Here are some of the most commonly asked questions about DJI FPV Goggles, Air Unit, Caddx Vista and Remote Controller. I will keep adding to this list as a knowledge base so we can all find the answers easily.
Here are some useful upgrades you can get for your DJI FPV system.
Table of Contents
General Questions
Air Unit Has Different MMCX
The DJI antennas have longer than normal pin in the MMCX connector – that’s why when you buy antennas for your Air Unit, you should get those specified for the DJI Air Unit.
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Interference to 5.8GHz Analogue
As the DJI FPV system also transmits on 5.8Ghz band, it will interfere with analogue if the channels are too close. This is worse if you use 50Mbps mode as it uses a much wider band. If you wish to have less issue, try to stay on 25Mbps and a lower power such 200mW or even 25mW.
RSSI for DJI FPV System
There is no RSSI measurement for the DJI FPV system, however you can look at the signal bar (at the bottom left), and the bitrate (aka bandwidth at the bottom right) for signal strength.
I have an article explaining how signal bar and bandwidth work.
Can You Get Signal Back After Losing Signal
It can take around 30 seconds before the reception comes back (applies to both 25Mbps and 50Mbps), So it’s pretty unlikely you can get signal back after losing it as you will probably crash before it does. that’s another downside vs analogue FPV system.
Setup GPS rescue perhaps, it can buy you more time, even bring the drone back home.
Selling and Unregistering
Do I need to unregister DJI FPV products when I want to sell them?
No, When you activate the products, you’re only accepting the terms of use and other FAA regulations, you can just sell it.
Really Bad Range (Low Power Mode Warning Doesn’t Go Away)
The DJI Air Unit and Vista by default stays on “Low Power Mode” when your drone is not armed. This is to protect the hardware from overheating when working in full power mode. Therefore you won’t get full range when it’s in low power mode.
How does it know your quad is armed? Well it uses the MSP connection, so the flight controller can tell the Air Unit or Vista whether the drone is armed or not.
If you didn’t setup the MSP connection correctly, the Low Power Mode warning will never go away even after your drone is armed, and so your range is going to be really bad.
Check out my tutorial on how to setup DJI FPV system with Betaflight FC here.
If you really cannot get it to work, you can disable “Auto Temp Control” in Settings-> Device. But beware this will leave your Air Unit on full power as soon as the drone is powered on, so it could overheat if you don’t take off soon enough (or when you crash and you can’t find the drone while it’s sitting on the ground).
DJI FPV Goggles
4:3 or 16:9
What aspect ratio do you fly with? 16:9 or 4:3?
I personally fly 4:3 because you get an image of the whole image sensor. In 16:9 it simply cuts off the top and bottom portions of the image and so you have less vertical field of view.
With full sensor 4:3 image, you can also create superview videos with the recording footage.
What Battery To Use with DJI Goggles
4S 1600mAh provides about 3.5 hours of battery life.
You can use any 2S to 4S LiPo or Li-ion batteries. C rating doesn’t matter as it doesn’t draw many amps.
Personally I just use an old 4S LiPo for my FPV drones (e.g. 4S 1500mah), or you can just get any cheap and basic 3S or 4S packs online, pick the biggest capacity you can afford and carry.
Power consumption is almost 8W, that means a 4S 1500mAh battery lasts about 3.5 hours.
As expected, the Goggles will beep (voltage alarm) when battery voltage drops below 3.5V per cell, that’s 7V for 2S, 10.5V for 3S and 14V for 4S. This is great for LiPo battery, not so much for Li-Ion as this is only half way discharging the battery and you’d get this annoying beep. We have the same issue we get using Fatshark goggles.
That’s why I’d avoid using 2S if you power analogue receiver from the same battery, the battery voltage would drop more and trigger the alarm even earlier.
I tested the goggles with a power supply with adjustable output voltage, to see what the minimum voltage the goggles support.
- Below 7V, the goggles start beeping (voltage alarm)
- Below 6V, the fan stops
- Below 5.8V, the bitrate becomes unstable and dropping
- Below 5.5V the beeper stops, and connection to Air Unit is gone, but the screen is still on
- At 5V the screen shuts down
So I think 6V is probably the bare minimum I’d run the DJI FPV goggles.
LHCP vs RHCP Antenna
Should I choose LHCP or RHCP antennas?
These are the circular polarization directions, you can use either type as long as they are the same on both DJI goggles and Air Unit.
I personally prefer LHCP because that’s what the stock DJI antennas are. If you use RHCP on your goggles, you’d have to replace the Air Unit antenna to RHCP as well.
How to Mount Directional Antennas
Follow instructions and recommendations from your antenna manufacturers, but if that’s not mentioned in the manual, you can try this.
The top two antennas are for both transmitting and receiving data, while the bottom two antennas are only for receiving. Therefore, put your directional antennas on the top connectors. The system will only go as far as it can maintain bandwidth in both transmitting and receiving.
DVR Bitrate
In my experience, the bitrate of recording in FPV goggles is normally between 30Mbps – 40Mbps. Very rarely it would drop in the 20’s, but it’s possible.
Setting transmission to 50Mbps in the FPV Goggles doesn’t seem to affect DVR bitrate which is in the same range for both 25Mbps and 50Mbps modes.
Do DJI Goggles Transmit When Running Analogue Receiver
DJI FPV goggles only start transmitting signal when they see Air Unit, until then the goggles are receive only. Transmission power will ramp up when a two-way communication is established.
Analogue Signal Gets Low and Goggles Reboot Blue Screen
When using analogue receiver with DJI FPV goggles, and signal gets low, they reboot and show blue screen. This is most likely caused by the FPV camera in PAL format, though some receiver modules work just fine even with PAL cameras.
The easiest workaround is to switch your FPV camera to NTSC if the option is available in the settings. Otherwise you might have to swap the camera out for an NTSC one.
Small Dot On Screen – Sun Burn
If you have a dot on your screen, that’s likely to be a sun burn, which shows up as green circles. It’s unlikely to be dead pixels, as they are very hard to observe with naked eyes because a pixel is extremely tiny. So if you get a small dot on the screen that’s noticeable, it’s probably many times larger than a small, rectangular pixel.
[attach photo]
It only takes a second or two to burn your screen with bright sun, so make sure when you put the goggles down, turn them over to face down.
Slow SD Error
If you are getting “slow SD error” in the goggles, here are the possible fixes:
- Get the correct SD cards with decent read and write speed
- Format the SD card inside the goggles (via the menu)
- Another trick to avoid this error is to start recording manually when the quad is still (not moving), let it record for a second or two before arming. This is because when the quad is moving, the image moves too, and the bitrate (data burst) can be too much for the card to handle
- The other possibility is that you might have a fake SD card. Clones of Micro SD cards are quite common even in retail. Test SD card speed to verify
- Update to the latest firmware
Corrupted Video Files
You could corrupt the video files either when you crash and the battery disconnects, or you unplug the battery while its still recording. You might not be able to play or edit a corrupted video on a computer.
The easy fix is to put the SD card back into the goggles (or air unit), plug in the battery, wait about 10 to 15 seconds and then unplug it. The Air Unit will scan the SD card and fix any corrupted files. You can then put the SD card back in your computer and the file should be good.
To avoid corrupted video files, make sure you wait a few seconds after the recording has stopped before plugging battery.
Missing Channel in 50Mbps Mode
50Mbps takes up two channels, so only channel 1, 2 and 3 channels are available (plus a public channel 8), instead of the original 8 channels.
If you only see channel 1 and 2, but missing channel 3, you can try a factory reset to default settings, that should sort it.
50Mbps Mode
Best Settings for Low Light and Night Flying
All camera settings are in the goggles, just adjust the exposure in your goggles. Use the LED mode for night / low light flying.
SD Card Full Error
If you are getting SD Card Full error in the goggles, but in fact there is still space on the card, and your DVR recording stops at around 14 or 16 mins long every time, this might be an issue with SD card formatting.
Just format the card inside the DJI goggles using the menu, this should fix it.
DJI Air Units and Caddx Vista
How to Power Air Unit
From a BEC with 8V, 9V or 10V output voltage, capable of supplying 1A, or even better 2A of current. You can power it directly from a 4S LiPo, but the Air Unit doesn’t like electrical noise and voltage spikes, if you insist on powering with raw voltage, make sure to add a big low ESR capacitor.
How to Power Caddx Vista
I’d recommend similar practice to the DJI Air Unit (power from a BEC), despite the fact that the Vista can take up to 6S input voltage. Vista doesn’t like voltage spikes either, in fact it’s a common issue that voltage spikes fry the diode in the serial port, and leaving you without OSD.
But if you want to power it directly from a LiPo battery, make sure you add a big low ESR capacitor, because if power gets too noise it can freeze the video too.
Bricked Air Unit
If you accidentally disconnect the Air Unit (or Caddx Vista) during firmware update, or the update fails during update, it could brick the Air Unit. It won’t appear in DJI Assistant 2 anymore when you plug in the USB cable.
To resolve this, you will have to contact DJI Support, send them the update log and a screen shot of the error code.
Low Power Mode
If you are getting “Low Power Mode” indicator on the screen, it’s not a warning, it’s just standard for the VISTA when the drone is disarmed. After you arm, low power mode would be disabled.
Black Screen But Still See OSD
That’s typically the camera cable popping out just on the Vista / Air Unit side. This happens more often with the Vista, the cable may pop out after hard landings or crashes. To avoid this from happening again, try using some liquid tape on the far edges of where the cable locks into the Vista, because the small black clamps aren’t very strong and the metal holder bracket doesn’t do much.
Vista OSD Stops Working
Getting video but no OSD?
The problem is that some people power the Vista directly from the battery, and voltage spikes could damage the diodes in TX/RX (serial port) and SBUS. To avoid this issue, it’s best to power your Vista from a BEC (e.g. 9V) to have some sort of buffer.
When the diodes are dead, they are basically shorted to the ground. You can confirm by checking continuity with a multimeter between the UART’s (TX and RX) solder pads and ground pad.
If this is indeed the case, you can try contacting DJI or vendor for repair. If you are in a rush and don’t care about warranty, you could just remove those diodes and that would fix it. However if there’s voltage spikes again, there’s no more protection.
DJI FPV Remote
How Long Does It Take to Charge Battery
Roughly 10 hours, it’s a big battery.
What’s DJI FPV Remote Stick Thread Size
It’s M3 if you are looking to replace the stick ends.
Polarization of the Remote Antennas
I have not tested it but some suggest the antennas of the DJI FPV remote are slightly LHCP, something to be aware of when changing Air Unit and Goggles antenna to a different polarization.
39 comments
I have four quads, all with vista units.
I am using the goggle DVR,
I do not use the ‘auto record on arm’ setting
With my first three, I would manually hit record after arming. Once disarmed the recording would stop.
With my most recent (babyhawk II) the recording does not stop once disarmed. This led to me unplugging while recording, resulting in a corrupt recording file (user error).
I cannot for the life of me find the setting in the goggles/betaflight.
help? Please.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Oscar I’ve got a weird issue with my vista. Or arming or disabling low power mode, the signal bar drops from full to red with very terrible range (10ft) away. I’ve tried 2 cameras, different goggles, antennas, and different power sources. Vbat. 9v. 12v. Direct to lipo. Still has the same issue.
Do you have the same issue on a different Vista? Maybe just a bad unit?
Hi Oscar, you are the n° 1. Maybe you can help me. My 5″ freestyle quad is equipped with DJI AIR UNIT. Randomly during flight the video feed goes black (osd included) or image freezes causing me to crash. This thing is terrible and happens at short distances as well. I own n° 2 DJI goggles V2 and this happens with both of them. I checked cables from FC and they are ok. It’s not power related as it doesn’t occur during high amps maneuvers. I read in DJI forums that a lot of people has this same issue but it seams no one solved it. What about you?
The first thing i’d troubleshoot is the video transmitter. Is it 4S or 6S? If possible, try to power it directly from LiPo and not from a BEC. If that fixed it, that the problem is the power to the VTX or the BEC on the FC. If that doesn’t fix it, then I’d suggest trying a different VTX if you have a spare one.
If you still have issues, then it’s probably the link between your goggles and the VTX that needs to be looked at. But according to what you described so far I think it’s quite likely to be the VTX.
Hi Oskar It seems to me that you know more than it is written in the user manual :) I mean to protect the air unit and vista against the loss of antennas during operation. Whether the air unit and Vista are secured or will they just burn out. How long can they run without antennas at 25-1200mw?
they have overheat protection built-in, when it gets too hot they will just shut down
Thanks Oscar for the answer. Can you explain what thermal protection has to do with the loss of antennas? Is it because the temperature goes up extremely when you lose your antennas?
When you lose the antenna, the video transmitter will get much hotter because the output power is fed back into the device instead of going out via the antenna.
Thanks, you explained it great, best regards.
What feature is this?
Can you recommend a bec for the DJI Air Unt? I would like to add DJI FPV system to a Horizon Hobby Habu and don’t wish to power it straight from the battery. I wont be using any flight controller etc,
Yes I do, check this page, and scroll down to “BEC Requirement”, I linked to the BEC I use: https://oscarliang.com/dji-fpv-system-setup/#connecting-air-unit-to-fc
I just did a maiden on a Nazgul 5 HD with Caddx and DJI. After flying around for a bit and landing softly, then lowering throttle to 0, right before I was about to disarm and with no stick input the quadcopter went haywire and flipped over. Almost like the transmitter sent a massive ROLL RIGHT on the left stick near the zero mark. Has anyone seen this? Any ideas for troubleshooting?
Hi Oscar,
I am a huge fan of your page…I have two DJI units. One never works. The goggles show a black screen with “transmission image stopped. Is there a way to fix this?
Make sure the one that doesn’t work is on the same firmware, even it is, it sometimes it helps to re-install the same version firmware on DJI Asst. FPV. Are you getting black screen but OSD is still transmitting? if so that is usually a camera issue. If you are getting the splash screen that says DJI, or the picture of the goggles, then it’s the unit itself or your connection to the flight controller. Double check and make sure you didn’t go RX to RX and TX to TX on the FC, by mistake, I did that once. just had to swap them. Another trick, if you used SBUS, is go to Betaflight CLI tab and type in “set sbus_baud_fast” (no quotes) hit enter, they type “save” hit enter again. Good luck
Ooops, forgot something on that CLI command, it should be “set sbus_baud_fast = on” (no quotes.) hit enter, “save” enter.
Ooops, for got the last part on that command, should be…. “set sbus_baud_fast = ON”
How can I check continuity with a DJI fpv goggle antenna connectors. I think one or possibly two of my antenna cables may be broken or twisted. I had to tighten down the connectors often where I screw antennas into the DJI fpv goggles and think over time I’ve possibly twisted the cables and I’m now getting poor range even on 1,2w pw.
Can I just use my multimeter on mid pin and outer ground on connectors to check continuity?
I don’t think you can use continuity to check antenna connector, whether it’s working or faulty, the mid pin is unlikely to be connected to ground, so continuity test wouldn’t work.
You’d have to take the goggles apart to check the antenna connector cables, but that might void the warranty.
Hi Oscar
So i think my Vista Unit can’t never bind with an another goggles, i’m right ? because bindin’s button is broken.
Perhaps, you have other tips…
Thank you
A lot of people are running a naked vista unit now, there’s several videos on youtube. They’re pretty easy to take apart, once you get it apart you should be able to find the bind button and see if the “push in” part of the button just got stuck behind the case or it broke off. If it broke off, you can use a paper clip, or tweezers, to make connection between the two tiny pads where the button was, where it made the same connection when pushed, you’re just doing it manually with paperclip. Good luck!
Hi Oscar, really impressed by the quality of your website and the very useful info informations you provide !!
The air unit can record video without any problem. But I can’t change the video format. The option keeps grey with 1080p 60fps. I formatted the SD card but no change. Any idea of what could be wrong ?
Thanks
No, 1080p is the highest quality it can record? What other options are you expecting to select?
Hi Oscar
I have a vista on a fixed wing plane with no flight controller. How can I stop the vista going into low power mode as it won’t detect arm/disarm?
Thanks
You can disable low power mode in the goggles by turning off thermal protection. But make sure it gets some air for cooling otherwise it could shut down when it overheats.
My goggles show me an unlocked message when I first take off. Does the air unit have a geofence like the mavic series?
No, it’s just getting the ARM status from the FC.
I have an issue on the caddx vista where my signal is 1-2 bars in red as soon as I plug it in and my antenna is connected properly, it freezes up after taking off and is very finicky when it does work for a flight. Could this be a broken unit? I have check my wiring multiple times and tested this unit on 2 drones now
Vista: Black screen but see OSD
I have this problem intermittently, never during a flight though. When I plug in, I either have this problem or the video works fine. I suspect it might be heat related? But sometimes I get no video even the first time so really not sure.
Is there an optimal power on sequence for controller, goggles and camera?
This has been quite frustrating as if it starts with no video I’ve got no option but to unplug and wait and hope again.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
Love your site Oscar, keep up the good work!
Cheers,
lol
Hi Oscar,
My Vista got no OSD or any indication when I armed and indeed I got short between TX and ground. Trying to solve this but don’t seem to be able to see that pic you posted on the diode thing. Seeing “[attach photo]”. Would you reupload that please? Thank you!!
i bought trurc matchstick LRCP and it say for dji and color is grey instead of white color . are those 2 same just color change and little more money? thanks for doing this i saw other tango 2 set up on rssi -lq hope you follow up on tango 2 with new back module that was announced yesterday. i need to use it for 2.4 beta whoop.
I am having “Black Screen But Still See OSD”, and following your guide, problem solved!
Dear Oscar, I am your long time old fan, today this article saved me again, how much can I say thank you ?
Thank you very much, very much!!!
Thank you very much!!!!
Hey Oscar, I have looked and looked for the type of gimbal stick ends the DJI remote has but cannot find an answer. Do you know if they are M3 or M4? Thank you for all you do.
It’s M3
Is there a way to run Mode 4 with the DJI transmitter?
Yes it’s possible. Do a search in the DJI FPV FB group, someone wrote a tutorial on that: facebook.com/groups/DJI.FPV/
Hi Oscar
The Bind button on my Caddx Vista is broken. what’s happen if the goggle is reseted more time ? le Vista bust be “bind” with the goggle ?
Thank you for your reply.
Bests regards
Yea they should still bind after firmware update.