Please Help..Connecting AVL58 to Phantom 2 w/ H3-2D

NorthSeaSurfer · Dec 22, 2013

Hi there,
Been trawling about for info but so far no luck so please forgive this most likely repeated post!
Looking for a little advice setting up my first FPV System. Just bought the phantom 2 w/ Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal for the gopro hero 3 along with the DJI AVL58 video system. I'm not entirely sure how I should go about connecting and installing the transmitter to my Phantom. I see the 4 wires hanging out of it but was looking for some good advice before chopping up the perfectly good cable that came with the avl58!
Many thanks
Peter

PitStop · Dec 23, 2013

Personally I sacrificed the "perfectly good cable" that came with the AVL58.

Carefully strip the insulation/heatshrink from around the 8 wires that come from the VTx module. Then solder (or crimp) and heat shrink each of your connections according to the diagram.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost ... tcount=112

I'm at work, so I can't post pics of how I did mine, but here is someone else's set up:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/thumbgal ... starter=no

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthre ... 701&page=5

NorthSeaSurfer · Dec 23, 2013

Many thanks PitStop,
It seems the red and black are colour coded incorrectly. The Red is negative and the black is positive! I read this is an issue! Did you find this to be true as well?

PitStop · Dec 23, 2013

I don't recall wire colors precisely, but I do recall that there are 4 wires that need to be connected to the VTx for power and ground.

So from the 8 pin connector is was something like this:
Green & White: Battery + Pos
Black and Yellow: Battery - Neg
Purple: Video +
Gray: Video Ground

Two wires are unused

(DO NOT go off of the above, make sure you verify those colors before connecting, I'm only reciting from memory!)

I wouldn't say that the wire colors are color coded incorrectly.... Black and Red may be a generally accepted convention for Neg/Pos, but it's certainly not a standard.

Anticipate · Dec 23, 2013

Well I thought it was a convention (red is + coming out of the Phantom 2 after all), so I wired it incorrectly and blew the resistor (complete with burning smell and burn marks) at the FPV 4-wire socket on the Phantom. It still flew ok but no FPV.

Be very careful to wire exactly as the chart supplied in the links PitStop gave you. I took the cable the AVL58 came with and stripped it down to the 8 leads, ensuring exactly the correct wires are connected. I would not rely on the colors coming out of that supplied cable because I have seen two cables now both different.... cut it down past the junction so all 8 wires from the 8-way are exposed and splice/solder from there.

I have a replacement P2 coming in, but have already built my new wiring harness. We'll see how it will go but I have checked the wires so many times I am going blind.

Of note - I would add the iOSD Mini so you can see what the craft is doing in the air. That complicates the wiring a bit but is illustated correctly in the latest version of the P2 manual.

PitStop · Dec 23, 2013

Anticipate said:
Of note - I would add the iOSD Mini so you can see what the craft is doing in the air. That complicates the wiring a bit but is illustated correctly in the latest version of the P2 manual.

Absolutely (mandatory IMO)

FlyingHigh · Dec 24, 2013

Does the video TX get power from the ships battery with this setup or does it still need its own battery?

krashin · Dec 24, 2013

It gets power from the Phantom 2.

btw everyone, I read later in another post that the instructions above have the video and video gnd reversed.

FlyingHigh · Dec 25, 2013

Do you have a link to, or can you post, the correct hookup?

Thanks

Anticipate · Dec 25, 2013

PitStop said:
I don't recall wire colors precisely, but I do recall that there are 4 wires that need to be connected to the VTx for power and ground.

So from the 8 pin connector is was something like this:
Green & White: Battery + Pos
Black and Yellow: Battery - Neg
Purple: Video +
Gray: Video Ground

Two wires are unused

(DO NOT go off of the above, make sure you verify those colors before connecting, I'm only reciting from memory!)

I wouldn't say that the wire colors are color coded incorrectly.... Black and Red may be a generally accepted convention for Neg/Pos, but it's certainly not a standard.

Those were in fact the colors on both wiring harnesses I had. I was able to install the Tx successfully into the new P2, though the video feed is pretty noisy out of the Zenmuse. (The iOSD feed is crystal clear no matter what, until the radio tx itself gets out of LOS).

ScottyDont · Feb 13, 2014

Anticipate said:
Well I thought it was a convention (red is + coming out of the Phantom 2 after all), so I wired it incorrectly and blew the resistor (complete with burning smell and burn marks) at the FPV 4-wire socket on the Phantom. It still flew ok but no FPV.

Be very careful to wire exactly as the chart supplied in the links PitStop gave you. I took the cable the AVL58 came with and stripped it down to the 8 leads, ensuring exactly the correct wires are connected. I would not rely on the colors coming out of that supplied cable because I have seen two cables now both different.... cut it down past the junction so all 8 wires from the 8-way are exposed and splice/solder from there.

I have a replacement P2 coming in, but have already built my new wiring harness. We'll see how it will go but I have checked the wires so many times I am going blind.

Of note - I would add the iOSD Mini so you can see what the craft is doing in the air. That complicates the wiring a bit but is illustated correctly in the latest version of the P2 manual.

Did you take any photos showing where the resistor was blown? I had a similar issue. Wired it up thinking red was positive and black was negative only to find ourselves scratching our heads for a while trying to figure out why it wasn't working. Then we figured it out, tested the transmitter and it still works fine. Wired it up properly and now it won't engage under the Phantom's power. So I'm thinking that we may have blown a resistor in the Phantom. It would help to know where to look exactly instead of just doing an exploratory surgery on it.