Can we build FPV setup without the Zenmuse?

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Hey guys, I finally pulled the trigger on the basic Phantom 2 without the Zenmuse. For now I that will be enough for my need and I didn't have the extra money.

I can see tons of tutorials on youtube to get a good FPV setup with the Zenmuse, but no video without it.

Is it doable? Basically, I would like to get an FPV setup that will work without, and then also work if I install it later.

I do not have any soldering kit so I would be looking for an easy setup with included cables if possible.

Thanks for your recommendations.
 
Ho I need to add that my gopro is going to be attached to the belly of the phantom. I was hoping to get fpv from it but without the zenmuse like I said. Thanks
 
Yep, you just need a transmitter, a receiver, a cable or two, and a monitor (or goggles) to get it setup. A set of upgraded antennas would also help your fpv experience.

I got my kit from readymaderc.com.
 
I see in all the video that the transmitter attaches to the internal cable from the phantom which i beleive is fed by the zenmuse. are you saying we can attach a transmitter directly to the gopro? the what happens if we what to have iosd?
thanks
 
This is the minimal approach:

You can just ignore the ribbon cable with connector (for connecting the Zenmuse). From the four-wire cable comming out of the P2 you can just take the two power wires to power your FPV transmitter, as shown within the P2 manual (or use a seperate battery if you prefer). Buy an AV out cable for your GoPro (fits to the USB port) and connect ground and video to your FPV transmitter.
So the only difference to the Zenmuse wiring is, the video in of the FPV tx will be connected directly to the GoPro instead of one of the four wires exitting from the P2.
The drawback is that the GoPro will run on its internal battery only, not buffered by the P2 battery as with the Zenmuse. So, ensure your battery is fully charged prior to flying.

But for safe and reliable FPV flying I urgently recommend to buy an iOSD mini, which would get connected just between the GoPro and the FPV tx.

Regards, Gerd
 
GerdS said:
But for safe and reliable FPV flying I urgently recommend to buy an iOSD mini, which would get connected just between the GoPro and the FPV tx.

Thanks for the valuable info. Can you elaborate a bit more how you would connect the iosd in between please.
 
The iOSD mini connects to the CAN bus port at the landing skid for getting power and data. Its second connector has four wires, two are ground and the others are video in and video out.
Video in and one ground connects to the GoPro, video out and the second ground connects to the FPV tx. Just read the P2 and iOSD mini documentation available through the DJI support pages, there are also schematics for wiring included.

Regards, Gerd
 
weren't we just talking about this in another thread? I think it was you heh
QYV said:
mickey, you're going to find that your videos kind of suck without a gimbal, and it'll be a challenge to set up FPV. the main point of zenmuse gimbal is to smooth out all the vibrations and other movements of the Phantom and create stable video (as well as carry video signal back to the Phantom mainboard). without a gimbal every raw shake, shudder, and lateral movement of the phantom will translate to wild shaky sickening video from the gopro. for example when you move forward and the Phantom tilts nose-down your camera will now be facing down too. that's not so bad, it's all the other vibrations and such that will be rough. you may want to look into cheaper gimbals, I feel like I've seen P2 gopro gimbals for like 150 usd on ebay as opposed to a Zenmuse for 300.

anyway to answer your questions yes, it's super easy to just add a gimbal later... however unless you have a zenmuse which both powers the gopro and takes video signal back to the Phantom mainboard, you won't be able to simply plug-and play with the pre-made cable, those cables are designed specifically for if you have a Zenmuse and get your video signal from the Phantom mainboard. If you do NOT have a zenmuse, you're going to have to snip and solder some cables to patch your video input directly from the gopro.
Assuming you get this cable, you'll also need to get a GoPro USB video cable like this one. You'll snip the connector off the gopro cable leaving you yellow/black wires. You will then have to manually patch that yellow/black pair into the yellow/black pair with the WHITE CONNECTOR from the firstpersonview cable but you cannot simply cut off the white connector! You still have to plug that white connector into the Phantom main board to get power for the video transmitter. you only want to interrupt the video signal (yellow/black) and patch in your direct cable. make sense?

If you're on a budget, consider the Boscam RX-LCD5802 receiver. It's about $50 cheaper than the Black Pearl and is a full 32ch 5.8ghz diversity receiver. I don't have the IRC transmitter but I've heard from some folks here using the IRC and RX-LCD5802 and they say it works fine, better than the 32ch Black Pearl which has issues.

last question, if you then buy the Zenmuse gimbal later you'll either have to re-patch the firstpersonview cable back to the way it originally was... or just buy a new one

an iOSD Mini is a device which sits in-between the gopro and video transmitter and "overlays" telemetry info onto the video broadcast. so it's taking the video signal in from the gopro, and telemetry info from the flight computer via CAN-BUS port, and then sending the new video (gopro+telemetry) to the transmitter for broadcast, so that's what you see on the receiver.

Telemetry info includes stuff like: battery level, voltage, altitude, distance (from home point), a home point indicator, descent/ascent rate, lateral speed, tilt angle, flight status (GPS, ATTI, Failsafe) and a few other minor things.
basically if you start flying FPV you tend to fly farther away and not pay attention to the LEDs blinking on the Phantom, so you need to know for example when you battery is getting low and how far away you are. iOSD is extremely valuable for FPV flight.

in terms of the physical location, everyone recommends an "internal install" since you've got the shell open anyway. You simply remove the 4 little screws holding the loops to the leg, discard those screws and the loops. disconnect the tiny white connector from the larger connector, pull the cable up into the body, then re-attach the larger connector. Now instead of being on the leg, your can-bus port is inside the body. Attach the iOSD Mini there, and most people stick it right in the "front" of the bod it sits very well right in front of where the battery goes.

in terms of other wiring, the cable I link in my above post does MOST of the work for you... it's really your easiest option especially if you get the IRC transmitter. otherwise you'll have to patch 3 pair of cables instead of just one...
1) power/ground from Phantom mainboard to video transmitter
2) video/ground from GoPro to iOSD Mini
3) video output from iOSD Mini to transmitter
 

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