G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Troubleshooting Quad Camera Unit for a friend Hey all, a family friend recently gifted his son a quad copter with a camera unit intended for photo/video capture as well as realtime broadcast to the control unit. They were unable to get a signal from the camera, so they asked me to take a look. As I detached the Camera Unit from the quad, I noticed the yellow wire coming from the battery/splitter came out of the housing as if it broke off. I disassembled the housing and saw only the Red and Black wires soldered on the board. As soon as I set the unit down on a table the Red and Black wires also broke off. This was an incredibly sloppy job and it does not surprise me that the unit was malfunctioning. I cleaned up the all the excess solder and cleaned the board as best I could before taking photos. Even after cleaning I could not find a reasonable solder point for the yellow (ground, I assume?) wire. The three wires are equal length so I expect a solder point quite close to the other two. I've taken apart a few similar units from friends' quads to see if I can gain any insight but have had no luck (each of those had three clearly labeled points). I've uploaded two photos (front + back) commented with the initial solder points for the Red/Black wires as well as a clean version of those photos in the best resolution I was able to. Hopefully someone has come across this board, one like it, or has experience and sees what I do not. I'm not positive that the yellow wire was soldered on at all, as it fell out of the housing before I had even managed to remove the screws. Any help/guidance would be appreciated! andrej Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Carlton Dodd Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Would help to know the model of the quad. Yellow is typically the video signal, but this seems to have everything in one, so I'm not sure in this case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Phillips Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Unless you are really sure about red and black, don't just presume that black is always GND cause sometimes it ain't, You can usually get a clue by going back up the leads to where they came from. In the second pic where you flip it over, what's under the alligator clip? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 3, 2016 Author Share Posted March 3, 2016 John Phillips I saw the Red/Black wires still attached when I opened the housing so that much, I'm sure of. There's nothing under the clip, empty circle. Here's a dropbox link to a photo I just took without the clip: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1vo14jooigozeki/IMG_20160302_235037-01.jpeg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 3, 2016 Author Share Posted March 3, 2016 Carlton Dodd I'll ask him; it's some generic "spy drone" branding. I researched at the time (on his laptop, no history here) to find info about the specific unit, didn't find anything useful except a place that sells a replacement for 40$. Post here is hoping for someone to glean some info from the board itself :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Phillips Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 It could be that the yellow is a dummy wire for an option not being used, without a schematic it's hard to know, looks like the braided lead is for video out, and no sound? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Scott W Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 You have Red and Black pointing to pads on both sides of the board. It is a two sided board. Are you sure the pads are common to each other on both sides? Red might go on one side and yellow on the other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_John Phillips Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 After zooming in on the ic next to where the red and black attach I've noticed an odd looking dob of solder? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 Scott W interesting. every camera unit board I've opened were through hole connections. If that's the case then it is logical that the yellow, due to its identical length would be on the other side. Now, the question goes from "there's no connection point for the yellow wire" to "which point on the back of the board is the correct connection point." Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 Wayne Hobbins Hmm my only thought on that is that all wires are of the same length. I will certainly try what you've suggested as I move forward, thank you :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 John Phillips I should have taken some photos of the soldering job before I wicked away the ridiculous amounts of excess solder. That's probably left over excess that I will have to clean up before I move forward reattaching the wires. Thanks :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_T Burns Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Since the wires are all the same length, I also would guess the yellow goes to the 3.7V solder point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_andrej stefanovski Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 T Raburn? do you mean on the back of the board? The only 3.7v mark I see is further in on the board so the yellow wire would be a bit longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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