Controller modifications (USB and ultimate battery)

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Decided to make a few modifications to the controller.

1) I decided to add dual USB. One to charge my phone and the other to charge the repeater.
2) Since I would need extra power to do that, I decided to make it 12v.

Used a 12v USB car adapter, took it apart, cut a hole in the case and hot glued it in.
Used a step down voltage regulator to step down the 12v to 7v for the controller (the AA batteries I was using fed 7.08v to the controller so I decided to go with 7v.)
 

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12v CCTV battery. I have a bunch of them. Can get them in different capacity on ebay for cheap. I'll take pic later.

Sent from my Note 3 using Tapatalk 4
 
Count said:
Ridiculous...

I do not understand why this is ridiculous. One of the nice things about this Phantom community is that it is a mixture of people. Some just want to take their quad out of the box and fly, others come from a modelling background and enjoy tinkering. Pull_Up, for example, part strips his P2V between flights and I am sure others just put it back into its flight case.

I like this mod and could have used it on occasion. I quite often have the PV2 in the car with me and a couple of times I have an opportunity to fly, only to discover my phone battery was low. My wife's car has a USB charger but mine doesn't.

I am also interested in the battery used. A cheap 12v battery is a handy thing to have around.
 
pault said:
Pull_Up, for example, part strips...

Wait. What?! :shock:

pault said:
... his P2V between flights and I am sure others just put it back into its flight case.

Oh I see. Ah, yes well that's probably taking it a bit far. I open the shell every week/10 flights or so and inspect, check my Flytrex cable is still tight, all other connectors good and soldered joints solid, no foreign objects rattling around in there, that sort of thing.

pault said:
I quite often have the PV2 in the car with me and a couple of times I have an opportunity to fly, only to discover my phone battery was low. My wife's car has a USB charger but mine doesn't.

Without wishing to spam the thread (I won't embed it) I did a video review on a piece of kit I keep in the flight case that you might want to look at for just such contingency... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3COlgrgvLFs It means even if I have forgotten to charge either phone or range extender I'm good to go.
 
Please don't tell me there is something else to get into my flight case ! My new Maplin case is a very tight fit and I am as pleased as Punch that I have got everything in so far. Now to watch your video and hope this new addition is very small :)
Sorry to o/p to take this o/t

Edit: nice bit of kit .....
 
The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of having a mobile power source with me. For those who have more than one Vision battery it means you can give the range extender a quick blast between flights (as Pull_Up mentions in his video review above, there is anecdotal evidence to show that the RE emits a stronger signal if kept near or at full charge).

So the mod that the o/p posted looks like a nice addition to the tx.
 
@themosttoys & Pull_Up, do either/both of you intend to fly with the extender charging from your respective aux power supplies ?

If it is true that the performance of the RE is better when fully charged then this could be a good idea. It may also be a bad one - need a electronics wizz to comment .....
 
pault said:
Please don't tell me there is something else to get into my flight case ! My new Maplin case is a very tight fit and I am as pleased as Punch that I have got everything in so far. Now to watch your video and hope this new addition is very small :)
Sorry to o/p to take this o/t

Edit: nice bit of kit .....

Which Maplins case have you got. Any pics?
 
Encantador said:
pault said:
Please don't tell me there is something else to get into my flight case ! My new Maplin case is a very tight fit and I am as pleased as Punch that I have got everything in so far. Now to watch your video and hope this new addition is very small :)
Sorry to o/p to take this o/t

Edit: nice bit of kit .....

Which Maplins case have you got. Any pics?
This one - http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/large-high-im ... rior-n14gr

nb it may not be to everyone's taste as there is not a lot of protection to the top & bottom of the PV2 - it does fit without any strain but there is only around 5mm of clearance. Rather than continue to drag this thread o/t I will post pics later on a thread which already mentions this case

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=7990
 
ResevorDG said:
All that and you didn't add a USB extender for software updates?

Really cool ideas you have. I like the mod.

I would add the USB extender, but there has only been one update so no real need to.

Thanks.
 
pault said:
@themosttoys & Pull_Up, do either/both of you intend to fly with the extender charging from your respective aux power supplies ?

If it is true that the performance of the RE is better when fully charged then this could be a good idea. It may also be a bad one - need a electronics wizz to comment .....

Personally I've not noticed a difference in range with the repeater charging while flying. However, others have and I don't see how it would hurt, at the very least it's one less thing to think about.
 
Essentially I started with the same idea in Pull_Up's video (I too have a number of those portable batteries.) I figured if I was going to use that battery to charge the phone and repeater, why not use it for the controller too. This way there is one battery to keep charged, also by going with 12v and a step down, the controller will always have the same power and I don't have to think about how low the controller batteries might be.

My original idea was to cut out the AA battery holder and replace it (internally) with the 12v. After a little more thought, what if I didn't like the mod. So I decided that I'd keep the option of using AA batteries to power the controller.

This is what it looks like in the battery box.


This is what it looks like with a small 1800mah battery.


This is what it looks like with a 8000mah battery (with a view of the switch).


One of the things I like about these particular batteries is that they have their own switch.
 

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Why are we making this so complicated.. here is a much more simpler solution. Wait for it Wait for it!!!!

Carry and extra set of AA batteries or two, In your case!!!! Wow What a concept. Rather that making all kinds of holes and unnecessary mods to a dumb transmitter.

Just saying... ;)

Edit, you can get roughly about 6 full flights out of a set of AA before you get the low battery warning.. and if does go out without warning (highly unlikely) guess what the Phantom goes into fail safe.. And comes home..!!
 

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