New 180QX RTF with new EFC-721 camera that shuts off

[sideswipe2674]

Originally Posted by tarite

The camera that came with my QX had a bad battery.
Replacement HH shipped also had a bad batt.
Third one was good.

They did not want the first two back, so I cut the battery leads close
to the battery and removed the battery from the camera.
I soldered the leads to the pos and neg of the cams servo connector.
(back side of connector inside the camera)
Now the camera gets its power from the 180QX in flight and
power from the usb port when connected to a computer.

I did the same to the second bad cam but also added
a 3 inch umx power plug coming out of the cam to
power my Spektrum Ultra Micro FPV Camera.

You my friend are awesome, I just bought the 180 qx today, and could never power on the camera without plugging it into the usb.I had a feeling the battery was dead, and tested the voltage on a meter, which was zilch. i cut the leads and soldered them to the servo connector pins and now I have power. Also, I was afraid I was going to have a sd card problem but did not, I bought a Dane class 10 16gb from target and everything was good.

Anyone looking to do this, black wire to the left pin, and red in the center pin and that's it.

[rporonga]

Reviving this old thread in case it helps someone.

I believe the issue with this camera is related to voltage/current transients on the mircoSD card when reading and writing. As other people in this thread reported, my camera kept shutting down with a 4GB class 2, 16 GB Sandisk class 4, and 32 GB Transcend class 10.
I fully charged a new 150 mAh lipo, but that did not help.
Then I removed the Lipo, connected B+ PCB connection (where the lipo + lead was connected) ​to the center pin in the servo connector header (labeled 5V) and powered the camera with 4 AA NiMH batteries, with about 5.2V. With that, the 16 GB class 4 and 32 GB class 10 started working fine. The 4GB class 2 did not work, but that is perhaps due to the low speed.
I then continued experimenting by connecting an SMD 10uF Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor between the microSD card socket VDD (4th pin left to right) and ground (case of the microSD card socket), and connecting back the lipo. This time, the class 4 and 10 cards worked. I haven't tested yet what happens as the lipo discharges. Perhaps a larger capacitor would be better, but did not have one available.
Note that soldering the capacitor is not that easy because the reset switch is in the way. Perhaps with some patience one can find the VDD in the bottom of the PCB.
I am surprised they did not find this issue while designing and testing the camera. It fails so consistently that is hard to miss.