Hi Kirk,

No, it does not matter about the connection order. Whatever is most convenient.

Regards,

Bill, for Eagle Tree

Originally Posted by billpa

Hi Kirk,

No, it does not matter about the connection order. Whatever is most convenient.

Regards,

Bill, for Eagle Tree

Thanks Bill, I didn't think so just wanted to make sure.

Kirk.

duplicate post

Does the GPS expander have to be plugged into the elogger GPS socket or can I daisy chain it off the osd pro?

Im tight on space and alternatively may have to solder an extension on the GPS for it to reach the desired mounting location.

Hey guy's, I just got my OSD pro fixed BY ET after I had a crash that caused a filter to become un-attached and a couple of other issues. Looks like it was replaced with a new one. Now that I got it back it won't work when my GPS (the older Red covered 5hz one) is connected. What happens is the start up ET screen appears on power up but then seconds later the video starts dropping every couple of seconds for a split second. After a couple of minutes the OSD pro stops working all together leaving the screen free of text but the flickering remains. If I power up the OSD pro without the GPS connected every thing is fine but of course no GPS info. If I then plug in the GPS module the OSD shuts off leaving the screen blank. I then attached my Standard ET OSD to the same set up and everything works fine and GPS info is displayed with no flickering. So I don't believe it's a GPS issue. I also went and check the version (8.05) and re-updated it again resetting to factory settings and still no working OSD pro when GPS is connected. Any ideas?

Hey Crash9,

I asked Bill about this very recently. The crux of the problem is that the GPS and OSD Pro together suck more power than the onboard voltage regulator on the eLogger (if you're powering your setup from the flight battery pack) can provide -- causing power brownouts.

Bill says that we can either: (1) connect the OSD Pro to a receiver for power; or (2) use the battery backup harness for the eLogger and power the eLogger + GPS + OSDPro from a dedicated battery pack or BEC.

Cheers,

Victor

Hey thanks for replying Victor. Your right I'm using the power from the flight battery since it's on a heli and no RTH stuff hooked up. Seems like that's the issue. Ok I'll try it with a battery and/or RX power.

Does the newer GPS expander have this issue or does it have less power drain?

Heya Mr. Crash,

Not sure about the GPS v4 as I'm still waiting for mine to arrive, but I would probably bet dollars to doughnuts that it's probably still too much for the eLogger's voltage regulator. There's an "easy" solution that's a bit messy -- split out the power leads from the battery and run your own UBEC into the eLogger. But I know... more wiring, right?

An alternative that would *clearly* void your warranty is to modify the eLogger's voltage regulator itself to handle more current. I haven't inspected the eLogger in detail, but adding a second voltage regulator parallel to the existing one may do the trick. Then again, maybe not.

Aww heck, just wait until Bill releases the eLogger v4 (I'm sure Bill's got a whiteboard somewhere at the ET offices with the words "eLogger v4" written on it already). Hopefully the power will be beefed up by then.

Good luck!

Victor

Crash, sorry to hear about the issue. Victor, I believe you are correct in your diagnosis, thanks. Correct, the new GPS does not have a significant power requirement change.

What is your cell count? Depending, just connecting one of the included servo leads between one of the OSD Pro servo pins and a spare Rx channel will eliminate the issue.

FWIW, most FPV flyers use 3S packs I think, and the regulator is capable of powering both the GPS and OSD at this voltage.

The regulator will start to shut off at about 30V with just the GPS, and at a somewhat lower voltage with both the GPS and the OSD Pro.

The main issue is the heat generated, which greatly increases as the voltage differential increases. The eLogger supports packs from 5ish V to 70V, FYI.

Regards,

Bill, for Eagle Tree

Report:
Ok I had sometime today to try it with a separate RX pack battery (4c Ni-Cd 5.1 volts) connected to the eLogger. I've been testing this set up in my PVC Twin Boom XU-1 plane that uses a 5S 5cell lipo pack and never thought to use the back up battery and of course Bill you told me before to use the back up battery on my 600 heli's running 8S-8cell lipos back when the Standard OSD came out. I should of tried that on the plane..... just didn't think of it because it's lower volts. So all fixed now with using the back up battery....I will never go without it again or at least connected to the RX.. my badd...

I also had to use the battery backup harness due to using 2x6cells on the trex700. I had to use an additional BEC to feed power to the elogger/recorder due to all receiver ports are in use. My questions are:

- Do I select 5 or 6 v on the BEC? (for best possible video quality, manual says maximum of 8v if i'm not connecting to receiver)

I tried bypassing the osd just to compare the quality difference and it was a huge!!! . Quality was so amazing,(550 TV Lines) but when the video goes through the OSD, it's quite poor but quite almost acceptable. My OSD pro isn't connected to the receiver of the heli, as I tried to keep things seperate to reduce noise. I am not using the 12v rail of the osd Pro.(nothing connected to the middle pins)

- How can i improve the video quality?

Thank you for your coming suggestions

Crash9, glad you got things working!

AreoM'ck'y, regarding the additional BEC, one option (if the 2nd BEC becomes cumbersome) is to use a servo Y cable between your primary BEC and OSD Pro. It uses quite a bit less juice than a small servo under load. That said, there is value in BEC redundancy.

Regarding video quality, the OSD pro should have zero effect. It should just be passing the video lines through that don't contain text. What sometimes happens is that the brightness of the video can change, because the receiver, transmitter or video display "auto-levels" differently due to the white OSD text. One way to verify this is to configure the OSD (via the on-screen menus) to let you turn off the OSD. At that point, if the video returns to normal, the issue is probably as described.

If that's not it, could you post a video comparing the two?

Regards,

Bill, for Eagle Tree

I will split the bec power to the receiver and elogger. Then compare the vid quality with osd text on and off. thanks Bill. I will post videos eventually if the problem persists.

Hi Crash9 I like your plane. Is it your own desiegn?

Originally Posted by DIG2fly

Hi Crash9 I like your plane. Is it your own desiegn?

Thanks...it's now being set up with the OSD pro's RTH and long range 2.4 RC radio. More info here: www.FPVpilot.com