Hi,
I need help debugging my drone to get it working for the first time.
I just attempted to build my first drone from a recommended build by uavfutures on youtube (part list below). It's all soldered together, but when I turn it on, things aren't going as expected. I'm not sure how to debug the problems without buying a whole new set of parts to see if I burnt anything out. Any advice on a good way to trouble shoot would be super helpful!
I carefully followed that "uavfutures" channels $99 drone build video and full $200 kit video. I plug the drone in and everything lights up, it beeps, all 4 motors twitch, the VTX shows the channel, the receiver has a solid status light (meaning connected?), but..
Camera - when I turned everything on and tuned the goggles to match vtx, I could see part of the image clearly in the left 1/5th of the screen and then the horizontal lines got more and more distorted/static-y as you look across to the right. After turning it off and messing with a few things, now it's nothing but complete perfect black (unplugging/plugging camera from powered drone has no effect, but if I unplug drone power, then view goes back to full static. Do I have a bad camera?
No effect from remote controller - I believe the remote controller is paired as it shows battery status of drone when drone plugged in, and won't turn off until I unplug drone. However, arming it, moving controls around on the remote, etc... no affect on the drone what-so-ever.
Can't connect to BetaFlight - I've tried installing betaflight on both my pc and mac... both show com port options and when I plug the drone in (no battery on drone itself), the usb cable powers up the flight controller on (lights come on), but no matter what communications port I try (using either computer), the software won't connect.
I'm wondering if I damaged a board while soldering or something.... is there any way to tell? I've done limited soldering before, but am confident that I don't have an active short. I've heat shrinked all connections and checked continuity of wires/connectors. Any pointers on how to debug my issue(s)?
Thanks!
-Brian
Parts (all from Banggood com):
· Remote - Flysky FS-i6S
· ECS - Racerstar RS20Ax4 20A
· Goggles - Eachine VR-007 Pro
· PDB - Matek Systems PDB-XT60
· FC - F3 Flight Controller Acro 6 DOF/Deluxe 10 DOF
· Camera - Eachine Wizard X220
· VTX - Eachine VTX03 Super Mini 5.8G 72CH
· Motors - 4X Racerstar Racing Edition 2205 BR2205 2600KV
· Battery - ZOP Power 14.8V 1400mAh 65C 4S
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Replies
Haha - it is the camera!
Took the composite video out from my xbox, hooked up ground and the signal wire to the vtx and viola! I've proved that the goggles and vtx work... and now I can play xbox while racing I guess. :)
When I first hooked things up and paired the goggles, I got a "shredded" image... like the attached picture (for illustration purposes only), the left 20% of the image was near perfect, and then individual horizontal lines started looking worse and worse as you moved your eyes right until half way across it was total garbage. I turned things off, figured I'd come back to it, and when I did, I got a completely and perfectly black screen. I don't believe it's the goggles as their OSD elements (brightness, contrast, battery indicator, etc) all look just fine on the screen... and it goes from static to black and back to static when I power on/off the drone. I've tried disconnecting /reconnecting the camera to the vtx while all is powered on, but the black image doesn't even twitch. My FC doesn't have OSD otherwise I'd try seeing if it showed ok.
I’ve taken off the cover to the camera, and from camera board to vtx board checked the continuity of the signal wire (they’re wired directly to each other) and also verified that with battery, I get the proper 5v on both boards. I’ve got the Eachine Wizard x220 and Eachine VTX03 Super Mini 5.8G 72CH. I did have the vtx wrapped in a couple layers of electrical tape to prevent shorting... maybe I cooked it? Or maybe a bad cam? I'm at the point where I'm guessing I'll need to just buy a new one of each to swap out.
Does anyone know if i could just take a composite video out from a DVD player and touch it to the vtx transmitter to have it work? Trying to think how to do the last level of debugging to see which thing it is.
shred.jpg
Got 2 major issues figured out - can connect to BetaFlight now and got the remote working. So it's just camera issues now.