You might want to consider using a 4-in-1 ESC with a 5v 3A regulator. That can save you the cost of a PDB and make the build considerably easier. Also, you might just want to get the VTX03 and drop the Aomway antenna. It comes with a little dipole antenna which works 95% as well as a circular polarized. You can always swap it out for an SMA antenna with a U.fl to SMA pigtail if you want to change antennas. It'll shave the antenna cost off the price. Finally, I'd just skip 3S and go directly to 4S. Those motors are great on 4S and don't feel overpowered at all. You don't want to end up with a bunch of 3S batteries that you'll never use down the road. Get some CNHL 4S packs, they're a great value.
Perhaps you're right, maybe I'm slowly starting to overcomplicate it the longer I think about it.
I'll go with this ESC - packed some extra 16AWG wire since the motor wires will surely be too short. Will that be enough?
In the meantime I've replaced the motors for the "S" version (though honestly, I hate the red ;) ). Are they really THAT better?
As for the VTX it was in the initial version but I figured this one will do a significantly better job - turns out not really! I'll put the VTX03 back in there.
There's still the matter of powering the FPV gear. I've heard some really bad things about drawing power to the VTX and camera straight from this FC, though
@EDIT: Nevermind, I'm an idiot, I didn't notice the external BEC. So I figure it's either that or a PDB.
Of course once again, thank you for your suggestions, these are very helpful.
16awg is too thick for motor wires. They'll either be 20awg or 22awg depending on the motor size. I believe 2205 is 20awg. I don't think you need to worry about buying the "S" version. The normal motors are perfectly fine and proven.
You'll want to power your FC, RX, Camera and VTX with the 5v 3a BEC on the 4-in-1 board. It makes things very convenient. All you have to do is plug the 4-in-1 into the FC and you've got power. You can solder your camera and VTX power input to any of the 5v pads on the board.
Oh, I had no idea that's how it works. So it's just the included cable to connect ESC to FC to the 4 in 1 slot on Omnibus board and it automatically steps down all the power the FC will give to 5 volts? Dang, that's convenient indeed.
Would I still need to jump the 5v/RAM pins?
Sorry if my understanding is not correct, it's all new to me.
EDIT: Oh wait, if I use the 5v stepdown from the ESC to power the FC, then I won't get an accurate voltage reading in the OSD, right? Is there a way to work around it? If I run wires to VBAT pins from the battery would that work as intended?
You would be using the 5v regulator on the 4-in-1 to power everything. You can jump the 5v/RAM pins to get power to the OSD rail or you can just wire the camera and VTX to any of the 5v pads already providing power. And yes, you'll have to run power directly from the battery to the Vbat pad of the FC to get the voltage to your OSD.
Great, I think I now know exactly how to wire all of it.
Just to make sure the FC will prefer the power from the ESC I'll snip off the 5v regulator from the FC.
Thank you so much for being patient with me, I really appreciate it.
And yes, I did get the paracord. A purple paracord.
The FC will prefer that power because it is designed to choose the higher of the two voltages. The internet regulator puts out about 4.8v so the external 5v will always be chosen. The main reason you'd want to remove the internal regulator is to reduce heat.
Thanks a lot for the link. At first I thought that 35A might be an overkill but somehow it's 6g lighter than the 30A.
I also noticed it has dual BEC, both 5v and 12v. Do you happen to know how does it work in relation to Omni F3?
Meaning with 5v BEC I short 5v/RAM and get 5v from the ESC>FC. Would it also supply 5v with this 35A ESC?
What would I have to do to get 12v?
Sorry for bothering you with so much questions, however it might prove to be a better option - if I magically manage to keep 4in1 ESC alive to the point of making VTX upgrades I still wouldn't need the PDB since I can supply 12v from the ESC.
I'll try to look up some more information/opinion on this one as it sure sounds good.
It should have a connector that provides all the outputs. You can solder those wires where appropriate. You can power your camera with the 12v and power the FC/RX and VTX with the 5v by connecting it to the FC M1 rail. You don't have to bridge the 5v RAM. You could just power the VTX with the M2 5V pad.
Thank you. Couldn't scout it out on the pictures so it got me confused. I'm also considering (although I'm intimidated by the amount of revisions) an Omnibus F4 Pro V3 due to it's video filter and SBEC which supposedly doesn't heat up as much.
You might want to consider using a 4-in-1 ESC with a 5v 3A regulator. That can save you the cost of a PDB and make the build considerably easier. Also, you might just want to get the VTX03 and drop the Aomway antenna. It comes with a little dipole antenna which works 95% as well as a circular polarized. You can always swap it out for an SMA antenna with a U.fl to SMA pigtail if you want to change antennas. It'll shave the antenna cost off the price. Finally, I'd just skip 3S and go directly to 4S. Those motors are great on 4S and don't feel overpowered at all. You don't want to end up with a bunch of 3S batteries that you'll never use down the road. Get some CNHL 4S packs, they're a great value.
Perhaps you're right, maybe I'm slowly starting to overcomplicate it the longer I think about it.
I'll go with this ESC - packed some extra 16AWG wire since the motor wires will surely be too short. Will that be enough?
In the meantime I've replaced the motors for the "S" version (though honestly, I hate the red ;) ). Are they really THAT better?
As for the VTX it was in the initial version but I figured this one will do a significantly better job - turns out not really! I'll put the VTX03 back in there.
There's still the matter of powering the FPV gear. I've heard some really bad things about drawing power to the VTX and camera straight from this FC, though
@EDIT: Nevermind, I'm an idiot, I didn't notice the external BEC. So I figure it's either that or a PDB.
Of course once again, thank you for your suggestions, these are very helpful.
16awg is too thick for motor wires. They'll either be 20awg or 22awg depending on the motor size. I believe 2205 is 20awg. I don't think you need to worry about buying the "S" version. The normal motors are perfectly fine and proven.
You'll want to power your FC, RX, Camera and VTX with the 5v 3a BEC on the 4-in-1 board. It makes things very convenient. All you have to do is plug the 4-in-1 into the FC and you've got power. You can solder your camera and VTX power input to any of the 5v pads on the board.
Oh, I had no idea that's how it works. So it's just the included cable to connect ESC to FC to the 4 in 1 slot on Omnibus board and it automatically steps down all the power the FC will give to 5 volts? Dang, that's convenient indeed.
Would I still need to jump the 5v/RAM pins?
Sorry if my understanding is not correct, it's all new to me.
EDIT: Oh wait, if I use the 5v stepdown from the ESC to power the FC, then I won't get an accurate voltage reading in the OSD, right? Is there a way to work around it? If I run wires to VBAT pins from the battery would that work as intended?
You would be using the 5v regulator on the 4-in-1 to power everything. You can jump the 5v/RAM pins to get power to the OSD rail or you can just wire the camera and VTX to any of the 5v pads already providing power. And yes, you'll have to run power directly from the battery to the Vbat pad of the FC to get the voltage to your OSD.
Great, I think I now know exactly how to wire all of it.
Just to make sure the FC will prefer the power from the ESC I'll snip off the 5v regulator from the FC.
Thank you so much for being patient with me, I really appreciate it.
And yes, I did get the paracord. A purple paracord.
The FC will prefer that power because it is designed to choose the higher of the two voltages. The internet regulator puts out about 4.8v so the external 5v will always be chosen. The main reason you'd want to remove the internal regulator is to reduce heat.
I just noticed this 4-in-1 is only a few dollars more and offers some more modern features. You might want to look into it.
Thanks a lot for the link. At first I thought that 35A might be an overkill but somehow it's 6g lighter than the 30A.
I also noticed it has dual BEC, both 5v and 12v. Do you happen to know how does it work in relation to Omni F3?
Meaning with 5v BEC I short 5v/RAM and get 5v from the ESC>FC. Would it also supply 5v with this 35A ESC?
What would I have to do to get 12v?
Sorry for bothering you with so much questions, however it might prove to be a better option - if I magically manage to keep 4in1 ESC alive to the point of making VTX upgrades I still wouldn't need the PDB since I can supply 12v from the ESC.
I'll try to look up some more information/opinion on this one as it sure sounds good.
It should have a connector that provides all the outputs. You can solder those wires where appropriate. You can power your camera with the 12v and power the FC/RX and VTX with the 5v by connecting it to the FC M1 rail. You don't have to bridge the 5v RAM. You could just power the VTX with the M2 5V pad.
Thank you. Couldn't scout it out on the pictures so it got me confused. I'm also considering (although I'm intimidated by the amount of revisions) an Omnibus F4 Pro V3 due to it's video filter and SBEC which supposedly doesn't heat up as much.
I haven't tried that one personally, but be sure to read the reviews and check with anybody else who has used it.