FC200 Looking for HELP please

DadDoinStuff · Aug 14, 2017

Hey
I have a P2V and my camera no longer powers on. I know what happened my sons were with me and we were getting some great video's of a lake by our home. The camera has not given me telemetry readings in a while but it still had video on the app with out any problems. Long story short they thought they were helping me by cleaning the camera while i was using the restroom. While they were doing so they had powered it up and panicked and in an effort to turn it off plugged and un plugged the camera. I tore it down and i am not finding any burnt problems on the boards but i know that one of them is bad. I tested the camera cable on the phantom and it has power in the right places. So my question is does anyone know where i can find a broken FC200 for parts or if anyone knows someone that might have a power board ? Thanks so much for taking the time to read this and any advice that can be lent would be great !! Thanks

J Dot · Aug 14, 2017

Hello,
Unfortunately, it might not be the camera that went bad, but rather your phantom ( bird ) mainboard,
Look CLOSELY, at CAM PORT, on phantom mainboard, there are 2 resistors just below the connector the one on the left is the usual culprit, but check them both, let me see if I can find a pic?
Ok
Found it

Unless you are good at circuit board refab, you'll need to replace the entire board, luckily they are cheap! This port also supplied telemetry to camera, so I'd replace the white cable from port ( CAM PORT ) to camera ( the headphone jack cable ) as the GREEN or YELLOW ( communication ) leads are damaged, or broken!

Keep us updated,
And I'm happy to walk you through the fix, easy if you have basic soldering skills, and soldering equipment. ( unfortunately requires you to open the bird up ) cut the arm bands with a razor knife ( in the groove ) to keep from having to UNPEEL them, as they never go back right!. Remove the 12 hex screws, and 4 Phillips to remove shell top casing! You can inspect board from this point!

Hope this helps
J Dot

J Dot · Aug 14, 2017

Ps
I have camera parts, all except board 3.
Let me know if mainboard is good?
And if so I can help out!

J Dot

DadDoinStuff · Aug 15, 2017

Hey
YES i would love to have help !! i opened it up when it happened just to check if there was any problem with the plug and did not see any thing wrong but i will open it up again and check the resistors. Now i did do a voltage check on the plug that goes into the camera and was getting 11v at the ring closest to the wire end and nothing on the rest . So i will open it up and upload a pic of what it looks like and we can go from there. And lastly i really am greatful for the help and the education on the phantoms inner workings !!

DadDoinStuff · Aug 15, 2017

Hey i forgot to say that i have been building diy eletronic kits for a long time just finishing a megasquirt stand alone engine management system so as long as i can find the diodes i can de solder and resolder in a new one so that will help

J Dot · Aug 15, 2017

Cool,
If you are getting power at cable end, then motherboard should be good, but inspect anyhow, cannot hurt. Plus the yellow and green leads, might be damaged? Just look closely.
If all is good, then camera is the issue, I know this sounds stupid, but the camera IS set to " WIFI ON " sorry had to ask, also make sure plug is FULLY INSERTED, sometimes it looks like it, but is 1 click off.
FYI: ( plug points ) camera End ( headphone jack )

the base is + or POS ( 11vdc )
Next is - or NEG ( 11vdc )
Next is communication ( telemetry ) yellow?
Last ( tip ) is communication ( telemetry ) green?
( cannot remember ( green & yellow ) which is which off the top of my head? Sorry, but I believe im correct )

This being said
With the plug UNPLUGGED at both ends ( mainboard and camera egg ) check continuity at both ends, this will RULE out the cable

Also can you send me some clear pictures of the inside of your bird ( so I can make sure nothing else is a miss ( plugs and such )

But very happy to help,
I'm a P2 guy all the way, although I have a p3 p as well. And have built p2v &p2v+ completely from scratch, & I mean a pile of parts! Lol
I've even converted a p2v to a p2v+ for a buddy!
That was a chore, but now easy!

Let me know, and sorry for the long read!
J Dot

crash1sttime · Aug 16, 2017

J Dot said:
Hello,
Unfortunately, it might not be the camera that went bad, but rather your phantom ( bird ) mainboard,
Look CLOSELY, at CAM PORT, on phantom mainboard, there are 2 resistors just below the connector the one on the left is the usual culprit, but check them both, let me see if I can find a pic?
Ok
Found it
View attachment 86769

Unless you are good at circuit board refab, you'll need to replace the entire board, luckily they are cheap! This port also supplied telemetry to camera, so I'd replace the white cable from port ( CAM PORT ) to camera ( the headphone jack cable ) as the GREEN or YELLOW ( communication ) leads are damaged, or broken!

Keep us updated,
And I'm happy to walk you through the fix, easy if you have basic soldering skills, and soldering equipment. ( unfortunately requires you to open the bird up ) cut the arm bands with a razor knife ( in the groove ) to keep from having to UNPEEL them, as they never go back right!. Remove the 12 hex screws, and 4 Phillips to remove shell top casing! You can inspect board from this point!

Hope this helps
J Dot

As a side note mate, I've actually got away with blobbing solder between the 2 points of the failed resistor, worked fine afterwards lol

DadDoinStuff · Aug 17, 2017

Ok
Here is what the main and cable look like . I did a resistance test and it was fine. I also did a voltage test and i got. going from base to tip of plug . So the first is the red wire and has a 12v. Next is black 0v . Then green with 0v . Last is white and that too has 0v. Some thing that i took note of when i had the EGG cracked open is when i powered up the phantom with it plugged in i noticed a faint green blink that came from the board that is closest to the fan . So what do you need next ? I can open up the cam and take pics of the boards if you like. Oh and yes it was on wifi and i also tried just cam on and nothing . Thanks look forward to hearing what you think
matt

J Dot · Aug 17, 2017

Ok,
So bird motherboard and cable look and sound good!

So onto camera egg:
The power board is board 2 as you disassemble the camera, unfortunately, the board is hard wired to fan, and will require one of 3 things:
1: solder fan leads to new board
2: find board with fan attached ( requires melting tabs to fan ( on top case ) to mount fan to case half.
3) find top case with fan and board 2 assembled, and just swap out the whole ball of wax! ( easiest route! )

Without the unit powering up, will be hard to track problem board!

But sounds like board 2 would be my first try!

Let me dig in my parts boxes, to see what I have, I know I do not have board 3 ( main culprit of black screen issue ) but I might have a case with board 2 and fan still attached , and board 1 ( camera board ) I'm sure the small lens board is ok ( attached to camera lens ) and then board 4 ( wifi board ) I'm not sure I have one, but I'll dig and get back soon!

Where are you located? ( USA ? )

J Dot

Brb

DadDoinStuff · Aug 18, 2017

Hey J
i took the cam apart and i am now looking it over with a magnify glass. The pics that i have just uploaded are of the boards. You will see in the one that i have pointed out what i think is the dim green led source that i saw while powering up the phantom. Now as far as the fan goes i can just unsolder it. Is the board that you think is the problem the one with the fan ? And yes i do live in the US and if you have the part just give me a price and if you have paypal i can send you funds to cover shipping and the part. Just let me know what board you think it might be and i will study it looking for a failure. Thanks again
Matt

DadDoinStuff · Aug 18, 2017

Hey
So i went over it and didn't find anything that looks to be bad but that does not mean anything. I desoldered the fan. Do you have any more things that i can try out,. ? I am just stumped at how it would just quit but the telemetry was not working so mabey that was my warning that it was on its way out i dont know. Let me know have a good one
matt