DJI O3 Connector Warning - Not All Are The Same

DJI O3 Connector Wiring Issues and Warning.
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[@marinehm]

Good on you for this video! I just got my 1st DJI system. Goggles 2, and O3 Air Unit. I was trying to figure out how to properly connect the wiring harness. I was smart enough to question the harness connector that came with the O3 Air Unit. Seems it doesn't quite match the pinout of the T-Motor F722 HD VTX. I'm going to verify and re-verify before powering it up.

[@DavidOwensuk]

Excellent video Ian, very timely as I have just bought an O3 air unit, I particularly enjoyed the repair work at the end.😁👍

[@wearemany73]

Louis Rossman does this type of fine soldering on all sorts of microelectronic components including floating chips and It's very cool. It's a world away from what I'm capable of doing and it's a very useful skill to have.

[@dangerous8333]

It's not that difficult at all. Just need the right magnification and tools.

[@papamidnightfpv]

I'm building the speedy bee f7 V2 stack. The wires are correct on mine. Thanks for all that work you do

[@pepermintpilot1694]

Thanks mate. Have a happy New Year!

[@mixedepisode]

I now always check wiring diagrams. Especially with non matched esc and flight controllers

[@Ddraig62SPD]

Great soldering skills… bravo Ian!!!

[@bobwyattfpv9847]

Jesus! That made my hands sweat watching you solder that 😮. Useful tips as always 👍🏻

[@morgangmilligan]

Great video! As always. I’m still setting up a new quad with an 03 air unit. I anticipated all this as I am not new to the hobby. I am using an older Lux F7 “HD” that has the old pin out. As I have done many times I have carefully separated the DJI O3 cables with female pins intact from the FC side and will re-clip them to a plug that fits my older lux in of course the correct order. Maybe you can do a quick vid for folks on the process. Just a suggestion. Cheers,

[@jamesreid3326]

Hi which type of FC have you used? I have the Lux F7 HD Lite FC and looking to use the DJI 03 air unit, haven’t bought the 03 unit yet but was looking to see if anyone had done this with the same FC as I haven.

[@billyocean9236]

A legend at work.

[@greatgandalf5233]

Thanks for the heads up!...

[@NabeelAhmed-me4ok]

Thank you so much. I have been trouble shooting literally for 2 days trying to bind my o3 unit with v2 google. It won’t bind even after updating all of the units to new firmware. I thought I was missing something then it clicked to me last night to check the wiring diagram on my blitz f7 flight controller only to discover that plug-in that comes with o3 units won’t work directly to my fc. But I was not sure if I damaged my o3 unit (I had some feeling). This video confirms that I have. And it completely sucks. But glad to know this finally confirm that it is.

[@AdventureN]

is your Flight controller the Blitz F722 by any chance? I've been having a similar where I thought the plug on the FC that the o3 can plug into isn't powering it. Whilst physical it does fit just won't do anything. Did you confirm that your o3 unit is dead after wiring it in properly?

[@FPV-TV419]

This is seriously impressive!!!

[@BeyondGravityFPV]

Good attempt, I know how much pain soldering this size components brings and as a rule always and I mean always check wiring diagrams for both air unit and your fc, never rely on cables provided by manufacturers.

[@southwalesdrones281]

I have had a quad come to me recently with an issue with the O3 AU as the person just did a straight swap out from older AU to new. Good thing i have convinced them to godown the Elrs route. Double check people, it’s always worth it.

[@WW614]

I accidentally did this setting up my O3 in a build with an Aikon7, swapped them around once I realized and it works just fine now. Sbus and everything works as it should

[@mydjiworld8376]

I connect my O3 to GePrc Cinelog 35 hd directly as it was and it works perfectly, FC F722AIO wiring are same as O3

[@kansai9685]

thank you for this video

[@mdk42o74]

Thank god i got a infinity fc and it was 100% plug and play and everything is working. I almost instald the o3 on a Different drone but the cam would not fit. And that fc is a iflight. Thank you this is good to know

[@indroneswetrust1]

Smart!! I will do that from now on from actual pinout diagram from itself on FC AND on air unit 03 system or even vista, original air unit and even on analog, just ALWAYS double checking is always a smart move! But suggestion to you maybe to use Qtips to remove these blue glues with 90% or up isopropyl alcohol on Qtips before sweep off the blue glue, just a suggestion though from FPV pilot to other 🤙🏼 great job on video this one too make FPV pilots to be so aware of this issue. Thanks dude!! 🤙🏼

[@AirKhanFPV]

i ordered the T-Motor F7 Mini HD Stack, it has the pinouts the other way around, i had to repin my dji o3 connector because i cant use the connector which was included with the FC, because one side is for the FC and the other side is for the old Air Unit. Thanks for the warning!

[@MCsCreations]

Thanks for all the info, Ian!!! But yeah, you should always check the pin out! Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊 And happy new year!

[@jamescunningham541]

Yup. Just plugged an 03 into my new tmotor f7 mini with the factory cable, pinout was backwards and the smoke stopper didn't catch it. Hopefully just the sbus for dji control is toast, havnt tested it yet. Fixed the pinout and it does at least power up still 😢

[@seanpaul211]

Is the speedybee F7 v3 stack pin out the same as the DJI 03 air unit wire to just plug in no soldering...

[@counted8646]

My nazgul evoque f5 has a iflight succex mini fc and the wiring on the plug was exact same layout so simple plug and play also uses a 9volt 2.5a bec which should be enough for the 03

[@skyhighfpv469]

Question I think I did this to my fc, the o3 airunit seems to still be working tho, as for the fc not so much.. I have noticed that my mbps does get up to 50 tho.. could this be a sign? Uart still works i believe, and canvas mode is working aswell.

[@mickeymch876]

Thank you for the warning. I'm expecting a BNF with an O3 unit installed but just to be safe I'll check the FC pinouts to make sure they match the wiring on the air unit.

[@MadRC]

Tbh a BNF from the factory will be fine. It’s upgrades and new builds from users that’s the risk.

[@mickeymch876]

@@MadRC Thank you.

[@Deathdezine]

I did this to a vista(swapped vbatt and sbus ). Can it be fixed on a vista or do I have a very light paperweight?

[@lemonsquareFPV]

Trace out the paths, the diodes are not independent and part of the control ICs. All hyper optimized board designs are like this. Slightly more difficult, as you can’t just use common on hand parts. We pin our FCs and ESCs, how is pining the VTX different? Maybe everyone is just using stacks, and not used to doing proper wiring? Personally I mix and match everything… so this is a non issue for me. Good luck all, and as always, be mindful with your wiring, and always do at minimum a continuity check to make sure ground is in the right place. ❤ Edit: Don’t have time right now.. but at 9:45 top right, component with a stripe…??? 10:00 centre of board black, 4 leg, between cap and inductors ??? What circuit is that?

[@ivanhoefpv]

Hi Ian, Have you heard about the DJI RC2 losing connection to Avata after binding to O3 and needing to bind Avata again? How about making a video about it?

[@jtroutt19]

No reason to tack those down before hot air. Lower your airflow down so its not blowing super hard. Also get yourself some Kapton tape. It works better for protecting components from heat when doing reflow soldering work. It is also better than using metal. Also get yourself some solder paste. Clean the pads so little to no solder is on them and apply a small amount of past and then lay the SMD component down. I worked in eletronic repair for years. Did alot of soldering under a microscope as well as multi layer PCB repair.

[@orozcocris93]

how can you tell if you have done damage? i used the provided cable from my flight controller and cant get betaflight to display anything other than stock osd and the rx does not work either. does nto seem to matter what i do in the betaflight app, nothing changes. almost like the esc and air unit are not communicating at all. voltage on the goggle portion of the osd doesnt show anything and the esc osd does say what battery voltage (high or low) but nothing else. it isnt even properly scaled

[@orozcocris93]

what did you use for the replacement of the blue stuff that they use to transfer heat from the components? i feel the stuff i used is not good enough and is the cause for my avata to fall from the sky just 5 seconds into the flight stating a "motor error" as the cause but did not have that issue since i opened it to reconnect a ripped antenna connector

[@BrandonBeans]

The Skystars f722 mini hd pro fc I have here has the harness completely reversed 🤦

[@torpedoLaw]

Can I plug the o3 air unit directly into speedybee v3 F7?????

[@alexandrelemieux6718]

Air Unit 03 was plug and play with my Diatone Roma F5 v2 HD. Same connector and wiring from the old air unit . I may have been lucky...

[@MadRC]

Yea this is the thing it’s such a mixed bag.

[@Leobronke]

Hi! ive accidentaly managed to plug my battery in the wrong way... now after having bought a new flight controller,(the old one was fried) it all works exept the o3 unit doesnt turn on, but when i plug it in to my computer using USB-C it does turn on and work... dou you think i fried it?

[@Photonees]

I can hear Louis Rossman scream at the soldering job :D Btw, I would like to see full teardown of the Boxer. Im planning on spray painting the front black plastic.

[@dangerous8333]

I know it was a joke, but the premise is false. He would never do that because he knows the difference between someone that solders every day and someone that just solders occasionally.

[@fergusillman3302]

Hi, Just wondering if my mamba f722 12c is compatible with the 03 air unit?

[@TheHelicapt]

What microscope do you recommend for these types of repairs ?

[@richmiller540]

Has this improved at all with sofware updates since you made this video?

[@SebastienChedalBornu]

i fried my AVATA vtx because i inverted the power wires.... when you know how much cost a diode bridge !!!! and the worst is that i cannot find the replacement 5v regulator

[@BBFPV]

Why are you sure that it is 5k, when installed you measure the whole circuit and not the single component?

[@aiden287]

Building my first drone at the moment and went with the O3, so this was very helpful. Just checked the wiring on my T-Motor F7 Pro and it looks to be compatible out of the box. Thanks! :)

[@rainbronyhuang8616]

I drown my drone yesterday and when I'm back home I tear down my o3 and try to dry its inside. When I found out I actually broke the connector which Mads Tech also did, I felt like I'm so doomed because I have phone fixing experience before and I have never broke a a connector like this one, until I found out, I'm like: hey! he broke it too! but mine has lost a soldering pad which would be harder to fix. still I wish I saw this video earlier.

[@xshoudenx]

Wish I had watched this video before blindly plugging my O3 air unit's provided cable into the flight controller and powering it up. ("If it fits, its right" does not apply here) Then later wondering why the O3 air unit doesnt even seem to be powering up. I'm using external receiver, so hoping maybe its still usable once I fix the wiring. Liked & Subscribed. @Mads Tech -- Separately, while decasing an O3 air unit, I damaged the flat ribbon cable's pins irrepairably. Do you know where this cable can be found as replacement?

[@arshishmaneckji9547]

If I wanted to use the 03 unit on a fixed wing is there any benefit in converting the SBus to PWN and using the DJI system OR would it better to just use a separate rx tx system? I currently DO NOT have a DJI controller.

[@MadRC]

Use a separate RC system. Your much better doing that.

[@BorisSverdlik_jadedsecurity]

Thats not the only issue i snipped and soldered and 03 was acting hinky. Canvas worked but didnt send native osd

[@chriscflint]

Hi Ian, are the plugs and the same wiring on the 03 the same as on the original DJI air unit?

[@MadRC]

Nope new connector.

[@miguelmorao5777]

Could i just solder the new cable and the old one together? Like cut both in half, solder the O3 wire with my old Air unit cable that has the connector to my FC(Kakute F7 HDV)? I am a bit new to this and I am scared of soldering the tiny wires to the FC. Many thanks

[@jasonvidal4655]

that is what i did, and it worked

[@PaulieShortcuts]

The part that the ribbon cable is plugged into, if that gets damaged on the board with the antenna, is it possible to get it replaced? The antenna top board replaced? Or $180 for a new module 😢

[@MadRC]

Any repairs are very hard. DJI will offer a service but they generally just replace the board.

[@flyinfilm90]

The basics will always be the arc enemy

[@wsamuel8513]

Hello Master. Could you please tell me if I can connect this DJI o3 air unit to a Pixhawk 2.4.8? Congratulations on the job.

[@MadRC]

You can to the UART at normal but you would have to power from a BEC separately as bus voltage is too low on the UART port and even then you would not have enough current. You Basiclly would connect the UART ie Tx-RX , RX-TX as normal and then power from suitable BEC.

[@AndroidDevViral]

Always check pinouts! I chopped the connector off and soldered directly to my flight controller took about 5 minutes, I can't see how you can get this wrong if you check the PINOUT!!!!!!

[@PabloVillaVideo]

@MadRC or anyone else, do you know if the O3 is properly compatible with the Lumenier Lux F4? I won't have access to my FC for a week or so but want to purchase the O3 asap

[@MadRC]

As long as it’s got a UART it’s compatible.

[@kennykobi]

What do you think is wrong with an 03 that powers from USB but not vbat or a dedicated pinout.

[@KainniaK]

usb is only 5v

[@vedmarth]

I have problem with O3, crashed drone a bit without any damage and it just stopped working, can't connect over usb or bind.

[@MadRC]

Any led ? If your on discord head over to mine and we can see if we can help. discord.gg/aYA7sYCZyJ

[@LeonSTE]

can you still connect the o3 air unit just to the pads of my FC with soldering?

[@MadRC]

Absolutely

[@LeonSTE]

@@MadRC I feel like a little noob but how does that work when you don’t want too you the sbus port “remote that dji provides” and fly with the tbs tango. Do they provide a cable for video only?

[@Top-Jimmy]

How hard can it be... All I want to do is plug a 4s battery into it and use it on an RC Car. But no, You need a science degree to even look at it. 😞

[@KainniaK]

Same for me, and providing power to it from a lipo that provides at least 8v. (so 3s to 6s) is not that hard, heck you can probably cut over the balance connector on a lipo, do the same on the 03 air unit jst connector. Connect red with red and black with black. Double check with a multimeter. And then it will work .... and be fucking stuck in 25 mw because you need to arm the damn thing.

[@Top-Jimmy]

@@KainniaK I ended up selling all my DJI crap and went with a 5G fully unlimited range in Full HD...The system is sick af... CloudRC. So simple to setup and works where ever you get 3G, 4G, and now 5G.... the quality is nuts! - Save yourself a headache man especially with all the bullshit going on with DJI now. So I have this setup in my 6s Mojave and its fully unlimited range hence running 5G and 250mp/ps from home base...No Lag, EIS Camera and you can use any transmitter you want up to 8 channels. fully sick...but it aint cheap, but worth every bloody cent if your after Car,Truck, Boat Unlimited range FPV. DJI can go and shove it.

[@TimsFPVundROVfootage]

​@Top-Jimmy what's the latency of this system?

[@chaoticadventure]

​@Top-Jimmy what is the system?

[@Dzejwor_Gromowladny]

Same thing with FCESC connector. Solution? NEVER trust ANY connector style port in any FC/ESC/Airunit/whatever.

[@icp-trek]

This industry lacks standardization. That's why it's always a headache to wire things up. Check, check, check, and then the multimeter. Smoke stopper and cross fingers. Long time since I saw magic smoke, but it will appear when you least expect it.

[@Pccbwo]

Pretty sure every fc before o3 has plug for dji got pin layout is reversed for o3

[@smsg83]

Wow thanks. I just got my O3s and my stupid ass would connect it directly to the FC.

[@BiecherBender]

Not having any protection on the input, where it’s very likely that customers fuck something up is at least more then questionable

[@MadRC]

It is and it’s not, it was not really user derivable before, with the size on this it’s even less likely possible.

[@bertramkettles8167]

Can I connect to a lipo battery and run on car

[@MadRC]

Absolutely

[@KainniaK]

@@MadRC at 25 mw? It won't be armed right, so stuck in low power mode?

[@Hobypyrocom]

few beers or some weed can help with shaky hands 😉

[@redeyeski]

should talk about that DJI didn't gives 1200mw support for old air units and also not supporting iNAV/Fettec(Kiss😂)

[@imik3y]

Tiering this ear unit down 😅

[@gsf1200s]

Did DJI do this (different wiring) on purpose for the sake of selling more O3 units? 😆

[@CarbonGlassMan]

More expensive, less repairable.

[@KainniaK]

What a fucking shitshow, anybody excited that their 03 air unit has finally arrived, and hurries to take their analog quad appart to replace with a digital system only to then blow up their 03 air unit, the cable fit .... but the pins are still connected wrong! Nobodies fault really, standardization takes time and will happen since DJI vtx/rx systems are getting more and more popular as they are simply the best on the market. But fuck man, imagine blowing up your 03 air unit like this. That would suuuuuuck so much.

[@DronePsyche]

Common sense says just solder. There is no set standard yet!

[@AdrianAmbroszkiewicz]

Hello, maybe someone here will be able to help me with my O3 & V2 Goggles issue: I have both DJI O3 kit and DJI V2 Goggles - both have latest updates. O3 firmware version - V01.02.0000 V2 firmware version - 01.00.0607 When I press link (red) button on V2 goggles - it beeps correctly. When I press link button on O3 unit - nothing happens (does not matter if I press once or hold for 5s). Should I believe the issue is on the side of O3 unit? One more thing worth mentioning. I took out O3 unit of the box brand new and the only thing it is connected to is through USB port (wires not connected) but can this be the issue?

[@MadRC]

Yes. USB won’t power the Airunit. You have to power it via the main input. USB only powers up the internal flash memory updates and downloading footage. It will not power it to actually work. You need to wire it up as shown in manual for your specific flight controller and power it via the harness.

[@AdrianAmbroszkiewicz]

@@MadRC so basically I will not bind O3 with V2 goggles until I wire it up with the stack and power using my 4S battery?

[@MadRC]

@@AdrianAmbroszkiewicz yes.

[@AdrianAmbroszkiewicz]

@@MadRC Thank You very much for support! Made my day a lot better :)

[@dronejunkiefpv9556]

Like 294

[@iRazvan2745]

best thing only puss- use the dji 03 controller bro just solder a reciever its not that hard its way wayy better and safer

[@Eroc556]

This is why you don’t buy used parts ladies and gentleman lol

[@dangerous8333]

Huh? 🤷

[@slinkyfpv]

I'm sorry but the board work was a complete clown show.

[@MadRC]

Show me yours, it’s easy to have opinions and hate from behind a keyboard but put your money where your mouth is and show better. Tell me what you would have done better on something is this sizing.

[@torpedoLaw]

Mother fecker just killed mine….

[@NJ_Drone_Service]

This guy puts in some work. Always good info and laid out in a great manner good job mad tech