FPV and H3-2D gimbal installation on DJI Phantom 2

This post is an evolution of my old FPV Deconstruction post.

Yesterday, I installed a DJI Zenmuse H3-2D brushless gimbal for the Phantom 2 quadcopter along with a Boscam TS-353 5.8Ghz FPV video transmitter. The gimbal installation took less than 10 minutes, and the FPV transmitter installation, not much longer. Here’s how to do it.

The H3-2D gimbal for Phantom 2 comes with easy-to-follow instructions—follow them, and your gimbal will be installed before you know it. The only electrical connection to the Phantom 2 is the 8-pin cable, which you’ll find taped to the belly of your quadcopter. The rest of the installation involves screwing together the mount and screwing it to the body of the quadcopter. The only thing to watch out for is the orientation of the top frame of the gimbal. Match the holes in the frame with the holes in the bottom of your Phantom before you start so you don’t assemble it backwards.

When you’re done, the gimbal frame will be sticking out of the front of the Phantom, which is normal.

The FPV transmitter install is a little bit more involved, but is still fairly simple and only involves connecting 4 wires. You’ll need a soldering iron, heat shrink, and optionally, two pairs of 2-pin JST connectors.

First, let’s look at the Phantom 2 manual, which details how to connect various accessories.

The 8-pin cable is already connected to the gimbal. You’ll see a 4-pin cable coming out of the same hole in the chassis (yellow, brown, red, and brown wires). The red and brown pair carry auxiliary power, and the yellow and brown, a video signal from your GoPro. The video signal goes through the GoPro’s HERO bus and comes back on the yellow/brown video wires, which keeps installation clean.

Split the 4-wire cable coming out of your Phantom 2 in the middle so you have a red / brown pair and a yellow / brown pair. Now, your goal is to connect these to the appropriate pins on your video transmitter. In my case, I’m using a Boscam TS-353 5.8Ghz 400mW Tx, but the ImmersionRC 5.8Ghz transmitter is very similar, using the same connectors (2-pin and 5-pin). The only difference is the order of the pins.

Both transmitters come with wire harnesses, and I’ve seen some people just twist wires together so they match up, wrapping each wire in electrical tape. This *might* work, but I much prefer a more solid connection.

First, I soldered a male JST pigtail to the aux power wires (red and brown) coming out of the Phantom, making sure red connects to red, and brown to black. I soldered a second male JST pigtail to the video wires (yellow and brown), connecting yellow to red, and brown to black.

Then, I connected the transmitter’s wiring harnesses to two female JST pigtails, one for power, and one for the video signal. If you don’t have servo pins and a crimp tool, you can just solder the wires together (matching the pinout specs of your Tx). If you do have servo pins and crimp tool, it’s easier to remove the wires from the Tx connectors, crimp on new servo pins to the ends of the female JST pigtails, and insert them into the connectors at the correct pin locations. Note that the power pins on Boscam and ImmersionRC transmitters are reversed, so check wire order carefully. Again, CHECK WIRE ORDER CAREFULLY. In the end, you need the video, power and ground pins on your Tx to be connected to the video and ground pins on the Phantom. I’ve had at least one reader short out their GoPro by not checking properly.

Connect the JSTs together, and you’re done. Here’s a shot of my final installation:

For FPV, I now use a Boscam RC701 7" monitor Black Pearl 7" diversity receiver monitor. The monitor has a built-in diversity receiver and pairs well with a 3S battery as a power source. Its ImmersionRC / Fatshark support isn’t fantastic, and I can only get a mediocre picture when I’m using a Tx on that band, but the Boscam TS353 transmits a great picture to this monitor. The RC701 Black Pearl comes with a female JST connector on its naked power cable, so you have to solder on your own power connector. It has an integrated batery, so you can either charge with the optional 12V wall adapter or use a 3S battery to both power the monitor and charge its integrated battery. I have a ton of extra 2200mAh batteries, so I use one of those, connecting it via a XT60.

I use velcro to attach the battery to the back of the monitor. I love this setup because it’s simple and is easy to travel with (note: this is the older RC701 that I used to use).

Those blue antennas you see in the pictures are the 5.8 GHz Bluebeam Ultra Antenna Set by IBCrazy. The 5-lobe receiving antenna will connect without modification to the RC701 monitor, but you will need a “SMA female to RM-SMA male” adapter to connect the right-angle 3-lobe Tx antenna to a Boscam TS-353 Tx (it should just work on an ImmersionRC Tx). I found the adapter on eBay, and it wasn’t easy because the titles didn’t always match the pictures in the listings. You want an adapter that is female on both sides. The specific one I bought is called “SMA female To RP-SMA male both female center rf connector adapter”.