Fat Shark Aviator Help

[Blizzard1287]

Hey guys, Ive got a serious issue with my Fat Shark Aviators and I really need your help. Ive had these for less than 2 months and have had no problems until now.
Essentially I'll be cruising around and all of a sudden *BAM* the video will cut to black. There is no static, just black as if the video feed was suddenly cut. The strange thing is the video cut lasts for around 5-10 seconds then comes back as if nothing happened! I can't reproduce the effect on the ground and frankly I'm stumped. Its only happened in the past week's time but its caused 4/6 crashes at the absolute worst time.
each time the video cut out at:
crash 1- 68' out, 39' high right before I was about to pull out of a dive
crash 2- 70' feet out, 30' up coming in for a landing
crash 3- 63' out, 45' up coming in for a landing
crash 4- 75' feet out in a dive to show off
Cut 1- 360' out 280' up, cruising south
Cut 2- 318' out, 144' up cruising north (500' away from the 1s cut)

now you and I can see the pattern here, and if there was static I'd chalk it up to multipathing or some sort of interference; but what is causing the goggles to black out?

Ive tried both plugging into and not plugging into the av out port.
weather is mid 50's
wind/no wind, doesn't matter
all have been at dusk or near sun set.


Any ideas anyone?


View this video on YouTube

[SENTRY]

This actually looks like the cam/OSD cut out to me. It's hard to get NOTHING in the goggles at all unless they literally power down. You'd at least get noise floor. How are you powering the goggles? I've noticed that the orginal battery on my aviators developed a short after a very short time.

[jimmaplesong]

Aw man, that sucks dude. Nice lake & colors though.

Does your VTX get any airflow for cooling? The only time I've seen something come back after a few seconds was because of a heat problem, but you're in cold weather, and when my TX went out, I saw static instead of black... so that's probably not it.

I'd try to trade in the Fatsharks for a new pair from your retailer. (Are you powering them with the supplied 2S batteries? More voltage might cause a heat problem on the RX side!?)

[SENTRY]

If it was the vTx cutting out, you'd still get noise floor (static) in the goggles. This is an OSD outage probably. A cam outage will still allow you to see the OSD information (depending on how your OSD handles cam input). This looks like a vTx still transmitting (that's why there is no noise floor static) yet no OSD/CAM being transmitted. I'd go over my entire OSD install.

[airbagit13]

I agree with sentry.

[Blizzard1287]

hmmm, never considered a osd prob. Any way I can check for shorts? I suppose I could hook up my ground recorder to my spare set of lawmate vrx and then fly till my fat sharks cut out and check the recording...

I have noticed a prob with the fatsharks when connecting the ground recorder to the goggles on start up, I'd get the black screen... but it wouldn't go away. Normally I'd disconnect the battery, wait 2-3 seconds then plug back in and all would work again.... usually. Its like the same symptoms as in the video... just a black screen. Could be connected? Also, if the black screen would come up on startup sometimes if I twisted the av-out cable in its plug the goggle video would come back... but that was maybe 1 out of 3 tries.

*after reviewing the raw video there was a 2 frame short at 54 sec and I'm not sure why.

Sentry - powering the goggles with the standard 2s battery that comes with the goggles. I could see it would be a shortage if it only happened when I was powering out of dives or showboating but its happened multiple times when coming in flat for a landing and has not happened many many times when pulling out of dives almost a 1,000 feet out. Looking back at the video, it seems to only happen at around 70' and 300-350' at this location. Which is also weird since the first time I flew at this spot I didn't have any of these problems

Jim- Thanks, I love flying at this location. Though until I figure out whats going on with these goggles I'm nervous as hell to really push myself as I cant see the plane past those islands and a crash in the water would be a catastrophe. VTX is on the wing and has plenty of cooling... see here

[SENTRY]

Yes - just check your entire OSD/cam system installation. I think your problem is there - not in the goggles. If you hook up the recorder to the vRx i'm almost certain you'll see the short - just fly a little higher - and close in - that will give you time to spot the plane visually (go w/ a spotter - so you can take the goggles off quickly). OR, just fly an entire pack line of sight with a passenger wearing the goggles - when they see the short have them tell you - then land and check the ground recording (connected to the vRx directly). Does the cable that you are connecting to the goggles have 3 bands or 4??

[Blizzard1287]

Just opened my hatch and started juggling some wires. Sure enough I've got a short somewhere in there... Sentry I love and hate you right now. This is gona take a while... Thanks for the help guys

[SENTRY]

Just opened my hatch and started juggling some wires. Sure enough I've got a short somewhere in there... Sentry I love and hate you right now. This is gona take a while... Thanks for the help guys

That's what we are here for sir. I love you too baby. LOL.

[FPV FLYER]

I was gonna say osd problem there...but I see I am late