I'm finishing up my Y6 build and noticed that there's an extra red/black thin power cable coming out of the power harness that isn't in the pics or setup guide.I'm guessing its an alternative to the power module cable that plus in inline with the battery, but I wanted to check.And a follow up: if it is extra, what is the power output? Could I use it to power my video tx for fpv? I have a fatshark tx.Also would the power output change based on battery cell count? I plan on using 4s batteries, so that also might be a problem with the video tx if it doesn't support that high voltage.Any tips are appreciated. Thanks!
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FYI I came across a post today that talks about a fix for the problem of stepping down a 4s battery voltage to something suitable for the fatshark video tx: http://rcexplorer.se/projects/2012/07/the-tricopter-v2-6hv/
(Scroll to the bottom where he talks about the voltage regulator)
Pretty interesting stuff, but looks like a lot of work to put together all the parts. Maybe we can convince someone like readymade to build a batch :)
Thanks this is really helpful. My video tx came with a little adapter for 2s or 3s batteries, and it looks like it has a capacitor attached, but I'm guessing this might not be so useful if I go up to 4s batteries (photo attached).
I see that Hobbyking sells a similar adapter but with a 4s plug on it as well[1].. I'm wondering if I could just hook some power up to the one I have so I don't have to plug in the balance plug to power my video tx (I also don't really want a separate video battery, mostly for convenience, but I do hear some people say it will make my video output worse... I've flown with it using the balance cable on my Phantom and it works ok, but I've never compared it when using a separate power source, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing out on :)
Another question is about running my brushless gimbal: Where do people usually get power from for those? The Phantom had an aux power output that I soldered to it and that works ok, but maybe I should look into something that can power both gimbal + video tx at the same time if I'm going to be hooking all this up at once.
If you are talking about the thin gauge red and black set of wires coming out of the middle of the PDB, the connector plugs into one of the APM Output channels. It does not matter which channel you plug it into as the Output channel power is bused together.
Page 6 of the Y-6 manual that I have has a step# 2 "Connect APM to power module and PDB" that talks about it. It is also talked about on the following page;
Replies
http://rcexplorer.se/projects/2012/07/the-tricopter-v2-6hv/
(Scroll to the bottom where he talks about the voltage regulator)
Pretty interesting stuff, but looks like a lot of work to put together all the parts. Maybe we can convince someone like readymade to build a batch :)
Thanks this is really helpful. My video tx came with a little adapter for 2s or 3s batteries, and it looks like it has a capacitor attached, but I'm guessing this might not be so useful if I go up to 4s batteries (photo attached).
I see that Hobbyking sells a similar adapter but with a 4s plug on it as well[1].. I'm wondering if I could just hook some power up to the one I have so I don't have to plug in the balance plug to power my video tx (I also don't really want a separate video battery, mostly for convenience, but I do hear some people say it will make my video output worse... I've flown with it using the balance cable on my Phantom and it works ok, but I've never compared it when using a separate power source, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing out on :)
[1] http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__43725__fatshark_filtered...
Another question is about running my brushless gimbal: Where do people usually get power from for those? The Phantom had an aux power output that I soldered to it and that works ok, but maybe I should look into something that can power both gimbal + video tx at the same time if I'm going to be hooking all this up at once.
Thanks again!
IMG_20131213_102606.jpg
If you are talking about the thin gauge red and black set of wires coming out of the middle of the PDB, the connector plugs into one of the APM Output channels. It does not matter which channel you plug it into as the Output channel power is bused together.
Page 6 of the Y-6 manual that I have has a step# 2 "Connect APM to power module and PDB" that talks about it. It is also talked about on the following page;
http://copter.ardupilot.com/wiki/common-apm25-and-26-overview/#Powe...
Hope that this helps.
Dale