FPV setup with iOSD

Kolb

Member
Hi guys,

I have the iOSD Mark II from DJI and want to use it with a Sony NEX 5N.
Need you to check on my config, will everything work, am I forgetting something?

- 5.8ghz 400mw vTx and vRx
- 7" monitor
- Mini HDMI to analog
- 3s lipo for powering on the monitor and vRx
- 3s lipo for power to the vTx and iOSD

I am lost when reading the DJI manual, they say I need to connect my video input with the 4 pin cable, how do I actually make this connection? Connect it to what?
Same goes for the output cable, anybody has a photo of theirs? I can follow the diagram in the manual but I need something visual for this.

Thanks for helping out!
 

kloner

Aerial DP
you will use solder and heat shrink to connect the wire from the osd to the video tx and cam... they all have three wires like a servo, signal, ground and power. with the dji osd you gotta bypass using the power that comes from the osd unless the voltage from your flight lipo matches the voltage input to your video tx and camera. i use a dollar regulator. i'm not sure what that video tx your looking at if has a bec built in like immersion or not.
 

Kolb

Member
Makes sense. Only thing I need to take in mind then is power. I fly with 4s. What is a dollar regulator? Is it like a BEC?
 


PeteDee

Mr take no prisoners!
And if you have a bit of a search you can grab packs of five or ten and save a few more dollars.
 


Kolb

Member
Ha, I am starting to receive my parcels.
One thing I didn't think upon was if I use my Sony NEX 5n together with iOSD, there is no way I can get a clean output screen from the nex. The battery reading, shutterspeed, aperture all will be visible on the external screen and mixing up quite nicely with the actual readings from the iOSD.

How does anyone bypass this? Use a small fpv cam mounted right next to the bigger camera?
 

kloner

Aerial DP
you need an hdmi to AV converter. there is one on amazon for $40 that works, but there POS. the one we keep having to harvest gimbal to gimbal is the freefly hdmi converter.

if you use that bottom display in a nex with the ios they wont interfere much. not alot of info down low

I run 2 cameras, one pilot, one camera man. the pilot has iosd, camera man usually turns off all the display info on the cam in flight but he can have it if need be
 

Maverick

Member
Ha, I am starting to receive my parcels.
One thing I didn't think upon was if I use my Sony NEX 5n together with iOSD, there is no way I can get a clean output screen from the nex. The battery reading, shutterspeed, aperture all will be visible on the external screen and mixing up quite nicely with the actual readings from the iOSD.

How does anyone bypass this? Use a small fpv cam mounted right next to the bigger camera?

if you use iAuto mode on your Nex 5n, you won't have as many icons overplayed onto your screen. Also, the manual tells you how to vary the amount of icons displayed, (not all of them though) at the touch of a button, and you can make a few of them small or large.

Maverick.
 

Kolb

Member
Yeah I know about the different osd options and sizings on the NEX5n, suppose it isn't really a problem in real life.

I have it figured out on how to connect everything without iOSD, thanks to this helpful thread. I have the HDMI to AV converter.

However, when I try to put everything in a diagram for using it with the iOSD, it is the DJI manual that is confusing. It has something to do with the voltage, just like Kloner said.

My wireles vTx is powered by a 3S lipo, 12v. That is what the board is rated for.

I have a yellow cable for video and black from ground going from the HDMI2AV board to the iOSD. I power the HDMI2AV board from the HDMI cable, so the following warning in the manual is not for me. Correct? So, from the iOSD input port I only solder AV1 and GND.

DJI Manual said:
If you use your own camera(s), please connect through the Video Input Cable according the pin description.AV1/AV2 pin:you can select the required input. AV1 is default. POWER pin: supply power for Video input
source such as a camera, with the maximum current of 1A. If the battery is 3S LiPo then: Output Voltage = Input
Votage. If 4S~6S then: Output Voltage=11.2V. Make sure your camera is rated for this voltage and
current(1A), if not, please use a separate battery supply.


· If you use other wireless video transmitter and the rated voltage is over the voltage of BATT+, you can use the
POWER pin to apply power. Make sure the total current consumption of wireless video transmitter and camera
is lower than 1A, otherwise will damage your iOSD.

Then from the iOSD to the vTx, I use the one port cable connection for making your own connection to a non-DJI vTx cable. This one has 8 wires running from it. Here is where I am confused big time. What goes where? I only have a 3 pin input connection on my vTx.

And then there is this warning

DJI Manual said:
Please make sure the input voltage of your own wireless video transmitter is matched to the voltage ofBATT, to prevent damage from your wireless video transmitter module. For example, if the Battery is
6S(25V) and the input voltage of the wireless video transmitter is 3S(12V), then you cannot use the
BATT+ to supply power since the 25V is larger than 12V.

My input voltage is 12v, 3S lipo. With BATT I suppose they mean the flight battery to where the iOSD module is connected with, this is a 4S lipo, 14.8v. Is this where the dollar regulator comes into play, I lower the voltage from 4s --> 3s?

How do I then go about wiring everything up in my vTx?

Code:
Negative voltage of battery(=BATT-) ____________ dollar regulator___12v___negative power wire vTX
[COLOR=#ff0000]Positive voltage of battery(=BATT+)[/COLOR]_____________dollar regulator___12v___positive power wire vTX
[COLOR=#ffa500]Channel Control[/COLOR]_____________________________Will not use
[COLOR=#8b4513]Video GND[/COLOR]_________________________________Solder to black
[COLOR=#ffff00]Video and OSD output[/COLOR]________________________Solder to yellow

Hope it is somehow understandable, not easy for me to explain or to understand :) Any of your expertise is a step forward for me :)
 

Maverick

Member
What I did was joined the two reds together, then the two blacks together, and crimped them, and made a JST connector. - this is then used to power my IMMRC VTx, which is the correct voltage from my 4s flight lipo.
I then crimped terminals on to the yellow and the brown from the one port VTx cable, from the iOSD, and made up a male 5 pin molex locking connector (IMMRC). This plugs into a female 5 pin molex locking connector, which I made up, on the IMMRC pigtail cable, that plugs into my VTx. The other wires on the one port cable, I just heat shrinked up.
If your VTx can't handle 4s, then I suggest tapping a regulator off the main board, if you use a PDB. If you don't use a PDB, and you're powering your VTx from a separate 3s lipo, then you'll not need to use the twin reds or the twin blacks from the one port iOSD cable. You'll just need VIDEO (yellow) and GND(brown).
If you're still unsure, send me a link to what VTx you're using...

Mav.
 

Kolb

Member
Cool Mav, seems that I was worrying about unnecessary things.
I'll update this thread as soon as I have everything in house and if I encounter more problems.
 

Kolb

Member
It is all working well and sweet. But what a cable mess... You should see the back of my bird together with the brushless gimbal cables, all these wires, boards and no place to put them somewhere nice and out of sight. I am waiting on some bigger shrink wrap so I'll be able to shrink wrap the HDMI2AV converter and stuff it in somewhere.

What is the trick to good cable management on multicopters?
 

kloner

Aerial DP
use mesh to collect it all and route but bail any extra wires that aren't being used. my djiosd only has one feed going in and one out, but theres like 3 wires on them total. pretty much the opposite.

_DSC1500_795.jpg
 

Kolb

Member
Ok, getting rid of all the unused DJI wires makes sense. I'll do that. I try to get a hold on some wire mesh, what is the exact term for this kind of protection, can't seem to find it under that keyword in eBay.

The photo shows the Stratosnapper, that is something else I need to mount as well, I have it working after bench tests, only need to mount it. But there is no free space!
The HDMI2AV converter is temporary mounted on my landing gear. But I can't leave it there because I regularly need to remove the landing gear. Same for my gimbal lipo, where do I put you?!

The joy of this hobby :)
 



Kolb

Member
Ok, why is this?
TL0pZZR.jpg


As you can see the OSD information is warped. The block in the center should be aligned right. I tried different vTX channels, but that is not it. I checked iOSD firmware and it is up to date. It is the same when I connect a camera.
 


Kolb

Member
I can't seem to get a decent picture from it once I am 10m away. It just goes to static, antennas positioned correctly, separate lipo running the vTx. I don't know what to do any more. I thought about getting some clover leaf antennas but surely I should be able to get some decent quality picture from only a few meters away.
 

Top