Syma X5 low cost low weight FPV Setup Extended

Since my super cheap mini cctv 205MT 600TVL finally came in the mail yesterday I had to build this! I also wanted all the electronics fit into the case and only let the antenna hang out! With this opportunity to rip the whole thing apart again I did some photo's myself to show you exactly what I did and where! Hope you enjoy the look and maybe build one yourself. If you do so please leave a comment, link or pictures of your work, that would be great!

Okay, I'm gonna divide this into three parts:

• The rip up (you could call it an disassembly instruction)
• The old setup (short explanation and pics since the first Syma post covers that up)
• The new setup (new camera, same old transmitter but all in one casing)

Now let's start tearing things apart:

The rip up

Starting point: No Prop guards and removed battery cap.

First remove each pair of screws of the outer cap-holder (4x), the four inner screws and the two at the battery connector.

Now you should be able to gently push the top-cap off the main frame. This is all you need to do if you plan to set it up for FPV. But I like disassembling things so I kept going :)

I first removed all four props which are hold by one screw each positioned in the center.

I then flipped the X5 to the back and removed the motor-cap's by unscrewing three screws on each arm. Each motor-cap can now easily be taken off (4x). Look how dirty the gear is, I will have to clean it. That's maybe the only major drawback of this Toy, the upper side is covered well but the bottom isn't protected from dirt at all.

 The actual motor holders are now just pressed in so you can simply lift them up gently (4x). The Led "strips" are only hold by one clamp in the middle, just push them out with your finger nails or something flat and lead them through the tiny hole where the cables come from.

The last step to get all the wired electronics out is to unscrew the three screws that are holding the main board. And there you go, a fully unscrewed X5 wohoo :D

So now lets so some photos of the old setup:

 

 

The old setup

These were the parts that I used:

step up 5V module

TX5813 with soldered 5.8 GHz
Cloverleaf antenna and connectors












5V Power supply Y-cable

808 #16 v3 Keychain camera
without battery and case
but with some tape to hold the lens



The only thing that was actually in the casing was the step up module with wires leading out to the TX and the camera. That worked pretty well and didn't came in the way of the propellers but I wanted something neater looking and even more lightweight:

 

 

The new setup

 That's where my finally arrived super tiny cctv cam (10€) comes in :)

I also soldered the 5V step up module directly to the X5 mainboard to save weight and space.

To fit the camera inside the case I cut out a small hole to the front and fixed the cam with some tape and foam.

The main wiring stays the same so I fiddled everything inside the case and cut a very small hole for the antenna to come out of the side. And that's it! Simply screwed the upper cap back on and did a short test if the video module is sending and it did wohoo :D



Hope you enjoy this build, as always: if you have any questions just use the comment section below!

Cheerio

Mini Skywalker maiden flight

Hey there, I finally managed to do a first flight (actually a couple) with my mini skywalker from Hobbyking. Check out the video:

The specs can be seen under the video! Since I'm a total beginner in actually flying RC airplane (instead of building, modify and assemble these) you can see many crashes! With every crash I got more experience on what do and what not to do, so a learning curve is definitely present :)

The video was shot with the 808 #16 v3 keychain camera at the very front of the fuselage. I also installed a TX5823 Transmitting module so my friend was able to see whats happening up there. I was too doubtful to fly the plane FPV at the first time so I flew LOS and let him have the fun of "sitting in that plane". The Wing broke in half after the second crash but it was easily fixable with some tape. The tail fixation got worse and worse after every flight since it was only taped together as well but it was "somehow" flyable. I solved this problem now by adding two nylon bolts screwed into two glued in nylon nuts. The tail is now much stronger and can perform the given controls much better. I'm waiting eagerly to fly this thing again but time and weather is keeping me from doing it... 

Syma X5 low-cost, low weight, high-res FPV setup

After several crashes of the big quad because of my inexperience I wanted something small, cheap and indestructible! The Syma X5 was the perfect fit for a trainer so I bought it off from ebay for about 60€. Hundreds of flights later it's still working as it should! I even went out and put a 808 #16 v3 Keychain camera on it and it was able to fly quite well.

That gave me the idea that without all the Keychain cam's battery and casing it should be possible to add a fpv transmitter as payload without increasing the total weight! As I searched through different kinds of transmitters I found one extremely cheap and lightweight FPV-TX, the Boscam TX5813 Module! These come as an all in one chip with soldering pins but without surrounding PCB which makes it extremely lightweight (~ 2g). The range is fairly small but will exceed the range of the RC Transmitter of the X5 without a problem.

ISO

Side



Front

This post will only explain the "flying part" part of the FPV Setup, the ground station (Receiver and Screen) is not part of it (maybe I will cover it in a later post).

So here's the setup

• Syma X5 (don't buy the X5c version, you can spend your money better than that) ~ 60€

• Keychain cam 808 #16 v3 ~40€

alternative:
Keychain cam 808 hq30 ~33€
or any 5V Video Live Output cam like this ~ 10€

• one TX5813 Module from here or elsewhere ~8€

• the cheapest step-up 5V module you can find like this ~ 2-3€

500mA should be enough to power the transmitter and the cam

• DIY Cloverleaf 5.8 GHz Antenna, here is an awesome tutorial ~ 3-4€

• Some HK 750mAh 1S battery's from here ~3€/each

 That's it! So in total your would have to pay 26€ without shipping for the cheapest setup and only 50€ with a real HD ready recording function! Since many RC-hobbyists already own a keychain cam or a 5V cam the actual transmitter mod would cost only 16€ :O

Despite the low price you can experience the full DIY feeling, which includes soldering, bending measuring and all that fun stuff :P

Tools and consumables needed

• a soldering iron
• screwdriver
• some cables to connect things ;) about 10cm each
• optional: pinheader and crimps, but you can just solder it directly
• a magnifying glass
• a tweezer

To build the Cloverleaf Antenna more materials are needed, just follow the link!


Step by Step

Before starting to unscrew the X5 the FPV-Transmitter TX5812 needs to be soldered:

If you want to change the Band of your TX follow this tutorial.

This TX5813 .pdf should give you all the information needed. It includes the pinout names and an application diagram.

First solder your cloverleaf antenna to pin 9 (GND), 10 (ANT), 11 (GND) as shown in the application diagram (the three pins up right when looking on the chips front). Make sure to not short the ANT Pin with the metal sheet.

Next solder the red wire to Pin 4 (VCC), one black wire to each GND Pin (3 and 5) and one yellow wire to Pin 1 (Video). Solder the other end of the red and one of the black wires to the corresponding output pins of your 5V step-up module. To power your camera solder one more red cable to your step up modules output pins (long enough to reach the cam from the inner X5 casing).

The yellow and the other black cable can be soldered directly to the matching wires of your camera, the red wire coming from the step up module as well.

Now open the Syma X5 by unscrewing each pair of the outer screws (don't unscrew the three screws under the propellers, those aren't necessary) on each arm. Now unscrew the 4 screws under the landing gear. At last remove the two screws at the lipo input. The top should come off quite easily, if not, check if you really removed all screws.

Take a closer look at the Syma X5 mainboard:

The three wires (red, black, yellow) that you see at the bottom are normally used for the X5c's camera control, but we are going to use the red and black cable as a power source for our step-up module. So just desolder the yellow wire completely and solder the red and black wires to the step-up module's input pins. Now just store the step-up module inside of the X5 and fiddle the output wires out of the casing. Now simply put all the screws in it's place again and store the FPV-TX and the camera where you want it to by taping it  (not very elegant but that's the way I did it :D).

Of course I did not come up with all of this myself so here are the resources that I used:

• Alex Greve's awesome build tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAfNltlsX0 but with different TX and cam
• Cloverleaf build tutorial from David Windestål http://rcexplorer.se/diy/2011/08/the-cloverleaf-fpv-antenna/
• B-Band TX5823 (similar to TX5813) tutorial http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1787178&page=8

If you have any questions just use the comment section!

Have fun building!