One of the most tricky problems with naked GoPro is how to power them. BetaFPV designed a BEC board entirely just for this purpose, making your life much easier.
Umma85 has a bigger brother, the Umma95.
What’s Naked GoPro?
In case you don’t know, “naked GoPro” means stripping down the GoPro to the minimum in order to save weight, this allows very small drone to carry it.
Complete guide on Naked GoPro.
Where to Buy?
BetaFPV: https://bit.ly/2Y7nJ6L
Specs of BetaFPV GoPro BEC Board
- Weight: 1.5g
- Output: 5V@2A
- Input Voltage: 2-4S LiPo
- Breakout solder pads for 5V, GND, record button and power button
- Onboard status LED (recording indicator)
- According to BetaFPV, it supports both GoPro Hero 6 and Hero 7
What’s Special about this BEC Board?
The naked GoPro community is quite small. Not that many people are willing to take apart their expensive GoPro, not to mention how vulnerable it would become after de-casing. I am very surprised that a company is willing to put resource to design and make a product for such a niche market :) Kudos to BetaFPV for the efforts!
The BetaFPV BEC board really makes the Naked GoPro easy to use.
They used this BEC board in the GoPro Lite they are selling. It’s also included in the GoPro Lite case, if you are interested in getting some protection for your naked GoPro too.
This board accepts 2S to 4S LiPo as input voltage, and the built-in 5V BEC (2A) will power the GoPro. This is handy and headache free. Power connector type is GH 1.25 3P.
I tested the 5V BEC, without load, the output voltage is 5.04V.
In the power connector, apart from voltage and ground, there is a third pin (yellow wire), which is actually connected to the record button of the GoPro. You can solder this wire to the Buzzer- pad to control your GoPro recording with a switch on your radio. However you need to configure it first in Betaflight.
Not only that, it also has an LED indicator, mode/power button, and record button! And if you prefer, they also provided the solder pads for these.
Finally, those tiny solder pads on the GoPro logic board are extremely fragile and easy to rip off, so it’s a great advantage that we don’t have to solder directly on them now.
pinout/connection diagram by BetaFPV
There is no soldering involved, the BEC board plug straight into the GoPro logic board (via the USB-C Port connector and button connector)
Before installing the BEC board, you should put the provided plastic spacer on the GoPro logic board first. This will reduce the stress on the fragile connectors on the GoPro logic board.
It’s a fantastic fit, very well designed PCB.
The overall thickness of the combo is minimal.
The connector is convenient to use if you don’t want to do much soldering, but it gets in the way if you attempt to use it with the Umma85 / Umm95 kit. However, you can remove it if you want.
Gently pull the plastic connector off the board, it’s only held in place by the metal pins.
Once you’ve done that, use your solder iron to remove the pins. Make sure you clean the solder pads and nothing is shorting. (check with multimeter)
Fits great and low profile, getting even more clearance than using 5V BEC. I secure the BEC board to the GoPro with some floss wires, foam between carbon fibre plate and BEC board.
If you want to connect the record pin to the flight controller, you should ONLY use the buzzer- pad on the FC (buzzer negative).
For Auto Power on, You can connect the mode pad (power button pad) to GND. Once you’ve done this, your GoPro will power on as soon as there is power.
I will be using this board in my next naked GoPro build, stay tuned :)
Update (Aug 2020): New Version V1.1
According to BetaFPV, not much has changed from the original V1.0 apart from the added spacers on the PCB (in the form of tiny capacitors around the screw holes).
Any new BEC board you buy now would be V1.1, but BetaFPV reassured me that V1.0 works just fine and there is nothing to worry about.
Here’s a quick comparison, V1.0 on the left, V1.1 on the right:
21 comments
Hi Oscar,
Just converted my Hero7 Black with this kit. The green LED swithes on and does not go off or flashing. Buttons does not work (no result). What is wrong with my kit? Drone is Betafpv 95x 4S with the gopro conversion kit.
Does it work when you power the GoPro with the USB module from 5V?
If that works, then that suggests something is not working with the BEC board, or the ribbon connection is not right. If no avail, try contacting BetaFPV and see if you can get any help from them?
hi I experienced same issue the sockets are not tightly connected. if you push the bec board a little bit you’ll see the camare has the power. put some strong sponge between bec board and the backdoor then screw the back door keeping the sponge there. the sponge will apply the pressure to the board and it won’t be released easily in that way.
Hi Oscar,
do you know a way to fix this without removing the yellow wire ? I’ve got the same issue but i dont want to miss the option to start and stop recording with my radio.
Cheers,
Felix
I think this is just a “bug” in Betaflight, or should I say incompatibility between Betaflight and GoPro, and the issue is a hit and miss at the moment. It’s not really Betaflight’s fault, but they certainly didn’t anticipate we’d connect GoPro to our FC.
Is it possible to use this bec with the gopro hero 5?
Hi, do works for Gopro hero 5?
No.
Hi Oscar,
I was wondering if you know a way to enable both remote recording and the buzzer.
I have the Beta95X V2 for example and the yellow cable and remote recording works great for me, I just noticed that the naked GoPro needs to be powered up after the quad. I Plug the connector in the BetaFPV case after everything initialises on the rest of the quad.
Now I’d like to do the same with a Chimera4 that comes with a preinstalled buzzer and I don’t want to have to choose between remote recording and having a buzzer. But for the moment I’m stuck, iFlight did not help much but seemed to say we can’t have both.
Best regards,
Robert
Hi Oscar,
Some BNF quads come with a buzzer preinstalled, so it “occupies” the B- pad to control the buzzer.
Do you know if it is possible to connect the yellow cable for the camera as well?
And then, the AUX switch assigned to it will control both the camera and the buzzer, and it will allow remote recording.
Best regards,
Robert
Don’t connect yellow cable, it’s a hit and miss. Some even reported fried Gopro because of it.
Solid green led on the beta fpv bec, yellow wire never connected, my gopro fried? Thx!
did you ever find out the solution to this?
i got the same issue as described.
the gopro works with attached original lipo but doesnt over usb-c or the bec.
very sad, very bad – no honor for betafpvs work on this bec :-( seems like a faulty beta-product, i guess i will hide any bec or product from betafpv
i try to add an adjustable bec, set at 4v, solder it to the original lipo conectors.
Hi Oscar, my BetaFpv BEC Board V1.1 produces Voltage Spikes on 5V output when powering on. Maybe this is the reason my Gopro hero 6 died. I measured with an oscilloscope on 5V output from the BetaFpv BEC Board. The peak is about 8,5V.
I soldered a cap on the 5V output and doubled the output capacity to about 60uF. This reduced the spikes to 6V but it doesn’t get better than this. Can you confirm this or do you know somebody who has the same problem with this board?
After seeing numerous reports of bec boards burning out power input on gopro I wanted to know if there is a better way, perhaps a matek bec with a cap to prevent voltage spikes to the board? I’ve heard of this approach but haven’t seen the wiring for it as of yet.
Hi oscar, i try betafpv bec for testing , and reattach several time, now it wont turn on, however gopro board become warm when attached with lipo.
I try to use original usbC module and plug in, but my gopro cannot turn on.
However when i attach all connector, front n back lcd, touchscreen, original button, usb C (im also insert back the small cone tor to usb c containing led , and my goprois work as normal, also it charge the battery.
Do i need modification to use usb c only power ?
Is it safe to assume the bec broken, because all function is normal with original connector.
Also i try using bec + battery pin and it also works good, i can use the button on bec
Hi Oscar! Do you know why can I Have fixed red light on my gopro when I power from beta lite board?
4S, gopro6… board v1.0 and 1.1 with the same issue… but when I power from battery gopro case, original powering; gopro works properly.
I Have the same problem.
Remove yellow wire, it’s problematic.
Hi Oscar! Do you know why can I Have fixed red light on my gopro when I power from beta lite board?
4S, gopro6… board v1.0 and 1.1 with the same issue… but when I power from battery gopro case, original powering; gopro works properly.
Do you have the yellow wire connected to the FC from the BEC board? Remove it and that should solve your problem.