cosplay thing is huge where I live. I'm sure you can do it! Thanks for the comment and looking forward to more great content!
@@breaksteel Ok . Trouble shooting .Its just I have 2 quads . One has a tank and other zeus vtx. Both mamba FC's . F405 and F722 with onboard 2amp 5v bec to feed vtx. both birds when switch from 200 to 500 in few minutes in air break up starts and then white out! Thought vts's was sucking to many amps at 500. I.m thinks not after viewing your great video . I thank you. yeah I'm fishing you ! lol
I never like putting VTX on a 5v pad. Most VTXs will take 5v to 12v, feed it the higher voltage and if there is any sag your still in operating range. When you feed it 5v and there is any sag you dip below operating range and get zero video feed or worse a VTX reboot giving you no video at all for a few seconds. Try swapping out the pad and see if the result is the same.
@@breaksteel Thanks you ! bet your right ! I get scared ! VTX manual states input 5v max. VTX specs state 5-36 v inputs so I get scared. I will up the power ! Your a good man !
Tank says 7 to 36v DC in right on its case. This is likely your issue . 5v just isn’t enough. Hit it with 12v pad and you’ll be flying much more confidently.
I’ve given some thought to this as well. Two separate ideas come into mind. Both involve putting the goggle guts into a printed Ecto Goggle frame which would continue to act as FPV goggles. The other idea was to do the same as above but add cameras into each of the lenses to give a detached from reality look into reality. Then you could use real time OSD and other overlays to give a sense of them actually being Ecto Goggles. I’d love to see some built. May make my own eventually.