Fried Video Transmitter, minor set-back :-(

Lesson learned: don't try to wire small circuitry at 11pm at night. Last night I received a small CMOS video camera + transmitter combo (2.4 ghz LTS wireless camera) and put it on my E-Flight Blade MSR. I was actually able to lift this + battery, although it was certainly struggling. However before I could record any video, I managed to cross the positive and negative wires on the battery, and I fried a capacitor and possibly a majority of the circuitry on the 2.4ghz camera transmitter board.

So, results are in: Yes my Blade MSR can lift this rather large camera + battery, and no, the camera does not like it when you feed positive 9volts into the transmitter ground. I'm going to see if I can get a replacement surface mounter capacitor, but frankly, I think this may not be fixable :-(. Either way I'm no longer going to wire circuitry at night when I'm tired.

On a better note, check out these cool pictures from the board!

Above: identical capacitor (that IS a capacitor, right?) to the one I fried. I need to ID this...

Above: Camera on left (backside of CMOS board, and crispy 2.4ghz tx on right)

Above: CMOS

Above: CMOS zoomed in. glass is not very clean.....

Above: CMOS, focal point is on circuitry under the glass

Above: even closer

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Comments

grabbag February 26, 2010 at 1:52am

Yikes becareful that is not a electrolytic capacitor. Its actually a Tantalum capacitor. Replacing that capacitor with a electrolytic capacitor would likely cause issues if it would even work at all. If you did replace it with a electrolytic one you would likely need a 100 uf one instead of 10uf. If you would like to read why you can visit here for a good explanation...
http://www.engineersedge.com/instrumentation/tantalum_capacitors.htm

Also they are marked backwards from regular capacitors so make sure you pay attention when mounting or else.... pop again. They can be really finicky too...
Admin

Morli February 26, 2010 at 1:11am

Sorry to hear abt the toast Jeff, i wish you had used the NEXIV before instead of afterword , say No No to insulation tapes and similar when in proximity of LiPo, and use Shrinkable pls.
Jeff February 25, 2010 at 8:37pm

nice thanks for the intel on the capacitor! and yes diode would probably be a good idea haha.

I'll was using a nikon NEXIV vision system to take the pics. I'm glad you like the pics, I thought they were very cool too!
Greg Fletcher February 25, 2010 at 8:26pm

Crossing wires on a lipo can burn your house down, let alone your plane. Spend some time learning to solder and ditch the black tape. Buy some heat shrink and a cheap heat gun. This can be a serious safety issue(FIRE).
Take the time to do it right. Sorry for being so harsh. You will probably not let this happen again, but I'am thinking of others who might read this.
Andrew Whipple February 25, 2010 at 5:51pm

wtf haha im srry ;(
Overwatch February 25, 2010 at 12:05pm

Yeah, definitely a 10µF 16V elyte.

That microchip porn is beautiful, what hardware did you use to take those pictures?
T3

Brian Wolfe February 25, 2010 at 11:07am

Ouch! Sorry for your bad luck. Looks like a 10uF 16V electrolytic. If you can tolarate the voltage drop you could add a diode in line to protect against revearse polarity.

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