I always use a single battery setup. So if I can power the whole MinimOSD using 5V from the regulator on the analog side, then all I need is 1 wire (RX) running to the APM. Of course the 2 solder tabs must be closed.
Is this a sound idea?
Until now, I’ve been powering my MinimOSD’s from the APM, running only a RX and 5V wire to the digital side, and video and ground to the analog side, with the solder tabs closed. Unfortunately I’ve already blown 2 of them this way today and I’m getting really p’d off with MinimOSD, especially after reading so many similar posts all over the internet. The design seems very dodgy, and I just want to do the best to not waste so much money on converting MinimOSDs into junk.
A 2nd battery is not an option for me. I always power everything off the main battery on all my FPV planes, regulating and filtering what I need. A 2nd battery is one more thing to accidentally forget to monitor and charge. Nice guide though.
So I’ll need a different schema, avoid multiple paths to ground (which I do since ground is only connected on the analog side of the minimosd). I also prefer to power the MinimOSD by something other than the APM: either with an external regulator or with it’s own internal regular if possible (my initial question is still open).
I power my minimOSD from a 2amp 5v BEC that also powers the flight controller, GPS, and bluetooth. I do have a 1000uf cap to smooth voltage spikes and a 16mm toroid inductor to smooth current spikes with 9 turns of the positive lead attached to the output of the 5v switching BEC. It has been working just fine for nearly a month; practically no noise in the video. The video camera and transmitter are powered directly from my 4s battery with no regulation. I only hooked up the 5v because I connected the 12v backward one day (damn unkeyed servo connectors!) and smoked the minimOSD regulator. On a whim, I wired the board for 5v and it works fine.
@twbrkfd1
So what wires do you run between your APM and MinimOSD?
I expect only a single wire: APM-tx to MinomOSD-rx.
MinimOSD is already grounded via the UBEC and/or video+cam connectors, and APM is grounded too.
Because I don’t trust the reliability of the APM when powering external devices. I want to keep it’s load to a minimum. The reason is that many people, including me, have blown the 3.3V regulator and the cause is as of yet still unknown. So to play it safe, I want to load the APM as little as possible.
I did power the MinimOSD that way previously b.t.w. until they both died while in the frame that has no ground wire between APM and MinimOSD, which may have been part of the cause for whatever obscure reason.
So what about GPS, Airspeed Sensor, and telemetry? Another UBEC to power all these? That would be a third voltage regulator. 1) APM only. 2) APM peripherals including Rx. 3)Servos
No, standard sensors consume so little that I connect them normally. MinimOSD consumes a lot (relatively). Servos are only relevant to planes but they can share the same UBEC as MinimOSD.