Weird camera issue

[mjbok]

I have two H's. My main one with RS and a spare without. I've been doing some survey work for a friend with another drone (Evo) but was thinking of changing the H because of better waypoint options. Because of where/what I'm doing I decided to use the non RS drone, thinking if I crash it it wouldn't be as big of a deal.

This was the first time I'd actually flown this drone. I got it refurbed from Woot and it has sat in a box. When I fired it up there was no camera connection. I went to rebind it and there was no camera available. No matter what I did it wouldn't see the camera. Panning/Tilt still worked with no picture. So (while powered) I removed and reattached the camera and the drone could see it. Weird, but no big deal.

Then I went out to the site, fired up the drone....no camera. Had to remove/reseat the camera (while powered) to have it seen.

Has anyone seen this before? Is there anything I can do to fix it?

 

[rdonson]

Sounds like the contacts on the camera/H got oxidized. You can use a good contact cleaner that is safe for plastic or run the eraser from a pencil (not pen) over the contacts.

 

[mjbok]

Sounds like the contacts on the camera/H got oxidized. You can use a good contact cleaner that is safe for plastic or run the eraser from a pencil (not pen) over the contacts.

I thought of that and will try this, but my question is if there were contact issues wouldn't the camera not receive power (tilt/rotate) and why would reseating it while powered make a difference?

 

[rdonson]

Its hard to say which contact failed to make a good connection initially.

Reseating simply helped it make a better connection.

Clean the contacts and see if the issue goes away.

 

[Mr. I]

Try manually pairing the camera to the drone. I had a problem like this awhile ago. The camera would tilt and move, but no image. My contacts were clean but i still had to manually pair the camera to the drone. You should only have to do this once. Like @rdonson said, try also cleaning the contacts.

 

[Steve Carr]

The camera is not a hot swap camera. Do not remove or install it when the H is powered.
Try this:
Turn on the H. After it boots tip it forward a few times until you see the orange flashing light. Then turn on the ST16. Go to the bind menu, hit refresh and see if the camera is listed in the right column. Select it and then select bind.
If it still does not connect, turn off the H, create a new model, select that model and go to the bind menu. Turn on the H, tilt forward to put it in bind mode, refresh the bind menu and then select the H and the camera.

 

[mjbok]

The camera is not a hot swap camera. Do not remove or install it when the H is powered.
Try this:
Turn on the H. After it boots tip it forward a few times until you see the orange flashing light. Then turn on the ST16. Go to the bind menu, hit refresh and see if the camera is listed in the right column. Select it and then select bind.
If it still does not connect, turn off the H, create a new model, select that model and go to the bind menu. Turn on the H, tilt forward to put it in bind mode, refresh the bind menu and then select the H and the camera.

I did this, but it wouldn't see the camera while pairing. This was the only way the power light would come on the camera. I am going to look to see if it is a contact issue. Even though hot swapping is not a good idea the fact that it then works shows it is already paired with the camera.

 

[Steve Carr]

The power and tilt feed is supplied thru the pins on the slide mount. The video feed is supplied by the antenna in the camera.
Obviously, it the camera does not have power there is something wrong with the pins or wiring. Remove the H slide mount and check the connectors. Are any of the pins depressed on the mount?

To check the camera antenna go to Pad, settings, wifi. Enable the wifi and see if the camera shows on the list.