Kind of a dumb question, but I was wondering about how the video cable on the zenmuse gimbal interfaces with the Gopro - does it charge the camera at all? Like, if I left the Phantom on without flying it, would it charge up the Gopro?

Does the cable just assist with aiming the gimbal? What exactly does it do?

Yes the mini usb video interface cable will charge the GoPro's battery but only while the Phantom is turned on. You don't have to be "flying" but the Phantom has to be powered up.

The primary purpose of the cable is to provide a live feed to an FPV monitor on the ground. The Phantom has to be fitted with a transmitter like the AVL58 or AVL58 Lite to send the feed to the ground monitor.

Thanks, that is what I was wondering.

So remember to have your gopro fully charged, this will increase your flying time. As I never flew with a low battery in the camrea, I can't tell what difference it would make.

Wow, I never even thought of that  thanks!

ouzedh.gmail Posted at 2015-2-5 00:26
Thanks, that is what I was wondering.

I 'm not sure why it has power going  to the GoPro. If you charge the battery you shouldn't need power to the GoPro. It would be nice  if the GoPro had a battery jumper so Iyou could emove the battery and save 25 grams of flight weight.

I figure it's a wash on flight time. Get rid of 25 grams and power the camera from the Phantom battery or cut the charging to the GoPro and keep the battery. Right now thinking about seeing if I can disconnect the power to the GoPro. I have a QuickRelease and sometimes I got white lines on the FPV screen on my phone. Dronesxperts say its the charging. The good news is the white lines don't show on the recorded video of the GoPro

I believe that the zenmuse  is constructed to the weight of the camera incl. battery. I've seen a vid where a gimbal with a gopro but without it's battery had problems stabalizing itself.

TenCentsWorth Posted at 2015-2-6 11:23
This guy was flying without a GoPro battery and was getting low flying time.

http://forum.dji.com ...

It must be a QuickRelease thing but my GoPro won't work without a battery when attached to the H3-3D on the QuickRelease and the drone is powered up.

GoPro battery 3.7v 1160mAh.  You could fully charge that battery 12 to 15 times with one Phantom battery.  I wouldn't worry about it affecting flight time.

I agree it shouldn't be a big enough battery to draw that much, but if charging and powering the camera it might be a fair amount.  However, have you looked at the size of that ribbon cable?  It can't draw very much or it would burn that sucker up.  I have accidentally left my gopro on several times and drained the battery so maybe it will make some difference.  I'll try to test with gopro unplugged vs plugged in and dead battery and see if there is any noticeable difference in flight times.  

kleake.rapfire Posted at 2015-2-7 04:50
I agree it shouldn't be a big enough battery to draw that much, but if charging and powering the cam ...

The charging circuit built into the camera will only allow a few hundred mAh through to the battery.  At 3.7 volts a wire the size of a human hair could probably handle it.  Well, maybe a red-head hair.

Agreed, that's why I don't think it's drawing much at all, especially compared to the draw that the motors have.  It may reduce my flight time by 5 seconds or so would be my wild guess.