HobbyKing FPV 3 channel video switch 

Amazing. I was trying to figure out how to connect an extra camera on the claw arm of my underwater rov and I just happened to run across this video just in time.

Lee, you've done it again. I remember watching this two years ago and even ordering a switch, but then put off using it as there was really no pressing need. One of my favorite quads in my stable is about a 450 size with a Mobius on a gimbal. Since I could point the gimbal anywhere I wanted, adding a second camera didn't make a lot of sense even if the 16:9 FPV image didn't fill the screen of my Fat Shark V2 Dominator goggles. Then the RunCam Eagle came along in the goggle-correct 4:3 and I decided to search for info and here you were. NOW it has become a worthwhile project and I just finished testing it. The switch works fine and was no problem using this video and your Taranis videos. The dynamic range and color of the Eagle is excellent!!! So now I can fly around with the Eagle and switch to the Mobius to make sure something I'm trying to film is in the frame. Thanks again for this and the rest you're doing!!!!!

Thanks for the video, as I just received the same switch in the mail haha. The only thing that i would recommend is to do the power supply not through this device. I think it will be the first thing to stop working and if I am right you can bypass the power for the cameras. (By supplying power from a direct source like the flight battery)

Great video, thanks

Really nice!

Thanks for the vid!

thank you for the recommendation bro

looks like this is going to be a expensive hobby that Ive already started to get in to Painless360 Thanks for posting great video .. good old HK help us keep costs down

Nice video. I was initially confused. Early on in the vid you mention plus, minus, signal which would match fatshark. Of course later on you point out that it is not the same polarity as fatshark, so you can't just use a straight pass-thru from your fatshark equipment. Liked and subscribed!

Getting ready to put one of these on a Freestyle drone to switch between a front and rear camera. Going to rear camera I will be reversing pitch/roll.

thank you for that cheers bazz

can't beat the price.

Update. These things will do video pass through. I powered my cameras seperately from the switch and only ran video through it on Cam 1 and Cam 3. I ppwered the switch off the 5v off the FC and ran a signal wire from my Crossfire Nano on Ch3 as corresponding output from my radio. Video is switching just fine.

Thanks for all great videos - I have one query regarding the 3 channel switcher. Is it possible to use this unit to make 1 channel into 2 by connecting auxiliary AUX5 to video output and connect pitch and YAW to channels 1 & 3, so as to be able to switch between them? (Don't have enough channels on my receiver for the three required for the gimbal & wondered if this would work).

I've watched this video a few times now but only just gone ahead and ordered a switcher... and now I have a question about how the cameras are powered. In your example, the VTX is powering the cameras 'via' the switcher. I may need to test this when mine arrives with a meter, but when you switch between cameras is it only the signal pin that switches or all 3 including power and ground? I've read lots of comments from people complaining about a small delay... and now I'm wondering if the switcher is to blame at all, because if you are powering the camera on / off every time then of course there will be a slight delay before it starts to output a signal. In my setup I will be using a Runcam 3 (HD recording camera with live output) as Cam 1 and a standard 600 tvl as Cam 2. The Runcam has it's own battery but if I was to use it as a full time live camera it would have uninterupted power supplied to it for the entire flight to keep the battery topped up (I know that's bad for batteries but that's another conversation). Using a switcher (if my first assumption is correct) then the Runcam would not get any power whilst the other camera is in use. I'm not yet sure if this is a problem, I'm just getting my head around exactly how my setup will work so I can prevent any failures before they happen! Have you ever tried setting it up so the power and ground wires bypass the switcher and only send the video wires through it? I'm willing to bet that the video feed would be closer to seamless that way.

Like ! ;o) good info.

Hi I have successfully connected all three cameras with APM+minim OSD, all cameras are pal, but for some reason only the camera on channel 1 show solid OSD, other 2 goes on and off and there are clearly interference on the screen (I only have ground and signal coming out of these cameras to OSD and switcher, power comes from Vtx). Anywats, I later hooked OSD to only the main flight camera and put OSD output into the switcher, this solved the shaky images on other 2 cameras. MY Q is, is it possible to feed OSD to all three cameras or is this beyong the capability of minim OSD?

is it ok to connect this to a 6V dc receiver? coz its operating volts is only 5 i wonder if it will fry or not or will just operate normally

Great Video, I have learned so much from your stuff. I have one of the switchers and am trying to get it to work using an output from a Pixhawk. My receiver is S-Bus only so there is no spare PWM channels there to use. I currently have it connected to Servo8 and want to use a three position switch on channel 7 or my controller. I see how to set the output to pass through in the parameters but how do you map the input to this channel?

I'd say that it's the safest way just to get rid of the labels and plastics around the board and then heat shrink it as the labels on the PCB are actually corrent while these on the packaging are not.

These are very clever and I am trying to hook it up but I am for the life of me not able to get everything sorted out. I am running a fly sky i6s with the six channel receiver using ppm. It's all going into a pix hawk. I have been able to power the cameras and on my receiver it shows them wobbling back-and-forth but I can't get it to switch from the remote. I would love any advice you could give me. Thanks a lot

Thank you for the video. Now my issue is finding a free channel on my Spectrum DX7s to switch between my fpv camera and GoPro. Is there anyway to upgrade the DX7s to provide more channels? Or should I be looking for a new radio such as the FrSky Taranis X9D+? Any help or radio recommendation is appreciated. David

Can you connect them in serial in order to have more cameras? Are the "unused" cameras still drawing power from your battery?

Allo and thank you for the knowledge sharing . I am working on some camera set up not for FPV but for a 360* field of view around my e-bike and my question is can the camera switching be activated with out a remote ? I was thinking of a 3 position switch with (guessing the voltage here ,You can tell me what they need to be at pls ) 0v-2.5v and 5v .If I understood what you said about the throttle way of activating the swap . Thank You & Subscribed ;-D

Hello, maybe someone thought this question. It can also be used in reverse - one camera and three monitors or, for example, three different FPV transmitters. The camera would have been only one of a signal from her, I could embark discretion to three different devices. Not only as an amplifier - only switch. Can It already been used in this way? Thank you very much.

hey to hook this to a arkbird osd. Would i need to unplug the + from the switcher to the resever and just have the ground and single wire. The arkbird is 12v and if i plug it in to the video switcher and then from the switcher to a channel on the resever would that fry the resver. The resver is all ready getting power from the arkbird. im lost.

Great video as usual, thank you for all that you do. I'd like to use this switcher with two cameras (FPV and Gimbal camera) and my iosd with my naza m v2. Is there a way that i can only get the osd on one camera (FPV) and not on the other (Gimbal) when I switch.. I only want my osd in view when I look through my FPV camera. any help would be fantastic, and thank you again for all your great videos.

Great info....Have you ever connected this switcher unit to a FPV camera and a gopro with an IOSD unit inbetween so that you can see the display on both cameras when switching form camera to camera - Searched the web for this info but can't find!

Hi Professor... I am struggling with this little guy! I have powered the cameras separately from the video switch, and just connected Signal and ground.... Switch powered by the X8R.... Do I really need to power the switch with Cameras Positive wire?

Painless I have this switcher and it’s been working well so far. Today I went flying and channels 2 and 3 have a flicker/screen roll now. Any idea what may have happened?

Hi, as most RX tx are now sbus using flight controller... How to use the video switcher with the flight controller?

@painless360 is there a default/failsafe on these switches? Say your flight cam is camera 1. And you lose power to the switch. Will it stay on camera 1 and keep transmitting? What if you are in camera 2 or 3 and power fails on the switch will it fail safe to camera 1? Lastly, I am looking to power the switch from a 5v rail on my FC and just send signal for switching off channel 3 of my Crossfire Nano RX. I am gonna power the cameras seperately and send just video to the switch hoping it will do pass through on the video just fine without having to distribute power to the cameras. Any idea if it will work? Going to run video from forward camera into the FC and have the output with OSD going into the switch on Camera 1. Backwards looming camera is going to go into camera 3 without OSD info. Doing this deliberately so that when I see OSD info I know I am seeing forward and no OSD means looking backwards. Also read a report that the device can add video noise which the FC OSD can have fits with. So I would rather try the switch after the FC/OSD instead of ahead of it.

If I'm running a FrySky D4R-II receiver in ppm mode where would I plug this switcher in? Can I still plug it into one of the other channels or does only one channel work in ppm since it's sending 8 channels on one connection? Thanks!!

Has anyone got this working with a vector? i feed the out to the cam side but all i get is the osd and a blank screen

Hi, I'm not clear on this POS/NEG thing on the cameras, does things go bang or simply not work?

Can anyone explain how to use this when using a ET Vector in conjunction? I am getting the blue light indicating power but I get no video. I plug the cameras in the camera in ports and the OUT VIDEO into the camera in on the Vector. Thank you,

oh thanks, now I have to get some ;) p.s. just did :)

We're did you get those male to make fpv pins? I need to get some. Do I have to make them or can I buy them from hobby king or something. Thanks. @Painless360

Will this switcher work with a 2.4ghz video transmitter?

Should of watched this before, found out the hard way the polarity is different :P Note to future self, don't work with electronics late at night :P

I just bought one of these but unfortunately the video out and camera 3 pins appear to have been cut off and there are 2 sets of pins on the receiver side.....any ideas?

Simple device. I built a 610mm quad for AP work and ordered one of these as I have forward and rear facing fpv cams, and a gopro on a gimbal. I did quick search on the product to see if any installs were done and vids were posted out here and just clicked on the first one that popped up on my search engine and lo and behold whose voice do I hear come from the speakers? Why the soothing timber of the esteemed Painless360. It was like a shot of FPV morphine. I was lulled into a fine languor as I watched. So power does not pass from the radio receiver side to the video or it does? I do not want the draw on my rx. I will have 12v cams and vtx, and the option of powering off a separate lipo or the flight pack. I may even make it redundant- and have them both connected. I already have the pixhawk double redundant on the servo rail from the bus circuit using a shotsky diode rectifier. (holler if you want a pic or need any info for your pixhawk series) I am trying to figure how I want this thing connected- and if the rx is passing 5v through to the vtx and cams, and it bucks power then I am unsure if it needs powering from the rx side and no voltage wires on the vtx and cam side. Did that all make sense?

Hey Lee can I use that FPV Switcher with a PPM Receiver? Can I connect it to a servo PWM Output of the Flightcontroller?

im having a problem! when im switching between cameras it takes around 3 seconds for the screen to be correctly adjusted. my osd also is getting bad on cam 2 and 3. do you know how to solve this issue? thanks.

How to see from the both camera at once like dji inspire 2

I would like to have seen a more in-depth tutorial.My cameras work on 12 volts and obviously the receiver works on 5 volts.How would this be wired?Surely you can't have 2 different voltages mixing in the hobbyking switcher.

You have to switch polarity with Fatshark vtx? Say that again, please? I don't want to burn out my thermal camera!

cant i see the diagram where to plug the vtx because i see nothing on your video

Does it work with 12v Cameras too ?

what about if your cameras are 12 volt

I wonder why you didn't show it with three camera's connected, because they don't work properly, you get interference.

+Painless360

could you show us the plug for i burnt out two immersion tx trying to get a f ing switcher to work ,,,,WTF couldnt see what you did ,,,,TWO immersion tx flashnine@msn.com THANKS

what happens if you cut the power of the FPV switcher?simulating a failure. I mean.. there is still image that pass through? (cameras powered apart, direct to battery). If not signal pass through when that thing fails (4.6$ plus shipping), it's nonsense to use in a FPV model. Better stay with only one camera and a pair of servos for pan and tilt. I can't trust in such a vital component like that.