FatShark on the 450

Bill - Just cut off the two cables and splice the two plugs directly together. There is nothing magic or particularly critical about the audio or video signals. Make the overall length of the finished cable as short as practical and be sure to connect the shields/grounds together. I'd patch it together in open air and test it before I went to a lot of trouble to make it pretty. I work with this stuff for a living so I'm totally confident in saying just "cut it up".

...Tiger

PS: The DVR connections are really weird so I hope you have them right. I've never in my life seen anyone put ground on the tip before. Really stupid design if they actually did that. I just got what I think is the same DVR as you from Hobby Wireless yesterday (not opened yet) so I'm going to look at how it's wired. Did you just ohm out the cables to make your diagrams?

Just what I was thinking when I saw the mislabeling on the graphic. I was wondering if you actually checked out the connections with a ohm meter. I've also never seen ground go to the tip on any cable.

Thank you guys.
I did use an ohmmeter to check the wiring on both units and that's what I came up with. I think yours is the same as mine also Tiger, perhaps branded differently but I'll bet from the same source. It will be interesting to hear if the plug on yours is the same. The hack in the wiring I showed is what I intend to do but had hoped someone had already done it.
Let me know if the pins are the same on yours, would you Tiger?

Okay, after double checking the wiring from both units, I've found I had some errors in the wiring diagram of the dvr I made and have redone the photo to show the corrections along with the external power supply. They are still some what different. The upper photo has the external power cord which I had omitted before and likely let to some of my confusion.
The lower image is similar to the earlier one with the splice. I did not add the ground as I am not sure what I'll find until I open the wires up. I assume there is an individual, separate ground for the audio and video?

I'm still a little surprised by the wiring. These style of connectors are called "Phone plugs" because they came from the telephone industry. Usually they are referred to as TRS for Tip, Ring and Sleeve. In this case TRRS for Tip, Ring, Ring and sleeve. Just as the tip is usually a positive or signal the sleeve (what you have as ring 3) is negative or ground.
These style connectors were often coaxial or shielded twisted pairs. Because of this the new DVR In diagram still looks suspect since you indicate the sleeve (ring 3) as a signal line for the audio.

Regarding the ground question I am sure when you cut these open you'll find a single ground, probably a braided shield.

It seems that you have your DVR In ring 2 and ring 3 crossed somehow. Maybe the confusion of calling them 1,2,3,4 and having ring 1 (2), ring 2 (3) and ring 3 (4)?

I hope Tiger gets some time to check his out and see if he comes up with the same thing.
This is the video that got me to look at mine. Different name, same product. The pin layout appears to be the same as mine, now that I have it correct. It sounds as if he purchased a new wire and and swapped the wires at the pin plug to remedy the issue.

Wow. If that is true I would pop open the DVR case and look inside to see why they made such a miserable choice in their wiring. Long term it might be better to modify the DVR innards than making silly and potentially failure prone custom adapter wires.

I think I would rather chance screwing up a solder joint on the wire than in the unit.
I'm going to hack into it (the wire) tomorrow and fasten them temporarily as Tiger suggested and test to see I get the proper results before soldering.

Sure, but looking is free and without obligation. Besides, you never really own a thing until you've opened it up.

I wouldn't mess with the jack inside the unit. It's going to be pcb mounted and it's not going to be practical to modify the pcb without making a mess. Stick with the cable solution to untangle the signals.

Since we we're talking about proper nomenclature here, what you're calling ring3 is really called the "sleeve" (it's not a ring). I'll try to check my cable later tonight and post the results.

...Tiger

Just checked my cable. Your drawing is correct.
Tip - Power
Ring1 - Video
Ring2 - Ground
Sleeve - Audio

Chop away! ...Tiger

I did it, the wires were quite small and my soldering iron over kill but it's done and works.

Awesome Bill. Congratulations! Was there a shield or was it all tiny wires? The cable looked like it would be all wires.

...Tiger

The fatshark cable was what I guess could be called shieled, they were separate wires all around the interior signal wire but not woven. The dvr cable ground wires were single also but all run together along side the signal. All the color coding of both harnesses were the same so connecting was no issue, just twisted them together first to test then solder.

Here is another video of the little dvr, it is just like the one in the video a few posts back but a little better done. More informative. It looks just like mine with the same features, just a diffrent name.

Right! That's the one I just got and I'm sure it's identical to yours. There can't be more than one company that would make such a goofball wiring scheme on the connector.

...Tiger

Good grief time flies and I've not done a thing more on getting the camera etc. on the quad. Sad part is, I've let it sit long enough I'm going to have to read through all the manuals again.

I did fly it a couple times over the winter and recently upgraded to the latest NAZA firmware, but thats been the extent of any thing RC I've done in months.

Welcome back Bill. I hadn't seen you post for a while and also no activity on your YouTube channel. I was hoping to hear more about your Naza-H experiences.

Thanks John.
More to come, I've just got to refresh my memory a little. The weather was decent for a while yesterday and I did a little more driving the truck around with the Fatshark, next step is using the dvr and posting a little clip with it all still on the truck. Then.... move it all to the quad.

Okay, as promised a looong time ago, here is a video straight from the fatshark goggles using the mini dvr.
This is working better than I thought it would considering the signal is coming from the ground and from behind buildings in places. You start to see a lot of dropped frames when I go into the shadow of the house and more so behind the metal shed but not so much you couldn't see to fly.
I don't think I'll be trying going the under the chair with the quad though.