Turnigy 9X FPV Ground Station V2
Bill of Materials:
[Qty. 1] Turnigy 9X (no module)
[Qty. 1] FrSky 2.4GHz DJT Module
[Qty. 1] 5.8GHz 200mw wireless video system
[Qty. 1] 2650mAh TX LiPo Battery
[Qty. 1] LED Backlight kit
The first step in assembling the ground station is to prepare the video receiver. I chose to purchase the 200mW 5.8GHz video system from Hobbyking. After removing the enclosure, desolder one of the 2.5mm jacks. Wire two 3-pin female connectors in parallel to the video, gnd and vin connections. One of these connectors will serve as the source for the monitor and the other as power from the transmitter to the video receiver and monitor.
Remove the back panel from the 9X transmitter and locate the power and ground pins. The 12V pin will always receive power directly from the battery, but power pin is only powered when the transmitter is switched on. Run a male 3-pin cable with power and ground outside of the transmitter. This cable will plug into and power the video receiver and monitor.
For the LCD Monitor I chose to purchase this 7″ LCD from Amazon. After opening the monitor enclosure remove the driver from the adhesive back of the LCD. Also remove the supplied input cable and solder three wires from AV1, GND and 12V. Terminate these wires with a male 3 pin connector.
Reassemble the monitor enclosure and connect the 3 pin connectors from the transmitter and monitor to the receiver. To mount the LCD and receiver to the transmitter I have designed a plastic mount.
5.8GHz Virevent Fan and Turbine Antennas
I came across this antenna design by HugeOne at FPVLAB. I found the antenna to be rather complicated to build as specified in the tutorial, so I made some modifications to the process that seem to ease the build and produce results with much higher tolerances. This tutorial shows how to build a 5.8GHz turbine RX antenna, at the end of the tutorial I have listed the measurements necessary to build a 3-blade TX fan antenna.
Parts & Tools
SMA Pigtail Cable or RP-SMA Pigtail Cable*
* (Standard SMA compatible with Fatshark, RP-SMA compatible with this)
Solder & Flux
Soldering Iron
Needle Nose Pliers
Wire Cutters
Precision Calipers
Begin by cutting eight wires to a length of precisely 1.751″. This is best accomplished by using wire cutters to make a rough cut at about 1 13/16″ and then filing the wire to the proper length.
Bend the wire 90 degrees after the 0.660″ mark. The resulting segment should measure about 0.680″ from the outside of the bend.
Bend the wire 120 degrees inward after the 0.303″ mark. The resulting segment should measure about 0.323″ from the outside of the bend.
Bend the wire 120 degrees inward after the 0.698″ mark. The resulting segment should measure about 0.718″ from the outside of each bend.
The lower segment should be bent slightly outward with close attention paid to the proper polarity. Each blade should be angled 45 degrees away from the small center wire.
Use a template, such as the one depicted below, to properly align the blades 45 degrees apart. Use double sided foam tape or another temporary adhesive to hold the blades in place. A piece of scrap below the top wires will help to prevent the solder from melting to the lower wires.
Carefully remove the antenna from the template.
Strip the coax cable and tin the shielding of the cable. cut the tip of the cable to expose the core.
Solder the lower wires to the outer shielding prior to soldering the core to the center of the top wires.
Fan antenna
Wire Length = 1.796″
Mark One = 0.561″
- Segment One = 0.581″
Mark Two = 0.454″
- Segment Two = 0.474″
Mark Three = 0.671″
- Segment Three = 0.711″
EPS Foam Scale Fuselage
I began by tracing the outline of the outer layer on to an 8′x4′ sheet of 1/2″ EPS foam, purchased from Lowe’s for about $7.
Each piece was rather easily cut from the foam using a hot knife.
Each layer was assembled using Gorilla Glue and compressed under a large wood board while the glue dried.
After the glue had completed setting, the shape and detail of the fuselage was formed by carefully sanding the surface.
After cutting foam inserts to glue into any open holes, a sparing layer of spackling paste was laid across the entire fuselage and sanded to a smooth finish.
Magnets were glued in place to allow for the fuselage to be easily mounted.
Finally, the fuselage was painted with black acrylic paint.
