Help with X5C-1 camera

[Thomas in Niagara]

Hi guys
I pooched my camera by pulling the 2 of the 3 wires out of the JST connector. I ordered 2 new JST connectors from SparkFun in Colorado [fast shipping and I know I'll screw up the first one]. JST connectors come in different sizes I found out. When ordering parts, check closely. I didn't and Gosh! Got the wrong size. So I've ordered a replacement camera from China so the slow boat expression fits. I'm out of service at the moment. I have a question about the wiring. Please keep in mind that I'm no smarty pants. So here goes

• The JST connectors I ordered were bigger and the gauge wire was too. If I had swapped out the connector off the main board and swapped out the broken JST on the camera, how would the larger wire affect performance... or would it? Larger wire larger pipeline less resistance or it wouldn't matter...??? I don't want to do this as I have the new camera coming and I would have to change the plug wire on the new camera to the larger JST. Curious just the same.
• Can you hook a battery straight to the camera or does it have to be run through some kind of circuit board?
• Is one of the wires, (Black, Red and Yellow) for sound? I can post pics if needed. I don't really need the sound since you can't hear the sheep bleating anyway when I zoom....never mind that. The Quad noise is annoying to say the least.

Thanks in advance
Thomas

 

[Michael Fenimore]

I'm fairly new to the X5c-1, but I'm gonna guess here re: the camera wires.
Red is usually power, 3.7v or 5v, etc.
Black is ground
Yellow may be the signal from the IC on the control board to select video or stills. Usually done with a grounding pulse from the onboard controller.
As for the microphone. That's built into the camera. I doubt there is an audio "on/off" circuit considering how inexpensive this camera is.
Mute the audio track in your editing program. Most of them allow for that function.

The external power/battery for the camera is also a thought I have had. A small 3.7v lipo just to power on the camera. It will take a bit of investigation, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

[Thomas in Niagara]

Thanks for the response Michael. Thanks for the wiring info. That's usually the first thing I do in post processing is split the audio. Depending on the footage I'll either mute the prop buzz or lower the volume considerably.

I wonder about wiring directly to a battery connection. I have a broken camera [wiring] [new one on order] and some spare JST connectors so I should just try it. I can think of 'well what could happen?' scenarios where I suddenly have only a new camera and one less battery. But I have time to ponder it since I did order from China. Thanks again for the response and let me know if you try

 

[Michael Fenimore]

Thanks for the response Michael. Thanks for the wiring info. That's usually the first thing I do in post processing is split the audio. Depending on the footage I'll either mute the prop buzz or lower the volume considerably.

I wonder about wiring directly to a battery connection. I have a broken camera [wiring] [new one on order] and some spare JST connectors so I should just try it. I can think of 'well what could happen?' scenarios where I suddenly have only a new camera and one less battery. But I have time to ponder it since I did order from China. Thanks again for the response and let me know if you try

Oh, I will be trying, you can bet on that. LOL
I'm just not sure when. I will, since now someone else has the same idea, pull the camera apart again (I took the case off to see if perhaps I could mount it INSIDE the body of the X5) and check the board to see if it has any guides for connections.
One thing you might want to try is pull the body off the camera, look at the circuit board and see if indeed it is labeled. Then "play" with the connections.
Apply power and ground appropriately and see if indeed the yellow wire is the trigger. I would think a single touch to ground, that is IF it is a ground triggered circuit, will take a picture and then possibly hold the connection to see if it records video.
Since you've got a replacement on the way you're not really losing anything.
I didn't really buy this quad for the camera. So if I burn it up ... meh.

I'll update if I find out anything.

 

[Thomas in Niagara]

So if I burn it up ... meh.

I'll update if I find out anything.

I'll do the same. I've had the camera apart and took several pcs of the board as I was going to solder on the new JST connector when they came. Of course I ordered the wrong size.

How are you liking the X5C? I'm really happy with it now that I've plumbed it's limitations and can control it fairly well. I like the video portion of this quad and am waiting for the Syma FPV add on now. It was cheap and I'm not looking for anything out of line of sight at the moment so for setting up the shots I want it will do. As for labels on the board [see pic below] It's labeled + and - and there's even a fourth option not used. Not sure what that would be for? Like I said I'm not electrically inclined. I was the kid who plugged the fork into the receptacle that led to that old warning "Don't do that....." I'll let you know how this goes once I get the new camera. Should only be a couple of days more.... it's from China after all.

 

[Michael Fenimore]

I'll do the same. I've had the camera apart and took several pcs of the board as I was going to solder on the new JST connector when they came. Of course I ordered the wrong size.

How are you liking the X5C? I'm really happy with it now that I've plumbed it's limitations and can control it fairly well. I like the video portion of this quad and am waiting for the Syma FPV add on now. It was cheap and I'm not looking for anything out of line of sight at the moment so for setting up the shots I want it will do. As for labels on the board [see pic below] It's labeled + and - and there's even a fourth option not used. Not sure what that would be for? Like I said I'm not electrically inclined. I was the kid who plugged the fork into the receptacle that led to that old warning "Don't do that....." I'll let you know how this goes once I get the new camera. Should only be a couple of days more.... it's from China after all.

So it may be as I suspected. Red is for + voltages and black is for - voltages. That leaves the yellow as the trigger ... maybe.
The fourth "land" on the circuit board may be just a dummy or possibly a second ground plane. Not really sure. Once I get a meter on it I'll know better.

I'm loving my X5C-1!! Like your sig says ... No No NOOOO Not the tree! Yeah. Been there done that.
I even got it hung up on a telephone wire by the props. LOL
A 12 foot ladder and a 9 foot pole with a coat hanger (plastic) worked like a charm.

 

[Michael Fenimore]

Hey Thomas, I found some info. I was right in my suspicion that the yellow wire is the trigger wire.
Here's a video on YouTube kinda explaining the pinouts.

(Fast forward to 3:30)
The yellow wire requires a pulse to trigger. But the pulse(s) need to be of a certain duration.
So I'm not sure if these could be done manually since they require milliseconds of signal.

 

[Thomas in Niagara]

If I heard that right anything > 500ms would snap a pic and 100ms<=t<490ms would be for video. Too bad, reversed would seem like an 'always on' condition. As in anything longer than 500ms would mean until it is shut off. Hmmm It would burn my camera out wouldn't it,,,,, [grin] Thanks for looking into it. If I get brave I'll post the results. Cheers!