Caddx Vista Disassembly, De-liding & De-casing How to Guide | Naked Vista SAVES 10 grams! Whoop!

Who doesn't want to save 10 grams, right?!
The Caddx Vista and Nebula Nano cameras have substantially dropped the weight of the electronics. Folks have been very easily building sub 250gram quads now-a-days and we are even starting to see the DJI Digital FPV system making its way into whoops; however, the flight characteristics of these smaller quads are being impacted by the increased weight of the HD system.
Removing the case of the Vista is nothing new but, surprisingly, not many guides or videos out there! Let's look closer at how to do this and whether we can put our iFlight Alpha A75 HD whoop on a diet.
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Items suggested in this video
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Soft Toothbrush (Any soft bristle will do):
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99% Isopropyl Alcohol:
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My Favorite Screwdrivers (Wiha Slotted & Phillips):
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Hakko FX888D-23BY Digital Soldering Station:
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Alpha A75 HD Whoop w/Caddx Nebula Digital HD System
shop.iflight-r...
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Thingiverse Things
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Decased Caddx Vista Board Spacers (aka Naked Caddx Vista!): www.thingivers...
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Videos you may want to check out
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iFlight Alpha A75 HD Unboxing & First Thoughts Review | LATEST 75mm Whoop with the DJI Digital FPV!: • iFlight Alpha A75 HD U...
DJI Air Unit & Caddx Vista Camera Cable Install & Replacement How To | FINALLY Camera Cable Choices!: • DJI Air Unit & Caddx V...
Playlist: DJI Digital FPV System | How Tos & Guides
• DJI Digital FPV System...
#djifpv #fpv #drones
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[@porlockos]

I strongly advise not use M2 screws instead 1.5 and specially threading board is a bad idea. I personally know two cases when vista stop working after that kind of operation. Making a thread on PCB can delaminate it's layers or make PCB stresses in the way that BGA balls under the chips will cracks.

[@cptfrazz]

That is NOT a "gasket" to prevent moisture or water getting in. Otherwise all the parts would have it. That is is an electrical mesh that creates a sealed RF environment to either reduce the emitted EMI or prevent EMI from entering that area of the PCB. It's blocking RF noise and/or preventing it from generating RF noise. Think faraday cage.

[@Mangorille]

Very interesting, thanks for the explanation!

[@Guenounovitch]

mine short cutted between the led and the "foam" of the connector

[@Mangorille]

Did you put the piece of electrical tape on top of both connectors like mentioned in the video?

[@joekay6843]

I thought JESC was already flashed on this....I guess I was incorrect because when I flipped bidirectional shot on I had 100% error. This quad has been super difficult to tune for me, hopefully the naked vista will help out.

[@Mangorille]

Unfortunately no, it has the stock firmware. We have a video coming up on flashing a new version of BLHeli_S with Bidirectional DSHOT.

[@fpvpilot7713]

Nice job. I am interested in the flight time compared to the alpha 85. The dont give a flight time for the alpha 75 on the specs.

[@Mangorille]

Thanks! The A75HD with the lightened Vista gets about 4 minutes of indoor flight time with a 3s 450mah battery.

[@Ender_FPV]

Good vid I guess I'll have to try this decasing. I got the Alpha A 75 HD a couple days ago and absolutely loathe it. It's pathetically lamely underpowered needing half stick throttle to keep up, gets less than 2 mins of flight time and has jello even then. I wish i could return this and get something that's fun to fly what trash and what a waste......

[@Mangorille]

Hey. That was my initial experience as well, very under powered. Did yours come with the black or light green blades? What battery are you using? You can also look into updating the ESC software like this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/el7GoZiplq2ZhpI

[@henryfpv4life954]

brother where did you buy the nuts and bolts please 🙏

[@Mangorille]

I had them lying around but I'm sure you can find on Amazon.

[@luis_gbs]

Could you tell me how high the vista-stack now is? Wanted to stick a normal one onto my normal Fc-stack but my frame has not enough clearance. So I think of making my vista naked, but only if someone can tell me whether I could safe arround 3mm by doing that. Thx

[@Mangorille]

You're looking at nearly 9mm for the Vista after de-casing including the U.FL antenna connector on the top.

[@luis_gbs]

@@Mangorille thank you soo much! 😊

[@Mangorille]

@@luis_gbs No problem, let me know if you have any other questions.

[@maxartfpvperufilmacionesya5360]

help I broke mi positive pad en the vista I just try to scrape to find a point to conect but it has continuitu with the negative pad so I need yo know where can I put muy imput postive in the board please help....

[@Mangorille]

It probably passes through to the other side of the board. I'm no electronics engineer but did you check if it connects to the big diode in the middle? Reach out to Madstech, he seems to have a good amount of electronics knowledge. fpvwiki.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Caddx_Vista_PCB.jpg

[@maxartfpvperufilmacionesya5360]

@@Mangorille thanks friend I just repair tha cddx exactly connecting to that diode... replace de pos pad...🙂

[@Mangorille]

@@maxartfpvperufilmacionesya5360 Excellent. Happy flying!

[@tonyamendolara5515]

What holds the camera ribbon in place, when you crash , its barely holdes when that metal strips not screwed in

[@Mangorille]

Right now nothing is holding it down and haven't had it come disconnected in a crash yet. If you are worried about that, you can add a small piece of foam (say weather stripping from home depot) on top of the connector so that it sandwiches between the two boards.

[@hokowi]

Very detailed video guide and I happened to consider this for my A85HD. Only dangerous scenario with high chance of happening is that during a crash and I have to try retrieving the drone - typicality it takes 3-5 mins with the battery still plugged in, likely the naked will be toasted in this scenario?

[@Mangorille]

You can leave the thermal control active so it will automatically shutdown the video feed when it starts to overheat.

[@fpv-teacher]

Nice Video. A Flight Video would be appreciated

[@Mangorille]

Thanks bud. You can see a flight video at the end of this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/el7GoZiplq2ZhpI

[@SBvice]

Reckon I could just use gummies as a spacer instead of the printed stand offs?

[@Mangorille]

Gummies would be softer than the 3d printed part so just make sure the two boards cannot hit each other in a crash.

[@dreswan1]

Really good video!

[@Mangorille]

Thank you!

[@naznaz1553]

Nice work. Do you plan to conformal coat it later?

[@Mangorille]

Thank you. No plan to conformal coat it on this quad as the whoop is only used indoors. Looking to keep it as light as possible,

[@mikelanzo9872]

Question, if you wanted to use a nut on the 1.5mm holes, do you think drilling out the hole to 2mm would work ok??

[@Mangorille]

You could thread in the screws as you saw in the video and then add a nut on top, that would be the safest bet. I think you would be okay to drill them out but there's always a risk when drilling a PCB as you don't know what's sandwiched in between there.

[@JB-cq2wo]

Help. LOL I broke my ufl connector on my vista. My friend has the top board with different firmware and activated in his account. Can I use it ? Will I have issues with activation and firmware downgrade after install ?

[@Mangorille]

I've never tried swapping the boards. Did you try it and did it work?

[@porlockos]

It will work

[@SmoothnGroovn]

what length of m2 stack screws did you end up using?

[@Mangorille]

Unfortunately didn't measure them but they were standard stand off screws that came with a 3" frame I had lying around.

[@alloutofdonuts3998]

Can you decase a dji cam too? I’ve seen there’s an stl file for a printed cam case...

[@Mangorille]

Yes you can but honestly not sure how much weight you'd save from doing that, especially now that they have the Nebula Pro. If you are interested, I can try it out and post a video. ;)

[@fredericld6553]

Great ! looks good.

[@Mangorille]

Thanks!

[@Shauny_D]

Any overheating issues now that you've used it a lot? With casing on I still struggle with getting it out of low power mode even while flying.

[@Mangorille]

Still no issues, the vista still lands cool to the touch. It seems to warm up rapidly when on the ground though.

[@jordanb722]

Low power mode is likely a missing wire, if you still have issues (some FC arming instruction or somesuch, I don't recall)

[@grupomexcomer]

Hi, want to do my naked vista version, would you risk and fly 4km ? Or there is a risk that middle flight you lose signal?

[@Mangorille]

Are you sure you can get the 4km range where you fly? The range is going to be really dependent on where you fly, any interference, trees, etc... I wouldn't expect the naked vista to impact the range but this mod was done on an indoor micro that doesn't really go very far.

[@LuckyMoniker]

i would worry about heat on the full MW possible, seems like people are keeping it to 700mw, but in clear LOS you can get to max goggle range with that no problem. and you do need to think about ambient heat as well, but otherwise it should do just fine so long as you dont let it idle long

[@jamesvinilon8890]

thx for the video, i try, to hx115, 🙏👍

[@Mangorille]

Our pleasure, good luck!

[@Mikebfpv]

Awesome!

[@Mangorille]

Thanks!

[@Mikebfpv]

@@Mangorille how is the quad holding up now?

[@changeagent228]

Is the case wide enough to fit the Nebula Pro? Thx

[@Mangorille]

Unfortunately no, only a 14x14 camera will fit in the canopy.

[@changeagent228]

@@Mangorille Thanks for the rapid reply. I recommended one of these to a friend and they said on the first flight the Nebula v2 image looks too rough and they are having buyers remorse. Do you know of any canopies that would fit and take a Pro?

[@Mangorille]

@@changeagent228 The image quality is nowhere as good as the Nebula Pro or the stock DJI camera. It does the job for indoor flying though. Your friend may want to find a local 3d designer that can design and print a new canopy with a bigger camera section or wait for someone to do so on Thingiverse. Shouldn't take long.

[@syluntbob6877]

Is it noticeably quieter with it being lighter?

[@Mangorille]

Not really, maybe a bit but nothing major.

[@syluntbob6877]

@@Mangorille really wish manufacturers would find a method to measure noise of the quads, especially whoops which are designed for indoor flying. Waiting for a ‘Tinyhawk HD’ so I can get rid of analog for good! Nice videos dude 👍

[@liamarknectfpv1465]

Hey, I just got A75HD for my Dad for Christmas. However, when he binds it to his DJI V2 Goggle video works until he binds it to his DJI controller. The controller works fine but it will lose the video on the goggle. On the display, it says "Image transmission stopped". do you have any idea how to fix this problem. We just got it. and if you have any idea it will help us a lot.

[@Mangorille]

Hey. Are you letting it sit on the ground for a while when this happens or does it happen right away when you apply power? The Vista is known to overheat if you let it sit on the ground without any airflow. If you touch the vista, it'll probably be boiling hot at that point.

[@liamarknectfpv1465]

@@Mangorille I kinda know about heating up before I start applying update so I put it by the open window with a usb fan. So there is a airflow. It happens right away, I lose video soon as I bind my DJI controller.

[@Mangorille]

@@liamarknectfpv1465 Never seen this before. Do you have all three items (air unit, controller, and goggles) upgraded to the latest version? Are you binding the air unit and the goggles first and then doing the controller last?

[@liamarknectfpv1465]

@@Mangorille yes I have DJI goggle v2 and black big DJI FPV controller and A75HD from iflight with Vista. I bind goggle first and than controller. When I move to controller to start binding my image will freeze and and give me image transmission stopped on my goggle… I am very lost at this point lol maybe bad vista?

[@Mangorille]

@@liamarknectfpv1465 What happens if you just bind the controller without the goggles, does that work? You may want to refresh the firmware on all 3 devices. It sounds more like something went wrong with the firmware. I use the v6 firmware so you may want to go with that instead and see if that works okay.

[@8888kinkin]

that a good idea , But vista very hot module , May damage some parts without heatsink ,sorry about talking that i have 37 years electronic experience ,

[@Mangorille]

I agree that both the air unit and vista generate a lot of heat and removing the heatsink makes it even worse. However, there is so much air flow when flying that it is not an issue. There are reputable manufacturers (such as BetaFPV) that actually include de-cased vistas in their drones. You will definitely need a fan while doing bench testing and firmware upgrades though.

[@8888kinkin]

@@Mangorille YES But i agree support your Less weight theory .. and i see your more video ,,,,very good support

[@NathansHVAC]

I did smoke a vista. Output power dropped from 300mw to 0.7mw. Going to try again with conformal coating this time. Rule out dust or physical. My larger 120g quad has a power off switch to keep the vista off when waiting for gps.

[@Mangorille]

@@NathansHVAC Hey. Do you think it fried from over heating or something else? Did you have the auto temperature control on or off?

[@davym2678]

@@NathansHVAC how did you make that power off switch?

[@BrianClunie]

It’s so little!

[@Mangorille]

:) Tiny!

[@bwasfpv]

i dont have the balls to do this kind of thing :)did you kill anything doing this

[@Mangorille]

Nothing killed... yet... Looks to be fairly resilient even after I had that short circuit because I did not have that piece of electrical tape initially on the ribbon cable. Been working great for over a week now, I don't let it sit plugged in though.